Eileen Kowalski, MBA, senior vice president Business Credit, PNC Bank and national recurring field exam manager is the recipient of the SFNet's Harry H. Chen Instructor of the Year Award, which will be presented at SFNet's Annual Convention in Chicago next month. Harry H. Chen was a field exam instructor in the commercial finance industry who strongly believed in continuous learning and gave generously of his time to teach others. Harry worked as national audit manager for Citibank and was also a CPA. He also worked on rewriting the CFA/SFNet Field Exam program in the 1990's and taught for over 15 years before his untimely passing. After his death, the CFA (now SFNet) established the award in his honor. Each year, a recipient is awarded for their time and dedication to SFNet's Education program. 

Eileen Kowalski is SVP and national recurring field exam manager at PNC Business Credit. She is a 35-plus year veteran of commercial finance and asset-based lending. Eileen is integral to PNCBC’s Field Exam training program. She joined PNCBC in 2004 as an AVP & senior field examiner after serving as a field examiner for a predecessor bank of M&T Bank and an AVP & senior field examiner with LaSalle Bank. In addition to managing the nationwide staff, Eileen’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to, field exam quality control, integration of AI into the exam process, and FE new hire recruiting/training activities. Eileen is a member of the SFNet Education Committee and the SFNet Foundation Board as the Education liaison.

TSL: How did you become involved in teaching classes for SFNet? 
Kowalski: I taught Intro to ABL and Intro to Field Exam at PNC for more than 16 years. A few years later, I joined the Education Committee and co-taught Intro to Secured Finance with Don Clarke, It was a great way to begin because Don is so relaxed with the students. Since then, I have had the pleasure of co-teaching with many professionals, each of whom brought a unique style to the class.