Management

John Turner is president and chief executive officer of Regions Financial Corporation. He leads the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Regions is a regional bank that operates throughout the South, Midwest and Texas and is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala.

Effective July 2, 2018, Turner became the chief executive officer and was appointed to Regions’ board of directors. He was named president in December 2017. Previously, Turner served as head of the Corporate Bank, a role he took on in 2014. He joined Regions in 2011 as president of the South Region, leading banking operations in Alabama, Mississippi, South Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.

Before joining Regions, Turner was named president of Whitney National Bank and Whitney Holding Corporation in 2008 and was elected to the bank and holding company boards of directors. Before that he was responsible for all geographic line banking functions across the bank and served as the company’s Eastern Region President. Turner joined Whitney in 1994 as its Alabama regional president after nine years at AmSouth Bank, where he held senior consumer, commercial and business positions.

Turner holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Georgia and is currently an advisory trustee for the University of Georgia Foundation. He serves on the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, United Way of Central Alabama, Business Council of Alabama, Birmingham Business Alliance, A Plus Education Foundation and Infirmary Health System boards. Turner previously served on Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama and is a former chairman of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, the Mobile Area Education Foundation and the United Way of Southwest Alabama. He is a graduate of Leadership Alabama and a former board member of Leadership Mobile.

David Turner serves as Regions’ chief financial officer and is a member of the Regions Executive Leadership Team. Turner leads all finance operations, including financial systems, investor relations, corporate treasury, corporate tax, management planning and reporting, accounting, and mergers and acquisitions.

Turner joined Regions in 2005 and led the Internal Audit Division for Regions before being named chief financial officer in 2010. His responsibilities included overseeing various audits of the overall corporation reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Regions, Turner served as an audit partner of KPMG LLP and he previously served Arthur Andersen in a number of positions, including: audit partner, audit manager, senior auditor and staff auditor. His primary focus was financial institutions.

Turner earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and attended Tulane University in Louisiana.

Turner has served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee for Junior Achievement of Alabama, Inc., United Way of Central Alabama, Inc., and is a member of the President’s Cabinet of the University of Alabama, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Alabama Society of CPA’s and the American Institute of CPA’s. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham, and a member of Leadership Alabama Class XXX.

Kate Danella is head of Regions Consumer Banking Group, which is comprised of the Retail Bank, Mortgage, and Indirect Lending and Partnerships. These business lines include Branch Bankers and Retail Leadership; Mortgage Sales; Indirect Auto Lending; Consumer Indirect Lending Partnerships; Consumer Deposit and Loan Product Management; and Consumer Strategy. She is a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Regions is a regional bank that operates throughout the South, Midwest and Texas and is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala.

Danella most recently served as Chief Strategy and Client Experience Officer. Previously Danella was head of Strategic Planning and Consumer Bank Products and Origination Partnerships. Prior to that, Danella led Private Wealth Management. She joined Regions in July 2015 as the Wealth Strategy and Effectiveness Executive. Before joining Regions, Danella served for 13 years as vice president for Capital Group Companies, a global wealth management organization managing more than $1.7 trillion in assets, in various leadership roles in sales, strategy, client services and marketing.

Danella earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and English from Vanderbilt. She also holds a master’s of philosophy in European Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School. She serves on the board for the Virginia Samford Theatre, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Jones Valley Teaching Farms, as well as the Board of Overseers for the Culverhouse School of Business. She is also a member of the Rotary Club of Greater Birmingham.

Dave Keenan is Chief Administrative and Human Resources Officer and is a member of the Executive Leadership Team. Keenan leads all Human Resources functions, as well as Corporate Security, the Aviation Group, and Corporate Real Estate & Procurement. Regions is a regional bank that operates throughout the South, Midwest and Texas and is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala.

Prior to being named Chief Administrative and Human Resources Officer in 2020, Keenan served as Chief Human Resources Officer for the company for 10 years. In this capacity, he was a key member of the leadership team which led the bank through the 2008 financial crisis, subsequently creating an industry-leading organizational culture as recognized by Gallup’s Exceptional Workplace Award six years in a row.

Keenan joined Regions’ predecessor Amsouth Bank in 2003 as leader of the company’s Field Human Resources Group. In 2006, he led the HR integration during the Regions/AmSouth merger. Before joining AmSouth, Keenan served as director of Human Resources at Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, where he worked for 10 years. Prior to Frito-Lay, Keenan served in the U.S. Army as a Captain for four years.

Keenan earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Furman University. He earned a master’s degree in Human Resources from Boston University.

Matt Lusco is Chief Risk Officer and leads the Risk Management Group, which is comprised of risk management operations, including Enterprise Risk, Compliance Risk, Operational Risk, Credit Risk, Market Risk, Business Services Credit, Credit Operations, Problem Asset Management, Risk Analytics and Regulatory Affairs.

Lusco joined Regions in 2011, bringing over 30 years of audit, accounting and risk management expertise in a wide range of institutions. Prior to joining Regions, Lusco was managing partner in KPMG's offices in Birmingham, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee. In this role, his primary focus was in providing audit and business advisory services to publicly and privately held companies, particularly commercial banks in the southeastern United States. Before joining KPMG, Lusco was with Arthur Andersen's Birmingham, Alabama, office from 1989 to 2002 and was managing partner from 1996 to 2002. From 1986 to 1988, Lusco worked in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's Office of the Chief Accountant in Washington, D.C. where he worked with OCC representatives and counterparts at the FDIC and Federal Reserve in policy development and in interpreting accounting and regulatory issues. He began his career in the Jackson, Mississippi office of Arthur Andersen in 1979.

Lusco graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and is a CPA in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. Matt's community and civic involvements have been varied and have included board and/or leadership positions with Operation New Birmingham, The Civic Club Foundation, The Birmingham International Festival, The American Heart Association and the Ole Miss Alumni Association. He is a member of the Birmingham Downtown Rotary Club, The Monday Morning Quarterback Club and was in the 2001 class of Leadership Birmingham.

Dan Massey serves as Regions Chief Enterprise Operations and Technology Officer and is a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Massey is responsible for all aspects of Regions Enterprise Operations, Technology and Data and Analytics. Regions is a regional bank that operates throughout the South, Midwest and Texas and is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala.

Before joining Regions in 2022, Massey spent almost 30 years at Truist Bank and its predecessor companies, including SunTrust Bank, primarily in roles focused on technology, operations, and transformation. In his previous roles at Truist, he served as head of Digital and Contact Center Banking and head of Enterprise Technology Strategic Services. Prior to the BB&T/SunTrust merger, Massey was Chief Technology Officer at SunTrust over technology strategy, architecture and enterprise API services, technology transformation, and more. His career also includes extensive experience in Mortgage operations, digital and technology transformation, and consumer lending. He began his career at Crestar Mortgage.

Massey holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a graduate of the Emory University Advanced Management Program

Throughout his career, Massey has been involved in a variety of not-for-profit boards, including serving as president of the Virginia Commonwealth University Alumni Association. He is also a member of the United Way’s Tocqueville Society.

Scott Peters serves as Chief Transformation Officer and is a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Regions is a regional bank that operates throughout the South, Midwest and Texas and is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala.

Previously Peters was head of the Consumer Banking Group, which is comprised of the Retail Bank, Mortgage, and Indirect Lending and Partnerships. These business lines include Branch Bankers and Retail Leadership; Mortgage Sales; Indirect Auto Lending; Consumer Indirect Lending Partnerships; Consumer Deposit and Loan Product Management; and Consumer Strategy.

Prior to joining Regions in 2004, Peters served as executive vice president of Fidelity Personal Investments, with segment management responsibility for 2.6 million households, $1.05 billion in revenues, and $230 billion in assets under management. He joined Fidelity in 1998 from KeyCorp, where he served as director of Mass Market Retail Banking and was responsible for the bank’s 2,500 branch-based retail sales people. He began his banking career in 1987 with Citibank, where he opened and managed a de novo branch, ultimately serving as director of U.S. Core Product Marketing. In that role, he was responsible for all aspects of consumer credit and deposit product marketing and product development for Citibank’s U.S. retail bank.

Peters holds a bachelor’s of science degree in Marketing from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut.

He currently serves on the board of the Bank Administration Institute and the Consumer Bankers Association.

Tara A. Plimpton serves as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary for Regions Financial Corporation and is a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. She leads the company’s Legal, Government Affairs, and Corporate Governance departments.

Plimpton joined Regions in 2020, following an 18-year career at General Electric. At GE, Plimpton most recently served as Vice President and General Counsel for GE Global Operations. In that role, she led a team of over 450 global professionals running critical compliance, trade, IP, labor, and transactional support for GE globally. Plimpton also served as General Counsel to several GE divisions, including Transportation and Energy. Prior to joining GE, Plimpton was the managing partner of a law firm and provided legal counsel to a variety of corporate clients in the manufacturing, agricultural, and tourism industries.

Plimpton received a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Nevada and holds a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.

Plimpton was a board member of United Way, Atlanta (2012-2018), CARE’s Women’s Advisory Network (2017-2020), and Georgetown’s Corporate Counsel Advisory Board (2018-2022). Plimpton was recognized earlier this year by the Birmingham Business Journal as a 2022 Leader in Diversity.

Bill Ritter serves as Head of the Wealth Management group. The Wealth Management group includes Private Wealth Management, Investment Services, Institutional Services and Asset Management.

Prior to assuming his current role in 2011, Ritter served as president for the Central Region, overseeing banking operations in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Throughout his career at Regions, which he started in 1993, Ritter has served in several management positions, including North Central Alabama area executive and commercial banking executive with management responsibility for commercial middle market, corporate banking and public, institutional and not for profit activity. He also has served as commercial banking sales manager and business banking sales manager for North Central Alabama.

Ritter earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Vanderbilt University and is a graduate of the Stonier School of Banking at Georgetown.

Ritter is involved in several community organizations, including serving on the board of directors of Leadership Birmingham and the Birmingham Museum of Art and on the board of trustees for Tuskegee University. He is a former member of the board of directors for the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, McWane Science Center, the Alabama Symphony and Innovation Depot.

Ronnie Smith is head of Corporate Banking at Regions, which includes Commercial Banking, Large Corporate Banking, Capital Markets, Real Estate Banking, Regions Business Capital, the Debt Products Organization, and Corporate Banking Group Administration.    

Smith began his banking career at Regions as a management trainee in 1981. He has held various leadership roles, including corporate division manager, city president, area president for Mississippi/North Louisiana and regional president of the Southwest region. Prior to assuming his current role, he was Mid-America region president, overseeing banking operations in Middle and West Tennessee, Texas, North Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa. 

Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Accounting from Mississippi College, and graduated from the Louisiana State University Graduate School of Banking, as well as the KPMG Commercial Banking Institute.

He serves on the boards of Tennessee Bankers Association, Regions Foundation of Tennessee, the Vanderbilt/Owen School Board of Visitors, Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Woodward-Hines Foundation, and Mississippi Valley Title.