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.

Michal Katz has an ambitious growth strategy to make Mizuho Americas, a division of Tokyo-based Mizuho Financial Group, a key player in investment and corporate banking in the U.S.

In 2023, Katz spearheaded a $550 million acquisition of Greenhill, a boutique investment bank specializing in M&A and restructuring. The purchase brought 370 bankers under Katz’s remit and at least $300 million in annual revenue. Katz continues to build out her team with strategic hires and internal promotions. 

“While success is hardly ever linear, I’m proud to say that the acquisition has been a ‘win win,'” Katz said. “Greenhill clients now have access to Mizuho’s robust balance sheet, lending and capital markets capabilities, while Mizuho clients benefit from world class advisory capabilities.”

When doing a lot of public speaking, a background in theater comes in handy.

Samara Epstein Cohen, Blackrock’s first chief investment officer of ETFs and index investments, holds a bachelor’s in theater arts from the University of Pennsylvania. In the last year, she’s spoken at more industry events and has been a guest on panels, podcasts, and news outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg. 

Banks and payment companies have been fighting to capture small business banking customers, and for American Express’ Group President of Global Merchant Network Services

Anna Marrs, much of last year was spent working on that goal. 

2024 was a year marked with economic and political uncertainty, and that provided Amex an opportunity to more deeply engage with its small business clients, said Marrs, who until earlier this year was Group President of Amex’s Global Commercial Services and Credit & Fraud Risk (Marrs was ranked on her 2024 title for this year’s list.) Her division is the company’s second largest business by revenue and card member spending, and  accounted for approximately 25% of American Express’s total revenue in 2023.

As Citigroup undergoes a massive restructuring, Ida Liu, head of Citi Private Bank, is focused on the engagement and morale of a 3,000-employee team spread across 52 offices in 20 countries.

Liu’s methods include traditional efforts such as frequent communication through emails and town halls and less conventional techniques that include inviting a nutritionist to advise on eating and a doctor to discuss sleep. She organized a competitive bake sale at the London branch and once invited a Buddhist monk to discuss guided meditation.

Anu Aiyengar can measure the change in her role over the last year by the miles she has traveled.

As global head of advisory and M&A for J.P. Morgan, Aiyengar circled the planet in May. Her journey, which included a mix of internal and external meetings and conferences, began in southern California and touched down in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Melbourne. At every stop, she met with employees in town halls, small groups and one-on-ones.

Aiyengar has been global head of M&A at J.P. Morgan since 2023, and she still spends time advising clients on deals. But her role expanded in 2024 as part of an internal merger of the bank’s investment, corporate and commercial banks. She is one of four investment banking executives on the combined bank’s executive and operating committee, which also has representatives from the other business lines.

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.

After a summer internship in 2000 at Morgan Stanley, Sharon Yeshaya joined the financial services giant as an investment banking analyst the following year. Since then, she’s climbed the corporate ranks in eight different roles. She’s held her current position — executive vice president and chief financial officer — since 2021.

Her career trajectory, however, hasn’t been a smooth climb. As a female executive and the daughter of immigrant parents, Yeshaya openly acknowledges the challenges she has faced. But rather than let those challenges knock her down, she embraces them as “opportunities to grow.” These challenges “teach me to ground myself in preparation, remain focused on the long term, and make decisions with intention,” said Yeshaya.

It’s that preparation, long-term focus and intentional decision-making that have helped her gain a seat in the C-suite at the $7.9 trillion-asset Morgan Stanley. Today, she sits on the firm’s operating and management committees. 

Having amassed 39 years of experience in financial services, Katy Knox is one of the longest-tenured female leaders in the U.S. private banking sector. Knox, president of Bank of America’s Private Bank since 2018 and a member of BoA’s executive management team, views her visibility as both a responsibility and an opportunity.

“As Marian Wright Edelman said, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ For many associates at Bank of America, especially those early in their careers, it’s powerful to see leaders who reflect the communities we serve,” said Knox. “Our industry has a unique opportunity to engage emerging sources of wealth with fresh perspectives and talent, and we’re committed to developing that talent internally.”

Pennington is moving Edward Jones from its traditional role as a stock brokerage firm into a new orientation as a financial-planning company. 

Of her 20,000 financial advisors, a record for the firm, she now has 5,000 Certified Financial Planners. This ramp-up will help Edward Jones “meet a growing and urgent need for trusted, personal financial advice,” in a world where 52% of affluent households want financial planning, compared to 29% who sought this type of advice in 2018, she said. This year, Edward Jones also launched its Generations private client service, its first foray into high-end wealth management. 

“We’re meeting this moment by expanding how we serve, moving toward a client-segmented model and aligning our compensation with the value we deliver to clients and their families,” she said in an email.