Ellen Costello is President and Chief Executive Officer of Harris Financial Corp., a large regional retail, business and wealth bank serving more than 1.2 million personal and business customers in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin through its network of more than 280 branches. Harris is part of Toronto-based BMO Financial Group, one of North America's leading financial services providers.

Ms. Costello is responsible for the U.S. personal and commercial business, driving profitable business growth organically and through acquisition. She also has corporate and regulatory governance responsibilities for the BMO enterprise in the United States and is a member of the BMO management and performance committees.

After joining BMO Financial Group in 1983, Ms. Costello held progressively senior positions in Corporate Banking and Treasury, serving in leadership positions in Derivatives, as Regional Treasurer in Asia in 1993 and in 1995, as Senior Vice-President and Deputy Treasurer. In 1997, she was appointed Executive Vice-President, Global Treasury Group, responsible for the foreign exchange, financial products, money markets, loan syndication/trading and managed futures businesses. In 2000, she was named Head of Securitization and Credit Investment Management; in 2003, Head of BMO Capital Markets, New York; and in 2006, she assumed responsibility for Merchant Banking. She was appointed to her current role in August 2006.

Ms. Costello holds a BBA from St. Francis Xavier University and earned her MBA from Dalhousie University. She serves on a number of nonprofit boards, including the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, After School Matters, the Economic Club of Chicago and the Executives’ Club of Chicago. She is a member of the Commercial Club and its Civic Committee, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Chicago Network.

(November 2009)

E. Costello (high resolution picture, jpg, 141 KB)