Kelly Coffey almost ended up working for the Central Intelligence Agency after graduating from Georgetown University with a master of science degree in foreign service. But instead Coffey opted for a riskier career — in banking. 

After 37 years in the banking industry, Diane Morais, the former president of consumer and commercial banking at Ally, retired in July.

Julieann Thurlow, president and CEO of Reading Cooperative Bank, successfully merged her bank with a neighboring one in a deal that brought the asset size of the Massachusetts-based mutual bank past the $1 billion mark this year.

However, this wasn’t your average bank M&A deal. Since both institutions are mutual banks there were no price negotiations, even though the merger co-mingled the two banks’ assets to a combined $1.23 billion. Instead, Thurlow focused her negotiations around relationship building and aligning the mission and goals of each institution to ensure a smooth transition for their members.

Thurlow told American Banker that a mutual bank merger allows each bank to do more for their communities working together with a combined asset size than they could do separately. 

Kim Posnett’s career has long been on the rise at storied Goldman Sachs. So it was fitting that to mark her two decades at the firm, she ascended to even more rarefied territory: co-head of investment banking.

But before that January 2025 crowning, it was her previous role as head of global technology, media & telecommunications group that groomed her for the even bigger chair. That put her at the center of major events like Twitter’s $44 billion sale to Elon Musk, and Silver Lake’s $25 billion taking-private of Endeavor. High-stakes deals like that helped cement the firm’s status as the #1 advisory in worldwide, announced and completed M&A for the year. (Posnett is ranked on her prior role of Global Head of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group, per American Banker’s methodology requiring that a woman be in her role for at least one full year.)

“I was raised in a family where you needed to earn what you had,” said Pourchet, head of corporate and institutional banking, Latin America, at BNP Paribas, where she leads 980 employees and helps manage nearly $2.6 trillion of client assets. “You need to persevere and you need to be very thankful.”

Pourchet later emigrated to New York, with a husband and three children in tow, to become head of commodity structured debt in Latin America at BNP Paribas.

Melissa Stevens is moving colleagues and customers to digital banking, but she is also growing Fifth Third Bank in a more traditional way: Increasing the number of physical branches.

Stevens’ expansive role at the Cincinnati-based lender includes head of enterprise workplace services, which puts her in charge of Fifth Third’s properties. Between 2019 and 2023, Fifth Third opened 107 new branches in the Southeastern states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, according to the bank.

Hope Holding Bryant commands nearly half of First Citizens Bank’s balance sheet. 

Last year, the North Carolina-based financial institution increased general bank loans by $3.9 billion, a 6.3% year-over-year growth. As of Q4 2024, general bank loans accounted for $66.8 billion – 48% of total loans. On the other side of the balance sheet, last year general bank deposits grew $9.4 billion to $73.1 billion, which accounts for 47% of total bank deposits. 

Holding Bryant, the vice chairwoman, attributes this success to serendipitous acquisitions over the past few years. In April 2019, First Citizens acquired Biscayne Bank. In January 2022, First Citizens merged with CIT Group. And in March 2023, the bank acquired Silicon Valley Bridge Bank. 

With digital commerce growing rapidly, it’s important to pick up the pace of development, Bridgit Chayt says.

“Last year has shown a lot of progress in the way we work,” said Chayt, executive vice president and head of commercial payments and treasury management. “We have been able to onboard at the ‘speed of fintech’ rather than the ‘speed of banking,’ which is gratifying.” 

Chayt was pivotal to Fifth Third’s acquisition of Rize Money in late 2023 and the subsequent launch of Newline, the bank’s embedded payments business. Embedded payments refers to payment products that are integrated into software or a platform. Consumers or businesses use embedded payments to complete a transaction without leaving an app or website. Embedded payments are often grouped with embedded finance, which refers to the delivery of banking services via relationships with third parties, another strategy that is a big part of Fifth Third’s business.

Hope Dmuchowski is senior executive vice president and chief financial officer for First Horizon Corporation. She has responsibility for accounting, treasury, financial planning & analysis, line of business finance, banking data analytics, loan and deposit pricing, corporate development, and investor relations. In addition to her financial management responsibilities, she also has responsibility for corporate properties, sourcing, and procurement.

Dmuchowski has over 25 years of experience in banking and brings a wealth of finance, accounting and merger expertise having served in several key roles running integrated business and economic models, budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, regulatory reporting, and operations. Prior to joining First Horizon in 2021, Dmuchowski worked at Truist and the predecessor bank BB&T in numerous roles, including head of financial planning and analysis and management reporting, chief financial officer of corporate banking, commercial banking and corporate groups, chief financial officer group director as well as chief financial and operating officer of enterprise operations services. Dmuchowski began her banking career in the Leadership Development program for the sales and trading division of Deutsche Bank.

Dmuchowski has a passion for serving her community and is an avid volunteer in every city where she has lived. She currently serves on the non-profit boards for the National Salvation Army, where she is currently the treasurer, 4Word and the Baptist Hospital Foundation. She also serves on St. George’s Independent School board of directors.

Dmuchowski holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master of Science degree in Business Management both from Saint Elizabeth University, as well as a Women in Leadership certification from Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business.