Special Program Root Tag

Lynn Heitman remembers the days when direct mail response rates were 20 percent. Now 2 percent is considered high. "It was a very different time," she says. "It was much easier to succeed."

After leaving Seattle to return to the Midwest to help care for an ill family member, Grossi received a call from FirstMerit asking if she'd be interested in joining the Akron, Ohio, bank as its head of retail banking.

Maureen Miskovic started out at the London Metal Exchange as the silver crisis was cresting. She was at the London Stock Exchange for the Mexican peso crisis and Barings Bank's implosion. And she became the chief risk officer at Lehman Brothers just in time for the run on its stock in 1998.

The chief executive of JPMorgan's Treasury Services business pushed through with a $1 billion investment to broaden the group's global service capabilities.

Betsy Cohen never stops innovating. When she was 32 she founded JeffBanks, and built it into the largest bank headquartered in Philadelphia. She sold it in 2000 for $350 million, or 2.75 times book, and founded The Bancorp in nearby Wilmington, Del.

For Dorothy Savarese, the financial crisis has in some ways amounted to a restoration of the principals that guide her institution, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank.

Dorothy Bridges is as prepared for downturns as they come. But the head of the Washington, D.C.-based community development lender City First Bank, and one of a few black women to run a U.S. bank, faces a difficult test.

Sure it was painful, but the tumult of the last 12 months hasn't slowed down these 25 women. Whether in new positions or old ones, they are poised to play leading roles in the industry's recovery.

The stimulus bill thrust the Small Business Administration back into the spotlight and its new administrator is determined to make sure it stays there.

Their titles may be different, but these investment bankers, card executives, fund managers and private-equity investors are under the same pressures as their banking counterparts — and are meeting the challenges head on.

Nicole Arnaboldi, vice chairman of alternative investments of Credit Suisse, has long hewed to a belief that bear markets often present the best opportunities to generate profits.

At a time when Wall Street firms have had few success stories either in relative or absolute terms, the accomplishments of Goldman Sachs' fixed-income sales unit stood out in terms both qualitative and quantitative. "I can say publicly that the business I represent has had a record year," Goldman partner and managing director Stacy Bash-Polley says.

Western Union has long been synonymous with consumer money transfers, but Christina Gold, its president and chief executive officer, is determined to expand the company's repertoire deeper into the global payments space.

Abigail Johnson is nearing the summit of the Mount Everest of mutual funds, Fidelity Investments.

Anne Stausboll, the recently appointed chief executive officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, has good reason for supporting national health care reform. CalPERS is the nation's second-largest purchaser of health care, and this year will spend $5.7 billion on health care for its 1.3 million members.

One of Maliz Beam's major initiatives since joining TIAA-CREF in 2004 has been building out the advice platform.

Kathleen Murphy, the new head of Fidelity Investments' personal investing unit, sees plenty of challenges and opportunities ahead at her new employer. But the former CEO of ING's U.S. wealth management unit has already tackled what has to be one of the toughest: Maintaining employee morale as the market convulsed.

When Catherine Smith took the reins of ING's U.S. Retirement Services last December, it was an especially jittery time for investors. So one of her first orders of business was to personally call or visit many of ING's largest clients, backing up the efforts of field representatives.

Bank of America's Global Research division, led by Merrill veteran Candace Browning, was the first Merrill unit integrated after the acquisition closed on Jan. 1. "On day one, we were hard at work," Browning says.

When Ranjana Clark joined Western Union this past spring, she said goodbye to Wells Fargo. But not to banking.