Global banks rarely hire their CIOs from outside of banking, much less the energy industry. Both industries, however, rely heavily on technology and data and are highly regulated, noted Leigh-Ann Russell, who previously was energy giant BP's CTO.
In addition to the new challenge, she was drawn by CEO Robin Vince's description of his own tech interests and BNY's efforts to unify bank silos and employees in a more horizontal management structure.
"As a technologist, working with someone who loves technology and wants to build a culture united around company success—that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me," she said.
Russell quickly sought to emulate that vision. At the start of 2025, about 20% of BNY employees used Eliza, the bank's centralized AI platform. Targeting 65% use by year-end, just six months later 99% of employees were trained on it, and more than 50% are building their own AI agents to enhance their work.
The best ideas typically come from across an organization, Russell said, not just engineering. To build broad enthusiasm, she pursued her preferred leadership approach: by example.
"Leigh-Ann has always modeled the behavior she expects from others: clarity, accountability, humility and a willingness to do the hard work alongside the team," said Nastassja Hagan, who joined BNY a year ago to head up applied AI and worked with Russell for several years at BP.
Realizing her software coding skills were dated, she delved into "vibe coding," which uses AI-assisted software to enable writing code in plain language. Soon, her team members (many also out of practice) were all writing their own software, and now over 60% of the bank's software code is built with AI's help.
"We wanted to lead by being practitioners," Russell said, adding that she very publicly spoke about building her own digital twin using AI. "We now have an army of software builders at BNY, and most are business, product, communications and legal people—even our CEO."
The focus on AI helped increase BNY's revenue by 8% in 2025 compared to 2024, to $20.1 billion from $18.6 billion, and net income by 23%, to $5.6 billion from $4.5 billion. The first quarter of this year suggests 2026 numbers could be more impressive.
Some of Russell's best ideas occur when she's training for long-distance runs or engaging in yoga, even though as a trained instructor she knows the practice aims to clear the mind, not actively engage it.
Last year, for example, she led the development of BNY's "digital employees," now numbering more than 150, that autonomously detect and fix the code vulnerabilities arising in the bank's systems. Reporting to human managers, they tackle formerly time-consuming issues, such failed cross-border payments, that enable more productive humans.
"Rather than pursuing AI for spectacle," Hagan said, "she has emphasized building capabilities that improve how work gets done."
