Colonel Karen “Gigi” Wrancher excelled across several positions in her 20-plus years in the U.S. Army, initially joining as a private first class and a paralegal in the 82^nd Airborne Division in 1990. Upon graduating from Officer Candidate School in the mid-90s, she had advanced to the rank of Sergeant and began her role as a Quartermaster Officer. She subsequently advanced to become a platoon leader in the 82^nd, a company commander with the 1^st Infantry Division, and a Joint Chiefs of Staff intern at the Pentagon. Between 2007 and 2009, she was active as a battalion support operations officer and an executive officer before serving as a regional operations executive within the Defense Logistics Agency for two years, a logistics executive and battalion commander in Fort Bliss, Texas, for another two years, and was the first female Chief of Staff to the quartermaster general in Fort Lee, Virginia, from 2013 to 2015.

Continuing to rise through the ranks with increased expertise in strategic operations, Ms. Wrancher was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait in 2015 as a Chief Compliance Officer for a year and returned to the Pentagon in 2016 as an operations manager, specifically Chief of Preliminary Investigations and Senior Official Investigations. From 2018 to 2020, she was active as the Director of Operations at the Pentagon, leading a unit of more than 950 personnel, before retiring as a colonel. She then utilized her decades of administrative leadership and civic-mindedness to a career as a senior lead audit manager at Wells Fargo in North Carolina from 2020 to 2024; since 2024, she’s excelled as the vice president of PNC Financial Services Group since 2024.

Among her numerous responsibilities at PNC, Ms. Wrancher provides input on developing, managing, and delivering risk-based audit plan, coverage, and execution; managing IT infrastructure audits and documenting results in electronic workplace system and leading audit teams; articulating complex issues and themes to senior level stakeholders; and monitoring key risk indicators, significant change activities, identifying thematic trends, and escalating emerging issues. In addition, she establishes and manages relationships with senior leaders and stays up-to-date with the evolving financial industry, regulatory changes, and business resiliency. On a more personal note, she has taken pride in guiding careers through impactful coaching, offering feedback, and providing a supportive environment to enable team members to learn, grow, and achieve their potential—she also prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion as a leader.

Concurrent with her primary endeavors, Ms. Wrancher has long been active in philanthropy, serving as the vice president of communications at The Rocks, Inc., a nonprofit military officers’ organization, and vice chair of public policy and advocacy with the Junior League of Charlotte since 2022. Looking ahead, she strives to rally the other Junior League chapters across North Carolina to establish the State Public Advocacy Committee; this committee would function in a nonpartisan way, focusing on advocating for education.

Attributing her success to hard work and dedication, Ms. Wrancher grew up inspired by her mother, who often emphasized the importance of education, instilling in her the belief that knowledge is key to advancement. In the midst of her robust military career, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and government from Methodist University in 1995, a Master of Arts in human resources management and services from the University of Oklahoma in 2002, and a Master of Science in military and strategic leadership from Marine Corps University in 2005. Additionally, she bolstered her academic credentials with a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification in 2020.