No. 20: Andrea Smith, Bank of America

Andrea Smith
Chief Administrative Officer, Bank of America

Andrea Smith has tackled so many disparate assignments as global head of human resources at Bank of America that Chairman and Chief Executive Brian Moynihan finally had to create an entirely new job title for her: chief administrative officer.

Since joining the company in 1988, Smith has held a wide range of human resources posts, including senior human resources executive for the Bank of America Merrill Lynch unit. But in recent years her role has expanded far beyond the oversight of BofA's more than 220,000 employees.

Last year, Smith — already responsible for a personnel budget of $34 billion — added global corporate services to her duties. That gave her oversight of its nearly $5 billion of corporate expenses and nearly 100 million square feet of real estate in 46 countries. She also oversees thousands of vendor relationships — a new area of regulatory scrutiny — on top of employee services such as expense reimbursement and travel. Corporate security, executive protection and corporate aviation all fall under Smith's purview as well.

In her new role, Smith will be taking control of the megabank's stress tests, a job normally reserved for a chief risk officer or chief financial officer.

Outside of B of A, Smith is on the boards of numerous nonprofits: Cookies for Kids' Cancer, which raises funds for cancer research; Thompson Child & Family Focus, serving at-risk children; and Discovery Place, the interactive science and technology museum. She recently became second vice chair of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, putting her in line to chair the organization in 2017. And as a Charlotte Ballet board member, she chaired, and competed in, its "Dancing with the Stars" fundraising event, in which prominent executives are paired with professional dancers from the ballet. The competition raised a record $775,000 for the ballet and six other area nonprofits last year.