Dontá Wilson serves as chief digital and client experience officer of Truist Financial, the US-based commercial bank formed in December 2019 following a merger between BB&T and SunTrust.
In this role, he oversees digital banking, digital sales, digital strategy and innovation, intelligent automation, client experience, client insights and analytics, experience design and research, marketing, sales optimization, culture alignment and activation, corporate communications, and the Truist Foundation.
Wilson also oversees Truist Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm created to invest in and partner with companies developing financial technology and other innovative areas.
When the fund was formed in September 2020, Wilson, who is a member of the company’s executive leadership team, said: “Truist Ventures positions us at the forefront in shaping the future of finance.
“There are many innovative entrepreneurs creating amazing technologies with the potential to transform how people interact with their finances. Strategic partnerships and investments in innovative founders and companies help Truist deliver on our differentiating strategy of combining the right mix of human touch and technology to create experiences that help our clients, teammates and communities thrive.”
He began working at Truist predecessor BB&T’s bank operations department in 1995 while he was at university and has since spent more than two decades in the financial services industry.
Wilson has served as a financial centre manager, business banker and retail city executive in Charlotte, North Carolina; regional business banking manager for the battlefield area in northern Virginia; area executive for Prince William County, Virginia; and was appointed regional president for the battlefield Northern Virginia region in 2005.
He was named Alabama group and state president in 2009, became group and state president of the Atlanta-based Georgia Region in 2014 and 2016 was appointed to the executive management team and named chief client experience officer. He added the title of chief digital officer in 2018. In December 2019, Wilson assumed his current position as chief digital and client experience officer.
Vanessa Indriolo Vreeland, on the other hand, is head of Truist Ventures, after over 20 years of private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and banking experience.
Vreeland said when she joined the Truist Ventures team: “We are a different kind of venture firm. As the venture capital division of the sixth-largest bank in the US, we have the scale to provide the capital early-stage companies need to grow, yet we are nimble enough to deliver meaningful access to the deep domain expertise from our extensive network of teams across technology, investment banking, capital markets and innovation.
“We work closely with the companies in which we invest, leveraging our executive-level talent and industry experts to help them grow.”
Prior to joining Truist Ventures, Vreeland had been a senior vice-president of commercial banking at SunTrust for a year and a half from August 2018, after more than 12 years at Fifth Third Bank, first as managing director of private equity for a decade, before ascending to head of acquisitions and strategic investments.
