Chief Wholesale Banking Officer
Truist
Kristin Lesher is Chief Wholesale Banking Officer at Truist Financial Corporation, where she leads one of the nation's largest wholesale banking businesses spanning commercial and corporate banking, investment banking and capital markets, commercial real estate, and wealth management. She also oversees Truist’s enterprise payments business, including consumer and wholesale payments and digital asset strategy.
As a member of Truist's executive leadership team, she is responsible for driving a nearly $11 billion business that represents over half of the company's financial results. Since joining Truist in 2024, Lesher has accelerated growth, deepened client engagement, and increased performance while attracting and developing talent across the franchise.
Prior to Truist, Lesher held senior leadership roles at Wells Fargo, including Head of Middle Market Banking and Co-Head of Investment Banking Coverage. She previously served in corporate development and treasury roles focused on acquisitions and integrations, and capital and balance sheet strategies.
Lesher holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University.
AI is no longer just augmenting workflows—it is beginning to make decisions, take actions and coordinate work across the enterprise. As agentic AI systems evolve from copilots to operators, bank executives face a defining leadership question: Who governs decision-making when machines act autonomously?
This panel explores why AI is no longer a technology initiative, but an enterprise-wide leadership mandate requiring new approaches to accountability, risk and control. Panelists examine where AI is already shifting from recommendation to execution, which functions are closest to becoming agent-driven, what decisions leaders are willing to delegate, and why CEOs and boards—not just Chief AI Officers, CIOs and CTOs—must personally own the governance of AI at scale.
What’s expected by employees in the workplace—from Baby Boomers to Gen Zers—is radically different from one generation to the next. In the war for talent, how do companies acquire, retain and manage employees’ differing expectations, work and communication styles, and feedback requirements. The intentionality of leadership could unlock greater innovation, productivity and performance across the enterprise.