Achieving Client Goals while Mitigating Risk

Alicia Powell is a dynamic leader with the ability to execute on transformative change initiatives while remaining steady and consistent.

As managing chief counsel to PNC Bank’s Asset Management Group, Powell has a strong track record of helping others succeed and being passionate about advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the national legal marketplace.

She is chief counsel to a group that provides investment, fiduciary, family office services, and banking and lending to individuals, corporate and municipal entities, and charities and foundations across the United States.

Colleagues say she is a results-oriented, strategic thinker who directs clients toward achieving their goals while mitigating risk. She is also a seasoned leader, serving as the chair of PNC Legal’s Diversity & Inclusion Council and as an active member of PNC’s enterprise-wide Corporate Diversity Council.

Powell joined PNC in 2013, following over a decade at Reed Smith LLP, where she was a partner in the Investment Management Group. At the firm, she chaired its Women’s Initiative in Pittsburgh, a role that allowed her to design the strategy for, develop and implement award-winning initiatives for Reed Smith’s female lawyers. Last year, she was named a Most Powerful and Influential Woman by the National Diversity Council.

Powell holds a law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law, and a B.A. in English literature from Miami University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Aviary and is a former board member of St. Clair Hospital.

She points to courage as the most important quality of a woman leader. “Courage to stand up for yourself and for your team, and to do what’s right even when it is hard,” Powell said.