President
A 35-year veteran of Bank of America and its predecessor firms, Katy Knox took the helm of the private bank at the beginning of 2018 — a 4,000-employee division. Having worked at nearly all of the business lines over her career, Knox is on the executive management team and has served as vice chair for its Global Diversity and Inclusion Council.
Amid milestones in Knox’s own life — one of her two sons started college during the coronavirus pandemic, while his older brother graduated from college — the private bank had a banner year in 2020, riding high on the market’s rise. Client balances hit a record $541 billion, up 11% year over year on loan and deposit growth, and Knox’s unit had revenue of $3.3 billion.
In the first quarter of 2021, Knox continued the momentum, with $558 billion in client balances, up 26% year over year, and around 675 net new relationships. And despite widespread lockdowns, the private bank generated roughly 1,800 net new client relationships and had more than 6,500 conversations with existing clients about charitable giving, estate planning and wealth management — all virtually.
In a world where work has changed, the private bank has had to embrace remote and flexible work. After doing an analysis of where its employees lived, Knox’s team reached out to ask some if they would rather be based closer to home, and 100 staffers accepted transfers.
Outside of work, Knox is on the board of the JFK Library Foundation, tying her back to Massachusetts, where she got her start at Fleet Bank in 1986. She also works on women’s leadership issues, funded a program in New England to provide language assistance to West African immigrants and started an Annual Leadership Forum for high school seniors in Charlotte, North Carolina, where BofA and Knox herself are based.
“Service is an important part of our culture,” Knox said, citing a program that paired 100 of her summer interns with South African students.
This is particularly crucial for running a unit that not only combines different generations of employees, but also serves clients of varying ages, often within the same family.
“That we’re allowing our employees to follow their passions and personal and professional goals, it’s really important,” she said.
