Most Powerful Women in Banking NEXT 2025

The Most Powerful Women in Banking NEXT 2025

September 10, 2025 9:58 AM

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

What makes a young leader stand out in an industry undergoing radical change? Developing and executing an important strategic project whose visibility is matched by its impact. Asking for added responsibilities to increase business capabilities and outcomes. Voicing new ideas to make money or do things differently. Stepping into a new situation so seamlessly that colleagues thought she had been there all along.

These are some of the exceptional qualities that honorees of The Most Powerful Women in Banking NEXT list — ranked this year for the first time based on their performance — share, according to senior executives at their institutions. The ranking encompasses leaders aged 40 and below in business and functional roles ranging from payments to investment banking, from tech to risk and operations at banks of all sizes across the country. Some already run large groups, while others have smaller but growing remits.

To rank them, American Banker considered the importance of their role, their contribution to the financial results of their institution, and how they've made their mark thus far in their careers.

The good news is that there is a deep well of rising talent that's marching toward the executive suites of banks. Some of the honorees came through internships or college recruiting programs and started in the industry right out of school. Others jumped at opportunities to move to their current institutions, in some instances following a previous manager or mentor to help expand the company's focus into new priorities.

These honorees are already reaching down the ladder to pull up the next cohort of future leaders, both internally and throughout the industry, mentoring more junior bankers and shepherding them toward promotions. In a sector where entry-level jobs are getting harder to score and the career path is notoriously a steep-sided pyramid, NEXT honorees showcase a level of achievement that should vault them into even higher ranks.

Anne-Victoire Auriault, Goldman Sachs

Partner, Equities Trading

Anne-Victoire Auriault recognized a shift occurring in the global ETF market some 18 months ago and decided Goldman Sachs' offerings needed to change with the times as well.

Institutional investors have increasingly sought more complex products, from actively managed ETFs and buffer strategies to thematic funds tied to artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, and income generation. These products require more sophisticated trading infrastructure, particularly as firms like Goldman compete in a crowded field against the likes of BlackRock, State Street and JPMorgan.

Christine Ferris, SMBC Nikko Securities America

Managing Director, Head of Securitized Products

Christine Ferris spent more than 17 years at J.P. Morgan, most recently as global head of CLO primary. In January, Ferris jumped to SMBC Nikko Securities America as head of securitized products — an unexpected career move that she couldn't resist.

Until joining SMBC, Ferris had spent her entire career at J.P. Morgan, where she said she "was given excellent opportunities to grow as a leader." She had no plans to leave the company. However, during a pitch meeting with SMBC Nikko Americas executive Scott Ashby, she learned about his vision for expanding SMBC's investment banking business in the Americas. The plan laid out by Ashby, head of capital markets and investment banking, intrigued Ferris so much that she accepted an offer to run the securitized products business at SMBC Nikko Securities America.

Learn more about Ferris.

Carmen Chan, Barclays

Managing Director, Internet Investment Banking Team

Carmen Chan's office is at the north end of Times Square, where Barclays' U.S. Corporate and Investment Bank is headquartered, but her view is strictly global. As managing director of internet investment banking, her portfolio of both targets and clients may be filled with U.S.-based tech players, but Chan knows that each of them plays in a world without boundaries or borders.

According to Barclays' Kristin Roth DeClark, global head of tech investment banking, the technology IPO market is in for a stellar year, with more than $50 billion worth of deals predicted in the coming 12 months, as part of the expected $3.1 trillion in global IPO and M&A activity. In such an environment, Chan's worldly view will be a critical tool for success.

Cindy Balint, Ally

Executive Director, Consumer Credit Operations

Spending one's entire career at a single company — a "lifer," so to speak — can have complicated consequences. Is the experience and deep dive one gets enough to overcome feelings of insecurity around knowledge of the industry and the "real world"? If you ask Ally's Cindy Balint, executive director of consumer credit operations, it all comes down to a focus on the customer.

"Of course, I have the fear that I am not up to speed on everything because I've spent so much time at Ally, and prior to that GMAC. [GMAC rebranded as Ally Financial in May 2010.] But I know if I focus on the customer — who I make sure I interact with on a daily basis — that's what keeps me grounded."

Tessa Naroditsky, Comerica Bank

SVP, Director of Payments Strategy

Embedded finance and real-time payments are two of the most important trends in banking, creating a need for a vision that connects emerging technology to specific business strategies.

"Embedded finance is the only way to go," Tessa Naroditsky, SVP and director of payments strategy for Comerica Bank, told American Banker. "It's how you create value."

Naroditsky is leading initiatives that combine how faster payment processing improves the bank's delivery of products through partners, the essence of what's referred to as embedded banking.

Lindsay Levine, BNP Paribas

Managing Director, Co-Head of Cross Channel Sales-Trading

BNP Paribas has the fastest growing cash equities business on the street and an unlikely candidate is leading it.

Lindsay Levine, 36 years old, a classical studies major and history buff, wasn't that good at math in school, she recalled. Now she's the managing director and co-head of cross channel sales trading for the Paris-based multinational bank.

How did she get here? A summer internship at Goldman Sachs where she fell in love with the trading floor energy.

Jessica Rohrkemper, Fifth Third Bank

SVP, Director Treasury Management/Commercial Payments Support Services

Tim Spence, chairman, president and CEO of Fifth Third Bank, refers to Fifth Third executive Jessie Rohrkemper as a "utility infielder."

In baseball, a utility infielder adeptly plays second base, third base and shortstop, and sometimes other positions. As it relates to Rohrkemper's work at the bank, her "utility infielder" status enables her to tackle problems and unearth opportunities across the bank, colleagues say.

"I think with the engineering mindset that I have, I really thrive between strategy and execution, and I really thrive with complex problems and ambiguity, and being able to break those down into the simplest parts in order to solve a problem," she said.

Wenni Wu, Piermont Bank

Chief Growth Officer

Wenni Wu, chief growth officer at Piermont Bank, speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese fluently. Her language skills and cultural background — Wu was born in the U.S. and is a descendant of the Teochow Chinese community — helped land her first post-college position as a cross-border investment advisor for Chinese companies.

"It was back in the early 2010s, when there was a significant amount of [Chinese] investment into the real estate market in the U.S.," she recalled. One of the Chinese CEOs she worked with gave Wu a piece of advice that still resonates today. "He said that if you choose the right platform, it can elevate your skill. But if you choose the right people, you can build your own platform.

Learn more about Wu's journey.

Kathleen Sherwood, Truist Financial

Head of Unsecured and Personal Lending

Kathleen Sherwood may be a rarity among her former college classmates. The Macon, Georgia, native has spent her entire career at the same company.

Following her 2009 graduation from the University of Georgia, where she majored in finance and art history, Sherwood started in the leadership development program at BB&T Corp. She was sent to Cleveland, Tennessee, where she trained as a commercial banker at a time when the industry was recovering from the financial crisis.

Olivia Ferris, Capstone Partners

Chief Operating Officer

Even in the midst of market volatility, Capstone Partners executive Olivia Ferris helped the investment banking and advisory services firm achieve a 6% increase in engagements and a 17% increase in closings last year compared with 2023.

Ferris credits the leadership team's "management-as-a-service" philosophy — a philosophy trumpeted by Capstone founder and CEO John Ferrara — for last year's boost in engagement and closings.

Hannah Honeycutt, U.S .Bank

SVP, Co-Head of ALM/Balance Sheet Management Executive

As head of asset liability management for U.S. Bank, part of Hannah Honeycutt's job is to challenge the bank's business line leaders. They want to deploy the bank's capital for loans; she wants to make sure the capital is allocated to the right kind of loans.

"What we're really working with the business to understand is: When we create that loan, are we getting a return that's worth our capital?" said Honeycutt, a senior vice president and balance sheet management executive for the bank.

Tracy Rudolph, Synovus

Director, Treasury Management Product Management

Don't underestimate Tracy Rudolph's specialized skill for organizing, structuring and planning initiatives, and seeing them quietly through. Starting as Synovus Financial's head of receivables product management in 2021, she inherited a tech project wobbling from vendor issues that her methodical approach put back on track. A subsequent initiative she oversaw proceeded with so little hubbub — virtually unheard of with major tech conversions — that the bank's head of treasury product strategy and innovation asked if something was secretly wrong.

"No, it's going really well," she told Seth Marlowe, who was Rudolph's manager at the time.

Katherine (Katie) Lane, Webster Bank

Senior Managing Director, Transformation Lead and Finance Frontline Controls Officer

In 2022, Webster Financial Corp. and Sterling Bancorp wrapped up their merger, with the Webster brand remaining. For folks at both companies, the all-stock deal — valued at $5.1 billion when it was announced — was cause for celebration.

But once Webster executive Katherine (Katie) Lane celebrated the deal, she had plenty of work ahead of her. It was Lane's job to lead the integration of Webster Bank's and Sterling National Bank's SOX (Sarbanes Oxley) programs — an enormous undertaking at what now is a financial services company with more than $75 billion in assets.

Ali Mattera, ConnectOne Bank

Chief Digital Officer

Ali Mattera considers her professional journey in banking to be a "Cinderella story."

"I started, like most amazing success stories, in college as a teller," Mattera told American Banker.

Her initial jobs at smaller banks gave her the opportunity to experience multiple facets of banking operations early on in her career.

"I had the ability to have my hand in a little bit of everything, so I had exposure to retail, compliance, BSA and technology," she said. "For me, taking a natural interest in all things technology, I definitely saw that as the fastest path for me to have a seat at the table."

Jessica Carta, Citizens Bank

SVP, Consumer and Small Business Payments

Jessica Carta is a self-described "payments geek." As the senior vice president for consumer and small-business payments, Carta leads all digital consumer and small-business payment initiatives across the bank. Prior to joining Citizens, she worked at Mastercard and built payment products at two different fintechs.

"Payments and money movement touch every part of our day, every part of our ecosystem," Carta said. "I particularly love the consumer angle because I'm a consumer, you're a consumer. We can all understand and relate to it."

Julie Andress, KeyBank

Managing Director, Institutional Equity Sales Trading, KeyBanc Capital Markets

Julie Andress, managing director for institutional equity sales trading at KeyBanc Capital Markets, consistently ranks among the top producers on the trading desk. She even ranked among the top producers when she was on three-month maternity leaves in 2020 and 2024.

Since joining KeyBanc Capital Markets in 2011, Andress has regularly cultivated client relationships that have contributed to double-digit revenue growth.

Rachel Scarry, Bank of America

Head of Prime Brokerage Sales Origination

It's not every day that a summer intern later becomes the lead on many of Bank of America's largest prime financing and equity clients, but that's how Rachel Scarry's 12-year career with the $3.4 trillion-asset bank has progressed.

Based in London, Scarry, 34, is head of prime brokerage sales origination for Bank of America, and has focused her attention on markets outside the bank's stateside headquarters — with the results to show for it. New client acquisition in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, or EMEA, was standout in 2024 and continues year to date in 2025.

Sophia Kearney-Lederman, FHN Financial

Senior Economist

When people told Sophia Kearney-Lederman early on in her role as senior economist for FHN Financial that they thought economists were dull, she wasn't sure how she should take it. "When it first happened, I was like, 'Oh, is this a compliment or a little bit of a judgment?'"

Now, five years into her job, she doesn't take it personally. Breaking down complex economic data and news into digestible analysis for the employees and clients of First Horizon Bank, parent of FHN Financial, and explaining why it matters to them personally, is quite interesting, she said.

Amy Harris, UMB Bank

EVP and Chief Legal Officer

When Amy Harris learned in 2014 that UMB was hiring an in-house litigator, she leapt at the chance to work at the bank.

An associate at a law firm in Kansas City, Missouri, Harris enjoyed the courtroom. But she wanted a change from law-firm life. Plus, she added, "Those in-house litigation positions are kind of few and far between."

She continued to bring cases to court after joining UMB, but the bank's general counsel asked her to take on special projects alongside her litigation work. It culminated in a request to oversee how the bank's legal team could incorporate new technologies.

Annie Cheslin, Wells Fargo

Managing Director, Municipal Bond Trading

While her college peers were gravitating toward internships in investment banking, Annie Cheslin found herself drawn to the buzz of the trading floor.

She landed her first job trading municipal bonds for Wells Fargo in 2012, and the buzz continues to pull her in more than a decade later.

"You walk onto a trading floor, people are engaged in conversation everywhere around you," said Cheslin, who is now a managing director on the bank's high-grade institutional desk. "You have to be able to be in two conversations at once and have what they call 'bond ears' to be able to hear what's going on around you."

Learn more about Cheslin.

Stephanie Cherrin, J.P. Morgan Technology Ventures

Partner

When you first meet Stephanie Cherrin, one of the immediate things that strikes you is her clarity of thinking — on what she does, why she does it and, even more, how she looks at the early stage companies in which she might invest and their potential impact on the market.

The 38-year-old partner in J.P. Morgan Technology Ventures, the bank's under-the-radar technology investment arm, is charged with identifying and making investments in fintech and cybersecurity companies. Cherrin's demeanor — direct, candid and intentionally thoughtful about the process of investing — stands in sharp contrast to the bank's desire to remain rather opaque about how much it invests annually in startups, the number of deals it did in 2024, or the types of investments its tech venture team is considering this year. When asked, she declined to answer questions on all of this, citing company policy.

Melissa Moncrief, Amegy Bank

EVP, Private Banking

In the aftermath of a financial crisis, two things are certain: More regulation will follow, and the smartest bankers will look for cracks of light and see the potential for innovation. Amegy Bank's Melissa Moncrief, EVP of Private Banking, acted on the latter, rethinking mortgage lending since the industry — and the customer experience — was redefined by the Dodd-Frank Act.

As banks across the country overhauled their mortgage practices under Dodd-Frank, the process became increasingly onerous for borrowers, especially high-net-worth clients with complex financial situations.

Keep reading about Moncrief's journey.

Dominique Goss, M&T Bank

Executive Director, M&T Charitable Foundation

Dominique Goss may not be armed with the financial resources of Yield Giving's MacKenzie Scott, but the way in which she supervises the development, allocation and impact of a $50 million annual budget in charitable giving and sponsorships is no less worthy. Under her leadership as executive director, the M&T Charitable Foundation has given more than $142 million to organizations within M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust's footprint. An additional $11.4 million has been distributed via community sponsorship, including the 2025 forecast.

Hanen Alkhafaji, PNC Bank

Senior Software Engineering Manager

Hanen Alkhafaji, a senior software engineering manager at PNC Bank, supervises a cross-functional team of developers.

Her work at the $554 billion asset bank's Dayton, Ohio offices was recently punctuated by a major internal restructuring of the advisor portal team. She guided them through the transition with confidence and reassurance, according to her superiors, and kept the team on track with its current projects.

Janel Taylor, Regions Bank

SVP, Learning Solutions Senior Manager

As a first-generation college student, Janel Taylor had no idea what she wanted to do when she graduated. But a human resources internship at Southern Company, an energy company, gave her a new direction.

"I fell in love with every step of an employee's life cycle at an organization," Taylor said. "From talking to them about the opportunity and recruiting them and selling them on the position, the team, the organization, to the excitement of them accepting that job, into when there are performance challenges that we need to help support them through, or development experiences that we need to create for them so that they can develop their skills and grow."

Learn more about Taylor.