Lynn D. Salvage

Lynn D. Salvage (born June 6, 1946) is an American banker and businesswoman who at the age of 30 became the second president of the First Women's Bank of New York in 1977 after serving as vice president at Bankers Trust Company and as special assistant for international affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Salvage was also one of four Harvard Business School graduates who initiated a two-year campaign beginning in 1970 to admit women as full members to the Harvard Club of New York City.

Family and education Lynn D. Salvage was born to Edward and Rita Salvage on June 6, 1946 in New York City. Her mother's family was of Czech ancestry; her maternal grandfather, Arthur Hoffman, had been a professor of mathematics and economics at universities in Prague and Pilsen.

Career After graduating from Harvard Business School, Salvage pursued a career in banking in New York City. In her five years at Bankers Trust Company she rose to the position of vice president and was a manager of international investments. She also spent a year in Washington D.C. working as a special assistant in international affairs in the U.S. Department of the Treasury through an executive exchange program. The bank had not reported a profit since its opening and Salvage took on the challenge of turning the bank around by streamlining its operations and growing its deposits. Like her predecessor, Salvage had to balance the bank's mission to financially empower women with sound business practices and fiduciary responsibility to the bank's 7,000 shareholders who were largely women. At the beginning of her tenure Salvage stated "The best service this bank can do the cause of female equality is make some money."

Involvement in the women's movement While Salvage did not formally align herself with the women's movement during the 1970s and 80s, she was active in women's organizations including the Harvard Businesswomen of New York and the YWCA, and was recognized by the American Federation of Women's Clubs as one of the outstanding women in America in 1974.