Priscilla Sims Brown is a banking executive and advocate for left-of-center policies. She is the president and chief executive officer of the Amalgamated Bank of New York (also known as Amalgamated Bank), a formerly union-owned and still union-connected bank with connections and clients throughout Democratic politics and left-of-center advocacy. ¹ Brown has been described as “a distinctively vocal advocate of several social campaigns, including those for gun safety, climate justice, reproductive rights and more.” ²

Early Life and Education

Priscilla Sims Brown was born in the United States to Ethiopian parents who later returned to Ethiopia, leaving her to be raised by an American military family in Germany. As such, she moved many times as a child. Her mother was the first female senator in Ethiopia, but Brown’s family fled Ethiopia after the 1974 coup that overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie. ^{2 3}

Brown went to high school in Richmond, California, and attended the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State University, where she studied journalism. ⁴

Career

Priscilla Sims Brown’s early work experience includes a journalism internship at KQED-TV in San Francisco. She shifted her career focus to finance and became a stockbroker at Paine Webber. In 1991, she was appointed vice president of Lincoln National Investment Management, a subsidiary of the Lincoln National Corporation. ³

In 2021, Priscilla Sims Brown transferred from the Commonwealth Bank of Sydney, Australia to Amalgamated Bank, where she became chief executive officer. She claimed that she was inspired by the death of George Floyd and the subsequent rise of the Black Lives Matter movement to join a U.S. financial institution committed to left-of-center social activism. ²

Amalgamated Bank is a formerly union-owned bank, founded in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America labor union to serve female immigrant garment workers, which uses its substantial financial resources to push for left-of-center corporate governance, including left-leaning social and environmental policies. For example, the Amalgamated Bank offers a financial product that assists unions in automatically collecting union dues even if state legislatures ban the union from mandating such automatic withdrawals. The bank seeks to pressure corporate boards to adopt left-of-center policies. ^{5 6}

Social and Environmental Activism

Gun Control

Priscilla Sims Brown used her position at Amalgamated Bank to push for the creation of a new merchant category code for gun stores at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which issues four-digit codes used to classify businesses and monitor financial transactions. The code was added with pressure from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), U.S. Representative Madeleine Dean (D-PA), and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D). ^{7 8} “This action answers the call of millions of Americans who want safety from gun violence,” Brown said. ⁷

Citing Second Amendment rights concerns, some states have blocked the implementation of the merchant code. Critics of the new merchant category code say the system is a precursor to a national gun registry, a way to track gun sales which will later be used to restrict sales and cut gun manufacturers off from access to banking services, thus crippling the industry without any new government legislation. ⁹

Climate Activism

Priscilla Sims Brown advocates for the climate change agenda in her position. In 2021, Brown was reported by the New York Times as saying that “one-third of the bank’s lending portfolio went toward climate- or sustainability-related projects.” ¹⁰ Under Brown’s tenure, the Amalgamated Bank became the first institution of its kind to set a goal of net-zero emissions. ¹¹

Abortion

Another initiative of Brown’s was the announcement that the Amalgamated Bank would cover travel costs for employees who wanted to go out of state to seek an abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Health Organization decision allowed states to limit abortions. Amalgamated Bank was among the first corporations to enact such a policy. ¹²

1. Stilson, Robert, and Hayden Ludwig. “Amalgamated Bank: Shareholder Activism.” Capital Research Center, May 25, 2022. https://capitalresearch.org/article/amalgamated-bank-part-4/.
2. “A Force for Change in the Financial Sector.” The Vineyard Gazette – Martha’s Vineyard News. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2023/08/27/force-change-financial-sector.
3. “Priscilla Sims Brown’s Biography.” The History Makers. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/priscilla-sims-brown.
4. “Priscilla Sims Brown.” LinkedIn. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscillabrown/.
5. “Impact Report – Amalgamated Bank.” Amalgamated Bank. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://www.amalgamatedbank.com/sites/default/files/AB428_ImpactReport_FINAL_rev.pdf.
6. “Corporate Governance Timeline.” Amalgamated Bank. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://amalgamatedbank.com/amalgamated-bank-corporate-governance-timeline.
7. “Global Standards Body Approves New Merchant Code for Gun Sellers.” Reuters. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-global-standards-body-approves-new-merchant-code-gun-sellers-2022-09-09/.
8. “Senator Warren and Representative Dean Urge Bank CEOS to Adopt New Code for Gun and Ammunition Retailers.” U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, September 2, 2022. https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/senator-warren-and-representative-dean-urge-bank-ceos-to-adopt-new-code-for-gun-and-ammunition-retailers.
9. “MCC Update: Pro-Gun States Block Credit Card Gun Registry Scheme.” NRA. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://www.nraila.org/articles/20230717/mcc-update-pro-gun-states-block-credit-card-gun-registry-scheme.
10. Tugend, Alina. “A Bank President Who Embraces the Unconventional.” The New York Times, March 7, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/business/amalgamated-bank-president-priscilla-sims-brown.html.
11. “Priscilla Sims Brown.” Forbes. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/profile/priscilla-sims-brown/.
12. “Priscilla Sims Brown’s Innovative Leadership at Amalgamated Bank.” Her Forward, September 19, 2024. https://herforward.com/priscilla-sims-browns-innovative-leadership-at-amalgamated-bank/.