Outstanding Women in Business: Thomas-Bonnick makes community central to banking

Photo | Matthew Wright Monica Thomas-Bonnick

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By Susan Shalhoub

Monica Thomas-Bonnick is a pro at packing boxes and coming into new communities. And, of course, she wouldn’t dream of not getting involved in community causes once there.

Thomas-Bonnick, a business lending officer for Webster Five Cents Savings Bank and the executive director of its foundation, has brought her successful brand of personal and professional excellence right along with her to Central Massachusetts.

“The mission of our bank is to take care of our employees, our customers, and our community,” said Don Doyle, Webster Five president and CEO. “Monica Thomas-Bonnick exemplifies that. In this city, it can be difficult to settle in as an outsider, but she has made an effort to get involved and is a difference maker.”

Though born in Fort Worth, Texas, Thomas-Bonnick was only there until first grade. Her family moved to Oklahoma for a time, then to Nashua, N.H., where she remained until high school.

“I consider that home,” said Thomas-Bonnick.

Though she’d leave New England again, she’d be back, and then back again.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Oklahoma and her MBA from what was then Simmons College, now Simmons University, in Boston.

Work eventually took her from Boston to New York, Southeastern Massachusetts, Texas, and to Central Massachusetts.

“I started a team in Queens and Manhattan,” she said. “Then, 9/11 happened. Our bank got sold to Bank of America.”

Bank of America then set Thomas-Bonnick up as a senior relationship manager and small business team lender in the Fall River area, where she worked from 2003-2005.

“But our culture didn’t support the model we used,” she said. “I stayed there for about two years. Then I left and went to Dallas and Fort Worth to work in automotive.”

She spent a few years at Chase, as a Small Business Administration credit approval officer, before taking the position at Santander Bank’s auto specialty group.

A sabbatical to raise her nephew preceded the start of her role at Webster Five in September of 2017. In 2019 she became executive director and treasurer of the Webster Five Foundation. The foundation, founded in 1997, has donated $3.1 million to various nonprofits, with $210,765 in annual revenue, according to Guidestar.org.

Having been a Girl Scout all through childhood, community causes to which Thomas-Bonnick donates her time represent the underserved: children’s welfare, education, racism, and equal business access to capital.

“It’s part and parcel of who I am. I like to deal with systemic issues, so we can improve the lives of everyone, which goes back to what I do, so we can create wealth for business owners and pay a living wage so they can create wealth too,” Thomas-Bonnick said. “Not even creating lots of zeroes, but being able to send their kids to the school where they want, healthcare, things that ought to be basic.”

Originally a pre-med student in college, Thomas-Bonnick switched her major to finance, taking a fifth year to finish up. She finds the skills she learned in her pre-med education to be applicable in banking.

A lab hypothesis is working on getting a conclusion with due diligence, she said. Sometimes she works on a deal with a client, considers all factors and has to tell them that what they want is really not what they need.

“I went into pre-med to help people. Now I do that in a different way,” Thomas-Bonnick said.