The Most Powerful Women to Watch: No. 2, Melissa Stevens, Fifth Third Bank

Melissa Stevens is moving colleagues and customers to digital banking, but she is also growing Fifth Third Bank in a more traditional way: increasing the number of physical branches.

Stevens' expansive role at the Cincinnati-based lender includes head of enterprise workplace services, which puts her in charge of Fifth Third's properties. Between 2019 and 2023, Fifth Third opened 107 new branches in the Southeastern states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, according to the bank.

Fifth Third has 1,087 branch locations, the vast majority in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. But Stevens wants as many branches in the Southeast as the Midwest, a goal that will necessitate opening 30 new Sun Belt branches each year for the next several years. 

Fifth Third has followed the "general population migration" in expanding in the South, Stevens said. The bank reports 6% overall growth in consumer households since 2022, attributing the climb to Southeast investment.

Once a new branch location is selected, Stevens pivots to her role as chief marketing officer. She manages signage, canvassing and the distribution of other marketing materials. This can include purchasing the naming rights for a minor league baseball stadium, as Fifth Third did in Spartanburg, South Carolina, or branch grand openings that feature "a local musician, local food or barista, something that is specific to the area," Stevens said.

Stevens, who was in charge of launching Fifth Third's customer-facing app, said that while mobile technology helps the bank operate more efficiently, consumers want to see their bank and "feel a personality and presence."

Increased physical space for customers comes as Stevens' enterprise workplace division has reduced 2.4 million square feet in administrative space over the last seven years. Another efficiency is moving customer's mortgage and deposit accounts to paperless, an initiative Stevens leads that has resulted in $5 million in yearly savings. 

Stevens got her start in New York, working at Citigroup for more than a decade, where she developed an expertise in digital banking. She moved to Cincinnati in 2016 to work for Fifth Third, and is active in the community. 

She's in her second year as board member of Last Mile Food Rescue, a nonprofit in suburban Cincinnati that diverts food to feed the food insecure that would otherwise end up in landfills. Stevens is helping Last Mile Food Rescue better collaborate with local government and other nonprofits with similar missions, she said, while also assisting the nonprofit find new groups who can donate food.

Stevens is also on the board of directors at Cintrifuse, a Queen City nonprofit that provides connections and guidance to promising startup companies. She's focused on attracting and retaining Cincinnati fintech businesses for the nonprofit.