Background
Keane was raised in New York City, where her father was a police officer
Keane was raised in New York City, where her father was a police officer
All of Margaret"s five siblings did just that, either themselves or marrying someone in law enforcement, but she decided instead to attend Saint John's University in Queens, New York, where she earned a Bachelor in government and politics in 1981 and her Master of Business Administration in 1987.
She is also the Chief Executive Officer and president of Retail Consumer Finance in Americas, since November 29, 2005. When Synchrony was spun off from General Electric as an independent bank, it became the most valuable bank in the United States run by a woman. Keane is one of only two women, the other being Beth Mooney of KeyCorp, who lead an independently traded United States bank whose value is over $10 billion.
In 1980, when in college, she took a part-time job as a telephone debt collector at CitiCorp for $5.50 per hour.
During the following 16 years Keane climbed the ranks at CitiCorp until she was running their United States retail operations. She then joined General Electric Capital.
In 2011 she became the Chief Executive Officer of the firm"s cr-card business, after filling several different capacities in operations and quality control, and finally in the cr card division. In 1996 Keane moved to General Electric and worked as Quality Leader for General Electric Capital’s Vendor Financial Services (VFS) division.
Keane served as Chief Quality Leader of GECC from January 2000 until December 2001.
In 2002 she joined General Electric Consumer Finance-Americas where she was Senior Vice President for Operations. Keane joined General Electric Capital Retail Consumer Finance in May, 2004. There she led the retail cr business.
She was Chief Executive Officer and President of General Electric’s Retail Card platform for their North American retail finance business from June 2004 until April 2011.
In 2005 Keane was named as a General Electric Officer. On November 29, 2005 she was named the chief executive officer and president of Retail Consumer Finance of Americas Operations at General Electric. Since April 2011 Keane served as the Chief Executive Officer and president of General Electric’s North American retail finance business.
In July 2014 General Electric Capital led Synchrony, a new independent company, which was now the largest private-label cr card provider in the United States. With the launch of Synchrony Keane became one of only two women Chief executive officers running United States-owned, independent, publicly traded banks valued at over $10 billion. Keane is associated with “A Better Chance,” an organization that helps young minority students improve their chances of getting a better education and a real shot at going to college.