Most Powerful Women in Banking 2022

As a technology executive for PNC Bank, Deborah Guild has long been helping women blaze career pathways in the business world. Now she's helping them in what seems a most unlikely field: auto racing.

Ranjana Clark has long been committed to working seamlessly across borders. The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, made that more challenging. But as the pandemic's restrictions eased in 2022, Clark was able to lean more aggressively into that commitment.

As Global Chief Information Officer of JP Morgan Chase, Lori Beer manages a $14 billion budget and more than 55,000 technologists across the bank's businesses.

After 40 years on the job, Catherine "Cathy" Pombier Bessant is well ensconced among the sparse but growing ranks of senior stateswomen in finance. Bank of America's global technology and operations executive for 12 years and its vice chair of global strategy since September 2021, Bessant has topped American Banker's list of the Most Powerful Women in Banking three years in a row, from 2017 to 2019, and was inducted into AB's Hall of Fame in 2020.

When Peetz joined Citi in 2020, she was returning to work after three and a half years of retirement from a career that included leadership positions at Bank of New York Mellon, where she led the financial markets and treasury services group, and at JPMorgan Chase, where she had a variety of commercial lending, sales, and management positions.

Over the past year, Jane Fraser, Citi's first female CEO in the firm's history, completed a strategy refresh at the world's most global bank. Despite an implausibly volatile geopolitical environment, she steered Citi to robust first quarter 2022 earnings—returning $4 billion to shareholders, while commanding 200,000 employees globally, and serving millions of consumers and businesses across 95 countries.

As part of American Banker's Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance program, we have selected five "Top Teams" for 2022. Bank of America is one of the team honorees.

As part of American Banker's Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance program, we have selected five "Top Teams" for 2022. Sound Community Bank is one of the team honorees.

Having run both businesses and client-relationship organizations, Emily Portney, chief financial officer of BNY Mellon, brings a well- rounded vision to her oversight of the firm's finance functions, which include tax, treasury, capital management and investor relations — where she regularly articulates and advocates the value of the franchise to the public.

Maria Hackley, managing director and global co-head of industrials, banking, capital markets and advisory at Citi, understands how crucial it is for bankers to create strong, original content to distinguish themselves during client presentations.

Ida Liu became head of Citi's North American private bank in 2019 and then went on to beat her projections by 12% in 2020 despite the pandemic. That helped her get a promotion last year to global head, running 50 offices across the globe and overseeing more than $500 billion in client business.

Four years after AllianceBernstein announced it was relocating its headquarters from New York City to Nashville, the move was completed in May. Kate Burke, then the chief operating officer and head of private wealth, oversaw the move, relocating over 1,000 employees to the Music City.

Kara McShane took over as head of the commercial real estate team at Wells Fargo at an inauspicious time: February 2020, when COVID-19 was heading toward pandemic status and offices were starting to empty out.

Michelle Seitz has a long history of advocating for responsible investing and diversity and inclusion. Before joining Russell Investments in Seattle as CEO in 2017, Seitz spent 22 years in senior roles at Chicago-based William Blair, where she pushed for diversity and support for women in finance.

One of the basic assumptions of the wealth management industry is that investing professionals should be based in the same cities as their clients. Gunjan Kedia asked her team at U.S. Bancorp to challenge that belief.

Penny Pennington had worked for Edward Jones for some 17 years when she was named the managing partner in 2019.

Like its peers, PNC Bank has stepped up investments in technology over the last few years. But Charlotte McLaughlin feels the bank can move faster in the capital markets group she leads.

Jenny Johnson's career at Franklin Templeton has spanned over 30 years. During that time, she has held leadership roles in multiple divisions of the global investment firm, including investment management, technology, distribution and operations.

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.

Under the direction of the always visible Diane Offereins — who is often the "face of the company" — the total 2021 network volume of Discover rose to $504 billion, from $417 billion in 2020.