Jacquelyn C. Williams
(1954-2018)
NSB's First Female CFO
In the 1960s and 1970s, women were looking for more opportunities and equality in the workplace. Among the young women starting their careers at that time was Jacquelyn (Jackie) Williams. Born in 1954 in Selma, Alabama, she moved to Las Vegas after graduating from Texas Women's University and joined the bank as a teller in 1975.
“When I came here fresh out of college, looking for the change that was supposed to be taking place, the financial industry was the place where ladies could make an in-road,” Williams shared. “Even in gaming, an opportunity was a rare find; gaming was still all men. But 1975 was the year Nevada State Bank opened the West Sahara branch with an all-woman staff. I think that the bank made great efforts during those years. As a result, most of the operations officers in charge of the day-to-day running of the bank were women.”
Robert Collett, who was the original Cashier when the bank was founded, took an interest in Williams and encouraged her to move from the teller line to the bank’s finance department, where she spent the majority of her long career. At that time, the only computer at the bank was a huge mainframe. Everything else had to done by hand, including typing all the bank’s checks. When the bank finally got its first PC, it was Williams who learned how to do spreadsheet programs to help automate processes. She later developed programs that enabled the bank to conduct internal audits. The finance department and the central vault were housed in a building on Civic Center Drive in North Las Vegas, and she played such an important role in the bank’s operations that the building was christened The Williams Building in 1995.
Williams was dedicated to her job as well as her family. A fan of everything Disney, she filled her office with Disney memorabilia, as well as stacks of binders and reports which she would reference when anyone called with a question. Her sister, Benita Smith, who has worked at the bank for 24 years, said Williams was “the answer person” for anything related to finances.
Williams was an integral part of the bank’s leadership team and its Executive Committee, moving up in the ranks until she was named Chief Financial Officer in 1997. She was the first female and the first African American to hold that position at Nevada State Bank. In 2010, Williams was the first recipient of the bank’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She retired from the bank after 42 years of service.