The Most Powerful Women to Watch, No. 1, Sharon Miller, Bank of America

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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.

"We want to serve clients in a way they can grow with their bankers," Miller said. "It's a trust business."

Miller, a member of the company's executive management team, joined the bank in 1996 in a financial advisory role in wealth management. Over the next two decades she moved around the country and managed teams, before joining the business banking division nine years ago.

She was promoted to president in April last year, taking over a part of the business which has been ranked the top small business lender for the last 16 quarters by the FDIC, despite a prolonged period of economic uncertainty amid high interest rates and supply chain disruptions.

In May 2024, Bank of America combined its small business and business banking business lines. As part of that shift, it needed to make sure its tech platforms aligned. The move meant unifying its leadership team and bringing all teams onto the same tech platform meaning both a restructure in management and for the platforms they use.

Meanwhile it also upgraded its tech infrastructure in a $35 million push. The investment ensured bankers that serve in local communities are on the same platform and singing from the same hymn sheet – all part of a large-scale strategic effort by Miller to upgrade the way her teams operate. Part of this push included hiring new staff in local markets.

Miller is big on giving clients crucial information on current market conditions and has also developed new kinds of content distributed by the bank's Center for Business Empowerment, an online platform offering research and direct banker connections for the bank's customers.

The platform uses data from Bank of America's internal systems to publish monthly "Business Checkpoints" giving a real-time view of economic trends that aim to help businesses get ahead of the headlines.

"The data helps us put together a picture of what's actually happening – not what you're hearing in the news," Miller said. "Because we're the number one bank for business, we have a lot of data about what's going on exactly with our clients."

Miller's varied experience has also been essential to developing her leadership skills in order to handle this ever-evolving economic landscape. "Even though I've been at [Bank of America] for 29 years, I feel like I've worked at different companies," she said.

"All of that builds into what you need in order to lead a business," she added. "Some of the toughest assignments I've had, prepared me for where I am today."

When asked about her leadership style, Shimna Sameer, BofA private bank COO said, "She is unapologetic about tough decisions and is not afraid to make room for more people at the table."

As a business line leader, Miller echoed this, adding that it's imperative to try to anticipate what might be coming down the pike.

"I want to make fast decisions and I want to be thoughtful about it and make sure I'm thinking around every single corner because [every decision you make] has downstream impacts," she said.

Miller regularly engages with her clients and takes pride in the work she's done to help them "cut through the noise".

Outside work, she serves on the board of Trinity University, working with the next generation of business leaders, and is active in the Charlotte, North Carolina community.