Most Powerful Women in Banking 2022

Ida Liu became head of Citi's North American private bank in 2019 and then went on to beat her projections by 12% in 2020 despite the pandemic. That helped her get a promotion last year to global head, running 50 offices across the globe and overseeing more than $500 billion in client business.

Four years after AllianceBernstein announced it was relocating its headquarters from New York City to Nashville, the move was completed in May. Kate Burke, then the chief operating officer and head of private wealth, oversaw the move, relocating over 1,000 employees to the Music City.

Kara McShane took over as head of the commercial real estate team at Wells Fargo at an inauspicious time: February 2020, when COVID-19 was heading toward pandemic status and offices were starting to empty out.

Michelle Seitz has a long history of advocating for responsible investing and diversity and inclusion. Before joining Russell Investments in Seattle as CEO in 2017, Seitz spent 22 years in senior roles at Chicago-based William Blair, where she pushed for diversity and support for women in finance.

One of the basic assumptions of the wealth management industry is that investing professionals should be based in the same cities as their clients. Gunjan Kedia asked her team at U.S. Bancorp to challenge that belief.

Penny Pennington had worked for Edward Jones for some 17 years when she was named the managing partner in 2019.

Like its peers, PNC Bank has stepped up investments in technology over the last few years. But Charlotte McLaughlin feels the bank can move faster in the capital markets group she leads.

Jenny Johnson's career at Franklin Templeton has spanned over 30 years. During that time, she has held leadership roles in multiple divisions of the global investment firm, including investment management, technology, distribution and operations.

From the outside, Teresa Heitsenrether's career is a straight-line path of success. After earning a master's degree in finance at New York University, she began work at JPMorgan Chase in 1987.

Under the direction of the always visible Diane Offereins — who is often the "face of the company" — the total 2021 network volume of Discover rose to $504 billion, from $417 billion in 2020.

When State Street announced plans to acquire Brown Brothers Harriman Investor Services last year, it turned to a trusted executive to oversee the integration: Donna Milrod, who was leading both State Street's Global Asset Managers segment and the Global Clients division.

Suni Harford ran into several obstacles after she set out to boost the number of women serving on the boards that oversee funds managed by UBS Asset Management.

2021 was a year of transition for Julie Monaco, as her team expanded its strategic sovereign advisory business to address client vulnerabilities in food, energy, and security.

For Elif Zapparoli, the pandemic-era shift from in-person to remote work is similar to the trend she has seen in the financial services industry over the last 20 years.

Candace Browning, long a leading voice in investment research, added a notable area to the stable of sectors her team covers: digital assets. A research report, Digital Assets Primer: Only the First Inning, formally launched the bank's digital asset research practice last October.

In June 2021, Nadine Chakar, the three-decades long industry veteran, was appointed to lead State Street Digital, a new business division. The division is designed to help institutional investors, regulators, and State Street itself successfully transition into a modern digital economy.

Katy Knox began her career in 1986 at Fleet Bank in Boston. Unsurprisingly, she is a proud Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins fan. With more than 35 years of experience in financial services, including commercial banking, corporate strategy, global treasury management and consumer banking, Knox has watched the industry change.

As a child, Lynn Martin nurtured her love of technology and coding on a Commodore 64 in her parents' home in Smithtown, New York. But it was not until her first job in coding that she felt the pull of Wall Street.

Adena Friedman started at Nasdaq in 1993 as an MBA intern. Outside of a three-year stint as the chief financial officer at Carlyle Group, Friedman has spent nearly 20 years at Nasdaq.

When Abigail Johnson, the chair and CEO of Fidelity Investments, was recently asked to advise those in the early stages of their career, she emphasized the core values that she and her firm have embraced for decades. "Don't doubt yourself. Keep at it. Stay looking ahead. Stay committed and stay true to yourself," she said.