The Latest from Women in Banking

Inspiring others is what motivates Thasunda Duckett to keep taking on challenging new assignments.

Even before it closed its acquisition of FirstMerit, Huntington Bancshares made sure it locked up FirstMerit Vice Chairman and Michigan market Chief Executive Sandy Pierce.

The last two years have been transformative ones for Howard Bank in Ellicott City, Md., and much of the credit goes to Mary Ann Scully, its chairman, president and chief executive.

An analytical mind; a drive to improve; a sense of humility; a leadership gene. Nandita Bakhshi identified these four traits as key in her move up to CEO.

Ellen Alemany came out of retirement in the past year to continue a turnaround effort underway at the $66.7 billion-asset CIT Group. She's got her work cut out for her.

Of all that Mary Mack accomplished running Wells Fargo's brokerage operations — adding teams of new advisers in key markets, substantially improving her unit's customer satisfaction ratings — perhaps what stood out most was her group's success in attracting new business from the banking side of the house.

It took just eight months for Cate Luzio to earn her first promotion at HSBC. Luzio joined the global bank in December 2014 as head of multinational coverage for the Americas. Her group produced results so quickly that in August 2015, HSBC assigned Luzio the same role globally.

Last year, First United Bank and Trust CEO Karen Glenn made her boldest move to date with a deal to acquire the $85 million-asset Bank of Ohio County in Beaver Dam, Ky. With that deal, the first in its 20-year history, First United boosted its assets by nearly 45%, to $275 million.

Angela Birmingham has held a number of high-ranking banking jobs in her career, but until she started helping her oldest daughter with college applications last year she had never given much thought to being a role model for other women.

Though the general counsel and head of compliance at TD Bank is primarily responsible for making sure the bank's business units are playing by the rules, Ellen Patterson says it is also her team's mission to root out inefficiencies that might be slowing down decision-making and causing pain to customers.