as more and more working-class African-American families moved into the neighborhood and increasing numbers of women owned personal bank accounts, Wilkins and his partners noted a mismatch between the client demographic and the predominantly white male professional staff inherited from the bank’s previous ownership. Arguing that a more diverse staff, at both service and managerial levels, would appeal to local clients and lure them away from competing banks in the city center, Wilkins convinced other bank directors to institute an aggressive minority hiring program. By 1999, Cityside Bank had increased the number of female employees to total nearly half of the workforce. Fifty three percent of middle managers, 42% of senior managers and 25% of executives were African-Americans; Cityside’s support staff was about 90% African-American. Retail Operations hired mostly black employees, many of them from the local community. External Deposits hired mostly white, middle-class college graduates. Nearly equal numbers of managerial positions existed in each unit, giving whites and blacks similar advancement opportunities. In general, bank employees agreed, “If you do your job well, you’ll be recognized and promoted for it.”