Denise Davis describes herself as “a numbers nerd,” who fell in love with banking after an internship at PNC Bank while attending the University of Pittsburgh. 

After a dozen years with the bank, Davis is now a managing director and senior relationship manager within PNC Bank’s energy group, which ranks among the top revenue-generating businesses for the bank with more than $3 billion of deployed capital and a portfolio of dozens of clients. 

Megan Comfort got into banking on the advice of her mother. Comfort’s mother, an immigrant from the Philippines, worked as a bank teller for most of Comfort’s childhood, and urged her daughter to go into banking because of the benefits and the opportunity to try different roles.

Immediately after high school, Comfort began working as a teller at Nevada State Bank, a subsidiary of Zions Bancorp. Three years later, she joined the small-business banking team at the bank. “That’s when I fell in love with banking. I loved helping small-business owners,” she said. 

Jillian Chuck has learned about providing a high-touch customer experience through an unusual avenue — by working in her parents’ Jamaican restaurant. 

Food is what initially brought her parents together. Chuck’s father immigrated to the U.S. to attend school and met her mother, who was working in his uncle’s bakery. 

Growing up in the small Illinois town of Roscoe, Amy Bartlett never imagined that she would go into banking. Today, she holds BMO’s House Discretionary Limit, which means she is one of a handful at the bank allowed to recommend that the CEO or chief risk officer extend more than the bank’s maximum credit limit to a client. 

Bartlett joined BMO in 2007 as an analyst working with large diversified companies, and has stayed at the bank since in its Chicago office, now also supervising bankers in Toronto and New York.

Shayna Arrington always knew she was going to work in finance. She earned an MBA with a concentration in finance from the University of Buffalo School of Management, and then earned a law degree with a concentration in financial transactions from the University of Buffalo School of Law.

During law school, Arrington spent her summers interning in Washington, D.C., for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice in their enforcement divisions.

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.

Wendy Cai-Lee is the Founder and CEO of Piermont Bank, a fully chartered digital commercial bank, and the first multi-racial MDI (Minority Depository Institution) in the United States. The bank is the engine behind many successful fintechs as well as entrepreneur-led businesses in many leading industry sectors. With nearly 30 years of executive-level experience managing and leading Fortune 500 companies and startups, Wendy is a subject matter expert in fintech, international finance and banking.

Prior to building Piermont Bank, she was an Executive Vice President at East West Bank, responsible for its Commercial and Consumer Businesses in the U.S. Prior to East West, Wendy was a Managing Director at Deloitte LLP, where she managed its U.S./China cross-border M&A business. She started her banking career with JP Morgan Chase and held various management positions at both Chase and Citi. Wendy is named to Inc.’s 2024 Female Founders 250 and was an honoree of The Most Powerful Women in Banking to Watch by American Banker in 2025, 2024 and 2023.

Wendy is a member of New York State Department of Financial Services’ Charter Advisory Board and CDFI/MDI Council. In addition, Wendy is an Emeritus member of the Board of Friends of UNFPA. She also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board at Douglass College. Wendy received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers University.

The top priority for Popular’s customers is “trust,” said Beatriz “Betina” Castellví.

In her role as executive vice president and chief security officer, Castellví ensures that the San Juan, Puerto Rico, company builds and maintains this trust by preventing cybercrime, fraud, and data privacy violations against the bank and its customers.

Popular operates Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and the New York-chartered Popular Bank. Besides the territory and state, the $72.8 billion-asset Popular also has branches in New Jersey, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.