2024 Most Powerful Women to Watch

While many banks and financial service companies play out on the global stage, the industry itself can be smaller than it seems. Many of the honorees on this year's list worked at the same companies during their careers. Here is a look at those connections.

The community bank CEO and Most Powerful Women to Watch honoree sits for an exit interview on what bankers face as her term running the American Bankers Association ends.

Female chief executives are a rare thing in the banking industry, but the women honored in this year's suite of awards are hoping to change that trend.

Many of this year's honorees took a chance on their future careers by asking questions, jumping into unknown markets and believing in their ability to get the job done.

Our annual list of the most powerful women to watch in banking and finance.

Thurlow has been the CEO at Reading for 18 years, and will finish her stint as chair of the American Bankers Association in October.

Oliver left KeyBank in 2017 to be president and CEO at the regional Cape Cod bank, known as "The Coop."

Moore-Wright is the chief teammate officer at the $520 billion-asset Truist.

Popular promoted Castellví to chief security officer in 2018; she had been general auditor. She reports to CEO Ignacio Alvarez and leads a team of more than 350 employees.

Cai-Lee, CEO of $596 million-asset Piermont, founded the bank in 2019.

Menelik was tapped to lead corporate, specialty and government banking at Huntington in October 2022, coming over from Fifth Third where she was the group head of diversified industries and international corporate banking.

Tedesco leads all the $24.5 billion-asset bank's revenue businesses and a team of 1,840 employees.

Reid, chairman and CEO of Capitol National, has a keen focus on diversity and inclusion. Women and other underrepresented groups make up 59% of the bank's employees, and women hold 71% of senior management positions.  

Vice Chair Hope Holding Bryant played a key role in the bank's acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank.

Stevens' expansive role at the Cincinnati-based lender includes head of enterprise workplace services, which puts her in charge of Fifth Third's properties.

Pourchet's duties include deciding the types of corporate and institutional clients to attract in BNP Paribas' Latin American region and ensuring the bank has the right teams and products to serve them.

Since she was elevated to her current role roughly 18 months ago, Mariniello has continued to balance emerging opportunities with implementing long-term growth initiatives.

Heinel is the first female global chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors, the world's fourth-largest asset manager.

Fogarty and her team are responsible for custody, reconciliations, derivatives, bank loans, middle-office, investment analytics, accounting and fund administration, alternative operations, and transfer agency activities for State Street.

Under McKinney, Comerica's retail bank generated $965 million in revenue and 20% revenue growth in 2023. She leads 2,580 employees in the retail bank, which has $27 billion in loans and deposits.