In college, Christiana Riley was a French and Italian major who loved all things international.

So when an opportunity arose after graduation to work for a New York City-based company with multinational clients, she took it. It didn’t matter that the job was an analyst role at the boutique investment bank Greenhill or that her background was in Romance languages.

“I’m the accidental banker,” Riley told American Banker. “But my real passion and the reason I was driven toward banking … was because of the truly global nature of this industry.”

In an era where Wall Street is being reshaped by technology and regulation, Ericka Leslie, COO of Goldman Sachs’ global banking and markets (GBM) division, has made a career out of mastering fast-paced change.

Her mandate spans the firm’s entire investment banking and trading apparatus, including FICC, equities and the capital solutions group. And it’s been a busy and profitable few years. GBM accounted for $34.94 billion in net revenues in 2024 – 16% higher than 2023, Goldman said.

Early this year, UMB Financial Corporation closed on its $2 billion acquisition of Heartland Financial, the largest such deal in its 111-year-old history. The acquisition boosted Kansas City, Missouri-based UMB’s assets by over 30%, to approximately $68 billion, and grew its presence from eight to 13 states. 

Uma Wilson’s role in managing product development, technology and operations at UMB Bank means she and her team have been in an “extremely heavy lifting” mode throughout the acquisition process, Wilson said.     

“The initial review of all the different systems and different products and offerings from Heartland Financial Institution came out of my team,” she explained.

A self-confessed “unexpected banker”, she spent the first two decades of her career in courtrooms and conference rooms, practicing law for both the public defender’s office and the Chicago Board of Education. But in 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession, Skalicky felt the pull back to the family business. Founded by Skalicky’s father in 1963 – the same year she was born – she had agreed to help the bank with the rescue mission.

At the time, Stearns was one of a handful of banks tapped by the FDIC to assume ownership of failing banks. Through this process she came to see the local bank as the hub of a town. 

“Sometimes you have to get out of your own community to see how banking can be empowering,” Skalicky said.

When then-Michigan-based Comerica acquired a community bank in Texas in 1988, Melinda Chausse was asked to develop training and recruitment programs in Dallas.

Chausse was halfway through Comerica’s two-year training program for commercial bankers, but she took the assignment anyway.

She did not intend to stay more than a couple of years. “But I got here and very quickly loved the entrepreneurial spirit of being on the ground floor of a bank that was going to be built from that original acquisition.”

In her 27 years at FNBO, Mihaela Kobjerowski has worked her way up the ranks in roles with progressively more responsibility. In 1998, she began her FNBO career as a credit risk analyst in credit card portfolio management. She quickly ascended to a role leading credit card portfolio management, and subsequently was tapped to create a decision science initiative tasked with developing customized risk and marketing analytics.

In her current job as executive vice president and chief credit officer, which she’s held since November 2023, Kobjerowski manages credit risk for the bank’s $23 billion loan portfolio, comprising $12.5 billion in consumer loans and $10.5 billion in commercial loans. The loan portfolio includes consumer credit cards, large-scale financing of apartment buildings, and agricultural loans.

Kathleen Stanley runs marathons while also keeping a steady pace in her role as an executive managing director and head of verticals for regional banking at Connecticut-based Webster Bank.

As a part of her current remit, Stanley oversees coverage for more than 7,000 clients spanning six core businesses worth a combined $14 billion. Her business lines run along the East Coast from Boston to Philadelphia and New Jersey and provide core lending, deposit and treasury management to select industries and mid-sized businesses. 

Sharon Miller, president and co-head of business banking at Bank of America, carved out a nearly 30-year career at the bank based, in part, on her strength in building relationships. 

The business bank, which she co-leads with Raul Anaya, serves 11 million business owners and over 20,000 businesses nationwide, plays an increasingly important role in the $3.3 trillion-asset company’s combined operations. The division has $200 billion in deposits and $39 billion in lending balances, with approximately $8 billion in revenue, according to the BofA.

As other lenders have struggled in the small business market recently, Hanmi Bank has grown its SBA loan production by double digits in the first six months of this year. 

The Los Angeles based- bank increased its SBA loan production by 18% between January and June 2025 over the same time period in 2024. In fiscal year 2024, Hanmi Bank reported $187 million in SBA loans, which was a 25% increase over fiscal year 2023. 

Led by executive vice president and chief community lending officer Anna Chung, Hanmi Bank continues to stay the course through chaotic markets and tough conditions.

Debopama (“Debo”) Sen is the Head of Payments in the Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) business within Citi Services. Debo is responsible for driving the business strategy, execution, growth and risk management of payments solutions across corporate, e-commerce, public sector, financial institution and commercial banking clients. She is based in New York.

Debo has worked at Citi for 29 years and has held a variety of roles in both the TTS and Securities Services businesses. Before moving to NY, she was based in Singapore and managed the TTS business across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. She also served as the India Cluster Head for TTS and as Business Head for the Securities and Fund Services business, India. She started her career as a Management Associate.

Debo’s industry leadership extends beyond the bank, with board membership and participation in several industry organizations, including SWIFT, Digitalization Standing Committee of ABS Singapore, Women in Payments ASEAN, and the National Payments Corporation of India. She is also very passionate about community initiatives, currently serving on the Board of Grameen Foundation of India (GFI) as well as Grameen Foundation USA.

Debo holds a master’s degree in management from University of Mumbai and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. She is a mother of two and resides in New York, NY.