Andrea B. Smith
Andrea B. Smith is Bank of America’s chief administrative officer (CAO) and a member of the company’s executive management team. Smith leads global functions and businesses that drive responsible growth, operational excellence and the company’s customer-focused strategy.
As CAO, Smith is responsible for the company’s capital, recovery and resolution planning, business integration efforts in 90 U.S. markets, and operations that support the eight lines of business globally. In addition, she leads customer research and analytics, and global marketing and communications. Smith also oversees enterprise event response, global security, an 80 million-square-foot real estate portfolio across 40 countries, and a $20.5 billion spend with vendors, including industry-leading supplier diversity efforts, a key part of the bank’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) work. Under her leadership, the bank spent more than $2 billion with women- and minority-owned businesses and has been recognized for its commitment to supplier diversity by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and the National Minority Supplier Development Council.
Smith has held a number of senior leadership positions for the company, including head of Global Human Resources. In that role, she managed a global workforce of more than 200,000 employees and transformed the bank’s hiring, employee benefits, and diversity and inclusion efforts. She joined Bank of America in 1988 with a degree in economics from Southern Methodist University.
She is a thought leader on economic mobility and supporting the advancement of women in our headquarters city of Charlotte and nationally. Smith serves on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the PGA of America and the Charlotte Sports Foundation. She also co- chairs the Leading on Opportunity Council, which is working to address economic mobility in Charlotte.
Smith has a deep commitment to diversity and inclusion. Reflecting her long-standing passion and leadership for initiatives supporting the LGBT+ community, she serves as executive sponsor for the LGBT+ Executive Leadership Council. She also established the Black Executive Leadership Council eight years ago to help increase representation, sponsorship and advancement of Black/African American leaders. As an advocate for women, she co-founded the Global Women’s Conference to bring together top women leaders to invest in their development.
She has been recognized by American Banker for the past several years as one of the Most Powerful Women in Banking and by Business North Carolina as one of the most influential business leaders in the state.