Diane Morais

Women have made meaningful gains in banking leadership, but the path to the CEO office remains remarkably narrow. Despite years of progress, just two of the top 50 U.S. banks are led by female CEOs, exposing a persistent gap between executive representation and ultimate leadership. Why does advancement stall at the final stretch? This candid discussion examines the structural barriers that continue to shape succession—from unequal access to P&L roles and executive sponsorship to enterprise visibility and outdated expectations of leadership. C-suite executives will share practical strategies for building cross-functional influence, positioning for CEO succession, and shifting from functional operator to enterprise leader in an industry where the pipeline remains fragile and the stakes have never been higher.

The panel will discuss why the focus should move beyond leadership development programs to redesigning the executive pipeline itself, including:

• Giving high-potential women earlier ownership of large P&Ls.
• Rotating future leaders through technology, digital, payments, and commercial businesses—not only corporate functions.
• Measuring the impact of sponsorship.
• Making succession planning more transparent and evidence-based.
• Ensuring women lead the bank’s most strategically important initiatives, especially those involving AI, digital and on-chain transformation, and other engines of growth and transformation.