Nov. 3--FARMINGTON -- The distance from helping run a 200-acre Oklahoma farm to attending a formal black tie New York City event is quite a hop.

But after working in the banking industry since high school, it's the distance Sheila Schauer's professional life comprises. Schauer recently flew to New York for a two-day event honoring women in the banking industry.

The $1,750-per-plate dinner was the most formal Schauer ever attended, she said.

Why was she there?

U.S. Banker Magazine named Schauer, president of Four Corners Community Bank in Farmington, No. 9 on its second annual list of the nation's Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking.

Schauer was one of 4,700 nominees.

"I didn't know the recognition existed when Diane Casey-Landrey nominated me," Schauer said. "I had to peruse the nomination process to be able to put together over a weekend the information they wanted."

Included in the information Schauer submitted were three years performance records for the bank and a host of technical information most people outside the industry likely would not comprehend.

Not until several days later did she find an e-mail in her computer's "Junk" file. Several days old, the e-mail from U.S. Banker Magazine Editor Holly Sraeel contained congratulations for being named to the list.

"I'm still overwhelmed, mostly in relation to our bank's size and where it is located," she said. "I'm also humbled. Many of the other women are from J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp."

Magazine staff judged the women by using qualitative and quantitative factors. Its definition of qualitative included the nominee's job complexity and responsibility, management style, best practices and innovations, charitable work and overall influence within their institutions, the banking industry and communities.

Quantitative factors, which made up two-thirds of the nominees' scores, included one-and three-year financial performance, business initiatives and results, and length of tenure in the business.

"The awe-inspiring performance of the women profiled in the ranking has occurred against an industry backdrop that is at times dire, and from a woman's advancement perspective, disappointing," the article stated.

Findings of a study by Financial Women International Foundation indicate only 16.1 percent of executive positions at the 100 largest nationally chartered commercial banks were held by women last year. The number represented a drop of 1.8 percent from 2006.

Frequently the only woman in meetings as she developed her career, Schauer felt she had to prove herself twice as much as her male colleagues. When her bank formed in 2000, and its board chose Schauer as its president, she was one of only two female bank presidents in New Mexico.

Oh, and that long hop?

Schauer is an Oklahoma native whose family moved to Farmington when she was 3 to work in the oil and natural gas industry. Every summer Schauer's parents sent their children back home to help their grandparents work their 200-acre farm.

"We ran cattle and we gardened," she said. "It's hard work."

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