Cathy Bessant

Cathy Bessant serves as the president and CEO of the Foundation For the Carolinas (FFTC), the fifth largest nonprofit community foundation in the U.S. Cathy previously served as a member and as chair of FFTC’s governing board.

Cathy’s experience as a civic leader in Charlotte has included serving as chair of Charlotte’s North Tryon Vision Plan Advisory Committee, co-chair of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing & Homeless Strategy as well as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Task Force, and as a board member of the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte. She has chaired the USA Field Hockey Board and is the namesake of Bessant Field at Queens University of Charlotte.

She received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was awarded the North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine, was recognized by the Charlotte Business Journal with the Woman in Business Lifetime Achievement Award and was named to Business NC’s Power 100.

Cathy spent 40 years at Bank of America, where she built a $5 billion lending, equity and strategic program, serving as president of Community Development Banking. A pioneer in her field, leading technology, marketing and strategic initiatives, Cathy was named Barron’s “100 Most Influential Women in US Finance. Woman of the Year 2006.