Conferences & Education

	2009 Annual Directors Conference November 12-14, 2009 Hyatt Regency San Francisco
2009 Conference Home | Schedule | Program | Speakers | Online Expo

Speaker Biographies

David H. Baris, Esq.
Executive Director, American Association of Bank Directors

David Baris is the executive director of the American Association of Bank Directors. He also is the managing partner of the Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C. offices of Kennedy & Baris, LLP. Before forming the firm in 1987, Baris served as regional counsel to the Comptroller of the Currency, as counsel to the Government Operations Committee, U.S. House of Representatives and as counsel to Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

Stan Cardenas
Cardenas Financial Services Consulting

In 1996 Stan Cardenas established Cardenas Financial Services Consulting. He provides regulatory, strategic, and business development consulting services to the senior management of financial institutions and technology companies. He also serves as a consultant to Promontory Financial Group. Prior to his consulting business, Cardenas served seven years with the California State Banking Department (now the Department of Financial Institutions) where he was appointed by Governors Wilson and Deukmejian to the positions of Senior Deputy Superintendent of Banks, Chief Deputy Superintendent of Banks and Acting Superintendent of Banks. He was responsible for the regulatory supervision of 240 state-chartered banks and over 200 other financial services licensees, coordination with other state and federal government agencies and bank associations, and public relations activities.

Patrick Dorn
Vice President, M&I Capital Markets

Patrick Dorn is a vice president with M&I Capital Markets. He joined M&I in 1983 and currently serves as the head of asset/liability consulting and M&I Portfolio Services, Inc. His career at M&I has encompassed a progression of positions focused on providing consultative services to M&I’s financial institution customers.  

Geri Forehand
Director of Strategic Services, Brintech

Geri Forehand is a certified professional consultant to management and is director of strategic services for Brintech. Previously, he was director of planning and development for Alex Sheshunoff Management Services, where he received the Outstanding Achievement Award in Consulting in 2003 and the CEO Affiliation Award in 2002. Forehand has more than 30 years of financial institution experience with his employment as a banker as well as a consultant, and his consulting work focuses on the areas of strategic planning, capital planning, succession planning, profit planning, performance measurement and executive compensation. He previously has served as president and COO of a national alternative funding service provider. He has worked with hundreds of banks on mergers, acquisitions, start-up, earnings improvement, marketing and developing strategic direction. He has served as a member of the board of directors for several community banks and is qualified by banking regulatory agencies to perform mandated management and board reviews, as well as strategic planning, capital planning, and profit planning. 

Brian Gardner
SVP, Washington Research, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Brian Gardner has been KBW’s Washington Analyst since 2004. In his role, he follows and analyzes political, legislative and regulatory developments and advises KBW’s clients on what these events mean to the financial markets and investors. He collaborates with KBW’s fundamental research analysts as they incorporate political events into their industry and company analysis. Before assuming the role as Washington Analyst, Gardner was an associate on KBW’s bank research team. Prior to joining KBW, he was an associate in the Bank Regulatory Group with the New York law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel. Gardner began his professional career in Washington as a legislative assistant to former Congressman Rick Lazio. He then served as staff director and counsel for former Congressman Richard Baker. He handled financial service issues for both of these former members of the House Financial Services Committee.

William Haraf
Commissioner, California DFI

William Haraf was appointed Commissioner of Financial Institutions by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in March 2008. For the prior three years, he was a visiting professor of economics and finance for the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis, and he served as an independent consultant with Promontory Financial Group. While with Promontory, he worked with financial institutions on corporate governance and corporate organizational design, compliance program design and implementation, anti-money laundering programs, senior management reviews, and strategic planning. Previously, Haraf was managing director at Banc America Securities, senior vice president of strategic policy development and planning for Bank of America and served as director of policy analysis with Citicorp.

Steven M. Hoffman, Jr.
SVP, Banking Supervision & Regulation, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Steven Hoffman is the senior vice president of Banking Supervision & Regulation (BS&R) at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, a position he assumed in July 2006. In this role, he is the head of Banking Supervision for the Twelfth District and a member of the Bank’s Executive Committee. His career in banking supervision with the Federal Reserve System has spanned four decades. Most recently, Hoffman was deputy director of BS&R at the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. Prior to this, he served in several senior capacities in BS&R at the Board of Governors, beginning in 1993 as the assistant director for International Banking Supervision.

John Hueston
Litigation Partner, Irell & Manella, LLP

John Hueston has extensive jury trial experience, and has been selected to serve as lead trial counsel by Fortune 500 companies and by governments in a variety of cases, including securities and shareholder class action cases, patent litigation cases, trademark infringement cases, environmental cases, and cases alleging unfair business practices. A former lead prosecutor for the Enron trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, Hueston also devotes a substantial part of his practice to internal investigations, corporate crisis management and white collar criminal defense. Hueston serves as co-chair of the firm’s corporate crisis and white collar criminal defense practice. California Lawyer magazine named Hueston a 2007 “California Attorney of the Year,” and The American Lawyer magazine recognized him as one of the nation’s Top 50 Young Litigators.

Stan Ivie
Regional Director, FDIC

Stan Ivie is the regional director for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s San Francisco Region. He leads approximately 320 employees and directs the FDIC’s supervision programs for risk management, compliance and consumer protection at more than 700 insured depository institutions with $1.9 trillion in assets. Previously, Ivie served as the Regional Director for the FDIC’s Dallas Region. He has enjoyed a 24-year career with the FDIC, serving concurrently as the deputy director for its resolutions division in Dallas, Texas, and as interim director for the Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. Ivie has served as a senior instructor at multi-national training conferences throughout Central America, and as a guest speaker for the Financial Stability Institute at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. He also served as a professional staff member for the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives under a fellowship program.

Steve Kelley
Political Cartoonist, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans

Political cartoonist Steve Kelley joined The Times-Picayune after spending the first two decades of his career in San Diego. Kelley’s cartoons are syndicated to more than 100 newspapers and often appear in The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, USA Today, Time and Newsweek. Not content with amusing people in print, Kelley writes and performs comedy, a pastime that led him to seven appearances on The Tonight Show, both with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. He has published two collections of his work, Steve Kelley’s Greatest Hits, and Art Irritates Life: Cartoons on Politics and Stuff People Actually Care About.

Eugene Ludwig
Founder & CEO, Promontory Financial Group, LLC & former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency

Eugene A. Ludwig is founder and CEO of Promontory Financial Group, LLC. Before founding Promontory, Mr. Ludwig was Vice Chairman of Bankers Trust / Deutsche Bank. In this role he was responsible for legal, credit, risk management, and compliance activities, as well as regulatory and legislative affairs. From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Ludwig headed the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal agency that supervises national banks, which hold the preponderance of U.S. banking assets, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. As Comptroller, Mr. Ludwig organized the governmental response to a major credit crunch, spearheaded efforts to modernize the banking industry, and personally drove reform of the Community Reinvestment Act. Prior to becoming Comptroller he was a partner at the law firm of Covington & Burling. Mr. Ludwig has also served as the Chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), member of the Basel Committee on International Bank Supervision, Director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Chairman of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.  

G. Edward Leary
Commissioner, Utah Department of Financial Institutions

G. Edward Leary was appointed commissioner of the Utah Department of Financial Institutions in June 1992. He joined the department in 1977 as an examiner and rose through the ranks, holding positions as industry supervisor and chief examiner before his appointment as commissioner. Leary serves as chairman of the board of financial institutions, a member of the Utah Housing Corporation board, and he provides support to the Utah Money Management Council. He is the chairman of the State/Federal Working Group comprised of the directors of supervision for the Federal Reserve and the FDIC along with three state banking commissioners. Their purpose is to improve and coordinate all state and federal examination processes and procedures.   

Richard A. Lacy
Business Development Director, Travelers

Richard Lacy is business development director for Travelers. He has 38 years of experience in the commercial insurance industry, 23 years with the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies; 12 years with the Travelers and St Paul Insurance Companies, and three years as an insurance consultant specializing in “Professional Liability” exposures. He is the founder and principal owner of Specialty Management Services an insurance agency consulting agency and consulting firm in San Antonio, Texas.

Dr. S. Scott MacDonald
President & CEO, SW Graduate School of Banking Foundation

S. Scott MacDonald is president and CEO, SW Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) Foundation, director of the Assemblies for Bank Directors, and Adjunct Professor of Finance, Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University. Dr. MacDonald joined the Southern Methodist University faculty as a visiting professor of finance in 1997 and was named director of the SWGSB Foundation in 1998. Before coming to SMU, he was an associate professor of finance and director of the School of Applied Banking at Texas Tech University. Recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, Dr. MacDonald is a frequent speaker at professional programs, banker associations and banking schools. Dr. MacDonald is the co-author of the best selling textbook on banking, Bank Management, and the author of several articles in professional academic journals.

Katherine Mahlum
Vice President, Pearl Meyer & Partners

Katherine Mahlum is a vice president with Pearl Meyer & Partners. Her experience includes the design of executive compensation and variable pay programs, board of directors’ compensation, best practices in corporate governance, IRC Section 280G calculations associated with a change-in-control, and reasonable compensation analysis. In addition, to servicing clients Mahlum has overseen research projects within the firm, including research of non-executive and executive (non-CEO) chairman compensation, employment agreement terms among banks, enhanced CEO and/or chairman retirement arrangements, and CIC payments and transaction bonuses paid to executives.

Jeanne F. McBride
Regional Manager, Division of Resolutions and Receiverships, FDIC

Jeanne McBride was appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Division of Resolutions and Receivership (DRR) regional manager in June 2005. She started with the FDIC in 1985. While working for the FDIC, she has been assigned to various offices in the Dallas, Texas; Kansas City, Mo.; and San Francisco Regions. From 1989 to 1992, she worked for the Resolution Trust Company (RTC), Western Region as a managing agent, credit specialist and regional closing administrator. She has participated in over 160 insured financial institution closings, ranging from a $5 million to $32 billion, for the FDIC and RTC. In 1992, she joined the Division of Resolutions, San Francisco Region as the resolutions supervisor responsible for planning, organizing and analyzing of all aspects involved with the marketing and resolution of a failing institution, a position she held until 1997.

Kenneth Moore
Partner, Stuart & Moore

Kenneth Moore is a partner in the firm of Stuart & Moore, a boutique law firm focused on representing community and regional banks and bank holding companies. He advises financial institutions on capital raising efforts, both public and private, merger and acquisition activities, bank regulatory matters, including advising on supervisory orders and proceedings and TARP Capital Purchase Plan transactions and compliance, and general corporate matters. Recently, the firm has served as counsel to both issuers and underwriters/placement agents on a number of capital raising efforts.

Brian J. Quade
Assistant Deputy Comptroller, OCC

Brian Quade is assistant deputy comptroller for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He began his career with the OCC  in 1974. He passed the OCC’s Uniform Commission Examination in 1980 and was commissioned as a national bank examiner.  In 1983, Quade was appointed to the position of field manager in the Billings, Mont. duty station. And in May of 1991 he was selected for the position of director of the Los Angeles Field Office. In 1995, Quade became the Director for Bank Supervision (Community Banks) in the San Francisco District Office. He was selected for the position of Assistant Deputy Comptroller in 1997 and resides in the San Francisco Field Office. 

Robert Perry-Smith
CEO, Perry-Smith LLP 

Robert Perry-Smith is CEO of Perry-Smith LLP. Widely regarded as a leading provider of professional services to the banking industry, his career in public accounting includes “learning experiences” at both the national level as a partner and at the regional level as the founder and CEO of Perry-Smith LLP. Focused primarily on California, the firm currently serves 70 banks in the Western United States. With banking as the firm’s largest industry specialization, Perry-Smith has had the opportunity to serve as both accountant and consultant for more than 30 merger transactions, facilitate numerous strategic planning meetings, and consult with boards and executives on a myriad of strategic issues.

Lindsey M. Piegza
Economic Analyst, FTN Financial

Lindsey Piegza is an economic analyst for FTN Financial, specializing in the housing market and macro economic trends. Before joining the economic division of FTN Financial in early 2005, she spent two years as a research analyst in the mortgage strategy group in Chicago. Piegza has published several academic papers in journals such as Harvard Business Review and in textbooks published by the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Often quoted in the business press, she has been a guest on Bloomberg TV and Radio, National Public Radio’s Marketplace and regularly appears on Fox Business News’ Money for Breakfast.

Ken Proctor
Director of Risk Management, Brintech

Ken Proctor is Brintech’s director of risk management. During his 31-year banking and consulting career, he has served as an internal consultant with a major regional bank, held responsible management positions in the auditing departments of two southeastern regional commercial banks, and worked as a public accountant. He created the Risk Management Practice area for a national financial services consulting company and has also served as a senior consultant with two international risk management-consulting firms. In addition to his extensive risk management experience, Proctor also has performed profitability and operational process improvement reviews, developed strategic business and technology plans for financial institutions, selected and implemented core processing and other systems.

David C. Sandler
Principal, Sandler O’Neill

David Sandler, principal, first joined Sandler O'Neill and Partners in 1991. He has worked with the firm’s West Coast clients in all aspects of strategic planning and franchise value enhancement, including asset/liability management, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance. 

Joshua S. Siegel
Managing Principal, StoneCastle Partners

Joshua Siegel is the managing principal at StoneCastle Partners. Prior to co-founding StoneCastle Partners, he was a vice president in the Global Portfolio Solutions Group at Salomon Brothers/Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Siegel was primarily responsible for new product development, including pooled trust preferred securities transactions. While with Citigroup, he led a team whose research in the late 1990s established new pooled investment strategies in the community banking sector. Siegel is the author of “Historical Default Rates of FDIC-Insured Commercial Banks, 1934-2001”, “Regional Bank Diversification” and “Analysis of Idealized Cumulative Default Rates Beyond 10 Years”.

Barry A. Smith
Counsel, Buchalter Nemer 

Barry Smith focuses his practice on representing financial institutions and other business entities both domestic and international. He has extensive experience in business and commercial litigation, creditors rights, loan workouts and restructuring, provisional remedies, collections, post-judgment enforcement. He also handles complex defense litigation including tort, contract law and real estate. Smith is a frequent speaker at numerous seminars and conferences including the Community Bankers of California, California Bankers Association, Western Independent Bankers, the Los Angeles County Bar Associations and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Scott O. Smith
Counsel, Buchalter Nemer

Scott Smith represents financial institutions, with an emphasis in commercial litigation, prejudgment remedies, receiverships, collections, loan workouts and insolvency issues. He is a frequent speaker on bankruptcy, creditors’ rights (secured and unsecured), provisional and post-judgment remedies and commercial law. He speaks at conferences and seminars presented by the California Bankers Association, Community Bankers of California, National Association of Chinese American Bankers, National Vehicle Leasing Association and Robert Morris & Associates.

Barry P. Taff
Partner, Silver, Freedman & Taff, LLP

Barry Taff is in charge of the Freedman & Taff’s mergers and acquisitions department and its financial institutions tax practice. He has served as counsel to financial institutions in more than 400 acquisition and reorganization transactions including numerous government-assisted transactions during the past 25 years. During 2009, he has represented clients in at least 10 failed bank transactions. He is also expert in the area of executive compensation and benefits.

Charles J. Thayer
Chairman, American Association of Bank Directors

Charles Thayer was named chairman of the AABD in 2007. His banking experience spans 20 years including 12 years as executive vice president of finance at a $5 billion regional bank and a $40 billion “super-regional”. In this capacity he arranged capital investments from institutional investors in the US, Europe and Japan. For the past 18 years he has served as chairman of Chartwell Capital Ltd., serving as an advisor to both commercial banks and institutional investors; including advice on capital infusions into “troubled” financial institutions. In addition, Thayer also has more than 18 years of experience serving as a bank board member.

Lawrence P. Ward
President & CEO, Heritage Oaks Bank

Larry Ward has been president and CEO of Heritage Oaks Bank in Paso Robles, Calif., since January 1993. Prior to that he led the Bank of Evergreen in Colorado, as president and CEO. He strives to balance the needs of bank customers, employees and shareholders, ensuring that each group gets what they need to be a satisfied and loyal part of the larger whole.

Dan Wetzel
Managing Director, Pearl Meyer & Partners

Dan Wetzel is a managing director with Pearl Meyer & Partners. He assists clients in the areas of executive and non-employee director compensation and employee pay; focusing on the development of annual and long-term incentive compensation programs to meet client’s strategic objectives. Wetzel has 18 years of experience in the field of compensation and benefits, specializing in the area of executive compensation. Prior to joining Pearl Meyer & Partners, he was Watson Wyatt Worldwide’s Southern California practice leader for executive & incentive pay. Before joining Watson Wyatt, Wetzel was a consultant at KPMG specializing in compensation and benefits issues. 

Wally Young
Senior Manager, Credit Risk Coordination, Federal Reserve Bank of SF

Wally Young is a senior manager of credit risk coordination at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF). He has 14 years of regulatory experience, including five years with the California Department of Financial Institution and nine years with the FRBSF. He joined the FRBSF in 1999 as a commissioned bank examiner, then served from 2005-08 as the central point of contact and subsequently as an examining manager, for a portfolio of community and regional banks and bank holding companies in the Pacific Northwest. Beginning January 1, 2009, he assumed responsibility for credit risk coordination for the 12th district and is responsible for monitoring credit conditions and examination findings in the district, providing guidance and consultative services to the examination function, and representing the FRBSF on system projects, interagency activities and other credit-related events.