Teri Williams

Teri Williams (born 1964) is an American bank executive. She is the co-founder, president, and chief operating officer of OneUnited Bank, the largest black-owned bank in the United States, that strives to close the racial wealth gap. OneUnited Bank is based in Boston, MA, with branches in Los Angeles and Miami.

Early life and education

Teri Williams was born in Indiantown, Florida in 1964. She graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts with distinctions in economics, and then graduated from Harvard with a Master of Business Administration with honors.

Career Williams began her career in finance in 1983 at American Express, where she was the youngest-ever vice president.

In 1989, Williams and her colleague and husband, Kevin Cohee, acquired Military Professional Services, Inc. (MPS), a 29-year-old company that marketed Visa and MasterCard credit cards to military personnel. Williams and Cohee built MPS into a profitable company, establishing a portfolio with over 20,000 customers. They sold MPS to First Chicago Corp in 1991.

In 1995, Williams and Cohee acquired majority controlling interest in Boston Bank of Commerce. In the next couple of years they would purchase three more banks and consolidated them into OneUnited, an institution focused on empowering Black Americans. In a 2025 interview broadcast on CNBC's The Shift, Williams noted that a Federal Reserve study concluded that almost 50% of Black Americans are highly vulnerable to predatory lenders. , OneUnited had helped finance almost $1 billion in communities with low-to-medium income. She is also the founder of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts and serves on the board of CCC Intelligent Solutions and the Boston Foundation Racial Wealth Gap Partnership. In 2022, she was featured in Forbes 50 over 50 list for women in financial services. In 2025, Williams was recognized in Black Enterprise's "10 Black Women Who Broke Barriers in Business" for her work fighting for Black American's right to control their own financial future.

Published works