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Last year, Jodi Richard's job was particularly fraught amid a landscape of market volatility, cybersecurity concerns, the growing impact of artificial intelligence and the ever increasing speed of payments.
As the vice chair and chief risk officer for the $678 billion-asset U.S. Bank, Richard drives every decision related to risk and controls, including credit risk, liquidity and interest rate risk, and fraud risk. "Successfully managing liquidity and interest rate risk has been of paramount importance as we continue to navigate economic uncertainty and market volatility," Richard told American Banker.
Richard, who has been in the industry for more than 34 years, originally thought she was going to be an accountant. But her mother, who was a branch manager at a community bank, urged her to apply for a job at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency when Richards was a senior in college. Richards worked for the OCC for six years before joining HSBC as a director of regulatory compliance.
She joined the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based U.S. Bank in 2014 as its chief operational risk officer and was promoted to chief risk officer four years later. "My biggest challenge was helping to manage our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic swings a year after I stepped into the chief risk officer role," Richard said. "The risk organization played a critical role in this, in collaboration with leaders and experts across the organization. It made us a stronger risk team and a stronger business partner."
Today, she oversees a team of 5,000 employees globally with 14 direct reports, and is responsible for a $1.1 billion budget.
"My current role, and being part of the company's managing committee, has allowed me to take on a more strategic role and be part of larger decisions that affect all our stakeholders," Richard said. "On a personal level, it has fostered my ability to join community and national boards where I can leverage my skillset in serving others."
Her guidance is helping the bank deliver steady growth. While net revenue decreased slightly from $28.1 billion in 2023 to $27.5 billion last year, the bank reported net income of $6.299 billion compared to $5.429 billion for the same period in 2023. It also reported an 8.9% decrease in noninterest expenses year-over-year.
Richard is a longtime fan of the Minnesota Lynx women's basketball team, and leads the bank's sponsorship of the Lynx Changemakers program, which champions women in sports and empowers young girls in Minnesota. A portion of each partnership is donated to Girls Taking Action, a nonprofit that combats the rise in violence among high school girls.
She is also a member of ProSight Financial Association, which works to empower and advance leaders in the financial services industry, is on the board of Fairview Health Services, and she recently joined the board of Junior Achievement USA. Being able to bring her business expertise to help these organizations has brought her "great personal growth," Richard said.
