Banking’s Newest CEO Plots a Comeback for Most Unloved Stock

Gunjan Kedia wondered why her interviewer was asking for her feelings about penguins.

She’d just arrived from New Delhi to Pittsburgh for business school and hadn’t yet learned the name of her new city’s beloved ice hockey team. It didn’t take long for her to get the lay of the land and begin rising through the finance industry. Decades later, she’s at the top of it.

The new head of U.S. Bancorp, parent of U.S. Bank, has a chance to reinvigorate the country’s fifth biggest commercial lender after it disappointed investors and analysts with lackluster returns. The bank didn’t keep ...