The Most Powerful Women in Banking

How an uncommon knack for bridging different cultures helped Nandita Bakhshi rise to the top job at Bank of the West.

Candi Wolff of Citigroup and Anita Eoloff of Wells Fargo are two of the most powerful banking lobbyists in the nation’s capital, but they don’t think the transformation of their once male-dominated field is done, nor do they think everything about the past should be abandoned.

What it takes to excel goes far beyond the daily work a job entails. It's about having the courage to be who you are, stand up for what you believe in, overcome great adversity, and make the world better in a way that is uniquely yours. Here are four executives who have done just that.
• Create a Ripple Effect: JPMorgan's Stacey Friedman
• Be Like a Puffer Fish: Barclays' Barbara Byrne
• Have the Courage to Believe: BBVA's Rosilyn Houston
• Power Through Adversity: First United's Karen Glenn

This year, KeyCorp executed the second-largest bank acquisition by deal value since the financial crisis and announced a groundbreaking commitment to do $16.5 billion of lending to low- and moderate-income communities across several states. Chairman and CEO Beth Mooney also purposely raised the visibility of other executives at her company, to bring more diversity of thought into the company’s decision-making process. But Mooney doesn't see an end to her days of trailblazing yet.

The staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission is working on a proposal to amend the current diversity disclosure rule to require more specificity, including information on the race, gender and ethnicity of board members and nominees. Here's why.