FELLICIA FOSTER

Vice President, US Head of Inclusion & Diversity, BMO Harris Bank

Fellicia Foster is the Vice President and US Head of Inclusion & Diversity. In this capacity, Fellicia develops the US diversity talent strategies to create a diverse and inclusive workforce and breakdown barriers for employees to pursue and excel in their careers. She is also responsible for US and Canadian Employee Resources Groups, enterprise diversity recruitment and providing oversight on customer inclusivity and diverse community engagement. Prior to this role, Fellicia served as the Head of Diversity Recruitment – North America, where she led an international mandate to attract, source and select external diverse talent for the enterprise. Through the development of the North American diversity recruitment strategies, Fellicia enhanced BMO’s market profile and partnership engagement in diverse communities and increased its’ diverse candidate pipeline.

Fellicia joined BMO in 2010, where she started her career at BMO in support roles within Business Banking. In 2012, she moved into a Business Banking Strategy Analyst role within the Personal & Commercial Banking Strategy Team, where she led multi-year strategy implementation projects. In 2013, Fellicia moved to Operations as the Asset Portfolio Management System (APMS) Team Manager, where she led a team of analysts accountable for processing consumer lending service requests. She was able to successfully demonstrate her leadership and coaching skills by generating significant business cost savings and productivity improvement within her team. Given her strong desire to transition into HR and her strategic career movements, in May of 2015, Fellicia was promoted into a role in Human Resources as an HR Business Partner (HRBP) supporting the US Mortgage Sales business, covering over 300 employees across the US. As an HRBP, she served as a strategic advisor and coach to senior leaders and executives on key organizational and talent initiatives, providing change management expertise as well as ongoing consultation to employees and leaders on HR programs, practices, policies and regulatory requirements.

Before joining BMO Harris, Fellicia was a Computer Software Trainer at Skyward Inc. in Bloomington, IL. As a trainer at Skyward, she facilitated customized software training across the US on various modules within student information systems. Ahead of Skyward, she worked at PepsiCo Beverages and Foods as a Diversity & Inclusion Analyst.

Fellicia also leverages her business skills by serving on various non-profit organizations. She serves as the Immediate Past-President and Executive Advisory Council member of the National Association for African Americans in Human Resources (NAAAHR) Chicago Chapter, Board of Directors for Illinois State University’s Alumni Association, Sr. Advisor of Chicago Financial Women Alliance (CFWA), Board of Directors for Illinois Diversity Council, Steering Committee member for the Financial Services Pipeline of Chicago, member of the BAI DEI Executive Roundtable and formerly served on the Multicultural Executive Leadership Committee for American Heart Association.

Fellicia holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from Illinois State University’s College of Business. Fellicia was named the BMO’s Best of the Best 2019, one of the 2014 “Top 40 under 40” by Collaborate Magazine and selected for the Illinois State University’s 2017 College of Business Early Career Achievement Award, recognized with the American Heart Association Heart of Excellence Award and previously nominated for the Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40.