Speaker Biographies
Mary L. Aiken is the senior associate director over the supervisory oversight area in the Division of Supervision and Regulation at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In this role, Aiken provides senior management oversight to the development of the Board's supervisory programs and policies for portfolios that include some large and foreign banking organizations, regional and community banking organizations, and savings and loan holding companies. Prior to joining supervisory oversight, she led the risk function, which directs and coordinates Federal Reserve System activities around risk identification and risk monitoring in the banking system. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in August 2008, Aiken spent 13 years with Bank of America. She has an MBA from Queens University and a bachelor's degree in finance from Clemson University.
C. Jeanne Applegate has more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry and has worked exclusively with consumer protection and Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) laws and regulations since 1991. She is currently a senior compliance manager for Arvest Bank, a $19 billion bank operating in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. Previously, she served as the managing director for BSA/AML services at Professional Bank Services in Louisville, Kentucky, and as the chief compliance and BSA officer for BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She also worked for the FDIC in the Dallas Region as a senior compliance examiner and review examiner. She has been a member of the faculty at the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University since 1998. Applegate is a graduate of Northeastern State University with a degree in Finance. She is a certified regulatory compliance manager, certified anti-money laundering specialist and an anti-money laundering professional.
Raphael W. Bostic took office June 5, 2017, as the 15th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. 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 (FOMC). From 2012 to 2017, Bostic was the Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC). He arrived at USC in 2001 and served as a professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development. His research has spanned many fields, including home ownership, housing finance, neighborhood change, and the role of institutions in shaping policy effectiveness. He was director of USC's master of real estate development degree program and was the founding director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast. From 2009 to 2012, Bostic was the assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Bostic worked at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1995 to 2001, first as an economist and then a senior economist in the monetary and financial studies section. He served as special assistant to HUD's assistant secretary of policy development and research in 1999. He was also a professional lecturer at American University in 1998.
Vanessa Cameron, a senior examiner on the risk and resiliency credit risk team in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit Division, joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in 2008. Cameron is a recipient of the 2014 William Taylor Award for Excellence in Bank Supervision, the highest honor granted to supervision staff. She was recognized for her contribution to the Federal Reserve Board's Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) project, which resulted in a comprehensive work plan for the System-wide rollout of the new accounting standard. She started her career and received formal credit training at SunTrust Bank. Cameron is recognized as an expert in credit, FDIC-assisted transactions (loss sharing), and Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL). Cameron is also actively involved in the Atlanta Fed's fintech activities. An Atlanta native, she holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in finance from Georgia State University.
Marcel Cottman is the manager of examinations for IT/operational risk for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. His responsibilities include oversight of IT and operational risk within the significant service provider, technology service provider, large bank, regional bank, community bank, and foreign bank portfolios. Before joining the Federal Reserve, Marcel was an IT auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Marcel has more than ten years of experience specializing in the assessment of business process and information system controls, cybersecurity, vendor management, enterprise risk management, and internal audit. Marcel received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Douglas G. Duncan is Fannie Mae's senior vice president and chief economist. He is responsible for providing all forecasts and analyses on the economy, housing, and mortgage markets for Fannie Mae. Duncan also oversees corporate strategy and is responsible for strategic research regarding external factors and their potential impact on the company and the housing industry. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Duncan was senior vice president and chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association. His experience also includes service as a LEGIS Fellow and staff member with the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs for Congressman Bill McCollum in the U.S. House of Representatives and work on the Financial Institutions Project at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Duncan received his PhD in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University and his bachelor's and master's degrees in agricultural economics from North Dakota State University.
Cynthia Goodwin is a vice president in the supervision and regulation division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She oversees the large bank supervision group, which is accountable for executing the consolidated supervision program for firms with more than $50 billion in total assets. She assumed responsibility as the interim head of supervision from June 2018 through May 2019. Previously, Goodwin was responsible for the division's risk management and assessment group until transitioning to her current role in 2012. Prior to her risk management role, she was accountable for the 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.
Tom Hinkel, vice president of compliance services at Safe Systems and author of the Compliance Guru website, is responsible for ensuring that Safe Systems's services incorporate and abide by appropriate financial industry regulations and best practices. Hinkel has been with Safe Systems since 2005, most recently as an account manager. Hinkel holds an AA in computer programming, the GSEC security certification from the SANS Institute, the Certified Information Systems Auditor designation, the Certified in Risk and Information Security Controls designation, the Certification in Control Self-Assessment and Certified in Risk Management Assurance designations from the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the Certified Business Continuity Professional designation from the Disaster Recovery Institute. Hinkel received a bachelor's degree from Illinois Wesleyan University.
Joseph Hudgins has served as senior executive vice president and chief credit officer at First Florida Integrity Bank since December 2012. Prior to his current role, Hudgins served as executive vice president and Florida executive for First National Bank of Pennsylvania, overseeing all lending functions in Florida. He began his banking career in 1977 and in 1986 joined SouthTrust Bank in Decatur, Alabama, as president and chief executive officer. In 1990, Hudgins became president and chief executive officer of SouthTrust Bank in Sarasota, Florida. In 1991, he joined West Coast Bank in Sarasota as president and chief executive officer. That bank later became First National Bank of Florida, where he served for 14 years. For more than 20 years, Hudgins has served as an instructor at the Florida School of Banking at the University of Florida. Additionally, for more than 10 years he has taught at the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University, where he currently serves as president.
Scott Hughes is director of the Risk Analysis Unit in the Supervision and Regulation division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Prior to becoming director, he was a subject matter expert in the division and was responsible for monitoring emerging trends in the banking industry and residential and commercial real estate. In April 2007, Hughes came to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Atlanta, where he had worked for 10 years as a regional economist. With field exam teams as an audience, he analyzed regional economic and banking trends for the FDIC's Atlanta Region. Before working for the FDIC, Hughes was an economist with two economic consulting firms. At these companies, his responsibilities included forecasting and analyzing economic trends in the Southeast.
Sam Khater has been vice president and chief economist of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation since April 23, 2018. He arrives at Freddie Mac after 11 years at CoreLogic, where he most recently served as vice president of research and deputy chief economist. His responsibilities included producing original research and advising clients, regulators, policymakers and investors on real estate and mortgage market trends. He is regularly quoted in national, local, and real estate trade media outlets. Prior to joining CoreLogic, he was a senior economist at Fannie Mae and an economist at the National Association of Realtors. He holds a master's degree in network economics from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree in economics and finance from George Mason University.
Brendan McGowan is Safe Systems's chief technology officer. He oversees the development of strategic technology solutions that allows customers to manage IT in a compliant manner. He also oversees the Safe Systems cloud infrastructure and provides guidance to our professional services teams. McGowan graduated from Georgia Southern University with a business management degree in information systems.
Jennifer Lewis Priestley is the associate dean of the Graduate College and the director of the Analytics and Data Science Institute at Kennesaw State University. In 2012, the SAS Institute recognized Priestley as the 2012 Distinguished Statistics Professor of the Year. She served as the 2012 and 2015 cochair of the National Analytics Conference. Datanami recognized Priestley as one of the top 12 Data Scientists to Watch in 2016. She has authored dozens of articles on binary classification, risk modeling, sampling, statistical methodologies for problem solving and applications of big data analytics. Prior to receiving a PhD in statistics, she worked in the financial services industry for 11 years. Her positions included vice president of business development for VISA EU in London and for MasterCard US. She was also an analytical consultant with Accenture's strategic services group. Priestley received a PhD from Georgia State, an MBA from Pennsylvania State University, and a bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech.
David C. Schwartz serves as a large bank principal examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta within the Supervision and Regulation's Risk and Resiliency Group. Schwartz is currently responsible for providing accounting-related supervisory support to examination staff. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed in 2015, he was a credit risk and accounting policy specialist with the Richmond Fed, where he provided technical support to the supervision division. Before joining the Federal Reserve System, he was an associate director with Standard & Poor's Risk Solutions Department. Schwartz started his career in risk management with Ernst & Young's risk management and regulatory practice. He is a Certified Public Accountant. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MBA with an accounting focus from the Baruch College of the City University of New York.
Chris Simpkins serves as the Bank Secrecy Act/Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) officer for Arvest Bank, having been in that role for approximately 14 years. Simpkins joined Arvest with its acquisition of Superior Bank (formerly Superior Federal Bank) in 2003, where he was serving as Superior's audit manager and had worked in its internal audit department since 1992. Within both roles, he has worked a variety of internal fraud cases. Simpkins has achieved the certifications of Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist. Additionally, for the last four years, he has served on the advisory board for the annual American Bankers Association/American Bar Association Money Laundering Enforcement (now Financial Crimes) Conference.
Maria Romero Smith is an assistant vice president in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Within the Risk and Resiliency Group, she has responsibility for operations and IT risk, credit risk, and the Risk Analysis Unit. She joined the Bank in 1992 at the Miami Branch as an examiner and during her career has held various positions of increasing responsibility. Most recently, she served as assistant vice president over the Regional Banking Organization Group. From 2013 to 2016, Smith served as secretary to the Conference of Presidents of the Federal Reserve System. The conference consists of the 12 Reserve Bank presidents, who meet periodically to discuss matters of common interest and to consult with and advise the System's Board of Governors. A native of Atlanta, Smith earned a degree in finance from Florida International University. She also successfully completed the executive development program at Harvard Business School.
Kristen J. Stogniew is a shareholder in the Financial Institution Advisory Group of Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund. She has more than 20 years of experience as an adviser to financial institutions on legal, operational, and compliance concerns. Stogniew is an adjunct faculty member at the Florida State University's College of Law and an instructor at the University of Florida's School of Banking. She is a regular speaker at state and local industry, compliance, and BSA/AML associations. Her primary areas of consultation and oversight include BSA/AML/OFAC independent tests; AML system validations; all areas of loan compliance, deposit compliance, and marketing/social media compliance; trust administration and operations, affiliate transactions (23a) and governance reviews; and ACH/NACHA compliance reviews.
Paul Viancourt is a doctoral candidate pursuing a terminal degree in business administration. He has 19 years of banking experience, with diverse specialties including regulatory compliance, BSA, fraud, audit, risk management, and information security. He has served as a BSA officer and analyst for financial institutions ranging in size from $100 million to more than $40 billion in assets. In his current role as executive vice president and director of risk management, he oversees the entirety of the internal control function at Florida Business Bank, which includes a broad sphere of influence extending to all risk, compliance, BSA/fraud, and audit-related activities. Viancourt holds a master's degree in economic crime management and is certified as an anti-money laundering specialist, fraud examiner, internal auditor, and regulatory compliance manager.