Tonia Bottoms

Tonia Bottoms is a Managing Director and Senior Managing Counsel for BNY Mellon’s 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. She advises all aspects of Pershing’s retirement business which spans individual and plan markets. 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 BNY Mellon’s mission to build and strengthen our culture with evidence that D&I is a social and business imperative that powers engagement, performance and growth, and increases value, competitiveness and positive impact across all our stakeholders.

Tonia has been recognized as one of the 100 Ethnic Minority Executives on the Empower Ethnic Minority Role Model lists for 2020 and 2019. Tonia is a member of the Global Leadership Team for IMPACT and currently serves as the chair of IMPACT’s Black Leadership Forum (BLF), where she has been a champion for bringing perspectives on diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging to senior leadership of the company. Previously, she 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 also is a member of the Insured Retirement Institute and SPARK’s Government Relations Committee. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Maryland.