Bank of America announced on 12 September 2025 that it has named Dean Athanasia and Jim DeMare as Co-Presidents of the institution, creating a dual-leadership structure at the executive level immediately below Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan. The two Co-Presidents will jointly oversee all eight of Bank of America's lines of business, spanning consumer banking, wealth management, global banking, global markets, and associated units. The announcement simultaneously confirmed that Alastair Borthwick has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
The changes represent the most significant reshaping of Bank of America's senior leadership structure in some time and signal a deliberate effort by Moynihan and the board to strengthen the executive layer that sits between the CEO and the individual business line leaders. The Co-President structure is relatively uncommon among large US financial institutions, where a single President or Chief Operating Officer typically occupies the equivalent position. Its adoption at Bank of America reflects a considered approach to distributing operational leadership responsibilities across two experienced executives with complementary professional backgrounds.
CO-PRESIDENTS TO OVERSEE ALL EIGHT BUSINESS LINES
Athanasia brings a long tenure at Bank of America and deep experience in consumer and small business banking, where he has been a senior figure in the development and management of the bank's retail, preferred, and small business banking franchises. His background in client-facing banking at the mass-market and mass-affluent level gives him direct insight into the largest and most visible segment of Bank of America's operations, which serves tens of millions of individual and small business customers across the United States through branches, digital channels, and contact centres.
DeMare brings a markets and institutional background, having led Global Markets operations at the bank. His experience spans the trading, financing, and risk management businesses that serve institutional clients including hedge funds, asset managers, pension funds, and corporations. Together, Athanasia and DeMare cover the principal revenue and client dimensions of the institution — retail and wealth on one hand, and wholesale and markets on the other — creating a co-leadership arrangement designed to maintain high-quality oversight of the full breadth of Bank of America's activities.
Borthwick's elevation to Executive Vice President, alongside his retention as Chief Financial Officer, provides formal recognition of his standing within the senior leadership structure and aligns his title with that of the Co-Presidents. The CFO role at an institution of Bank of America's scale carries substantial responsibility for financial planning, capital management, investor relations, and regulatory capital dialogue, and the EVP designation reflects the seniority with which the bank regards those functions under Borthwick's leadership.
LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE POSITIONED FOR CONTINUITY
The creation of a Co-President layer is widely understood as a mechanism for ensuring leadership continuity and for developing experienced potential successors within the institution, a consideration that becomes increasingly relevant given Moynihan's long tenure as CEO since 2010. The arrangement allows both executives to develop the breadth of oversight experience and the institutional knowledge required to lead an organisation of Bank of America's complexity, while operating in a structure that avoids the risks of an overly concentrated single successor designation at too early a stage.
Bank of America confirmed the appointments in a press release distributed through its newsroom and published via newswire services. The bank did not provide a specific timeline for any further changes to the leadership structure, and Moynihan remains firmly in the CEO role. All eight lines of business will report through the Co-Presidents to the Chief Executive Officer under the new structure, with the Co-Presidents in turn working in close coordination with Borthwick in his capacity as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.