President
U.S. Bancorp
Spoiler alert: Gunjan Kedia's 2024 performance as president of U.S. Bank was strong enough that she was granted the CEO title as well in early 2025, taking over in April from longtime leader Andrew Cecere. (American Banker's methodology requires that a woman be in her role for at least one year, so Kedia is ranked based on her performance as president of U.S.Bank and not her current position as president and CEO.)
The new CEO has said publicly that she does not plan to buy another bank, or sell her own Minneapolis-based company. Why not jump into the growing bank M&A boom? It's only been a few years since U.S. Bank bought MUFG's Union Bank unit, a deal that closed in December 2022. The integration was completed in June 2023, just as the banking crisis was roiling regional banks. Between that acquisition and its own growth, U.S. Bank is now the fifth-largest commercial bank in the country, Kedia said.
Instead, she's leaning on partnerships like a tie-up with St. Louis-based brokerage firm Edward Jones, another Midwestern company with a similar physical footprint, which is slated to go live at the end of 2025. "Their culture is very similar to our culture," Kedia said.