Anne Clarke Wolff is a 30-year transformational leader in the financial services industry with expertise managing large scale global businesses and working with companies through financial life cycles – from initial public offerings to mergers and acquisitions.  In 2021, Anne founded Independence Point Advisors (“IPA”), a women-owned investment bank and advisory services firm, where she serves as its Chief Executive Officer.  Prior to IPA’s launch, Anne spent the majority of her career managing businesses focused on banking relationships, access to capital markets as well as treasury transformation.  During her roles building Bank of America’s $10B Global Corporate Banking business, and as Head of Sales for JP Morgan’s Treasury and Securities Services business, Anne drove double digit revenue growth and built best in class teams to extend the banks global capabilities in serving multinational clients.  She also served as Head of North America Corporate Banking at Citigroup and has been repeatedly recognized as one of The Most Powerful Women in Banking by American Banker and Notable Women in Finance by Crain’s New York.

Tanya Sanders brings an engineer’s approach to the way she runs Wells Fargo’s auto division. 

Sanders, who studied mechanical engineering in college, began her career designing gas turbine and power plants at General Electric. She later shifted into finance at GE Capital, which had a large consumer lending portfolio at the time.

EagleBank, of Bethesda, Maryland, specializes in commercial real estate lending. For most of its history, said president and CEO Susan Riel, that’s been a profitable part of the business.

With multiple interest rate hikes, average inflation of 8%, a war in Ukraine, problems with commercial real estate and the question of a recession hanging over the economy, this has been a challenging year for both the banking industry and for Carissa Rodeheaver, chairman, CEO and president of First United Bank & Trust in Oakland, Maryland.

To Kavita Mahtani, the key to successfully navigating big changes at work is constant communication and transparency.

And, as chief financial officer of the Americas for HSBC, her 1,000-person team has seen plenty of changes over the last couple of years.   

Rate volatility and economic anxiety made for a tempestuous year at regional banks across the country – especially in their residential and commercial lending divisions. But Angela Mago, president of Key Commercial Bank and KeyBank Real Estate Capital, looks back on 2022 as a shining moment for her team and a vindication of her bank’s longtime prioritization of developing relationships with clients.

To gauge success in her quest to enhance the customer experience at M&T Bank, Aarthi Murali examines key aspects of their behavior.

She can look at how long customers wait on the phone, for example, or how many times they have to click on the bank’s app to get to where they want to go. 

Cristin Reid has served as Chairman and CEO of Capitol National Bank since 2019. With more than 25 years in the banking industry, her focus has been in community banking and small business finance. In her current role, Ms. Reid has driven strategic growth, strengthened the bank’s community impact, and advanced leadership diversity by expanding female board representation from 10% to 46% and developing a senior leadership team that is 85% women. Additionally, she is planning for the next 10 years by recruiting young directors and implementing a development plan for young employees to grow within the company. 

She also serves as Managing Director of Access BIDCO, a regulated financial institution focused on turnaround and management consulting for small businesses. Her prior experience includes executive leadership at a public bank holding company, where she held several roles including General Counsel, Chief Administrative Officer, and President. 

Ms. Reid is the founder and CEO of Capitol Foundation, which provides emergency funding to local small businesses and individuals. She is actively engaged in promoting women’s leadership and entrepreneurship through her board service at Michigan Bankers Association, Lansing Economic Area Partnership, and multiple startup and nonprofit boards, including a boat-building school.

Her leadership has earned national and statewide recognition. She was named to American Banker’s “Most Powerful Women in Banking Women to Watch” list in 2006, 2024 and 2025, received the “Impact and Influence” award at the Lansing 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year event, and was honored as a Notable Leader in Finance by Crain’s Detroit Business in 2025. Under her direction, Capitol National Bank has been recognized by S&P Global as a Top 100 Community Bank for two consecutive years, by the SBA as Michigan Export Lender of the Year, and by Independent Banker as a Top Lender.

Ms. Reid holds a BA in Biology from Kalamazoo College, a JD from the University of Toledo College of Law, and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Maria Tedesco’s first foray into banking was in a marketing role at BayBank in Boston. Although she held a B.S. in finance and accounting from Ithaca College, she didn’t know much about the banking industry but wanted to help people with their finances. The CEO of the bank took a chance on the young Tedesco, and she was soon promoted to  regional manager in charge of branches. 

Since starting at BayBank in 1992, Tedesco worked at several banks in a broad range of roles across retail, consumer and business banking. Her experience includes more than seven years at Citizens National Bank and a two-year stint as chief operating officer at BMO Harris Bank before joining Atlantic Union Bank in 2018.

Zewditu Tizu Menelik has spent her career in the center of some of the banking industry’s biggest recent challenges. Now as many banks retrench, Menelik is making a different bet, growing and restructuring Huntington Bancshares’ corporate, specialty and government banking segment.

Menelik was tapped to lead corporate, specialty and government banking at Huntington in October 2022, coming over from Fifth Third where she was the group head of diversified industries and international corporate banking. At Huntington, she has recruited away a specialized mortgage solutions team from Flagstar Bank, added financial services focused on federally recognized Native American tribes, and started a national deposits group.