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Kristin Lesher knew a lot about Truist Financial long before the bank recruited her to join the bank.
For years, while Lesher was working as Wells Fargo's head of middle market banking, she competed against Truist and its two predecessor banks. She was also friendly with some of Truist's commercial bankers, who reported a positive working environment and a strong culture.
When Lesher got the chance to join the Truist, she was drawn to the opportunity to be part of the C-suite and drive the bank's strategy.
"I knew that Truist had a lot of great capabilities, all of the products and solutions and groups you'd want to have to go out and cover clients effectively, and I knew it had the opportunity to grow faster," Lesher told American Banker. "There was a really interesting challenge there."
Lesher made the leap from banking giant Wells to Truist, a large regional based in Charlotte, North Carolina, in early 2024. She became the bank's chief wholesale banking officer, overseeing one of Truist's two primary business segments and reporting directly to Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers. Her hiring was part of the bank's management reorganization initiative, which aimed to streamline decision-making, deliver superior customer experience and drive better financial performance.
At Truist, the wholesale banking unit includes commercial and corporate banking, commercial real estate, treasury management and payments, investment banking and capital markets and wealth management. Before the restructuring, many of the wholesale banking businesses reported to different leaders. Now about 7,500 people report up to Lesher, who said she's "laser focused" on growth.
Her near-term to-do list "is really executing on the plan and delivering the proof points to the market and to investors," she said. To generate more growth, Truist has been hiring additional bankers who focus on specific industries, so that they can provide tailored advice to companies in those sectors.
Momentum has been building. Truist's investment banking and trading revenue grew 46.4% in 2024, compared with the prior year, while its payments revenue rose 10% year over year in the first quarter, the bank said.
"We've got all the raw materials to work with," Lesher said. "We've got great teams in great markets with great products … The growth that we're seeing is really coming from focusing on certain places, like trying to capture more of the market with our industry banking strategies."
Lesher lives in Washington, D.C., but she commutes frequently to Truist's headquarters in Charlotte.
The mother of three plans to move permanently to the Queen City after her youngest son, who is 15, graduates from high school. Her older kids are both attending Wake Forest University, where Lesher and her husband serve on the parents' advisory council, and where Lesher volunteers at WAKECharlotte, a group of alumni, parents and friends of the university.
Lesher, an Oklahoma City native, is a former board chair for Girls on the Run International, a national nonprofit that offers youth development programming for girls in grades three through eight.
She said she's trying to figure out where to next devote some extra time.
"I want to make sure I'm having a high impact on things that will deliver value and economic growth to Charlotte," she said.
