Tonia Bottoms
Tonia Bottoms is a Managing Director and Senior Managing Counsel for BNY Mellon | Pershing. She is also Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Advocate for Pershing and is a member of Pershing’s Executive Committee.
In her legal role, Tonia specializes in the areas of retirement plans and financial products. She provides advice and guidance regarding the compliance and oversight of retirement and education savings products, including traditional and Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs), savings incentive match plan for employees (SIMPLE) IRAs, qualified retirement plans and 529 college savings plans. Tonia works closely with senior leadership on developing regulatory and legislative matters affecting the retirement and fiduciary businesses. Prior to joining Pershing in May 2010, Tonia was a director and senior counsel at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
As Diversity & Inclusion Advocate, Tonia leads efforts for Pershing to advance diversity as a business imperative and inclusion as an essential leadership skill by attracting, sourcing, developing and retaining the brightest, most innovative minds – those with a global mindset and varied life experiences and perspectives that inform different leadership styles, modes of thinking and problem solving – to grow our business and help our clients do the same.
Tonia is also a Global Co-Chair of IMPACT, a BNY Mellon Employee Resource group with 24 chapters and 5,000 members, and served as the chair of IMPACT’s Black Leadership Forum (BLF). She was a founding member of the D&I Advisory Council, where she implemented measurable and meaningful change in Latinx and Black representation at Pershing, and increased transparency of its D&I goals. Tonia brings perspectives on diversity, equity and inclusion to senior leadership of the company. She has been recognized 3 years in a row from 2019-2021 as one of the 100 Ethnic Minority Executives, an EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model list sponsored by INvolve, a global consultancy that champions inclusion in the workplace and has been named among the 2022 Most Influential Black Lawyers by Savoy Magazine. Previously, Tonia was the co-chair for the Jersey City chapter of the firm’s Women’s Initiative Network.
Tonia is a member of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s Retirement and Education Savings Committee and currently serves as its co-chair. She is also active in her community and serves on the Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts of Nassau County and American Red Cross (Greater New York Region) and on the Board of Trustees for the Money Management Institute Gateway Foundation.
Tonia earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Maryland.