Cathy Bessant

Catherine P. Bessant is chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America, and is a member of the company’s executive management team.

Since 2010, Bessant has been responsible for delivering end-to-end technology and operating services across the company through a team of more than 100,000 employees and contractors in more than 35 countries around the world.

Global Technology and Operations provides the platforms and fulfillment services that sustain the consumer banking, wealth management, commercial banking, treasury services, sales and trading, and investment banking businesses, as well as risk management, finance and other critical support functions. Bessant’s team also oversees the company’s business continuity and information security strategies and policies.

Bessant has held a number of senior leadership roles for the company. Most recently, she was president of Global Corporate Banking. Prior to that, she was president of Global Product Solutions and Global Treasury Services; chief marketing officer; president of Consumer Real Estate and Community Development Banking; national Small Business Segment executive; and market president of Bank of America, Florida. She joined Bank of America as a corporate banker in 1982.

Bessant chairs Bank of America’s Environmental Program, a position she has held since 2011. She oversees the company’s current 10-year, $125 billion environmental business initiative to help support clean energy and reduce demands on natural resources through lower-carbon lending, investment and financing solutions. She also oversees the company’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its own operations.

Bessant serves on the board of trustees for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, one of the fastest-growing universities in the UNC system. She sits on the advisory board for the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and is lead director for Florida Blue, formerly Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. She is the immediate past chair for the board of directors of Foundation for the Carolinas, one of the largest community foundations in the United States.

Bessant currently ranks No. 6 on American Banker’s “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” list. She also was named one of Computerworld’s “Premier 100” IT leaders, and was ranked No. 2 on the 2015 Institutional Investor “Tech 50” list of financial services leaders in technological achievement and innovation. Bessant was named InformationWeek’s “Chief of the Year” in 2014.