The Most Powerful Women in Banking's Women to Watch

September 24, 2025 10:00 AM

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The growing complexity of regulation and compliance. Geopolitical risk, trade protectionism and supply chain disruptions. Increasing credit risk pressures. Ongoing competition from neobanks, fintechs and Big Tech. The advancement of digital assets, stablecoins, and potential tokenized money market funds that could challenge core deposit and payment franchises. And operational risk—tied to fraud and third-party/vendor relationships—remains high in spite of the need to innovate and maintain valuable partnerships.

The honorees ranked on this year's The Most Powerful Women in Banking's Women to Watch have dealt with it all. Nonetheless, they rose to the occasion, innovating with AI, expanding their banks' offerings through increased small business lending and adding new niches, while deftly managing liquidity and interest-rate risk.

Sharon Miller, president, co-head of business banking at Bank of America is ranked #1 this year. Lisa Oliver, president, CEO and chair of the board of directors of The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod is #2. (Oliver is a longtime Watch honoree and is set to retire in October after a more than 30-year career in banking.)

Coming in at #3 is Jennifer Smith, EVP and chief operations and technology officer at Zions Bancorporation, followed by #4, Jodi Richard, vice chair and chief risk officer, U.S. Bank. (Both Smith and Richard were honored last year as well.)

Rounding out the top five is a newcomer to the list, Christiana Riley, president and CEO, Santander U.S. Besides Riley, there are seven other new additions to the ranking this year,
including Debopama Sen, head of payments, Citigroup Services, Citigroup (#9), and Ericka Leslie, COO of global banking & markets (GBM) and global head of GBM operations and engineering, Goldman Sachs(#12).

Community banks are the lifeblood of their locales and, as such, there are six community bank executives in the ranking, five of whom are CEOs, including newcomer CEO Kelly Skalicky of Stearns Bank and returning, longtime honoree Laurie Stewart, CEO of Sound Community Bank.

Taken together, these women's achievements reflect their ability to manage through at-times unpredictable market forces, harness the power of emerging technologies and remain dedicated to serving their customers with a digital-first strategy that is highly personalized, faster and cheaper.

Sharon Miller, Bank of America

President, Co-Head of Business Banking

Sharon Miller, president and co-head of business banking at Bank of America, carved out a nearly 30-year career at the bank based, in part, on her strength in building relationships.

The business bank, which she co-leads with Raul Anaya, serves 11 million business owners and over 20,000 businesses nationwide, plays an increasingly important role in the $3.3 trillion-asset company's combined operations. The division has $200 billion in deposits and $39 billion in lending balances, with approximately $8 billion in revenue, according to the BofA.

Lisa Oliver, The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod

President, CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors

After working with three different large public banks for over 30 years, Lisa Oliver joined The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod as its president and CEO in 2017.

She was the bank's first female president in its 104-year history.

The move was counter to how some people's career trajectories go, with many starting at smaller banks and moving to larger banks as their careers progress.

But for Oliver, the transition was intentional.

Jennifer Smith, Zions Bancorporation

EVP and Chief Technology and Operations Officer

One of the biggest challenges Jennifer Smith has faced this year at Zions has been the Salt Lake City-based bank's decision to require most employees to return to the office five days a week.

"This directive reflected in a headline can sound so simple, yet there are often immediate favorable and unfavorable reactions," Smith said.

Particularly as it relates to IT employees, regional banks have hired people from all over the country to source the best talent, she said. "There are cases where we cannot find some talent locally in our markets," she explained.

Jodi Richard, U.S. Bank

Vice Chair and Chief Risk Officer

Last year, Jodi Richard's job was particularly fraught amid a landscape of market volatility, cybersecurity concerns, the growing impact of artificial intelligence and the ever increasing speed of payments.

As the vice chair and chief risk officer for the $678 billion-asset U.S. Bank, Richard drives every decision related to risk and controls, including credit risk, liquidity and interest rate risk, and fraud risk. "Successfully managing liquidity and interest rate risk has been of paramount importance as we continue to navigate economic uncertainty and market volatility," Richard told American Banker.

Learn more about Richard's work at U.S. Bank

Christiana Riley, Santander U.S.

President and CEO

In college, Christiana Riley was a French and Italian major who loved all things international.

So when an opportunity arose after graduation to work for a New York City-based company with multinational clients, she took it. It didn't matter that the job was an analyst role at the boutique investment bank Greenhill or that her background was in Romance languages.

"I'm the accidental banker," Riley told American Banker. "But my real passion and the reason I was driven toward banking … was because of the truly global nature of this industry."

Learn more about Riley's career.

Tracy Kerrins, Wells Fargo

Chief Information Officer, Consumer Technology and Head of Generative AI

For Tracy Kerrins, the convergence of two enormous responsibilities at Wells Fargo is not a balancing act. It's a single mission.

As Wells Fargo's chief information officer for consumer technology and head of generative AI, Kerrins manages a $4 billion budget and a global team of roughly 7,000 employees. Her mandate is to modernize the bank's core consumer platforms while embedding AI capabilities across the enterprise for 215,000 employees and nearly 70 million customers.

"I don't separate the roles," Kerrins said. "Everything I do with generative AI informs what I do with consumer technology, and vice versa. It's all about finding better, faster, and more innovative ways to serve our employees and customers."

Debbra Schoneman, Piper Sandler

President

Debbra Schoneman believes in the power of the "learning zone" — the space just beyond an individual's comfort zone where growth and resilience are forged.

It's a mindset she adopted later in her career and serves her well in running Piper Sandler as president over the past seven years, especially during a year when market conditions have demanded both adaptability and discipline.

"If we fail to regularly challenge ourselves, our comfort zone will continue to contract," she said.

Learn more about Schoneman's leadership at the firm.

Deborah Guild, PNC

Head of Enterprise Technology and Security

Deborah Guild, the head of enterprise technology and security at PNC, has served in a number of tech leadership roles at the bank over the last 12 years. This year, however, her challenges look a little different, given the acceleration of AI, global cybersecurity threats, and an alarming increase in consumer fraud perpetrated by bad actors.

Additionally, deepfake technology and sophisticated cyberattacks have made traditional identity verification more challenging than ever.

Learn more about Guild's approach to cybersecurity.

Debopama Sen, Citi

Head of Payments, Services

Debopama Sen has built a career on anticipating what's next in the banking industry, and then making sure her clients are ready for it.

As head of payments for Citibank's services business, Sen oversees strategy, execution, growth, and risk management for one of the largest payments divisions in the world. It's a portfolio with real heft and scale: Citi processes $5 trillion in payments daily across more than 90 countries, serves over 17,000 clients and holds the top market share for corporate and institutional clients.

Learn more about Sen's work in payments for Citi.

Wendy Cai-Lee, Piermont Bank

Founder and CEO

After the past few years high-profile bank failures – Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California; Signature Bank in New York City; Pulaski Savings Bank in Chicago – everyone's talking about the need for stronger capital levels.

That's not something Wendy Cai-Lee, the founder and CEO of Piermont Bank in New York, has to worry about. Her bank's tier 1 risk-based capital (RBC) has been at 20% for the last seven consecutive quarters. The bank's total RBC is at 22%. Even Piermont's leverage ratio is at 14%.

Considering that a tier 1 RBC of 6.5% and a total RBC of 10% is considered well-capitalized, these are metrics worth highlighting.

Jeane Vidoni, Penn Community Bank

President and CEO

Penn Community Bank CEO Jeane Vidoni is prioritizing increasing its industrial and commercial loan volume.

In August, the bank launched an ad campaign to attract businesses that need commercial loans. Penn Community used artificial intelligence as part of its marketing efforts to reach CFOs and other executives who are seeking loans to expand their companies.

Shifting the bank's focus to its business customers who need commercial real estate and commercial and industrial loans will help its growth trajectory, Vidoni told the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Ericka Leslie, Goldman Sachs

COO of Global Banking and Markets and Global Head of GBM Operations and Engineering

In an era where Wall Street is being reshaped by technology and regulation, Ericka Leslie, COO of Goldman Sachs' global banking and markets (GBM) division, has made a career out of mastering fast-paced change.

Her mandate spans the firm's entire investment banking and trading apparatus, including FICC, equities and the capital solutions group. And it's been a busy and profitable few years. GBM accounted for $34.94 billion in net revenues in 2024 – 16% higher than 2023, Goldman said.

Learn more about Leslie's career.

Tammy LoCascio, First Horizon Bank

Senior EVP and COO

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Tammy LoCascio assumed oversight of wholesale banking at First Horizon, a unit that covers business lines helping the bank ride out a volatile economy. And in the face of high interest rates and a volley of tariff announcements, the unit has been doing just that.

"I'm very proud of what our team has accomplished in the face of economic uncertainty over the past year," LoCascio said.

The wholesale banking business generated a combined $123 million in pre-provision net revenue last year and is on track to deliver $150 million this year, said LoCascio, who has been First Horizon's chief operating officer since 2021. The Memphis, Tennessee-based regional bank has assets of about $82 billion.

Kara McShane, Wells Fargo

Global Head of Commercial Real Estate, EVP and Managing Director

Kara McShane, managing director and head of commercial real estate (CRE) at Wells Fargo, leads with a hands-on approach and builds teams that are ready to roll up their sleeves.

Through leading by example, she has created a culture where she expects people to work "side-by-side", and through which CRE has grown to be a powerhouse inside Wells Fargo's corporate and investment bank.

That growth has netted out over a rash of deals, including a $10 billion take-private of real estate investment trust AIR Communities for Blackstone in June 2024, a deal McShane said was emblematic of the agile, collaborative approach she wants to drive.

Learn more about McShane's career.

Uma Wilson, UMB Bank

EVP, Chief Information, Product and Operations Officer

Early this year, UMB Financial Corporation closed on its $2 billion acquisition of Heartland Financial, the largest such deal in its 111-year-old history. The acquisition boosted Kansas City, Missouri-based UMB's assets by over 30%, to approximately $68 billion, and grew its presence from eight to 13 states.

Uma Wilson's role in managing product development, technology and operations at UMB Bank means she and her team have been in an "extremely heavy lifting" mode throughout the acquisition process, Wilson said.

"The initial review of all the different systems and different products and offerings from Heartland Financial Institution came out of my team," she explained.

Liz Wolverton, Synovus

EVP, Head of Consumer Banking and Brand Experience

A former CPA at Ernst & Young, Liz Wolverton ended up working in the banking industry by happenstance when moved closer to family in Georgia

She joined Columbus-based Synovus in 2003 as a CPA, and her first job was to implement Sarbanes-Oxley.

"It sounds like the worst job, but it probably changed the trajectory of my career," Wolverton recalled. "You have to understand the operations, the financials, and the business in order to construct the control environment…I met so many people and learned so many things."

Zewditu Tizu Menelik, Huntington National Bank

EVP, Executive Managing Director, Corporate, Specialty & Government Banking

Zewditu Tizu Menelik, head of corporate, specialty and government banking for Huntington National Bank, said she's been drawn to the excitement of banking and finance since early on in her 28-year career.

"It's very intellectually stimulating; you're always solving problems," said Menelik, who took on the CSG role for the $204 billion Columbus, Ohio-based bank in 2022. "Working on the deal that you may have worked on for weeks, and it ultimately hitting The Wall Street Journal because it's an acquisition financing—that's always icing on the cake. It's like: 'I'm really enjoying this.' This is something that continues to energize me and keep me interested," she said.

Learn more about Menelik's deals.

Kelly Skalicky, Stearns Bank

CEO

A self-confessed "unexpected banker", she spent the first two decades of her career in courtrooms and conference rooms, practicing law for both the public defender's office and the Chicago Board of Education. But in 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession, Skalicky felt the pull back to the family business. Founded by Skalicky's father in 1963 – the same year she was born – she had agreed to help the bank with the rescue mission.

At the time, Stearns was one of a handful of banks tapped by the FDIC to assume ownership of failing banks. Through this process she came to see the local bank as the hub of a town.

"Sometimes you have to get out of your own community to see how banking can be empowering," Skalicky said.

Melinda Chausse, Comerica Bank

Senior EVP, Chief Credit Officer

When then-Michigan-based Comerica acquired a community bank in Texas in 1988, Melinda Chausse was asked to develop training and recruitment programs in Dallas.

Chausse was halfway through Comerica's two-year training program for commercial bankers, but she took the assignment anyway.

She did not intend to stay more than a couple of years. "But I got here and very quickly loved the entrepreneurial spirit of being on the ground floor of a bank that was going to be built from that original acquisition."

Learn more about Chausse's career.

Mihaela Kobjerowski, FNBO

EVP, Chief Credit Officer

In her 27 years at FNBO, Mihaela Kobjerowski has worked her way up the ranks in roles with progressively more responsibility. In 1998, she began her FNBO career as a credit risk analyst in credit card portfolio management. She quickly ascended to a role leading credit card portfolio management, and subsequently was tapped to create a decision science initiative tasked with developing customized risk and marketing analytics.

In her current job as executive vice president and chief credit officer, which she's held since November 2023, Kobjerowski manages credit risk for the bank's $23 billion loan portfolio, comprising $12.5 billion in consumer loans and $10.5 billion in commercial loans. The loan portfolio includes consumer credit cards, large-scale financing of apartment buildings, and agricultural loans.

Learn more about her role at FNBO.

Kathleen Stanley, Webster Bank

Executive Managing Director, Head of Verticals and Regional Banking

Kathleen Stanley runs marathons while also keeping a steady pace in her role as an executive managing director and head of verticals for regional banking at Connecticut-based Webster Bank.

As a part of her current remit, Stanley oversees coverage for more than 7,000 clients spanning six core businesses worth a combined $14 billion. Her business lines run along the East Coast from Boston to Philadelphia and New Jersey and provide core lending, deposit and treasury management to select industries and mid-sized businesses.

Learn more about Stanley's role at the bank.

Laurie Stewart, Sound Community Bank

President and CEO

Laurie Stewart, who has led Sound Community Bank for more than 30 years, said her guiding principle as CEO is "community is our middle name."

Her employees are a large part of Stewart's community, and she measures her success by keeping layoffs and turnover as low as possible despite economic pressures.

"I think 2024 was a year of really needing to manage through challenging economic times, but still be honest to your culture and your commitment to your stakeholders, including the communities that we serve," she said.

Learn more about Stewart's leadership.

Cristin Reid, Capitol National Bank

CEO

Cristin Reid understands the art of pacing.

A former ultra-marathon runner and cross-country coach, she's learned that endurance requires strategy—a quality she's learned to apply to the world of community banking.

"When you're running distances, you've got to keep moving," she said. That mindset has guided her since she was brought in to helm the bank in 2019 from Access BIDCO, a regulated financial institution that provided financing and management consulting services to small businesses, primarily in the State of Michigan.

Maria Tedesco, Atlantic Union Bank

President and COO

Maria Tedesco's first foray into banking was in a marketing role at BayBank in Boston. Although she held a B.S. in finance and accounting from Ithaca College, she didn't know much about the banking industry but wanted to help people with their finances. The CEO of the bank took a chance on the young Tedesco, and she was soon promoted to regional manager in charge of branches.

Since starting at BayBank in 1992, Tedesco worked at several banks in a broad range of roles across retail, consumer and business banking. Her experience includes more than seven years at Citizens National Bank and a two-year stint as chief operating officer at BMO Harris Bank before joining Atlantic Union Bank in 2018.

Learn more about Tedesco's career.

Anna Chung, Hanmi Bank

EVP and Chief Community Lending Officer

As other lenders have struggled in the small business market recently, Hanmi Bank has grown its SBA loan production by double digits in the first six months of this year.

The Los Angeles based- bank increased its SBA loan production by 18% between January and June 2025 over the same time period in 2024. In fiscal year 2024, Hanmi Bank reported $187 million in SBA loans, which was a 25% increase over fiscal year 2023.

Led by executive vice president and chief community lending officer Anna Chung, Hanmi Bank continues to stay the course through chaotic markets and tough conditions.

Learn more about Chung's leadership.