25 Women to Watch: 21-25

21. Candida Wolff
EVP and Head of Global Government Affairs, Citigroup

Back when Candi Wolff was the Bush administration's chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill, the emphasis on any given day could shift depending on which domestic or international issues were in the headlines. The speed and flexibility she developed in response have served her well at Citi, where she manages relationships with government officials around the globe and works to advance Citi's objectives in areas ranging from Dodd-Frank and derivatives regulation to data privacy laws and local tax rules.

Since joining Citi in May 2011 from the law firm Hogan Lovells, where she was a partner in the legislative and policy practice, Wolff has set priorities and crafted well-defined positions in an office that used to take a more ad hoc approach to issues as they arose.

With only 17 staffers covering 101 countries, efficiency matters. A big part of Wolff's job is mapping out the legislative issues that cross multiple jurisdictions, and following the trend lines to make sure resources are allocated for optimum effect. (U.S. regulatory affairs are generally handled by Citi's legal department.)

Domestically, Wolff has leveraged her relationships with key legislators (she was deputy staff director for the Senate's Republican Policy Committee from 1996 to 2000) to position Citi as a thought leader on the issues, providing background information for hearings and offering up Citi economists and other specialists for briefings. But the biggest increase in activity for Wolff's office has been on the international side, in emerging markets especially, where financial issues have taken center stage.

22. Claire Whitfield Tucker
President and CEO, CapStar Bank

In 2007, a group of Nashville investors put up $88 million to start CapStar Bank and recruited Claire Whitfield Tucker as its president and CEO. She opened the bank's doors in July 2008, but the inauspicious start date seems to have had little effect: with a mix of acquisitions and organic growth, CapStar last year expanded market share faster than any other bank in its home state of Tennessee, and assets are fast approaching the $1 billion mark.

CapStar turned profitable in the first quarter of 2011. Soon after, it brought in a veteran commercial lending duo from another market to build a commercial finance division; the department has grown to 10 employees and has been a catalyst, as well as a source of diversification, for CapStar's lending portfolio.

On the acquisition side, one of her first deals, for the Cool Springs branch of Community First Bank & Trust, got scuttled earlier this year after buyer and seller failed to reach an agreement on proposed modifications to the terms. But a merger with American Security Bank & Trust in nearby Sumner County was approved in June and is expected to close in October, with Tucker at the helm of the combined, five-branch company.

Tucker started in banking in 1975 as a trainee at First American National Bank, rising to president of the corporate bank two decades later. When the bank was bought by AmSouth in 1999, she stayed on as senior EVP overseeing commercial banking activities in six southeastern states and New York. She later joined the $1.7 billion-asset FirstBank as SVP for metro markets and president of the Nashville market. Last year, Tucker was appointed to a three-year term chairing the Sixth Federal Reserve District Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council, which meets semi-annually with the Fed's board of governors to discuss small banks' views on policymaking.