Wenni Wu, chief growth officer at Piermont Bank, speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese fluently. Her language skills and cultural background — Wu was born in the U.S. and is a descendant of the Teochow Chinese community — helped land her first post-college position as a cross-border investment advisor for Chinese companies.
"It was back in the early 2010s, when there was a significant amount of [Chinese] investment into the real estate market in the U.S.," she recalled. One of the Chinese CEOs she worked with gave Wu a piece of advice that still resonates today. "He said that if you choose the right platform, it can elevate your skill. But if you choose the right people, you can build your own platform. And that was very much how I felt when I met Wendy," she said, referring to her current boss, Wendy Cai-Lee, the founder and CEO of Piermont Bank.
In 2011, Wu joined East West Bank as a vice president of marketing strategy while Cai-Lee was working in East West Bank's commercial lending and consumer and business banking divisions. Cai-Lee quickly became Wu's mentor and the two women helped the California-based bank's commercial team to expand to new markets on the East Coast and Texas.
Eight years later, when Cai-Lee decided to found Piermont Bank in New York City, she tapped Wu to be the head of customer experience and marketing. "It was very, very fun. It's a rare experience to help start a bank, and it really allowed me to understand the ins and outs of banking," she said. In addition to implementing the fledgling bank's core system and account application processes, Wu was in charge of the build-out of Piermont's Bryant Park headquarters. "I did everything from working with the architect on the concept design, to picking out the carpet color, to managing the construction, overseeing furniture selection and buying computers," she said.
In March of 2022, Wu was promoted to her current position as chief growth officer at the $550 million-asset commercial bank. She is responsible for overseeing and executing all of the bank's marketing efforts, and is also responsible for client acquisition and client experience. "It's a very unique role. It allows me to sit at the intersection of strategy, innovation and marketing," Wu said.
Last year, Wu oversaw a cross-functional team that was tasked with relaunching Piermont's website and rolling out an enhanced digital platform designed to improve customers' onboarding and overall banking experience. The new platform, which launched in April, allows clients to open digital accounts in less than 15 minutes, rather than a couple of hours, and provides more robust online and mobile banking capabilities for SMBs, she said.
Since a sizable number of Piermont's clients are small-business owners and startups, Wu launched the Young Entrepreneurs Leadership Program in 2024 to provide founders with industry access and resources. "We created the program to be as practical as possible. It's not about bringing in a bunch of well-known speakers to be inspirational. It's about 'How do we solve your day-to-day challenges? Are you talking to the right people? Are you using the right-sized vendor?' We're really focused on solving practical business problems for them," she explained.
The program held six events last year and served about 150 young entrepreneurs and is on track to do the same this year.
