Truist Financial created a chief operating officer position and announced Beau Cummins, vice chair of the company, will assume the role immediately.
Cummins’ responsibilities in this new role will include leading enterprise strategy, transformation, operations and payments as well as a new governance and controls group. Since 2021, Cummins has served as vice chair with responsibility for Truist’s corporate and investment banking, commercial real estate, wealth, and national consumer finance services and payments businesses, in addition to Truist’s corporate strategy and enterprise operations. He previously served as head of Truist’s corporate and institutional group. He also held several leadership positions at a Truist predecessor as well as other financial services companies. He serves on the board of directors of Atrium Health Foundation and the Owen Graduate School of Management board of visitors at Vanderbilt University.
In conjunction with Cummins’ new role, Truist named Dontá Wilson chief consumer and small business banking officer and hired Kristin Lesher as chief wholesale banking officer.
Wilson will be responsible for Truist’s consumer, premier and small business segments, serving clients through mobile and online banking, multiple virtual client service centers and more than 2,000 community banking branches across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Texas. Wilson also will oversee core deposit and loan products, consumer capital markets, national consumer finance businesses, enterprise marketing, client experience strategy, digital banking and innovation. He has held several leadership positions through his career at Truist. He serves on the board of directors for Signet Jewelers, the board of trustees for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and on the board of Samaritan’s Feet.
Lesher will oversee corporate and investment banking, commercial banking, commercial real estate and wealth management businesses. She joined Truist from Wells Fargo, where she held leadership positions for more than two decades, most recently serving as executive vice president and head of commercial banking coverage. She is a former board chair of Girls on the Run International, where she served as a board member for seven years. She will join Truist in her new role in February. Until that time, Cummins will lead the company’s wholesale banking business.
Cummins, Wilson and Lesher will report directly to Bill Rogers, chairman and CEO of Truist.
“This evolution of our management team speaks to the client-centric, performance-driven company we are building,” Rogers said. “Beau, Dontá and Kristin are talented leaders who bring tremendous depth of experience to these key roles. As COO, Beau will provide oversight of newly centralized enterprise functions and drive Truist’s broader transformation efforts. Dontá’s track record of results demonstrates that he is uniquely suited for his new role. Kristin is the right choice to take our wholesale banking business to the next level. Our updated leadership structure will streamline decision-making, deliver superior client experience, drive accelerated performance and actualize our purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities.”
Truist also introduced several other organizational changes today, including announcing that Brian Dowhower will lead Truist Wealth, succeeding Joe Thompson, who will assume the role of chief governance and controls officer. In addition, the company announced it will form an operating council with the goal of expanding leadership opportunities, ensuring inclusive feedback and breaking down silos to enable the company to more effectively pursue its goals.