Before Judith Pryor ’85 spent three-plus decades in global finance or served in public service positions across three different United States presidential administrations, she was a Bowling Green State University student who had an experience that changed the course of her career.

Now the first vice president and vice chair of the board of directors at Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), Pryor took advantage of a BGSU study abroad experience that helped guide her first steps out of college.

Pryor returned to BGSU on Thursday to speak to students in the nationally ranked Allen W. and Carol M. Schmidthorst College of Business, telling them that spending one semester in Madrid as a student shaped her future.

“It was really my semester abroad program that made me realize that what I wanted to do was work in international business,” she said.

Once she returned to campus, a role in a BGSU club helped lead Pryor to a career in Washington.

She told current students that she applied for a speaking role in a student advertising competition and advanced to the American Advertising Federation’s annual conference, which that year happened to be in Washington, where she has built a private-sector career in satellite communications and now a career in public service.

“I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time,” she said. “I never thought I’d stay, but I never left.”

Pryor received a degree in communications from BGSU and has maintained close ties to the University ever since, serving on the BGSU Foundation Board of Directors from 2016-19 and delivering the Commencement address in 2022.

During her career in public service, Pryor spent more than six years as Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s vice president for external affairs under former president Barack Obama, then served on the EXIM board from 2019-2021 during the first Trump administration.

President Joe Biden then appointed Pryor, who was confirmed with bipartisan support of the U.S. Senate, to her position as the vice president and vice chair of EXIM for a term that runs through Jan. 20, 2025.

Pryor said EXIM has a complicated role but a simple mission: to support U.S. job growth by supporting exports.

She offered the example of a U.S. business that has demand for their product, but might be dealing with an unfamiliar buyer, an unfamiliar country, or high levels of risk due to political or sectorial volatility.

To help this type of export reach fruition, EXIM can act as an intermediary that protects the U.S. business while also facilitating a new revenue stream.

“That’s where we can step in and bridge that gap, de-risk the transaction and keep you whole so you can move your product overseas,” she said. “The buyer is happy, and we protect you, the business, against any buyer non-payment. And when you have the full faith and backing of the U.S. government, people tend to pay you back.”

During her career in public service, Pryor said she used skills obtained at BGSU and in the private sector to help American businesses succeed overseas.

Though her appointment is certainly tied to politics – she joked that the Senate hearing was the “toughest job interview ever” – she said the organization largely leaves politics to the side when it considers how to aid American businesses.

“We leave political issues at the door because it’s not about politics, it’s about helping American businesses take advantage of overseas markets where 95% of the world’s consumers live,” she said. “It’s really about the mission and how we can achieve the mission.”