The Irresistible Charm of Elaine Agather

Of all the tributes lavished on Elaine Agather over the course of 44 years as a banker and civic leader — there have been many — one strikes a chord with the reader.

Well, this reader, at least.

Elaine Agather is tough, energetic, and chic.

Agather enjoys a hearty chuckle at the thought.

“It’s just funny,” she says, “that combination of words. I mean, I am tough, and I am energetic, and I do love clothes. But it's just funny hearing it together.”

OK, what Agather is, is a person of elegance and strength. And a fantastic sense of humor and charisma that will have you in the palm of her hand in just mere moments. That kind of sense of humor should be no wonder considering “develop your funny bone” is one of “Elaine’s Eight” rules.

You cannot survive — in business or in life — without a sense of humor. Lighten up, loosen up, and laugh. It’s amazing how far this will take you. And, you’ll sure feel a lot better!

Teaching with humor is the best way for the mentee to learn, she is a firm believer.

She has used all of that, not to mention the gift of ingenuity, to leave a giant footprint in Fort Worth, the place she fell in love with “at first sight” when she arrived more than 30 years ago.

“The people, the town, the rodeo, the history, everything about it was familiar to me, and I loved it,” she says. “I mean, I loved everything about it.”

The list of her contributions is as long as the road that connects Fort Worth and Dallas, the Turnpike we used to call it. That’s not excess by a supposed wordsmith. Agather is asked to lead projects for the obvious reason: She gets things done.

“She is a one-of-a-kind businesswoman,” says John Goff. “She lights up a room with her enthusiasm, smarts, and tenacity.  She can be charming and tough as nails in the same meeting.”

Agather is chairwoman of the Dallas Region for JPMorgan Chase & Co., where she provides strategic direction, governance oversight, and leadership in various aspects of its operation. She also serves as the CEO of the Central Region and managing director of The Private Bank at J.P. Morgan.

She is an icon really. It has been noted that among Fortune 500 companies, there are more male CEOs named ‘John’ or ‘David’ than there are female CEOs.

“I have never seen her intimidated,” Goff continues. “She is a legend within JPMorgan; [Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon lights up when he sees her. Beyond her many senior roles within JPMorgan, she gives back to the community in so many ways. 

“She never says no to lending her expertise, contacts, and ingenuity to a worthy cause. I am so proud to have her as both my banker as well as good friend.”

Agather is chairwoman of Performing Arts Fort Worth, having taken over for Ed Bass. Agather was among the original directors when Bass put together a civic group to plan and build the world-class, multimillion-dollar performing-arts center, better known as Bass Hall, downtown. She has served there ever since. She is also involved in the building of the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington. It remains a mystery how there has not been one up until now.

Agather was also a driving force for the building of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth to honor the extraordinary women who helped build the West.

Perhaps only her two grandchildren, whom she is admittedly “bat,” ahem, guano “crazy about” get more of her attention than a new exhibit at the museum telling the story of a former slave, Clara Brown, who managed to save $10,000 working as a freed laundress and eventually helped newly freed slaves to relocate to Colorado.

When the mayor called her during COVID to co-lead an organization to help Fort Worth businesses get through the pandemic, she answered.

And, then, more recently, she became the first woman to serve as an officer of the 127-year history Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo, a position she was told would never come to her because, well, that’s just the way it is. Women aren’t officers of the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo.

Agather didn’t go marching down Main Street demanding change. She just kept doing things. And doing things. She just kept showing up. It’s amazing what happens when you just show up and do things, aka, leading.

She can count with one finger the times she has missed riding in the rodeo entry in 32 years. Once. A meeting with her boss, Dimon, took priority. She stands out there, too, simply because of her fashionista western attire. Other planets can certainly see the bling.

Agather arrived in Fort Worth in 1991 with her husband, Neils, as a first — the first woman to be named president of a downtown Fort Worth bank, Texas Commerce Bank. She later was named chairwoman and CEO of Texas Commerce, the first woman to direct a major downtown Fort Worth bank.

She is pioneering leader for progress in her industry and her city, but she cautions use of the word trailblazer.

“There was a moment that we laugh about today because at the end of the day, one, it wasn’t so smart,” she says. “But I guess it was in the seventh grade, and all the boys got a choice. They could take a foreign language or something else. And the girls had to take homemaking. There was no choice. It made me mad. And I went home to my mother, and I said I'm not doing that. That's just unfair. What if I want to take shop, which I didn’t. She was probably tired at this point with having so many girls. She called the principal who was an old friend and said, ‘Can you just let her take a foreign language.’ And they didn't make me take homemaking.

“And now I can't boil water. I should have taken homemaking.”

The journey to Fort Worth all started simply because she wanted a “J-O-B,” as she describes it.

Raised in Sherman, among her first memories are atop a bulldozer.

Her father was a bulldozer operator. He left home at 13 to learn how to make a living, when there were few opportunities to make a living, in Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression-era, New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps in Colorado. Three squares a day and a bed were enough reason for many men to enroll. Enlisters made $30 a month. Of that, $25 went to their families. The other $5 was theirs.

He raised four girls — Agather was the youngest of the brood — as a bulldozer operator.

“We just thought we had everything,” she says. “He was quite charming and funny. He had a great sense of humor. I went to New York after business school; Chemical Bank offered me a job — this is the late 1970s — so, I went outside to a phone booth — do you remember those? — and called home collect.

“My mother answered, and I told them that I had just been offered a job at Chemical Bank. And this is how he just always made you laugh … he goes, ‘Well, does this mean you’ll stop calling collect?’ He was large in my life.”

Business school was actually an idea put into her head by one of her older sisters. Agather was the youngest by many years. Her next-closest sister was eight years her senior. Agather was the first to go to college. She finished with a degree in history and economics from University of Oklahoma.

She found the job market a difficult one with a history and economics degree. Her older sister recommended business school.

“It's all about a J-O-B, and she said she had heard about business school. This was late ’70s, and there were a lot of women in business school. I said, ‘Well, I could get a job out after that,’ and I did. I wish there was a better story. Today, there's so much more thought, and they have a plan. I didn't have much of a plan except I knew I needed a job.”

Elaine’s Eight: Saddle Your Own Horse — Don’t wait for others to take care of you or for that dream job to come along. Never wait! You’re in charge of your life and your career.

Those are the first two of her rules. So, off she went to Austin and business school. An MBA at the University of Texas indeed did end with a job, that one, a training program, in New York City with Chemical Bank. The one she called her parents collect about. The same parents who had never stepped foot in in New York City.

She went globetrotting immediately with the bank. That wasn’t the plan, but New York was a platform for jobs in London, San Francisco, and then Dallas. She moved to Dallas in 1984 to become vice president in the bank’s Southwest Group.

Her training program actually never started. She had been in New York for all of two weeks when they asked her if she would go to London … before the program started. “I didn’t know anything,” she recalls.

“I said, ‘Sure I can.’ I don’t know what gave me that; that’s probably just DNA.”

Elaine’s Eight: Turn on a dime — Become a speed demon at changing directions. Embrace new opportunities and ideas. Adapt and thrive because changes will just keep coming. How you respond to change is what matters most.

She returned from living in London for that training in New York. The bank then needed an analyst in San Francisco, so, she went out there for a year before returning to New York.

In the mid-1980s, she was ready to return to Texas.

“You don't have to put this in there because it's cussing, and I'm not trying not to cuss,” she says. “But I go in to see my boss, and I said, ‘I'm from Texas.’ He goes, ‘No shit. We know.’ And I said, ‘Well, I know, but I'm telling you that because I want to be up front. I want to interview you down there. I'm ready to go home. He goes, ‘We just bought a bank; go sit down. We just bought a bank down there.’ That was Texas Commerce Bank.”

She was appointed executive vice president and department manager for Texas Commerce Bank-Dallas. There she handled corporate, correspondent, and middle market accounts for customers with sales of more than $100 million a year.

In 1990, the bank asked her to move to Fort Worth.

“We had these separate Texas Commerce banks, but they didn’t have one female running one. So, they asked me to go to Fort Worth. That’s how that happened.”

Chemical Bank, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, purchased Chase Manhattan Bank. JP Morgan eventually changed the Texas Commerce to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Agather, now in her late 60s, has been with the same bank her entire career, 44 years and counting. She’s been there that long and continues simply because she loves it. She’s devoted to it and its mission.

“I do think they’re worried I’m gonna stay as long as the queen,” she quips to laughter from her interrogator, who notes that she then has decades to go. “One of my clients of years and years and years told me to make sure ‘you go before they shoot you.’

“I think the key is if you add value; do you love what you're doing? Can you help clients and develop relationships? I love it.”

Elaine’s Eight: Like What You Do — I didn’t say “Do what you like” – there’s a big difference. Liking what you do means you know how to make the most of opportunities. You look for the positives in every situation. You play the hand you’re dealt, and you win.

That same philosophy she has used in her philanthropic pursuits.

Philanthropy is something that goes back to her roots. In Sherman, she recalls her mother always making food for something or another.

“We were always participating,” she says. “When you started out of the bank 44 years ago, you were expected to show up, it was part of being a banker. So, that kind of got in me. Then you fall in love with something, you fall in love with being part of it. I was careful to make sure I got on boards that I really cared about.”

In addition to Performing Arts Fort Worth, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, and the Stock Show, Agather serves on the board of the J.F. Maddox Foundation and the Dallas Citizens Council.

Betsy Price, then the Fort Worth mayor, turned to Agather and John Goff, to lead a task force in helping the city recover financially from the pandemic and its shutdowns. The work of that task force eventually landed a big fish: Texas A&M agreeing to build a downtown research campus in Fort Worth. Goff, she says, “was behind all that.”

“Elaine represents the poise, class, and absolute tenacity it takes to lead in a way that is lasting and meaningful,” says Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker. “I’ve been glad to know Elaine for years and see firsthand how she invests her time and expertise in both business and community. Her work is helping to build a stronger North Texas region.”

If you don’t know Agather, you certainly would recognize her if you are a regular rodeo-goer. Sitting atop a horse — for every single performance — is a woman whose attire matches the vibrant spirit of the land. Agather’s western wear is not just clothing —  it’s a statement, a fusion of tradition and modernity that commands attention.

Her boots, a masterpiece of functional elegance, are a testament to both her style and, well, coincidentally enough, her endurance.

The only memorable faux pas was wearing Texas burnt orange on “Texas A&M Day” at the stock show and rodeo. Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp rode in the entry that night.

“No one told me we had added an A&M night,” she says, half laughing and half still mortified. “John Sharp [joked] that he’d be back next year, and ‘young lady, if you’re not in maroon next year … .’ I said, ‘I will be!’”

She loves the rodeo and all it stands for. When she was informed that women don’t serve as officers of the Stock Show, no problemo. The institution of the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo, not to mention her love for it, was one of those things that was bigger than herself.

“Over the years they let me ride and then they put me on the executive committee,” Agather says of the Stock Show. “John Justin was still alive. He looked at me and said, ‘We're real proud of you.’ I said, ‘Thank you, Mr. Justin.’ He said, ‘But a little advice: Don't say anything in there for two years.’ I said, ‘Oh, it's gonna be so hard for me.’ He goes, ‘Try, just try.’”

She laughs at the memory. Actually, she’s almost doubled over.

“I was just grateful for anything, any participation because I love it.”

Over the years, she served on various committees and was told, “Elaine, you know, we really appreciate everything you're doing, but we never have females. I said, ‘I got it. I get it. I do.’”

She was after all from the good ol’ boy town of Sherman, Texas.

Elaine’s Eight: Get Over It — Don’t dwell on the past. Don’t take things that happen in business personally. Tough decisions have to be made. That’s part of the process. And, you will make mistakes. Fix them and move on.

At Charlie Moncrief’s death in 2021, he was the second-longest serving board member of the Stock Show. He had served there 47 years. Only Bob Watt, the Stock Show’s president emeritus at the time, exceeded Moncrief’s tenure.

Agather delivered his eulogy. A couple of months later, she was offered a position as an officer — secretary — to fill the vacancy created by Moncrief’s passing.

“I am very, very honored and proud of that position,” Agather says. “That's the other reason I never miss. I show up for all kinds of reasons, but I think it starts with a love for it.”

And she adds, a genuine respect for the traditions the Stock Show represents.

Preceding my meeting with her, Agather had lunch with a group of JPMorgan interns at Reata.

The daytime dining reminded her of the recently celebrated 25^th anniversary of Bass Hall. The event was filled with toasts and speeches. She recalled when Bayard Friedman, the former mayor who had been tapped by Ed Bass to lead the $60 million capital campaign to build the hall, asked her to join the initial board of directors.

 “He said, ‘Come on, you can help us here.’ I wasn’t at the bank that long,” she recalls. “At the end [of the anniversary party], I announced that I was going to read who was on the board 25 years ago. There are three people alive today. I said our job is to make sure everybody in this room nurtures and includes and invites this next group.”

It’s another of her rules, after all, to stay connected.

Develop and nurture relationships. Find mentors and reach out to those who might want to learn from you. Stay close to those you care about.

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Elaine’s Eight

Not long after Elaine Agather was appointed president of Texas Commerce Bank — the first female president of a downtown Fort Worth bank — she became in demand for speaking engagements to various organizations across the city. In developing her address, she came up with eight rules she believed were essential to achieving. These are “Elaine’s Eight.” 

1. Saddle Your Own Horse

Don’t wait for others to take care of you or for that dream job to come along. Never wait! You’re in charge of your life and your career.

2. Like What You Do

I didn’t say, “Do what you like” – there’s a big difference. Liking what you do means you know how to make the most of opportunities. You look for the positives in every situation. You play the hand you’re dealt, and you win.

3. Turn on a Dime

Become a speed demon at changing directions. Embrace new opportunities and ideas. Adapt and thrive because changes will just keep coming. How you respond to change is what matters most.

4. Stay Connected

Develop and nurture relationships. Find mentors and reach out to those who might want to learn from you. Stay close to those you care about.

5. Practice Free Speech

Communicate all the time. Repeat your message as often as possible. People need to hear what you have to say. Don’t assume they already know – they usually don’t.

6. Get Over It

Don’t dwell on the past. Don’t take things that happen in business personally. Tough decisions have to be made. That’s part of the process. And, you will make mistakes. Fix them and move on.

7. Develop Your Funny Bone

You cannot survive — in business or in life — without a sense of humor. Lighten up, loosen up, and laugh. It’s amazing how far this will take you. And, you’ll sure feel a lot better!

8. Strengthen Your Back Bone

Do the right thing when it’s not easy or popular. Character is our foundation. Integrity has to be our guiding value. We’re nothing without it.