The Most Powerful Women in Banking NEXT No. 20, Annie Cheslin, Wells Fargo

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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 focusing on tax exempt municipal credits 20 years and longer. "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."

But while she appreciates the immediacy of the work, Cheslin does not shy away from asking questions that dig beneath the surface. She said she is always looking for ways to do the job better or more efficiently.

Indeed, her penchant for questioning was among the factors that led managers to promote her about two years ago to managing director, she said. Some senior people on the desk left, creating an opening. She probably wouldn't have been tapped to fill it, she said, "if I wasn't the person constantly asking questions or being willing to adapt and do something that was maybe outside of my comfort zone."

It was a habit she cultivated from the beginning of her career at Wells Fargo. As a newcomer still learning her way around the trading floor, she looked for ways outside of trading to make herself valuable. That could mean suggesting a customer-friendly tweak here, or a better solution for a colleague there.

"Even if you're the most junior, you can have a voice in the room," she said.

Cheslin attended Emory University with thoughts of moving onto medical school. But she realized early on that it would mean a lot more schooling, especially if she wanted to enter a particularly specialized field. "I realized that if I could get myself down a path of sales and trading, I could really hit the ground running at 22," she said.

Cheslin thought the path would lead immediately to New York City. But she started with Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, and saw what she describes as a "huge opportunity" for young traders.

"They were growing their platform, and they were really investing in junior talent, and that's something I wanted to be a part of," she said.

Wells Fargo was the sixth ranked senior manager for all issues in 2024, managing 233 issues with a par value of $31.9 billion, according to LSEG data. And for midyear 2025, Wells was the fifth ranked senior manager for all issues, managing 127 issues with a par value of $18.1 billion.

When she's not executing trades or caring for her young children, Cheslin finds time to work out and play mahjong, a tile-based strategy game that originated in China.

"It helps keep you mentally sharp," she said. "But it's a nice way to be social and be doing something new. I love learning how to do new things."