Matthew Blake

Mahtani has worked in the banking industry since 1996, with stints at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Wolverton, who has been at Synovus since 2003, has made it a point to hire women to senior leadership positions, and the majority of her direct reports are women.

On July 15, Zions Bancorp. cut the ribbon on a 400,000-square-feet technology center in Midvale, Utah. The center lets the Salt Lake City-based bank's 2,290 tech employees, from cybersecurity experts to application engineers, work from one space instead of 12 buildings scattered across Utah.

Jill Castilla is growing her main bank – and its remote affiliate. Citizens Bank of Edmond's asset size grew 13% year-over-year in 2021 to $370 million. The suburban Oklahoma City-based bank racked up 850 loans totaling $130 million last year.

From the outside, Teresa Heitsenrether's career is a straight-line path of success. After earning a master's degree in finance at New York University, she began work at JPMorgan Chase in 1987.

It was a strong first full year for Kristy Fercho, who was named head of Wells Fargo home lending in July 2020, landing her the top spot on the Most Powerful Woman to Watch list.

Patricia Husic co-founded Centric Financial in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2007. Then came the Great Recession. 

Wendy Cai-Lee launched Piermont bank in 2019 with a goal of helping entrepreneurs access financial services through a digital platform. 

As chief audit officer at BNY Mellon, Paulette Mullings Bradnock was charged with keeping tabs on the whereabouts, utilization and movement of almost $500 billion in assets.

Michal Katz, head of investment and corporate banking at Mizuho Americas, helped orchestrate two of the largest acquisitions of early 2022.