Good morning. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan is more interested in using AI to augment work rather than replace people.
Bank of America (No. 17 on the Coins2Day 500) held its first investor day in nearly 15 years on Wednesday in Boston, outlining its strategic growth plans—many of which are supported by AI. I attended a media roundtable with Moynihan, who addressed whether advances in AI could affect headcount.
There may be more people dedicated to activities that are augmented by technology to create more growth for the company, said Moynihan, who has served as CEO since 2010.
“I don’t really want to say to people, ‘I can see this taking our overall headcount down,'” he said. What he can see is greatly augmenting the amount of work done. So if AI results in 10% or 15% efficiency gains, you can reinvest that to grow faster, or you take it to the bottom line, he explained.
“All 213,000 people are getting access to AI as we speak,” Moynihan said. One example he offered is training on new coding methodologies, including GitHub.
“We have steadily increased our spend on technology, now up to $13 billion a year, of which $4 billion goes toward strategic growth,” Hari Gopalkrishnan, a 14-year veteran of Bank of America who was promoted to chief technology and information officer in late July, told Coins2Day’s John Kell. “We leverage it across the enterprise so every dollar we spend gets the maximum bang for the buck, as opposed to being siloed by line of business.”
Those strategic bets are part of the $118 billion in technology investments the company has made over the past decade, according to Gopalkrishnan.
Bank of America EVP and CFO Alastair Borthwick said during the event that the bank is well on its way to delivering 6% to 7% growth for net interest income (the money a bank makes on its loans after it pays interest to depositors) in 2025. He also said the bank has set a compound annual growth rate target for net interest income of 5% to 7% over the next five years.
“A lot has happened over the past 10 years with extraordinary events in the economy and banking landscape,” Borthwick said. “During that time, our responsible growth strategy has driven organic growth with our client base—deepening relationships with existing clients and adding new ones over time.” Bank of America has also maintained expense discipline through digital operational improvements and AI, he said.
Have a good weekend.
SherylEstrada
[email protected]
Leaderboard
Coins2Day 500 Power Moves
Benjamin E. Meisenzahl was promoted to CFO of The Sherwin-Williams Company (No. 191), effective Jan. 1, 2026. Meisenzahl has served as SVP of finance for the last two and a half years. He will assume the CFO duties currently held by Allen J. Mistysyn, who will take on a short-term transition role before retiring after 35 years with the company. Meisenzahl has held multiple roles of increasing responsibility over his 22-year career with Sherwin-Williams, including his current position, as well as global finance and operational roles in the company’s Paint Stores Group, Performance Coatings Group, and Global Supply Chain. He began his career at Sherwin-Williams as an internal auditor.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Coins2Day 500 Power Moves column tracks Coins2Day 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.
More notable moves this week:
Judith Hartmann was appointed CFO at Bayer AG. She will succeed Wolfgang Nickl on June 1, 2026, following his planned retirement at the end of May 2026. Hartmann will join the company’s board of management, effective March 1, 2026. She is currently an operating partner at Sandbrook Capital, a private investment firm. Previously, she served as CFO and deputy CEO at ENGIE, a global energy company, and as group CFO at Bertelsmann.
Michele Allen, CFO and head of strategy at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: WH), will be departing the company to pursue a new career opportunity outside of the hotel industry. Kurt Albert, currently treasurer and head of financial partnerships and planning, has been appointed interim CFO, effective immediately. Wyndham plans to conduct a search for a permanent CFO, which will consider both internal and external candidates. Allen will serve in an advisory role at Wyndham through the end of 2025.
Suman Raju was appointed CFO of Darktrace, a global AI cybersecurity provider. Raju succeeds Cathy Graham, who joined Darktrace as CFO in 2020 and left the role in September. Raju joins Darktrace with a background in scaling public and private B2B enterprise SaaS companies and leading global finance organizations through periods of transformation. Most recently, he served as CFO at Ivalua. Raju previously held CFO roles at Crownpeak Technologies and SAP Ariba.
Elias Habayeb, CFO of Corebridge Financial, Inc. (NYSE: CRBG), has resigned to accept a senior leadership position with a publicly listed company. Habayeb will remain in his current position until April 24, 2026. Habayeb’s departure is not the result of any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to its financial statements, internal control over financial reporting, operations, policies or practices. Corebridge is working with an executive recruiting firm to launch a search for a successor.
Indrajit Ponnambalam was appointed CFO of Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NXDR), a neighborhood network, effective Dec. 1. Ponnambalam brings more than 20 years of financial leadership experience. Most recently, he served as CFO at Premion, a connected TV advertising platform. Previously, he spent five years at Match Group in senior finance leadership roles, including chief administrative officer and SVP of finance.
Max Tunnicliff was appointed CFO and senior executive vice president of Fastenal Company (Nasdaq: FAST), effective Nov. 10. Tunnicliff most recently served as CFO of Beko Europe, a leading home appliance business. Previously, he served in a variety of senior finance leadership roles with Whirlpool Corporation, including head of internal audit and VP of strategy, and CFO of the Asia Pacific region.
Joe Kauffman was appointed president and CFO of Deel, a global payroll and HR platform. Kauffman joins Deel following more than a decade of leadership at Credit Karma, where he served as CFO, president, and CEO. Before that, he held CFO and corporate development roles at two NYSE-listed companies. Philippe Bouaziz, who has served as Deel’s CFO since the company’s founding, will move into the newly established role of executive chairman and chief strategy officer.
Big Deal
"Elon Musk, the world’s first trillionaire: Tesla shareholders approve unprecedented $1 trillion pay package—despite disapproval from investors and even the Pope" is a Coins2Day report by Preston Fore.
Fore writes: "It’s official: Elon Musk is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire. Tesla shareholders approved a new executive pay package Thursday afternoon that would give Musk nearly $1 trillion in stock over the next decade, a record-shattering deal for the world’s richest man."
"The total award depends on whether Musk can meet ambitious performance targets for the struggling electric-vehicle company, including growing Tesla’s market cap to $8.5 trillion—a more than 500% increase from today’s valuation. The goals also include delivery of 20 million Tesla vehicles and 1 million bots in addition to 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation."
However, not every Tesla investor was on board with the extravagant deal. You can read more here.
Going deeper
Here are four Coins2Day weekend reads:
"The 30-year-old obsessive networker who is leading a wildly profitable niche on Wall Street known as ‘directs’" by Shawn Tully
"How Macy’s, Dillard’s, and Nordstrom are getting their groove back" by Phil Wahba
"The way to get middle managers to embrace AI? Invest in people, not technology, first" by Feon Ang
"Gen Alpha won’t ever have to write an email when they join the workforce, new research reveals—they’ll be sending voice notes to their boss instead" by Orianna Rosa Doyle
Overheard
"The power to build resilience is within us; just as we can learn other skills through practice, we can teach ourselves to be more resilient. And resilience is the human quality we most need to navigate the age of AI."
—Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global, writes in a Coins2Day opinion piece.