Jennifer Taylor’s workday spans continents, often beginning in, say, Australia and ending somewhere in Latin America. It’s a rhythm that perfectly captures the global scope of her role as Citi’s chief compliance officer for banking and international. 

With oversight and responsibilities across 160 markets and a physical presence in over 90 countries, Taylor’s work puts her at the forefront of international risk management during one of the most transformative periods in financial services. 

“I genuinely, really enjoy the challenge of our global footprint,” she said. “I find that fascinating.”

When Jennifer Doyle landed a temp job on the First Union trading floor in Charlotte, North Carolina, after graduating from college, she felt like she’d won the lottery.

At the time Doyle didn’t know much about Wall Street or investment banking, or sales and trading. But as a former college tennis player, she relished the fast pace and competitive nature of the work.

“It was truly right place, right time,” she said.

Doyle parlayed her temp job into a 25-year career starting at First Union, its successor Wachovia and then Wachovia’s acquirer, Wells Fargo. For the last three years, Doyle has been co-head of the structured products group at the San Francisco-based bank, a role that continues to engage her competitive spirit.

Sports analogies are rife when talking about business, but when Jill Gateman describes the middle market as a team of quarterbacks, you listen. That’s because Gateman has spent the better part of the last two decades shaping the middle market offering of industry leaders such as PNC. While she takes on a broader remit in her new role as co-head of U.S. commercial banking, her experiences working with the middle market still drives her thinking.

“If you’re familiar with middle market, I look at them as almost like the quarterback. They bring the whole bank to all of our clients and prospects,” Gateman observed. Her new role has given her a different perspective on how it fits into the larger commercial bank offering. 

That role focuses on TD’s national corporate and specialty businesses, including middle market, sponsor-backed and fund finance, institutional commercial real estate, asset-based lending, franchise finance, healthcare, municipal, non-profit and higher education. (Until September 2024, Gateman was head of corporate banking and specialized finance, the role on which her 2025 ranking is based, as per American Banker‘s methodology requiring a full year of performance.)

Carolyn is responsible for leading the end-to-end strategy, risk management, governance and financial performance across U.S. Personal and Business Banking, including branch channels, Virtual Contact Center, specialty teams and Product & Headquarter functions. Her responsibilities include representing U.S. P&BB on the Risk Management Committee, U.S. Regulatory Committee and U.S. Management Committee. She is passionate about building diverse, engaged teams and working collaboratively to deliver an exceptional customer experience.

Carolyn started her career in 1991 as a part-time teller, and over the next decade took increasingly more senior roles, including Branch Manager, Account Manager, District Vice President and Head of U.S. Distribution and Business Banking which she was appointed to in 2018 before rising to her current role in 2024. Prior to her roles in the U.S., Carolyn was Senior Vice President for the Atlantic Provinces Division, for the bank’s Canadian Personal and Commercial business units.
She was twice awarded a Top 50 CEO award by Atlantic Business Magazine for her support and leadership within the Atlantic Canadian business community.

Since arriving in Chicago, Carolyn has been making inroads in supporting local women’s business advocacy and charitable activities. Carolyn is a member of the International Women’s Forum and has helped launch various initiatives to support women business owners including the BMO Celebrating Women Grants Program and supports the United Way of Metro Chicago Women’s Leadership Council. She also supports BMORE, a program that seeks to remove barriers to employment in African American and Latino communities and serves as an advisor on the U.S. P&BB Advisory Senate to further develop talent at BMO from all lines of business.

Since 2016, Carolyn has been part of BMO’s team of female leaders and was included on American Banker’s 2022 list of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance.

Carolyn is a member of the U.S. WISE Advisory Board, BMO’s employee resource group for women, and actively mentors a number of other executives in the company. She serves on the Board of Directors for Skills for Chicagoland’s Future and is an Executive Mentor for the BMO Harris / 1871 Innovation Program, and serves on the executive committee of Junior Achievement of Chicago. She has an undergraduate degree from McGill University and holds an MBA in Services from Dalhousie University.

Kristin Lesher is chief wholesale banking officer for Truist Financial Corporation, a purpose-driven financial services organization committed to inspiring and building better lives and communities.

Named to her current position in February 2024, Lesher leads Truist’s Wholesale Banking teams in providing comprehensive financial solutions to meet the diverse needs of clients served by our commercial and corporate banking, commercial real estate, enterprise payments, investment banking and capital markets, and wealth management businesses. She is also a member of Truist’s Operating Council.

Most recently, Lesher served as executive vice president and head of Commercial Banking Coverage for Wells Fargo where she managed a national team providing local coverage and specialized industry expertise to companies in a wide variety of industries and subsectors, as well as government, institutional and not-for-profit corporations. Previously, Lesher served as co-head of Investment Banking Coverage at Wells Fargo Securities. She has held several senior positions in investment banking, corporate treasury, corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions.

Lesher has served on the Board of Girls on the Run International, including as Chair of the Board from 2019 to 2021, and she is actively involved in Wake Forest University as a member of the Parent’s Advisory Council.

Lesher earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where she was an F.C. Austin Scholar.

In March, when Visa, Mastercard and American Express reneged on their earlier agreement in September 2022 to use a merchant category code that would help to identify gun purchases, Priscilla Sims Brown, the CEO of Amalgamated Bank, took the companies to task.

After seven years of leading Bank of the West, Nandita Bakhshi took on a new role this year.

She is now special advisor to BMO Financial Group, the Montreal-based bank that bought Bank of the West from its former parent, Paris-based BNP Paribas, in February. The merger dramatically expanded BMO’s footprint in the U.S. The bank now has more than 1,000 branches in 32 states.

Sandy Pierce is a seasoned veteran not just of banking, but bank mergers as well.

She was CEO of Detroit-based First Merit when Huntington Bancshares acquired the lender in 2016. Following that merger, Pierce settled into a largely wealth management role at Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington, running the private bank while also overseeing the bank’s operations in Michigan.

Citigroup’s Pam Habner is leading her bank into the fiercely competitive and lucrative high-end credit card market against giant competitors like American Express, Capital One and JPMorganChase. 

“I’ve been in financial services for more than 30 years and the competition has always been fierce but today it is at a new level,” said Habner, head of branded cards and lending for Citigroup, noting the rush of new and relaunched premium cards that are entering the market. Habner played a major role in the launch of Strata Elite, Citi’s first card for high-end consumers in four years. This comes as Chase recently refreshed its Sapphire card with new travel, fitness and experience perks, and higher fees, and Amex plans a refresh of its Platinum card for 2025. Strata Elite has an annual fee of $595, less than Sapphire’s $795 and Platinum’s $695.