In just her second year as president and co-head of Bank of America’s Merrill Wealth Management business, Lindsay Hans has met those challenges head on.

In partnership with Eric Schrimpf, president and co-head of the 25,000-employee Merrill Wealth Management unit, Hans boosted year-over-year revenue by 9% in 2024 and increased the AUM balance of the Investment Advisory Program by 18% year-over-year, among other accomplishments.

The unit’s success has continued into 2025. During the first half of this year, Merrill Wealth Management posted nearly $10 billion in revenue, and wealth management advisors added 12,700 clients and more than 20,000 households. As of March 31, Hans and Schrimpf oversaw client balances of $3.5 trillion.

Yie-Hsin Hung is president and chief executive officer of State Street Investment Management, one of the largest asset managers dedicated to providing innovative investment exposures and tailored solutions to institutional and individual investors around the world. In addition to being a member of State Street’s Executive Committee, she co-heads both Corporate Strategy and Marketing for the firm and oversees its Markets business.

Prior to joining State Street, Yie-Hsin was chief executive officer of New York Life Investment Management. During her tenure at the firm, Yie-Hsin oversaw a nearly four-fold increase in assets under management. She joined New York Life, having held a number of leadership positions at Bridgewater Associates and Morgan Stanley.

Yie-Hsin was named among Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance and American Banker’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance in 2025, and Forbes ‘ 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 2024. In 2023, Yie-Hsin was recognized by Pensions & Investments as one of the Most Influential Women in Institutional Investing.

She is a former Chair of the Board of Governors of the Investment Company Institute and a member of the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University, C200, The Women’s Forum of New York and the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Yie-Hsin earned her Master of Business Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University. She received a Distinguished Alumni Medal in 2019, the highest honor granted by the Northwestern Alumni Association.

Jenny Johnson believes Franklin Templeton has unlocked the key to bringing investments in private markets to more clients, a trend that is likely to accelerate under Trump administration policies designed to broaden access to private equity, real estate and other less liquid investment options. The key is something the firm has been doing for three decades—educating financial advisers.

Advisers want to give their clients more options, said Johnson, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton, which manages about $1.6 trillion in assets. “There’s a real recognition that it’s kind of un-American if we don’t all have fair access to the same kinds of investments.” 

But it is not enough to pick a good product, she said. “If the firm behind that product hasn’t surrounded it with really robust education, it’s too hard for the advisers to understand.”

When TIAA launched an IRA product broadening access to its proprietary annuity products on March 10, the stock market recorded one of its most volatile days in years. Investors were fretting over the impact of tariffs and the possibility of a recession.

The day’s roller coaster ride reinforced what TIAA president and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett already believed about the value of lifetime income annuities.

“Guaranteed income isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity,” Duckett said, arguing that people want security they can count on regardless of market swings. “That’s why we’re committed to expanding access to guaranteed lifetime income solutions, in both the institutional and retail markets.”

Abigail Johnson, known to all as Abby, runs her family’s old-school asset management firm with a focus on alternative investments that couldn’t even be traded on an exchange a year ago. 

Fidelity Digital Assets, which provides custodial and trading services for the crypto holdings of institutional and high-net worth clients, operates as an independent subsidiary and has become a core contributor to the $6.4 trillion-asset company, which grew to $32.7 billion in 2024 revenues. (The company has about $16.4 trillion under administration.)

Mary Callahan Erdoes arrives for a meeting seven minutes late, apologizing profusely. The CEO of JPMorganChase’s mammoth asset and wealth management (AWM) business moved into the company’s gleaming new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue a day earlier and underestimated the return time to her office after escorting a client to the entrance. “This building is the craziest thing that’s happened to New York City in a long time,” she said.

If you really want to see something crazy, look at the high-energy Erdoes’ workload—and her results. Over the past year she’s shepherded the bank’s high-net-worth clients through a volatile spring, flown around the world to meet with heads of state and billionaires, spoken at big forums, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and even helped fetch a record price for a venerable sports franchise. She also played a high-profile role as the most senior member of Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon’s operating committee.

With digital commerce growing rapidly, it’s important to pick up the pace of development, Bridgit Chayt says.

“Last year has shown a lot of progress in the way we work,” said Chayt, executive vice president and head of commercial payments and treasury management. “We have been able to onboard at the ‘speed of fintech’ rather than the ‘speed of banking,’ which is gratifying.” 

Chayt was pivotal to Fifth Third’s acquisition of Rize Money in late 2023 and the subsequent launch of Newline, the bank’s embedded payments business. Embedded payments refers to payment products that are integrated into software or a platform. Consumers or businesses use embedded payments to complete a transaction without leaving an app or website. Embedded payments are often grouped with embedded finance, which refers to the delivery of banking services via relationships with third parties, another strategy that is a big part of Fifth Third’s business.

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.

Jill Castilla knows what success looks like.

Castilla took the helm as CEO of Edmond, Oklahoma-based Citizens Bank of Edmond in 2009, when the bank was reeling from the still-unfolding global financial crisis. In the intervening years, Castilla has not only turned the bank back from the brink of failure, but also expanded its size and profile into a stable and successful bank with more than $416 million of assets.

But success can be defined in a number of different ways, Castilla said, and many of the ways that bankers traditionally measure success may not capture some of the initiatives that make a difference for customers. As a privately-owned and primarily employee-owned business, Castilla faces less pressure for quarterly earnings results than many of her publicly-traded peers, which she says helps her focus less on short-term profits and more on long-term goals, such as securing inexpensive deposits to make loans. The bank’s core deposits grew 35% between November 2023 and May of this year.

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.