Jennifer Taylor is the Chief Compliance Officer for Citibank, N.A. (CBNA), Banking & International and Client, and an Independent Compliance Risk Management (ICRM) Executive Council member.  
 
In this role, Jennifer leads a global team tasked with effectively designing, implementing and managing the compliance risk management framework across Citi’s Banking business. She also provides compliance risk management coverage and strategic franchise-wide support to the CBNA legal entity.  
 
Jennifer joined Citi from Bank of America where she was the Head of Compliance and Operational Risk for the UK and CEEMEA. Previously, she held several key management roles including Chief Operating Officer for EMEA, Chief Operating Officer for APAC and Chief Administrative Officer for APAC. Jennifer also served as General Counsel for various teams across the APAC region. 
 
Jennifer brings extensive experience in strategic compliance risk management and effective regulatory interaction. She has deep product knowledge across the institutional space and a proven record of accomplishment in driving and embedding a compliance culture across a global franchise.  
 
Jennifer holds an LL.B. in Law from Trinity College, Dublin. She trained as a lawyer at Freshfields and is a qualified Solicitor. 

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.

Kristin Lesher is Chief Wholesale Banking Officer at Truist Financial Corporation, where she leads one of the nation’s largest wholesale banking businesses spanning commercial and corporate banking, investment banking and capital markets, commercial real estate, and wealth management. She also oversees Truist’s enterprise payments business, including consumer and wholesale payments and digital asset strategy.  

As a member of Truist’s executive leadership team, she is responsible for driving a nearly $11 billion business that represents over half of the company’s financial results.  Since joining Truist in 2024, Lesher has accelerated growth, deepened client engagement, and increased performance while attracting and developing talent across the franchise.

Prior to Truist, Lesher held senior leadership roles at Wells Fargo, including Head of Middle Market Banking and Co-Head of Investment Banking Coverage. She previously served in corporate development and treasury roles focused on acquisitions and integrations, and capital and balance sheet strategies.

Lesher holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University.

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.