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. 

Kara McShane, managing director and head of commercial real estate (CRE) at Wells Fargo, leads with a hands-on approach and builds teams that are ready to roll up their sleeves.

Through leading by example, she has created a culture where she expects people to work “side-by-side”, and through which CRE has grown to be a powerhouse inside Wells Fargo’s corporate and investment bank. 

That growth has netted out over a rash of deals, including a $10 billion take-private of real estate investment trust AIR Communities for Blackstone in June 2024, a deal McShane said was emblematic of the agile, collaborative approach she wants to drive.

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.

Last year, Jodi Richard’s job was particularly fraught amid a landscape of market volatility, cybersecurity concerns, the growing impact of artificial intelligence and the ever increasing speed of payments.

As the vice chair and chief risk officer for the $678 billion-asset U.S. Bank, Richard drives every decision related to risk and controls, including credit risk, liquidity and interest rate risk, and fraud risk. “Successfully managing liquidity and interest rate risk has been of paramount importance as we continue to navigate economic uncertainty and market volatility,” Richard told American Banker.

In 2020, less than one year into becoming Wells Fargo CEO, Charles Scharf tapped Ellen Patterson to lead the bank’s legal department. The job promised to be a challenge: Well Fargo faced a mountain of federal investigations plus class action lawsuits and overall concern it could not manage risk.

Four years after coming over from TD Bank, Patterson said, “I feel really good about the progress we’ve made putting a number of historical matters behind us.”

Tasnim re-joined Citi in October 2021 to lead Citi Commercial Bank (CCB), a key business area for the bank. CCB provides full scale banking products and services to mid-sized companies across the globe delivering tailored solutions to this exciting and fast-growing client base. Commercial Banking clients represent a significant global growth opportunity as their needs closely align with Citi’s core value proposition that enables clients to grow cross-border by leveraging sophisticated platforms and solutions. Tasnim is executing on an ambitious growth strategy to capture the mid-market opportunity with an emphasis on talent investment, digital transformation, and expansion into new markets.

Most recently, Tasnim was the UK Corporate Bank Head at Barclays plc where she focused on growing target segments, building solutions, enhancing client experience and developing talent. Tasnim implemented National Industry verticals to serve corporate clients and set-up a Public Sector business to drive growth through industry specific insights and solutions. Tasnim played a leading role in the deployment of the UK Covid-19 Government Loan Schemes and was a strong voice for financial services during the pandemic.

Prior to Barclays, Tasnim was Head of Commercial Banking in Europe, Middle East and Africa at Citi where she led Citi’s expansion of the business in the region, including launching into new markets and driving innovation and digitization. During her more than 20-year career at Citi, Tasnim held various roles in Investment Banking, Corporate and Commercial Banking as well as Senior Regional Management.

Earlier in her career, Tasnim worked at JP Morgan and Commercial Union; and she is a Chartered Management Accountant. Tasnim is passionate about equality in the workplace especially for women and has led several diversity initiatives and chaired various Committees across her career in banking. In 2023, Tasnim was honored as the number one woman to ‘Watch’ in the American Banker’s Most Powerful Women lists and in 2024 she was also recognized on the publication’s Most Powerful Women in Banking list. Additionally in 2023 and 2024, Tasnim was included in Financial News’ 100 Women in Finance list, recognizing leading women across European financial services.

Additionally, Tasnim is a member of the Board of Directors of Foro Holdings Inc, a Fintech based in Charlotte, North Carolina; a Governor of Central Foundation Girls’ School in London and a Trustee of Developments in Literacy UK, a charity with a focus on girls’ education.

Tasnim graduated from Kings College London with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Management.

Tammy LoCascio is Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for First Horizon Corporation. LoCascio is responsible for technology, operations, data and business transformation functions as well as many of the company’s counter-cyclical and national businesses (FHN Financial, Mortgage Warehouse Lending, Correspondent Banking, Franchise Finance and Mortgage).

Prior to this role, LoCascio served as the Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer since the merger with IBERIABANK. From 2013-2020, she also served as Executive Vice President and Director of Retail Banking and then consumer banking, responsible for the strategic direction and support of retail banking, private client, wealth management, small business, mortgage and consumer loan delivery and the contact centers. LoCascio has also previously held senior leadership roles at Regions and National City Bank.

LoCascio has received noteworthy accolades such as the Woman of Impact by the Memphis American Heart Association, as well as the American Banker Most Powerful Women in Banking Teams award in 2022 and 2024 and Most Powerful Women in Banking Individual award in 2024. She was celebrated as a Super Woman in Business in 2018 by the Memphis Business Journal.

LoCascio is active throughout Memphis and the West Tennessee community. She currently serves on the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce as an executive committee member and Chairman’s Circle participant. She is also on the executive committees of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Memphis, Memphis Riverparks Partnership and the Mid-South Minority Business Continuum. LoCascio also joined the board of directors of Jack Henry & Associates in 2024. 

LoCascio holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration-Marketing from the University of Florida.

One of the biggest challenges Jennifer Smith has faced this year at Zions has been the Salt Lake City-based bank’s decision to require most employees to return to the office five days a week.  

“This directive reflected in a headline can sound so simple, yet there are often immediate favorable and unfavorable reactions,” Smith said.  

Particularly as it relates to IT employees, regional banks have hired people from all over the country to source the best talent, she said. “There are cases where we cannot find some talent locally in our markets,” she explained.

Deborah Guild, the head of enterprise technology and security at PNC, has served in a number of tech leadership roles at the bank over the last 12 years. This year, however, her challenges look a little different, given  the acceleration of AI, global cybersecurity threats, and an alarming increase in consumer fraud perpetrated by bad actors. 

Additionally, deepfake technology and sophisticated cyberattacks have made traditional identity verification more challenging than ever.