Emily Nachlas

Emily Nachlas is the Chief Risk Officer of Western Alliance Bancorporation. 

In this role, Ms. Nachlas brings nearly 25 years of experience in financial services risk management to oversee Western Alliance Bancorporation’s second line of defense risk management teams and processes. Since joining the bank in 2019, she has evolved the organization’s risk management strategy, organizational risk framework, and infrastructure commensurate with its size and complexity as it crossed the regulatory threshold beyond $50 billion in assets. She provides overall leadership, vision, and direction for enterprise risk, credit risk, financial risk, strategic risk, compliance, BSA/AML, operational risk, credit review, and model risk management.

Before joining Western Alliance Bank, Ms. Nachlas specialized in developing risk management programs as Executive Vice President and Director of Enterprise Risk Management at IBERIABANK in New Orleans and previous risk management positions at HSBC, Amegy Bank and Hibernia National Bank. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of New Orleans.

Within the banking industry’s risk management discipline, Ms. Nachlas serves on several boards and councils, including the National Mid-Tier CRO Council of the Risk Management Association, as well as the local Phoenix RMA chapter. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at industry conferences. In 2022, she was named among Arizona’s Most Influential Women in Business. As a committed ally, she is the Executive Sponsor of PRIDE@Work, the BRG for Western Alliance Bank’s LGBTQIA people and allies. 

Ms. Nachlas lives in Phoenix with her husband and two children. As a volunteer with Arizona Small Dog Rescue, she has fostered more than 50 small dogs since 2016, ensuring they have safe forever homes.