Speaker Biographies
Brian D. Branson has been managing director at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. since May 2013. He served as a member of the Depository Investment Banking Group. Branson joined Sterne Agee in July 2010 and also focuses on bank and thrifts in the southeastern United States. Prior to joining Sterne Agee, he spent six and a half years at Sandler O'Neill + Partners LP, providing transaction advisory services to southeastern financial institutions. He began his career in the corporate finance analyst program at Stephens Inc. Branson is a graduate of Wake Forest University with a bachelor of science in finance and a master's in accountancy.
David Crowe is chief economist and senior vice president at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). He is responsible for NAHB's forecast of housing and economic trends, survey research, and analysis of the homebuilding industry and consumer preferences as well as microeconomic analysis of government policies that affect housing. Crowe is also responsible for the development and implementation of an innovative model of the local economic impact and fiscal cost of new home construction, which has estimated the net impact of new housing in over 500 local markets. Past research has concentrated on homeownership trends, tax issues, demographics, government mortgage insurance, local land use ordinance impacts, and the impacts of housing on local economies. Before becoming NAHB's chief economist, Crowe was NAHB's senior vice president for regulatory and housing policy. Prior to that position, he was deputy director of the Division of Housing and Demographic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He has served on federal advisory committees to the Census Bureau and to HUD. Crowe holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Kentucky.
Hugh Dailey has served as president and chief executive officer of Community Bank and Trust of Florida since 1997. Previously, he was senior vice president of agricultural lending for SunTrust Bank for north central Florida from 1984 to 1997. Dailey serves as a director of the Independent Community Banker Association and as a member of the board of directors of the Atlanta Fed's Jacksonville Branch. He has held numerous positions with the Florida Bankers Association, including president of the leadership division, chairman of the educational foundation, state director and board member for Bankserv, and the 2009 annual convention chairman. His current and past affiliations include director and vice chair of finance for the Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Council; member of the Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce; director of the Marion County Cattlemen's Association; and a sponsor of Habitat for Humanity. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and is a graduate of Clemson University's Southeastern Agricultural Lending School, the University of Florida's School of Banking, Louisiana State University's Graduate School of Banking of the South, and the Louisiana State University/Sheshunoff Professional Masters of Banking Program.
Jim Edwards is chief executive officer of United Bank Corporation, a $1.1 billion community bank operating 17 locations in 10 contiguous central Georgia counties. United Bank traces its roots back to the founding of the Bank of Zebulon over 100 years ago, and Edwards is proud to be part of the third generation of his family running the company. In addition to providing traditional banking services, United Bank operates a large mortgage origination and servicing business as well as an investment and trust business with over $400 million in assets under management. Edwards has been actively involved in the banking industry in Georgia over the past 20 years and served as chairman of the Georgia Bankers Association in 2013. He currently represents Georgia on the American Bankers Association's Community Bankers Council and serves as its vice chairman. He is past chairman of the Thomaston/Upson Chamber of Commerce and the Thomaston/Upson Industrial Development Authority. He currently serves as vice chairman of Upson Regional Medical Center. Edwards received a bachelor's degree from Emory University and a master of business administration from the University of Virginia. He also is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking.
Carol Evans is an assistant director in the Federal Reserve Board's Division of Consumer and Community Affairs. She leads several areas within the division, including fair lending and unfair or deceptive acts or practices enforcement, supervisory policy and outreach, and applications analysis. In this role, she focuses on identifying emerging consumer protection risks and ensuring that the Federal Reserve's policies, examination programs, and outreach efforts are effectively aligned. Evans also serves as the chairwoman of the FFIEC Consumer Compliance Task Force. Previously, she worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in both the Civil Rights and Civil Divisions. In the Civil Rights Division, Evans focused on fair lending enforcement, including indirect auto and mortgage lending discrimination. In the Civil Division, she defended federal agencies in litigation challenging the legality of government regulations, policies, and actions. She also worked as an associate general counsel in the legal department at Fannie Mae, providing fair lending and antipredatory lending advice. Evans graduated magna cum laude from both Smith College and Harvard Law School. After law school, she clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to attending law school, she did econometric modeling and coauthored several publications.
Steven Goldstein is independent director of United Community Banks Inc. He joined the board of directors of United Community Banks in 2012. Goldstein was executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Federal Home Bank of Atlanta from 2007 to 2011. His responsibilities included financial and regulatory reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, accounting operations, oversight of financial modeling, and enterprise risk management. Goldstein was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. and international division from 2001 to 2006 following its acquisition of Centura Banks Inc., where Goldstein had been chief financial officer from 1997 to 2001. For the previous 16 years, he held several senior management roles with financial services consulting firms, served as an analyst, and was a deputy director of the Office of Public and Economic Research at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington, D.C. He began his career as assistant professor of finance at the University of South Carolina. Goldstein received his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees from the University of Georgia.
Cynthia Goodwin is a vice president in the supervision and regulation division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She oversees the Sixth District's Large Bank Supervision Group, which encompasses three holding companies that have lead state-member banks. Each organization has a dedicated central point of contact and a full-time supervisory team organized by risk factors and lines of business. Previously, Goodwin was responsible for the department's policy and supervisory studies group, Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering, wealth management, and the credit and risk management department, which includes the discount window. In that role, she served on the System subcommittee on credit risk management. From 2002 to 2004, Goodwin was the senior officer over the human resources department. She also is the founding chair of the Bank's diversity advisory committee. Goodwin joined the Atlanta Fed in 1985 as an associate examiner in supervision and regulation. Previously, she held similar positions at the Kansas City Fed and its Denver Branch. Goodwin holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Tennessee State University and completed the executive management program at Northwestern University.
John H. Jordan is president and chief executive officer of the Community Bank of East Tennessee. He serves on the faculty of the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he was given the 2007 President's Award as outstanding faculty member. He is a faculty member at the Florida School of Banking. Jordan is past president of the Graduate School of Banking at LSU. He is on the American Bankers Association Membership Council and serves on the board of the Tennessee Bankers Association. Jordan is on the executive board of the Great Smoky Mountain Council of Boy Scouts of America and the board of the Salvation Army. Jordan graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1972 with a degree in industrial engineering and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at LSU and the Business of Banking School at the University of New Hampshire.
Sam Khater is the deputy chief economist at CoreLogic, America's largest provider of advanced property and ownership information, analytics, and services. He is responsible for analysis and commentary on the real estate and mortgage markets and is regularly quoted by trade publications and national news outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Bloomberg, among other outlets. Prior to joining CoreLogic, Khater was a senior economist at Fannie Mae in the economics and housing and community development divisions. His responsibilities included economic, mortgage, and housing finance policy research and analysis. Before joining Fannie Mae, he was an economist at the National Association of Realtors and in charge of producing economic and housing forecasts. He is a member of the National Association for Business Economics and American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. Khater earned a bachelor's in finance from George Mason University and a master's in network economics from Georgetown University.
Dennis P. Lockhart is the 14th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In this role, he is responsible for all the Bank's activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and payment services. In addition, he serves on the Federal Reserve's chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee. From 2003 to 2007, Lockhart served on the faculty of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He also was an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. From 2002 to 2007, he served as chairman of the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, a sponsor/operator of emerging markets venture capital/private equity funds. From 2001 to 2003, Lockhart was managing partner at the private equity firm Zephyr Management LP, based in New York with activity in Africa and Latin America. Prior to joining Zephyr, Lockhart worked for 13 years at Heller Financial, where he served as president of Heller International Group, which had activities in commercial finance and merchant banking in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. In 2000, he served as chairman of the advisory committee of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Lockhart earned a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Stanford University and a master's degree in international economics and American foreign policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He also attended the Senior Executive Program at MIT's Sloan School of Management.
Jonathan J. Miller cofounded Miller Samuel Inc. and serves as its president and chief executive officer. He serves as director of research at Radar Logic Inc. He cofounded Miller Cicero LLC and serves as its managing principal, which provides commercial real estate valuation services in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, New York. Miller is a certified general real estate appraiser in New York State and has been appraising residential and commercial properties for more than 20 years. He writes a series of reports on the New York residential housing market with an annual distribution of more than 300,000. Miller has served on advisory panels for Trulia Inc., the Employee Relocation Council, and Fannie Mae. He serves as a member of the Mayor's Economic Advisory Panel for the New York City Office of Management and Budget as well as the New York City Council Finance Committee Economic Advisory Board. He is a frequent public speaker on real estate market conditions and valuation issues. Miller has participated in, or his statistics have been used within, research projects with a number of government agencies, consulting groups, and academic institutions. Miller received his bachelor of arts from Michigan State University.
Drake Mills is chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Community Trust Financial Corporation, a bank holding company with over $3.5 billion in assets. Community Trust's subsidiary bank Community Trust Bank operates in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, north Louisiana, and Mississippi. Mills has over 30 years of banking experience and has served in various capacities, including in-house system night operator, branch manager, consumer loan officer, commercial lender, and chief financial officer. Mills was named chief executive officer of Community Trust Bank in 2003. Under his leadership, Community Trust has grown from assets of $200 million to $3.5 billion, primarily through organic growth. Mills served on the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 2011 to 2014. He represented the Dallas Fed on the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., and was appointed as the council's president for a one-year term in 2013. Mills graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a bachelor of science in finance. He also graduated from the Graduate School of Banking of the South in Baton Rouge and the Graduate School of Banking of the South's Professional Master of Banking Program in Austin, Texas.
Hema Parekh is a member of the operational risk and compliance team of the risk and policy unit at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's Charlotte Branch. She began her career at the Federal Reserve in 2011. Her focus has been on operational risk issues in the Fifth District as well as on System-level projects. Parekh serves as cochair for the Federal Reserve System Basel II AMA qualification team, where she leads System subject matter experts in supervising the work of Basel II mandatory firms. She provides subject matter expertise on examination activities for the large banking organization portfolio banks. As a member of the Fifth District operational risk committee and model risk governance working groups, she helps identify critical and emerging risk issues and policy topics and communicates risk management best practices. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve, Parekh worked at KPMG advisory practice. Parekh earned her master's in business administration in finance and economics from Emory University. She is a certified public accountant, certified management accountant, and certified Six Sigma Green Belt.
Thomas Popik is the director of research for Campbell Surveys at Campbell Communications Inc. He is also the developer of the monthly HousingPulse tracking survey of over 3,000 real estate agents. Popik has more than 20 years of experience in the area of mortgage market research and has written extensively on real estate topics. He has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal and has appeared on CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and CBS News.
Hugh Rowden is a vice president of community and client relations at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. He is responsible for managing the community and client relations strategy. Rowden partners with local city and state elected officials, nonprofit housing organizations, housing activist groups, and Wells Fargo executive leaders. This includes home preservation and business development. He is a highly motivated sales executive with the ability to lead organizations over a large geographical area. Rowden is competent with international sales and operations, profit and loss statement management, market share growth, team building and retention, human capital development, leadership mentoring, leadership strategic planning, point-of-sale underwriting, risk management, strategic partnerships and alliances, market and business analysis, results-oriented execution, and consultative and relationship selling. Rowden holds a bachelor of arts in business marketing from the University of Northern Colorado.
Carl Tannenbaum is the chief economist for Northern Trust. In this role, he briefs clients and colleagues on the economy and business conditions, prepares the bank's official economic outlook, and participates in forecast surveys. He is a member of the bank's investment policy committee and its asset/liability management committee. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Tannenbaum spent four years at the Federal Reserve, where he led the risk section. He was deeply involved in the central bank's response to the 2008 financial crisis, helped to create and conduct its stress testing program, and advised senior Federal Reserve leaders on developments in banking and the financial markets. Tannenbaum began his career in banking at LaSalle Bank/ABN AMRO, a global banking organization with $1 trillion in total assets. He served there for more than 20 years as the organization's chief economist and head of balance sheet management. Tannenbaum holds a bachelor of arts and a master's in business administration in finance and economics from the University of Chicago. He is a past chairman of the National Association for Business Economics, the Conference of Business Economists, the American Bankers Association's Economic Advisory Committee, and the North American Asset/Liability Management Association.
Mike Thomas is a partner in Crowe Horwath LLP's financial institution risk consulting practice in the Southeast. He has over 30 years of broad-based experience, specializing in the financial services industry. His responsibilities include advising clients in areas such as risk management, fraud prevention, and quality assurance assessments. In addition, Thomas coordinates contract services for internal audit, loan review, and compliance outsourcing at financial institutions and works with clients to reengineer their internal audit, risk management, and fraud prevention functions. Prior to joining Crowe Horwath, he was an internal audit services director for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and served as vice president and audit group manager for SunTrust Banks Inc., a $170 billion bank holding company. Thomas holds a bachelor of business administration in accounting from Columbus State University and has attended the Bank Administration Institute's School for Bank Administration (audit management) and the American Banker's Association Stonier School of Banking. He is a certified public accountant, certified internal auditor, certified bank auditor, certified fraud examiner, and certified risk professional. He is also certified in financial forensics and has a certification in risk management assurance.
Lee Wetherington is a director of strategic insight for ProfitStars, a division of Jack Henry & Associates. He directs the development of actionable insight and strategy for the financial services industry at large. To this end, he creates programs, presentations, and articles designed to orient and educate financial executives on the trends and implications of new technologies. Wetherington routinely delivers keynotes nationwide focusing upon opportunities and challenges in payments and the online/mobile/social channels. He has delivered more than 400 keynotes for state and national trade groups, including the Independent Community Bankers of America, American Bankers Association, Bank Administration Institute, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, American Institute of CPAs, and the National Automated Clearinghouse Association (NACHA). He has served as technology faculty chair for several graduate schools of banking and finance, and has delivered guest lectures on leadership and technology at universities across the country. His articles and commentary have been published in American Banker, Banking Strategies, Bank Marketing, and Independent Banker. Wetherington received bachelor degrees in economics and English from Duke University and completed graduate studies at Emory University. He also earned the distinguished accredited ACH professional certification from NACHA.