JULIA TAYLOR

FORMER CEO, MECHANICS & FARMERS BANK

Following in the footsteps of her father, John Wheeler, and grandfather Stanford L. Warren, Taylor was the first female president of Durham, North Carolina-based Mechanics and Farmers Bank. Under her leadership in the 1970s and 1980s, the state’s oldest black bank rose to become one of the nation’s fastest-growing black financial institutions by attracting corporate clients like Avon and Kellogg while serving black homebuyers and business owners. Moreover, she was responsible for saving Shaw University, one of the nation’s oldest HBCUs, with a $1 million loan and financial counseling. At M&F’s centennial celebration, Taylor was lauded for being a trailblazer who “embodied dignified, graceful leadership and created leadership opportunities for other women officers along the way.”

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