Rita Cook was announced as a Managing Director and head of the Midwest Middle Market Region for Global Commercial Banking (GCB) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.  Based in Chicago, she leads a team of bankers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin, who serve clients with annual revenues of $50 million to $2 billion. Her team provides commercial credit, treasury management solutions, international banking, investment banking and retirement products to help clients meet their financial goals.

Throughout nearly 20 years with Bank of America and its predecessors, she has held various management positions in finance, product management and sales.

Prior to assuming her current role in 2016, Cook was the Chief Operating Officer for GCB with responsibility for managing strategic initiative implementation, identifying and monitoring key business risks, regulatory compliance and sales enablement. She has also served as head of International Treasury Sales for GCB where she managed a team of global treasury experts who structured multi-regional treasury deals to meet clients’ global cash management needs while enhancing visibility and access to cash. Based on her knowledge of the market, she assisted in driving the strategy and tactics to compliment clients’ expansion plans outside North America.

Cook joined Bank of America predecessor firm LaSalle Bank in 1997.