Jane Barratt
Chief Advocacy Offer, MX
Before being named Chief Advocacy Officer of MX, Jane Barratt was the founder and CEO of GoldBean. She is a long-term investor and champion of financial literacy.
Jane spent more than 20 years driving growth for Fortune 500 companies, including many financial services institutions. Her frustration with the disconnect between personal consumption (which drives the economy) and personal finance (from which only the wealthy benefit) inspired her to become a registered investment advisor, to apply a more empowered, personal and data-driven approach to investing.
There are plenty of services for the already-wealthy, and for the confident investor. But for people looking to build their confidence, knowledge and — eventually — their money, there is a lack of simple, low cost, education-first advisory services.
Jane has lived and worked in six countries, and is endlessly fascinated by the cultural differences when it comes to money and investing. Her courses on Lynda.com have helped thousands of people, all over the world, gain a deeper understanding of personal finance and investing.
Jane Barratt
Chief Advocacy Officer
MX
Natalie Bartholomew
Chief Administrative Officer | VP
Natalie Bartholomew is a career banker with experience in a variety of areas of banking including lending, deposit operations, culture building and marketing. She currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President of Grand Savings Bank, a community bank in Northwest Arkansas and Northeast Oklahoma.
Natalie has a passion for philanthropy and sits on various boards and committees that serve the Northwest Arkansas region. She was recognized as the 2015 Young Woman of the Year by the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce for the NWA Business Women’s Conference and was a member of the 2015 Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 and their 2018 Women In Business list. She received both her bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Arkansas and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking in Boulder, Colorado. Natalie is also a member of the Emerging Leaders Council of the Arkansas Bankers Association.
She launched the Girl Banker blog in November of 2017 in hopes of creating a voice for women in banking and working moms. In addition to advocacy for women in banking, Natalie has a passion for educating young women about the banking industry and highlighting those who started their career at a young age. The Girl Banker has been featured in American Banker, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, the ABA Bank Marketing Newsletter, Harland Clarke and EPCOR newsletters, and a variety of financial industry newsletters since it’s launch. Natalie also speaks at banking conferences including the American Banking Association National Agricultural Bankers Conference, American Bankers Association Bank Marketing Conference, Graduate School of Banking Colorado Community Bankers Summit, and numerous Women In Banking conferences and events.
Her absolute greatest accomplishments are being mom to sons, Brody and Witten, and wife to Colt. Natalie and her family are avid Arkansas Razorback and Dallas Cowboys fans.
Natalie Bartholomew
Chief Administrative Officer | VP
Grand Savings Bank
Rohit Bhargava
CEO, Georgetown University
Rohit Bhargava is a leading authority on marketing, trends and innovation. He is the Founder of the Non-Obvious Company and previously spent over 15 years advising large organizations on digital and marketing at two respected global agencies: Leo Burnett and Ogilvy. Rohit is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original keynote speakers on marketing disruption and innovation in the world. He is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of six books on topics as wide ranging as the future of business, building a human brand with personality, and why leaders always eat left handed. He has been invited to deliver sold-out keynotes and workshops to change the way teams and leaders think at the World Bank, NASA, Intel, LinkedIn, MetLife, Under Armour, Univision, Disney and hundreds of other well-known organizations. Rohit also teaches a popular course on marketing and storytelling at Georgetown University in Washington DC and writes a monthly column on trends for GQ magazine in Brazil.
Rohit Bhargava
Author/Professor of Global Marketing
Georgetown University
Andrea Brimmer
CMO, Ally Financial Inc
Andrea Brimmer was named chief marketing and public relations officer of Ally Financial in 2015. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the company’s marketing, advertising, public relations, market research initiatives, social media and brand management.
Andrea joined Ally at the height of the financial crisis when the company faced intense challenges – transitioning from its roots as a captive auto finance company, while also launching the first-ever online-only deposits franchise, Ally Bank. Andrea was charged with standing-up the Ally brand; developing everything from the brand pillars and cultural framework, to creating the value proposition and delivery in the marketplace. Under Andrea’s direction, Ally emerged with a strong reputation as a “different” kind of financial services company, relentlessly focused on solving pain points that traditional institutions set forth.
Since 2009, Ally has grown and diversified, and today is a top 25 digital financial services company, with not only auto and banking products, but corporate finance, online brokerage and wealth management, home mortgage, credit card and insurance products. Despite its growth, the brand has remained centered around customers and contributing to their financial well-being.
In September 2016, Andrea launched the first-ever unified brand campaign in Ally’s history, called “Do It Right”, highlighting the brand’s unique focus on doing things right for customers. The campaign not only aligned the full scope of Ally’s financial services offerings under one mantra, it also reflected the company’s culture and core values internally. “Do It Right” has become a point of pride for Ally, resulting in the highest consumer brand sentiment and awareness in Ally’s history.
Andrea Brimmer
CMO
Ally Financial Inc
Alyson Clarke
Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Alyson Clarke is the Principal Analyst at Forrester Research where she serves eBusiness and Channel Strategy Professionals. She is a highly skilled expert with extensive industry experience in both wealth management and banking. Alyson has global expertise, having previously worked at Forrester in the financial services vertical in Sydney, London, and San Francisco offices. She is now based in New York and specializes in digital and non-digital channel strategy and innovation, in particular the sales, service, and customer experience of financial services and advice across online channels, smartphones, tablets, and branches.
Alyson has a degree in economics from the Australian National University and a graduate diploma in financial planning from the Securities Institute of Australia.
Alyson Clarke
Principle Analyst
Forrester Research
Mark Cliffe
Chief Economist, ING
Mark Cliffe is Chief Economist and Head of Global Research of the ING Group. Based in London and Amsterdam, he leads a team of economists and strategists in 14 offices around the world. A graduate of Cambridge University, he has worked for a variety of financial services firms, including HSBC and Nomura Research Institute.
Mark Cliffe
Chief Economist
ING
Deidra Colvin
Chief Marketing Officer, Baker Hill
Deidra brings more than 20 years of expertise in online and traditional marketing, branding, leadership, strategy, and operations to her role at Baker Hill. She has a strong reputation as a catalyst for organizational change and has led a number of teams to new growth and success through her commitment to transformational leadership and professional development. Prior to joining Baker Hill, Deidra worked independently as a corporate advisor, providing expert guidance in integrated marketing, multi-channel strategy, brand management, segmentation, targeting and positioning and marketing infrastructure. In addition, she has held leadership roles at leading organizations such as the Better Business Bureau, NCAA® and H&R Block.
As CMO, Deidra provides strategic vision and marketing leadership and develops revenue-generating marketing strategies to support Baker Hill’s business objectives and grow brand awareness.
Deidra Colvin
Chief Marketing Officer
Baker Hill
Barbara Corcoran
Author, Shark Tales
Barbara Corcoran’s credentials include straight D’s in high school and college and twenty jobs by the time she turned twenty-three. It was her next job that would make her one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country when she took a $1000 loan to start The Corcoran Group.
As one of the “Sharks” on ABC’s hit TV show, SHARK TANK, Barbara has ponied up her own money and invested in twenty-two businesses, competing to make those deals for all to see, then shepherding them to success.
Her newest book, SHARK TALES, takes you behind the scenes of her life and business and her ‘seen on TV’ venture capitalism. Barbara is famously brash and blunt, bold and courageous, and a brilliant identifier of opportunity and talent (often invisible to others).
Barbara Corcoran
Author
Shark Tales
Katelin Cwieka
AVP/Social Media & Brand Communications Manager
Katelin Cwieka is a proud resident of Hudson, MA and moved here after living all over New England. She is involved in the Hudson Business Association and assists with the Hudson, MA Farmers’ Market. Her full-time role is AVP – Social Media and Brand Communications Manager at Avidia Bank. Additionally, she works part-time teaching Marketing classes at the Center for Women and Enterprise. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Leadership MetroWest, after graduating in 2017 from their Leadership Academy Program.
Katelin is a graduate of Anna Maria College’s with a Bachelor’s and Masters’ degree. Prior to her current roles, she worked at Ladybugz Interactive Agency as a Content and Social Media Manager and at the Canal District Farmers’ Market at Crompton Collective. She has also served terms on the Board of Directors for the MetroWest Conference for Women, Young Professional Women’s Association of Worcester and the Anna Maria College Alumni Board of Directors.
Kaitlin Cwieka
AVP/Social Media and Brand Communications Manager
Avidia Bank
David DeFazio
Partner, StrategyCorps
Dave has spoken at conferences nationwide about innovations in retail banking, mobile banking, customer engagement, product and customer profitability, product design and bank marketing. He has extensive financial services experience and continues to have a passion for exploring the intersection of data, marketing and technology.
As partner at StrategyCorps, Dave works with bank and credit union clients to design, build and implement a variety of checking, marketing and training programs. He develops consumer sites and mobile apps that deliver value to customers as well as analysis tools that allow clients to have a deeper understanding of customer relationships and product profitability.
Dave received his B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Ohio Wesleyan University.
David DeFazio
Partner
Strategy Corps
Rilla Delorier
Chief Strategy Officer, Umpqua Bank
As Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Umpqua Bank, Rilla Delorier oversees the company’s creative, product and technology teams to develop and implement strategies that move the company forward.
Delorier is known for her ability to change organizations from the inside out and unlock growth by inspiring employees, delighting customers and transforming brands to stand for something meaningful in the marketplace.
As the Chief Marketing Officer for SunTrust for seven years, Delorier influenced the CEO and Board of Directors to become a purpose-driven company. She led an effort with HR to change the values, guiding principles and performance measures for the company. She partnered with each LOB leader to transform their service offering and client experience and repositioned the SunTrust brand to align to purpose. These efforts resulted in 47% increase in brand consideration, significant increases in employee retention and engagement, industry-leading client loyalty, as well as a 30% increase in client profitability, 50% reduction in client attrition and meaningful market share growth.
Most recently Delorier led the Retail Line of Business at SunTrust, representing $2.7 billion in revenue, 9,500 employees, 1,400 branches and all digital channels.
Delorier has her MBA from Harvard Business School, her B.S. in Marketing and Management from The University of Virginia, and she has been repeatedly named to American Banker’s Top 25 most powerful women in banking.
Rilla Delorier
CSO
Umpqua Bank
Steve Ducey
CXO, Vibrant Credit Union
As the Chief Experience Officer of Vibrant Credit Union, Steve Ducey strives to create a world class culture that generates high performance results. He successfully led the rebrand of DHCU to Vibrant Credit Union in 2015 and hasn’t taken a break since. He lives and breathes culture and brand awareness. Steve believes that banking doesn’t have to be boring and is dedicated to creating a culture and banking experience that proves it. This type of culture and atmosphere has led Vibrant to receive recognition as the Quad Cities Small Business of the Year, The Quad City Chamber’s Top Place to Work for Young Professionals and one of the top 5 Credit Union to Work for in the United States.
Steve Ducey
CXO
Vibrant Credit Union
Michele Elrod
EVP, Head of Marketing, Regions Bank
Michele Elrod joined Regions in 1984 and provides strategic marketing direction and management as the Head of Marketing for Regions, a regional bank that operates throughout the South, Midwest and Texas and is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala. She serves as a Board Member on MOMENTUM Women’s Leadership of Birmingham, the University of Alabama – Communication and Information Sciences College, and the Marketing and Sales Advisory Board to the UAB Collat School of Business. Michele is an active speaker in the field on topics such as: Social Media and Marketing to the “New Consumer,” The Use of Big Data and the Changing Roles of Marketing, The Adaptive Customer Enterprise-Integrating Sales and Marketing to Drive Sales Growth, Mentoring Women and Marketing and AI.
Michele Elrod
EVP, Head of Marketing
Regions Bank
Jeff Fromm
President, FutureCast
Although not a Millennial as defined by his age, Jeff Fromm is the Millennial Marketing Guy. Jeff is President of FutureCast, a marketing consultancy that specializes in Millennial trends, and is a contributing writer at Forbes.com. Jeff is also a frequent speaker on marketing, consumer trends and brand innovation. Jeff has spent significant time researching the Millennial audience and is the co-author of “Marketing to Millennials” (2013) and “Millennials with Kids” (2015). Jeff has more than 25 years of marketing consulting experience with dozens of brands ranging from Build-a-Bear to Whole Foods Market. He is a member of the Board of Directors at Three Dog Bakery, Service Management Group, Change Labs and Tickets For Less. Jeff is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and remains actively involved in the alumni network as a regular content contributor.
Jeff Fromm
President
FutureCast
Alexandra Gekas
VP/Marketing & Engagement, Callahan & Associates
Alexandra (Alex) is Vice President Of Marketing & Engagement. She leads a team of marketers and communication specialists at Callahan & Associates, a Washington, DC-based data and consulting firm for credit unions. With more than 7 years of credit union experience, Alex helps shape the positive interactions between Callahan and its current and prospective clients.
A frequent contributor to CreditUnions.com, Alex also represents the organization across the country at industry events, providing insights and thought leadership on key areas such as brand management, peer financial analysis, key credit union trends, and more. She is passionate about improving credit union performance and using data to solve problems.
Alex graduated Magna Cum Laude from American University, where she studied psychology and marketing.
Alexandra Gekas
VP/Marketing & Engagement
Callahan & Associates
Lily Harder
VP, Research, Mintel
Lily Harder, Vice President of Research for Comperemedia, specializes in the financial services industry, researching and presenting on the latest trends, competitive intelligence insights, and newsworthy developments. As the voice of Comperemedia’s omni-channel financial services and FinTech insights, Lily keeps a pulse on marketing strategies, branding, and consumer behaviors. Lily earned her BA in Economics from Northwestern University and her MBA from ESADE in Barcelona, Spain.
Lily Harder
VP, Research
Mintel
Nancy Harhut
Behavioral Scientist & Chief Creative Associates, Harhut & Associates
Nancy Harhut is passionate about the impact behavioral science can have on marketing. A BostInno “50 on Fire” winner, Online Marketing Institute Top 40 Digital Strategist, and Social Top 50 email marketing leader, she has spearheaded integrated campaigns for clients large and small. She and her teams have won over 175 awards for digital and direct marketing effectiveness. Harhut is known for her interesting and actionable insights that focus on the impact of behavioral science on marketing. A top-ranked speaker, she’s wowed audiences from the US Department of Defense to Moscow marketers to SXSW attendees.
Nancy Harhut
Behavioral Scientist & Chief Creative Officer
Harhut & Associates
Jeffrey Hayzlett
CMO
Kodak
Jeffrey Hayzlett is a change agent, focusing on leadership, innovation and change management to drive business growth. His signature humor and big, bold approach engages audiences to start thinking differently about their business. Hayzlett motivates audiences to become change agents and leaves them inspired to think big and do bigger. With decades of experience in business growth, communications, leadership and marketing, Hayzlett shares his many successes – and failures – to give your company a new perspective on creativity, innovation, marketing, management and customer service. An online marketing, social media and mobile marketing expert, Hayzlett explores up-to-the-moment trends to help business survive and thrive in the increasingly competitive digital landscape and the future of marketing. Hayzlett receives standing ovations and is considered a top professional speaker in the business and marketing industries.
Jeffrey Hayzlett
CMO
KODAK
Tricia Hrotko
Regional Executive, Digital Onboarding
Tricia is a senior marketing, sales and retail banking professional, with over 18 years of experience in the banking industry. She most recently served as EVP and Chief Revenue Officer at CSBK (Clifton Savings). Prior experience includes leadership roles at Sterling National Bank in NYC and The Provident Bank (via First Morris Bank) of NJ. In her current role, Tricia introduces the profitability upside of instituting a smart onboarding program to banks and credit unions across the U.S.
Tricia Hrotko
Regional Executive
Digital Onboarding
Troy Janisch
VP/Director of Social Intelligence, U.S. Bank
Troy Janisch is VP/Director of the Social Intelligence team at U.S. Bank and teaches MBA courses for St. Catherine University and Digital Marketing courses for the University of Wisconsin. He is a social media beatnik, blogger, author, and marketer with two decades of experience.
Troy Janisch
VP/Director of Social Intelligence
U.S. Bank
Lynee Jarman-Johnson
Chief Marketing Officer, Consumers Credit Union
Lynne Jarman-Johnson connects people through communication.
Lynne is the Chief Marketing Officer for Consumers Credit Union. Consumers is a National Best Place To Work Organization with over One Billion dollars in assets, ranked as a top ten financial institution for social engagements in the industry.
Lynne excels in strategic goal planning and member & customer success. She is recognized for her creation of the Wedding Cake philosophy to guide organizations to communication success. Lynne’s favorite hashtag is #SimplyBeKind which brings service to a new level in organizations and work environments.
Lynne Jarman-Johnson
Chief Marketing Officer
Consumers Credit Union
Brian Knollenberg
VP, Member Insights & Strategy, BECU
For the last 20+ years Brian has helped lead, manage, ideate and optimize digital marketing and analytics campaigns for clients such as Verizon, REI, Microsoft, Nordstrom and HP. Brian left Oracle and joined BECU (the nation’s fourth largest credit union with 1.1 Million members and $18B in assets) in mid 2016. His passion is in solving complex business problems, understanding and using data and designing/optimizing full lifecycle marketing programs. At BECU, Brian is focused on unlocking member value through the use of data and insights, his team owns digital marketing channels, analytics and insights, the Martech stack and all Paid Media components.
Brian Knollenberg
VP, Member Insights & Strategy
BECU
Christopher Lester
President, C4ward Strategies
Christopher Lester is a digital marketing and brand consultant at C4ward Strategy, where he focuses on helping companies and organizations tell their story in a more human and compelling way. With a lengthy background in email marketing and brand storytelling he’s proud to be a self-professed digital geek who also is passionate about the arts.
He works with high school music program across the country and is an active adjudicator for Winter Guard International. Christopher also serves on several boards in Middle Tennessee and is the Marketing Chair for the Nashville LGBT Chamber. He’s a lover of the underdog, hot dogs and a dog named Olive.
Christopher Lester
President
C4ward Strategies
Doug Lipp
Former Training Head, Disney University
Doug Lipp is on a crusade to help organizations strengthen their corporate culture, boost business performance, and unapologetically, have fun while doing it.Doug is a distinguished international consultant, eight-time author, and former head of training at the legendary Disney University. His latest book is the best-selling Disney U: How Disney University Develops the World’s Most Engaged, Loyal, and Customer-Centric Employees. At age 29, Doug’s celebrated talent catapulted him to the helm of the legendary Disney University training team at Walt Disney corporate headquarters. Fluent in Japanese, Doug also helped Disney open its first international theme park as a member of the Tokyo Disneyland start-up team. Drawing on his 30 plus years of combined experience at Disney and in private practice, Doug inspires and challenges hundreds of organizations worldwide.
Doug Lipp
Former Training Head
Disney University
Dan Marks
Chief Marketing Officer, Hancock Whitney
Dan is leading a digitally enabled client-focused transformation as Chief Marketing Officer for Hancock Whitney with responsibility for overall strategy and execution of marketing. He has previous experience as CMO for another top 50 bank and a national retailer. He has deep experience using marketing and product levers to drive profitable revenue. Dan has been responsible for all marketing functions and the digital / eCommerce consumer channels. Innovative mobile product launches exceeded expectations. He champions a culture of excellence, innovation, and teamwork with his teams. He is frequently asked to speak to marketing, financial services, and technology audiences on a wide range of topics including marketing leadership, marketing metrics/ROI, branding the customer experience, product innovation, channel innovation, mobile, social media, and macro trends shaping the future of business. Recognitions have included the Presidents Circle CMO Award, “Top CMO on Twitter,” and “Top 40 under 40.”
Dan Marks
Chief Marketing Officer
Hancock Whitney
Jim Marous
Co-Publisher at The Financial Brand/Owner of Digital, The Financial Brand
Jim Marous is consistently rated as one of the top 5 most influential people in banking and one of the most sought after keynote speakers for industry and corporate events. Known for his understanding of the disruption in the banking industry, Marous is the co-publisher of The Financial Brand, and owner and publisher of the Digital Banking Report. Jim speaks on innovation, digital transformation, customer experience, marketing strategies, channel distribution, payments and change management.
Jim has been featured on CNBC, CNN, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, The American Banker, Fintech Finance and Accenture and has spoken to audiences worldwide.
Marous has also advised the White House on banking policy and is a contributor for Forbes and the Breaking Banks radio show.
Jim Marous
Co-Publisher at The Financial Brand/Owner of Digital
The Financial Brand
Deborah Mersino
Chief Marketing Officer, Oregon Community Credit Union
A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Deborah has built a career based upon her passions, including marketing, education, digital channels, customer experience, and nonprofits. She has worked across numerous verticals and is regularly invited to speak nationally on the subjects of member experience, digital marketing, millennial marketing, and the future of financial institutions.
Deborah Mersino
Chief Marketing & Experience Officer
OCCU
David Mooney
CEO, Alliant Credit Union
Dave Mooney is President and CEO of Alliant Credit Union. Dave’s 30-year career in financial services includes experience across a range of business lines, markets and functions at leading financial companies. Prior to being appointed to the credit union’s top leadership position in May 2003, he held a number of executive level and management positions at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and its predecessors Chase Manhattan Bank and Chemical Bank. Dave serves on the Board of Directors of Credit Union 24, Members Development Company, Operation HOPE, Inc., and NADAP (a workforce development agency), as well as the National Credit Union Foundation. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Boston College.
David Mooney
CEO
Alliant Credit Union
Chris Nichols
Chief Strategy Officer, CenterState Bank
Chris Nichols is a finance leader with 25+ years of banking experience specializing in predictive analytics, marketing, pricing, technology and innovation, risk management and creating superior bank performance.
Chris is the Chief Strategy Officer for CenterState Bank, a $6.8 billion, publicly traded Florida bank. He is an active bank investor, small business owner, school instructor,
frequent speaker and author on a multitude of banking topics including his new book, “The Successful Lender’s Field Guide.” Chris is the producer and host of the iTunes
podcast, Bank to Bank.
Mr. Nichols has held executive and operating positions at several banks, including Bank of America and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Chris was a co-founder of FinancialOxygen, a banking technology company; and was a forensic accountant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He holds a degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Chris is an active participant in the community as a sworn law enforcement officer, emergency medical technician, flight rescue officer and is certified in search management.
Chris Nichols
Chief Strategy Officer
CenterState Bank
Matt Oczkowski
Prsident, Data Propria
Matt Oczkowski is the President of Data Propria. Throughout his career, he has worked at the intersection of where product development meets data science to forecast, predict, and analyze commercial markets and American elections. In a data-driven presentation, full of powerful visuals and analytics, Matt charts the story of where we’ve been over the past several years as a country and where we’re headed in the years to come. Oczkowski is the former co-founder of HuMn Behavior, a company founded on the driving idea of understanding what motivates individuals to take action and how to harness that on behalf of clients in the commercial and political spaces. Oczkowski also served as Head of Product for Cambridge Analytica, where he most notably ran the team of embedded technical specialists inside the Trump Campaign that led to the scientific understanding of the eventual outcome of the election—a scenario that pundits missed. As the lead data strategist for the Trump campaign, he was responsible for crafting a path to victory, generating models to target priority states, and creating a travel plan that maximized electoral success. Running more than 1,500 surveys a week in key battleground states to get the most accurate polling data, his team successfully predicted the trends that played out during the election, leading to an accurate forecast of the electoral outcome in all but two states. Previously, he served as Chief Digital Officer for Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin for three years, running his data and technology operations through the 2014 reelection and 2016 presidential run. Matt continues to play a senior role in analyzing the political landscape of the country on behalf of dozens of political figures and organizations. Using tactics from the worlds of behavioral science, growth hacking, machine learning, sentiment analysis, and NLP, Oczkowski successfully connects behavioral dots together to make informed decisions about groups of people.
Matt Oczkowski
President
Data Propria
Meredith Olmstead
CEO & Founder, FI Grow
Meredith has 6+ years of experience working with financial institutions in markets of various sizes around the United States, and as an experienced Director of Online Marketing, she has helped design and implement numerous marketing and sales campaigns. Meredith has truly mastered the art of turning social media engagement into measurable results and customer satisfaction.
In 2015 Meredith Founded Social Stairway with a focus on social media marketing, but has since expended services to all areas of Inbound Marketing, so rebranded the company to FI Growth Solutions in 2018. The FI GROW team works exclusively with Credit Unions and now Community Banks, taking staff step-by-step through the process of launching all of their Digital Marketing efforts, as well as implementing full Inbound Marketing campaigns and providing Sales Enablement training and support.
Meredith Olmstead
CEO & Founder
FI Grow
John Oxford
Director of Marketing & Public Relations Senior Vice President, Renasant Bank
John Oxford didn’t choose marketing, it chose him. At age 17, Oxford found his first job as a taste tester and commercial viewer for Nabisco. Taste-testing snacks and watching commercials may seem like a sweet gig, but a young man can only eat so many Nutter Butters and Oreos. Oxford decided to put his professional career in the ad world on hold, opting for college instead.
Fast forward to today. Oxford now uses his well-honed skills in brand messaging as Director of Marketing with Renasant Corporation — the parent of Renasant Bank, with assets of approximately $12.7 billion, 2,500 employees and more than 190 locations in the Southeastern United States.
Prior to joining Renasant, Oxford served in the administration of President George W. Bush as a Legislative Assistant and Public Affairs Aide to the Executive Office of the President. Oxford is also a former commercial spokesperson for Cellular South (now C Spire Wireless), the largest privately owned mobile phone network in the U.S. Oxford was named Top 40 under 40 in Mississippi in 2007 by the Mississippi Business Journal.
John Oxford
Director of Marketing & Public Relations Senior Vice President
Renasant Bank
Jouk Pleiter
CEO & Co-Founder, Backbase
Jouk Pleiter is CEO and co-founder of Backbase, the creator of the Omni-channel Digital Banking Platform. Backbase was founded in 2003 and is privately funded with operations in New York, Atlanta, Amsterdam, and London. Global organizations such as HSBC, Barclays, ABN AMRO Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Hiscox, ING, Legal & General, Navy Federal Credit Union, KeyBank, OTP Bank, Central 1 Credit Union, Sberbank, and SwissCard have all improved their online customer interactions and maximized online customer experience, retention and conversion, by leveraging Backbase’s technology. Before Backbase, Mr. Pleiter was president and co-founder of Tridion, one of the world’s leading WCM software vendors, later acquired by SDL and renamed SDL Tridion. Before Tridion, Mr. Pleiter co-founded Twinspark Consultancy, one of the first interactive web agencies in the Netherlands. Mr. Pleiter holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Groningen.
Jouk Pleiter
CEO & Founder
Backbase
Abigail Posner
Head of Strategy, Google
Abigail shines a unique, humanistic lens on culture, business and technology that brings fresh perspective to corporate culture, product development, branding and marketing. Her quest is to spark novel thinking and lead people to take action. Abigail is the Head of Strategic Planning at the ZOO, Google’s creative think tank for agencies and brands. At Google, she helps advertisers and marketers make sense of human beings’ deep, emotional relationship to the digital space and convert those insights into strategic and creative efforts.
Abigail Posner
Head of Strategy
Ellie Reineck
National Market President, IncredibleBank
A marketing pro dedicated to making a difference.
Ellie’s career began in Broadcast Journalism, where she practiced the art of storytelling – in 10 seconds or less. She didn’t realize it at the time, but this would be the hardest sales job of her life! After six years of reporting and anchoring the news in a small market station in North Central Wisconsin, she moved on to new challenges.Ellie joined River Valley Bank in 2006 in a junior Marketing role. Four years later, she earned the position as Marketing and Public Relations Director with a focus on customer awareness, commitment to community and corporate giving. In this role, her greatest strengths and impact came when her passion for Marketing and Cause collided.
In 2017 in the aftermath of a deadly shooting she spearheaded a community match program with local media partners that raised more than $350,000 for those who lost loved ones in the tragedy.
Today, as Marketing Director for both brands she continue to learn, grow and evolve. Ellie capitalized on her passion for storytelling, creating positive connections and building businesses that she believes in.
Ellie Reineck
National Market President
IncredibleBank
Jim Reuter
CEO, FirstBank
Jim Reuter is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FirstBank, one of the nation’s largest privately held banks. He previously served as FirstBank’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) where he oversaw many of the bank’s divisions, including: marketing, loan/mortgage operations, IT, online banking, payments, contact center, online account/loan acquisition, and treasury management.
FirstBank has attributed many of the bank’s celebrated products, IT innovations and marketing achievements over the years to Reuter’s leadership. Prior to his oversight of FirstBank’s support services departments, he held several different positions within the organization dating back to 1987.
Reuter is an active participant in FirstBank’s Executive Committee, Board of Directors, Risk Committee, Audit Committee, Project Portfolio Management Committee, Loan Committee and Funds Management. Additionally, he is heavily involved with industry efforts in technology and payments including:
• American Bankers Association – Chair of the Payments System Advisory Committee
• American Bankers Association – Chair of the Government Relations Committee
• Federal Reserve Faster Payments — Task Force Steering Committee
• Pacific Coast Banking School — Board Member
Reuter is also a highly active member of the community, currently chairing on multiple nonprofit boards including the Special Olympics of Colorado and Cerebral Palsy of Colorado Legacy Foundation. He was previously involved with the following organizations:
• Colorado Bankers Association – Board Member
• Colorado Bankers Association – Government Affairs Committee
• American Bankers Association Corporation For American Banking Committee
• Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – Operations Council
• Ability Connection Colorado – Chairman of the Board
• South Eastern Bankcard Association – Board Member
• MasterCard/Cirrus Network – Operations Committee
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Luther College and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Graduate School of Banking.
Jim Reuter
CEO
FirstBank
Wil Reynolds
Founder & Director of Digital Strategy, Seer Interactive
Wil is the founder & director of strategy at Seer Interactive. He has worked across every vertical, including pharmaceuticals & hospital systems to e-commerce and SaaS. With over 15 years experience doing and talking about search, he loves to speak at conferences about the future of search, and tends to lead his agency to think about search through different lenses.
Wil Reynolds
Founder & Director of Digital Strategy
Seer Interactive
James Robert Lay
CEO & Co-Founder, Digital Growth Institute
James Robert Lay is one of the world’s leading digital marketing advisors for financial brands. As the founder and CEO of the Digital Growth Institute, James Robert has guided more than 475 banks and credit unions on a mission to simplify digital marketing strategies that empower financial brands to generate 10X more loans and deposits.
He has been named one of the Financial Brand’s “Top Global Financial Services Influencers to Follow,” a CUNA “Credit Union Rock Star,” and a CU Times “Under 40 Trailblazer.” Docurated named him one of the “Top Marketing Automation Resources.” And Kapost has recognized him as one of “32 Texas Marketers You Should Follow” on Twitter.
In addition to frequently speaking at industry events around the world, James Robert leads the CUES Strategic School of Marketing and has lectured at universities throughout the United States, including the Southwest CUNA Management School. His insights have also been published by US News and World Report, The Financial Brand, Breaking Banks Podcast, American Banker, CU Times, CU Journal, CU Broadcast, CU Insight, and the Mortgage Marketing Institute among many others.
James Robert Lay
CEO & Founder
Digital Growth Institute
Dena Roten
Managing Director of Retail Banking, Citi
Dena Roten, head of Citi’s U.S. Retail Bank Branch Channel, plays a key role in Citi’s US Branch Transformation strategy, which involves responsibility for digital enablement, sales, policies, procedures, staffing strategy, organizational culture and operational process design. Prior to joining Citibank in 2012, Dena spent 25 years with Bank of America.
Dena Roten
Managing Director of Retail Banking
Citi
Jonathan Rowe
Chief Marketing Officer, nCinco
Jonathan Rowe is the Chief Marketing Officer for nCino and oversees the company’s research, communication, marketing, recruiting and business development activities, and helped build nCino’s global brand. He has presented at dozens of banking and technology conferences and published numerous articles and whitepapers. He teaches loan portfolio management at the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado, where he is an adjunct faculty member. Prior to joining nCino, Jonathan was a professor in the Cameron School of Business and director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He holds an MBA from Babson College and Ph.D. from Auckland University.
Jonathan Rowe
Chief Marketing Officer
nCinco
Claudia Sandino
CMO, Ocean Bank
Claudia Sandino is a Senior Social Media Marketing Strategist with 8+ years of experience in building, leading, and managing large digital media teams, implementing successful digital strategies at large-scale global companies, and analyzing customer data to identify target markets, trends, and customer sentiment. She uses Psychographics to help large corporations humanize their brands and build relationships with their customers through social media.
Claudia Sandino
CMO
Ocean Bank
Barbara Sanfilippo
Co-Founder, High Definition Banking
Barbara Sanfilippo is an enthusiastic and popular business and motivational speaker, author, coach and member relationship management consultant specializing in inspiring staff to deepen member relationships, stop the product dumping and be viewed as a trusted financial partner. Her firm, High Definition Banking® partners with progressive credit unions and financial firms to instill a structured and sustainable relationship management process to accelerate organic growth, advance beyond transactional product selling to a relationship-driven model and focus on the financial health and well-being of members. Their consulting and training process creates a paradigm shift prompting credit union staff to proudly see themselves as a financial coach and relationship manager dedicated to reducing member anxieties and helping them achieve their future goals.
Barb has shared the platform with Olympians, politicians and celebrities. Her enthusiastic and interactive style combined with her “how-to” practical approach have earned her the respect and repeat business of hundreds of credit unions and associations nationally and internationally, including in the financial services, insurance, investments, mortgage, hospitality and other industries. She is one of 227 speakers worldwide to receive both the Certified Speaking Professional designation and the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame Award from the National Speakers.
Barbara Sanfilippo
Co-Founder
High Definition Banking
Melissa Schilling
John Herzog Family Professor of Strategy and Innovation / Author of Quirky, NYU Stern School of Business
Melissa A. Schilling is the John Herzog Family professor of management and organizations at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and one of the world’s leading experts on innovation. Her textbook, Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (now in its fifth edition), is the number one innovation strategy text in the world. She is also coauthor of Strategic Management: An integrated approach (now in its twelfth edition),and has a new book on serial breakthrough innovators called “Quirky: The remarkable story of the traits, foibles, and genius of breakthrough innovators who changed the world.” Professor Schilling earned her doctorate in Strategic Management from the University of Washington. She and her work have been featured on NPR’s Marketplace, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, CNBC, Scientific American, and USA Today, among others. She also regularly delivers keynote presentations on strategy and innovation at national and international conferences as well as corporations.
Melissa Schilling
John Herzog Family Professor of Strategy and Innovation / Author of Quirky
NYU Stern School of Business
Lance Senoyuit
Senior Principal/Industry Value Engineering Banking Industry, SAP
Lance is part of a team of professionals at SAP that provide industry thought leadership and expert consultation to support customer co-innovation, enterprise transformation, and business process performance improvement programs. Bringing over 25 years of experience to the role, Lance’s priority is to lead customer engagements to assess strategic objectives, innovation scenarios, key improvement opportunities and other sources of incremental economic value.
Prior to joining SAP, he spent over 20 years in the banking and finance industry working for industry leaders like JP Morgan Chase and PNC. Most recently Lance served as the Virtual and Digital Client Experience Manager for Associated Bank were he was instrumental in the startup of the virtual banking and digital client experience division. Lance’s experience in banking includes executive management roles in retail, contact center, corporate, mortgage, and wealth management.
Lance earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Youngstown State University and an MBA in Finance from Cleveland State University, as well as being a graduate of the Consumer Bankers Associates Graduate School of Retail Bank Management at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Lance also holds a Certificate of Financial Planning from the University of Georgia Terry College of Business.
Lance Senoyuit
Senior Principal/Industry Value Engineering Banking Industry
SAP
Ron Shevlin
Director of Research, Cornerstone Advisors
Ron Shevlin is the Director of Research at Cornerstone Advisors where he heads up the firm’s strategic research efforts, including commissioned research, the Insight Vault service, and the Cornerstone Performance Report. A nationally sought after speaker, Ron is the author of the Amazon best-selling book Smarter Bank, and is the purveyor of fine snark on the Financial Brand’s Snarketing column and the Fintech Snark Tank podcast. Ron’s prior experience includes research and consulting for Aite Group, Forrester Research, and KPMG.
Ron Shevlin
Director of Research
Cornerstone Advisors
Jason Silva
Futurist, Storyteller, Behavioral Scientist & Host of Hit TV Show Brain Games.
Jason Silva is an Emmy-nominated and world renown TV personality, storyteller, filmmaker, and sought-after keynote speaker and futurist.
Jason is known for hosting 5 seasons of the Emmy-nominated, global hit TV series Brain Games, on the National Geographic Channel, broadcasted in over 171 countries.
His inspirational videos, Shots of Awe, have received over 100 million views across social platforms. The videos explore topics such as futurism, technology, creativity, the science of awe, disruptive innovation, relationships and mental health.
Most recently Jason hosted the global miniseries ORIGINS: The Journey Of Humankind, on the National Geographic Channel, seen in 171 countries.
A global keynote speaker, Jason has given talks at events for Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe, Electronic Arts, Cannes Lions, Tribeca Film Festival, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, 20th Century Fox, Cosmopolitan, PHD Worldwide, Google Zeitgeist, TED Global, The Economist, and more.
Jason Silva
Futurist, Storyteller, Behavioral Scientist & Host of Hit TV Show Brain Games
Peter Stackpole
Founder, Stackpole Partners
In 1995, having 10 years of advertising experience behind him, Peter decided to strike out on his own and launched Stackpole. His vision was to create an agency that fosters strong working relationships with a select group of clients who share his belief that building and maintaining a leading brand requires a long-term commitment to a strategic communications program. After nearly 25 years of managing successful client relationships, Peter can confidently say that this philosophy continues to appeal to his clients and staff. As Director of Client Services, Peter remains a primary client contact, involved in all aspects of strategic development, communications planning, and concept development. He also has a wealth of experience presenting programs to CEOs, boards of directors and top-tier management, and supporting the internal sell-through that is often critical to building momentum within the client organization. Peter also sits on the Board of Advisors for Vetter, a FinTech startup in the loan automation category, and has been invited to speak at several Bank and Accounting Conferences including NEFMA, ICBA National Conference, ICBANY and Financial Brand.
Peter Stackpole
Founder
Stockpole Partners
Ben Stangland
President & COO, Weber Marketing Group
As President and Chief Operations Officer, and one of four principals at Weber Marketing Group, Ben is responsible for the day-to-day leadership and general management of the company. He has direct responsibility for Weber Marketing Group’s data analytics group, human resources, operations and finance. Ben maintains and fosters long-term industry partner relationships, driving growth and vitality for both the company and our clients.
Ben is a highly skilled data analyst and strategist. He blends complex sets of financial databases and big data into customized decision-making tools and algorithms to build client growth strategies. Under Ben’s leadership, Weber Marketing Group has become an industry leader in providing advanced analytics, dashboards and business intelligence to financial institutions.
Ben Stangland
President & COO
Weber Marketing Group
Paula Tompkins
Founder & CEO, ChannelNet
Paula Tompkins, CEO and founder of ChannelNet, is a strategic visionary and with a deep understanding of marketing and technology. She is an authority on leveraging digital touch points to drive store traffic. An inventor, Tompkins holds two U.S. patents for ChannelNet’s SiteBuilder software technology. She has helped hundreds of the world’s leading Fortune 500 companies use technology to sell their products and build customer relationships.
Her technology-based sales, marketing and service company specializes in solutions for the finance, automotive and home improvement industries. Featured in Tom Peters’s PBS show,Thriving on Chaos, she is credited with developing a number digital marketing firsts including gamification, interactive advertising and personal URLs or microsites.
Paula Tompkins
Founder & CEO
ChannelNet
Penne Vanderbush
Chief Strategy Officer, FI Grow
Penne VanderBush is the Chief Strategy Officer at FI GROW Solutions. As the former VP of Marketing for the largest state-charted credit union in Vermont she has over 10 years of experience in credit union marketing. Penne is a Certified Senior Executive and a Certified Electronic Marketer who specializes in developing a holistic approach to marketing strategies that integrates sales, operations, retail, and other areas of the institution to ensure success upon implementation.
Penne Vanderbush
Chief Strategy Officer
FI Grow
Gary Vaynerchuk
Global Marketing Expert, Social Media Rockstar & Serial Entrepreneur
Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur and the Chairman of VaynerX, a modern day communications parent company, as well as the CEO and Co-Founder of VaynerMedia, a full-service digital agency servicing Fortune 500 clients across the company’s 4 locations. His fifth book “Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too” is available in stores now! Gary rose to prominence in the late 90’s after establishing one of the first ecommerce wine sites, WineLibrary helping his father grow the family business from 4 to 60MM in sales. Gary is also one of the most sought after public speakers alive today. He is a venture capitalist, 4-time New York Times bestselling author, and an early investor in companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo and Uber. Gary has been named to both Crain’s and Fortune’s 40 Under 40 lists. Gary is currently the subject of DailyVee, an online documentary series highlighting what it’s like to be a CEO and public figure in today’s digital world. He is also the host of #AskGaryVee, a business and advice Q&A show online. Gary is also the host of a global top 10 business podcast, The Gary Vaynerchuk Audio Experience. Gary’s signature sneakers, The GaryVee 001 & 002 in collaboration with K-Swiss sold out on opening day. He is the Co-Founder of VaynerSports, a full service athlete representation agency with more than 20 clients with his brother AJ. Gary also appears with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba and Will.i.am on Apple’s first original series “Planet of the Apps” out now.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Global Marketing Expert, Social Media Rockstar & Serial Entrepreneur
Joe Wheeler
Senior Director/Mid-Size Bank Practice Leads, J.D. Power
Joe is responsible for running the Mid-Size Bank practice and advocating JD Power (JDP) products and services across the entire range of benchmarking, performance improvement, and performance measurement and management solutions to the retail banking industry. Joe relies on his 20+ years of financial services senior management experience when helping banks. His expertise is in leading cross-functional teams and executing growth and satisfaction strategies. He has been recognized for a strong ability to identify opportunities, workable strategies and successfully delivering results.
Joe Wheeler
Senior Director/Mid-Size Bank Practice Lead
J.D. Power
Jane Barratt
Chief Advocacy Officer of MX
Before being named Chief Advocacy Officer of MX, Jane Barratt was the founder and CEO of GoldBean. She is a long-term investor and champion of financial literacy.
Jane spent more than 20 years driving growth for Fortune 500 companies, including many financial services institutions. Her frustration with the disconnect between personal consumption (which drives the economy) and personal finance (from which only the wealthy benefit) inspired her to become a registered investment advisor, to apply a more empowered, personal and data-driven approach to investing.
Jane has lived and worked in six countries, and is endlessly fascinated by the cultural differences when it comes to money and investing. Her courses on Lynda.com have helped thousands of people, all over the world, gain a deeper understanding of personal finance and investing.
Jane Barratt
Chief Advocacy Officer
MX
Kevin Blair
CEO, NewGround
Kevin is a CEO who prefers to be on the front lines with clients and our team. A hands-on leader through and through, he handpicks team members that are able to elevate the company beyond a service provider to that of a strategic partner. Kevin spends the majority of his time in-front of clients, challenging them to think differently in order to evolve their businesses to deliver unexpected experiences. With over 30 years’ experience, Kevin has developed a reputation as a thought leader and highly sought-after keynote speaker.
Kevin Blair
CEO
NewGround
Gina Bleedorn
Chief Experience Officer, Adrenaline
As Chief Experience Officer of Adrenaline, Gina is responsible for Brand and Marketing Strategy for the agency and key client accounts. She has worked with hundreds of organizations across the country, from brands like Northwestern Medicine, Capital One, Charles Schwab, E*Trade and Whole Foods to regional and community institutions. Frequently speaking publicly on industry trends, she believes in a consumer-centric approach to branding focused on creating meaningful experiences. She is an internationally published author on the topic of brand strategy, and over the past 15 years has refreshed and launched dozens of brands.
Gina Bleedorn
Chief Experience Officer
Adrenaline
Rauly Butler
EVP, The Mechanics Bank
Rauly has been a banker since 1982 where he has held positions at Crocker Bank, Wells Fargo Bank and Mechanics Bank. Currently Rauly is the head of Retail Banking for Mechanics Bank with 30 offices and 220 employees under his direction. He is active with numerous non-profit organizations, municipal commissions, as well as Berkeley social organizations. In addition to being a banker, Rauly is a real estate investor in the City of Berkeley.
Rauly Butler
EVP
The Mechanics Bank
Jill Castilla
CEO/President, Citizens Bank of Edmond
“Community Banker of the Year” by American Banker, “Most Innovative CEOs in Banking” by Bank Innovation, “Most Admired CEOs in Oklahoma” by Journal Record and “Business Leader of the Year” by Oklahoma Christian University, Jill Castilla leads Citizens Bank of Edmond as its President and Chief Executive Officer and Chairwoman of its bank holding company. She is the visionary behind “Heard on Hurd”, Citizens’ community building event that draws over 25,000 to a bank celebration every month. She leads community bank innovation through development of ATM customer interaction products, branch lobby design and customer outreach methods. As an industry leader and active community member, Jill serves on numerous boards, including American Bankers Association, Southwest Graduate School of Banking at SMU, Friends of Traditional Banking and both Oklahoma City and Edmond Chambers of Commerce. Jill leads social media in the financial industry and is a frequent keynote speaker on leadership, banking and technology. Jill holds a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor’s degree in finance from Hawaii Pacific University where she was honored as one of their first distinguished alumni. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin’s Graduate School of Banking. Jill is married to her husband of 23 years, Lt. Colonel Marcus Castilla. She served in the U.S. Army and Oklahoma Army National Guard and is an Army wife and an Army mom.
Jill Castilla
CEO/President
Citizens Bank of Edmond
Josh Cook
COO, Community Choice Credit Union
Josh Cook serves as the CEO of Community Choice Credit Union where he has been part of the team for the past 17 years. He attended Iowa State University where he received his B.S. in marketing. Josh serves as a board member for the American Heart Association and Iowa Lottery Authority. He resides in Des Moines, Iowa.
Josh Cook
COO
Community Choice Credit Union
Catherine Courage
VP, Ads & Commerce User Experience at Google
Catherine co-authored the book “Understanding Your Users,” and is an active writer and speaker on customer empathy, innovation and design. Catherine has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and TEDx. She has twice been selected by the Silicon Valley Business Journal – in 2011 as one of Silicon Valley’s “40 Under 40” young tech leaders, and in 2013 as one of Silicon Valley’s 100 Most Influential Women. Also in 2013, Catherine made Forbes list of “Top 10 Rising Stars at The Worlds Most Innovative Companies.” In 2014, the National Diversity Council named her one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology.
Catherine Courage
VP, Ads & Commerce User Experience
David Defazio
Partner, Strategy Corps
Dave has spoken at conferences nationwide about innovations in retail banking, mobile banking, customer engagement, product and customer profitability, product design and bank marketing. He has extensive financial services experience and continues to have a passion for exploring the intersection of data, marketing and technology.
As partner at StrategyCorps, Dave works with bank and credit union clients to design, build and implement a variety of checking, marketing and training programs. He develops consumer sites and mobile apps that deliver value to customers as well as analysis tools that allow clients to have a deeper understanding of customer relationships and product profitability.
Dave received his B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Ohio Wesleyan University.
David Defazio
Partner
Strategy Corps
Carlos Dominguez
President, Sprinklr
Carlos has more than 30 years of enterprise technology experience and an unparalleled passion for innovation. Previously an active member of Sprinklr’s board of directors, today Carlos guides strategic direction for Sprinklr and leads the marketing, sales, services, and partnerships teams for the organization.
Prior to joining Sprinklr, Carlos spent 22 years at Cisco Systems in a variety of roles. Over the last seven years, he served as a technology evangelist and representative for the chairman and CEO of Cisco, delivering thought-provoking and interactive keynotes to audiences worldwide. During his tenure at Cisco, he established Cisco in the strategic markets of financial services, media, and pharmaceuticals. He also helped establish and led Cisco’s Service Provider organization to generate more than $14 billion in annual revenue. Before joining Cisco, Carlos held management positions at Timeplex, Inc. and New Jersey Bell/Bell Atlanticom.
Carlos also serves on several boards of directors, including Medidata Solutions, Inc., the CDC Foundation, Cisco Foundation, NJIT Board of Overseers & Catalyst, and Princess House.
Carlos Dominguez
President
Sprinklr
Jason Dorsey
President & Co-Founder, GenHQ
Jason Dorsey wrote his first bestselling book at age 18. He is Co-Founder and President of The Center for Generational Kinetics. Jason has led Millennial and Gen Z research on four continents in multiple languages. He advises CEOs, corporate boards, VC and PE firms around the world! He is a Millennial himself, married to a Gen X’er, and they have a Gen Z daughter!
Jason Dorsey
President & Co-Founder
GenHQ
Tom Edwards
Chief Digital Officer, Epsilon
Tom Edwards is the Chief Digital Officer, Agency at Epsilon. He is a data driven, digitally centric marketing executive and professional futurist. He specializes in the integration of emerging technology, digital transformation, thought leadership, innovation and leading strategic teams. Tom has developed a significant base of experience across multiple industries which have led to strategic interactive and innovation led consulting engagements with hundreds of Fortune 1000 organizations. His vertical experiences include Automotive, Entertainment, Technology, CPG, Government, Retail, Healthcare, Pharma, Food & Beverage, Energy, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Insurance, Travel and Chemical.
Tom Edwards
Chief Digital Officer
Epsilon
Tara Graff
VP, Marketing / Business Development, Royal Credit Union
Tara serves as the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Hiway Federal Credit Union, a $1.2B, St. Paul-based organization. Tara has a deep love for and more than fifteen years of professional experience in marketing and public relations, where her vocation and avocation are one and the same. In previous lives, Tara has served as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Royal Credit Union, a $2B, 25-branch Wisconsin-based credit union, where she oversaw a complete business unit restructure, a rebranding and a website overhaul, the latter of which prompted her to attain a User Experience (UX) certification in 2015.
Prior to her time at Royal, Tara led all marketing and public relations functions for SPIRE Credit Union in Minneapolis-St.Paul. In all of her credit union management positions, she was (and is) responsible for marketing planning, budgeting, advertising across media, new product launches, member communications, executive messaging & speechwriting, internal communications, event planning and more.
Tara Graff
VP, Marketing/Business Development
Royal Credit Union
Kindra Hall
Speaker/Storytelling Advisor/Author
Kindra Hall is President and Chief Storytelling Officer at Steller Collective, a consulting firm focused on the strategic application of storytelling to today’s communication challenges. Kindra is one of the most sought after keynote speakers trusted by global brands to deliver presentations and trainings that inspire teams and individuals to better communicate the value of their company, their products and their individuality through strategic storytelling.
What began as a chance encounter at age 13 with a storytelling cassette tape grew into a passion for not only telling stories, but a mastery for teaching others the methods and science of storytelling so they can better tell their own.
She was a National Champion storyteller (yes, they have those), member of the Board of Directors of the National Storytelling Network and has her master’s degree in communications where she conducted original research studying the role of storytelling in defining and revealing organizational culture.
Kindra is a former Director of Marketing and VP of Sales. Today, Kindra’s work can be seen at Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com and as a contributing editor for SUCCESS Magazine. Kindra’s message spans all industries and her clients include Facebook, Hilton Hotels, Tyson Foods, Target, Berkshire Hathaway and the Harvard Medical School. Her much anticipated book will be released by Harper Leadership in the fall of 2019.
Regardless of the industry, Kindra has become a conference favorite for her clients. The blend of inspiration and education in her keynotes mean that audiences leave feeling excited and equipped to finally put their stories to work in a tangible way.
Kindra lives in Manhattan with her husband, young son and daughter. When she is not traveling around the world speaking, Kindra can usually be found at spin class or in Central Park with her family.
Kindra Hall
Speaker/Storytelling Advisor/Author
Jonathan Hanson
Director, Product Marketing, Community First CU
Jonathan Hanson is the Product Marketing Manager at Community First Credit Union in Jacksonville, FL. He’s been in the financial services industry for 9 years and is committed to improving the financial wellness of the communities he serves. He also leads an Innovation Team and is heavily involved in many community organizations throughout Northeast Florida.
Jonathan Hanson
Director, Product Marketing
Community First CU
Nancy Harhut
Chief Creative Officer, HBT Marketing
Nancy Harhut is passionate about the impact of behavioral science on marketing. An Online Marketing Institute Top 40 Digital Strategist, Social Top 50 email marketing leader, and the winner of numerous International ECHO awards for marketing effectiveness, she has spearheaded campaigns for clients such as AARP, AT&T, IBM, Dell, Nationwide, TripAdvisor, Eaton Vance, Sheraton, H&R Block and more.
The Chief Creative Officer of HBT Marketing, Harhut is known for her interesting and actionable insights that focus on applying behavioral science to marketing. A sought-after, top-ranked speaker, she’s wowed audiences with high-energy, example-jammed sessions in Moscow, Stockholm, Sao Paulo, Sydney and all over the US — including attendees at SXSW and DMA.
Nancy Harhut
Chief Creative Officer
HBT Marketing
Tim Harrington
President, T.E.A.M Resources
Tim Harrington is a leadership expert, a gifted speaker, instructor, author and consultant. Since 1996, Tim Harrington has been President of TEAM Resources, a firm that provides strategic planning, training, and consulting for financial institutions nationwide. Prior to that, he was a partner in a large regional CPA firm that is now known as Clifton Larson Allen and the president of Connelly Manufacturing. Tim was chairman of the board of the $150 million Tucson Old Pueblo Credit Union in Arizona from 2002–2006. During his tenure, the credit union evolved from losing more than $2 million per year to earning nearly $2 million per year.
Tim Harrington
President
T.E.A.M Resources
Lyne Jarman-Johnson
CMO, Consumers Credit Union
Lynne Jarman-Johnson is a proven leader in communications. Lynne energizes people of all levels while connecting to the core vision of products and services to ensure direct audience impact. Lynne is the Chief Marketing Officer for Consumers Credit Union. She is also the Chief Coordinator of Family Dynamics (6 kids!) for the Johnson Bunch.
Lynne is a bold leader who brings passion and quality to all works and levels of an organization. Lynne also brings social communication expertise with knowledge of up to the minute technology/ information systems for communication. Lynne’s “Wedding Cake” philosophy has changed the way marketing and data is served to members, audiences and communities.
Lynne is ranked in top 20 of 100 CMOs on Twitter and Forbes Social Media Influencers list. She has also been recognized as one of 50 over 50 Thought Leaders by Brand Quarterly Magazine.
Lynne Jarman-Johnson
CMO
Consumers Credit Union
Debra Jasper
Founder/CEO, Mindset Digital
Debra Jasper, Ph.D, Founder & CEO of Mindset Digital, is a passionate presenter and storyteller—whether online and in person. She and business partner, Betsy Hubbard, have provided consulting to more than 30,000 individuals from Ukraine to Sweden. As the 2012 national keynote speakers for KeyBank, she and Hubbard gave talks to thousands of business leaders in 17 cities across the United States. Jasper’s speaking career stretches internationally, as she has likewise given keynotes to the Ukrainian Council of Ministers in Kiev and the Nordic Media Festival in Bergen.
Before launching Mindset Digital, Jasper spent seven years directing the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism at Ohio State, where she helped to launch the first social media fellowship for journalists in the nation—showing reporters from CNN, 60 Minutes, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other top newsrooms how to tell powerful stories on modern mediums like social networks. She has also taught graduate courses on the impact of digital media on public affairs at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.
Debra Jasper
Founder/CEO
Mindset Digital
Guy Kawaski
Former Chief Evangelist, Apple
Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. He is a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). He was the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. He is also the author of The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Guy Kawaski
Former Chief Evangelist
Apple
Wei Ke
Partner, Simon Kucher & Partners
Wei Ke is a Managing Partner at Simon-Kucher & Partners, a global consulting firm specializing in TopLine Power®, which encompasses strategy, marketing, pricing, and sales. Founded in 1985, Simon-Kucher has more than 1,000 professionals in 33 offices worldwide. The company’s practice is built on evidence-based, practical strategies for profit improvement via the top line. Simon-Kucher is regarded as the world’s leading pricing advisor and thought leader. Wei currently heads Simon-Kucher’s financial services activities in North America and is Managing Partner of Simon-Kucher Canada. He has advised leading financial institutions in North America and Europe on product innovation, pricing strategy, marketing & promotional tactics, customer value management, risk management, value communication, sales effectiveness, consumer behavioral biases, and big data analytics for both sides of the balance sheet. Wei is a frequent speaker at banking and fintech conferences in the US, UK and Canada, and is regularly published in leading financial services journals, including Bank Accounting & Finance, BAI Banking Strategies, American Banker, and Mortgage Finance Gazette. He is currently also an adjunct professor for pricing and marketing analytics at Columbia Business School and at Queen’s University Smith School of Business. Wei received his Ph.D. in Decision, Risk, and Operations from Columbia Business School, and his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering & Applied Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Columbia University.
Wei Ke
Partner
Simon Kucher & Partners
Sam Kilmer
Senior Director, Cornerstone
Sam Kilmer leads advisory for fintech, vendors, and investors at Cornerstone Advisors. Kilmer also conducts selected research and strategic and delivery planning engagements for financial institutions. Sam has worked with many of the top 100 fintech companies, all of the top 4 core providers and 3 of the top 5 providers in each of the digital, lending, and payments markets.
Prior to Cornerstone, Kilmer’s experience includes leadership in strategy, analytics, digital delivery, and marketing at two tech firms and two midsize banks, most recently leading strategy and partnerships for one of the industry’s top providers of origination, lending, and core systems.
Cited often in the press and a regular contributor to Cornerstone’s GonzoBanker blog, Sam is a nationally known and sought-after speaker, including Finovate, Financial Brand, and many fintech provider events. He studied at Regents College London and is a graduate of Ball State University.
Sam Kilmer
Senior Director
Cornerstone
Sallie Krawcheck
CEO & Co-Founder, Chair of Elevate Network
Sallie is CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, a new digital investment platform for women. She chairs the Ellevate Network, a global professional women’s network, and the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, which invests in the top-rated companies for advancing women. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Krawcheck held senior positions at Bank of America, including head of its Global Wealth and Investment Management Division and CEO of Merrill Lynch. Prior to that, she was an executive at Citi, including CEO of its wealth management business, CFO for Citigroup, and CEO of Smith Barney. She has been named among the top ten of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People list.
Sallie Krawcheck
CEO & Co-Founder, Chair of Elevate Network
Ellevest
Jean-Pierre Lacroix
President, SLDNXT
Jean-Pierre Lacroix is President of Shikatani Lacroix Design (SLD). In addition to pioneering the successful firm, Jean-Pierre is also Past President of The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario, Past President of DIAC (Design Industry Advisory Committee), board member of SEGD (Society of Environmental Graphic Designers), as well as former Director of the Packaging Association of Canada.
An accomplished dynamic speaker, he has lectured at numerous conferences across Canada, the US, Asia and South America on the subjects of branding and design trends. His presentations have always received high appraisals for content, energy, and take-away actionable information. Mr. Lacroix also co-authored a best selling book, which was launched in January 2002, titled The Business of Graphic Design: A Professional’s Handbook. Most recently he has released his third book “Desire by Design” culminating more than 35 years of helping Fortune 500 brands remain relevant.
Jean Pierre Lacroix
President
SLDNXT
Ralph LaMacchia
President, La Macchia
As President and Co-Founder of La Macchia Group, Ralph created a business model focusing solely on financial institutions. Throughout the past 30 years, Ralph has supervised, planned, designed and managed construction projects of varied scopes, budgets and sizes, he remains actively involved with the day-to-day operation of La Macchia Group. One thing that has remained consistent throughout each and every project is his integrity. This is the first word clients’ associate with him. Leading by example, Ralph inspires and brings out the best in each team member. His dedication, knowledge and experience are part of each and every project, which allows our clients to feel confident they are receiving the highest level of service. He has developed lasting relationships, which is another reason why we have a long list of repeat customers.
Ralph’s interests are history, cars, the outdoors, snowmobiling and spending time with his grandchildren. He especially enjoys taking his grandchildren to car events and shows.
Ralph LaMacchia
President
La Macchia
Natalie Lemoine
VP/Marketing Director, Home Bank
Natalie Lemoine serves as VP/Marketing Director for Home Bank. She is an accomplished marketer with over 20 years of experience in leading initiatives for a diverse roster of clients with a focus on delivering measurable results. Proven track record for clients within the following industries: Travel and Tourism, Financial Marketing, Education, Recruitment Marketing, Oil & Gas, Healthcare Industry, Quick Service Restaurant Industry, Lottery & Casino Marketing, as well as Transportation Initiatives. She is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans and currently resides in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Natalie Lemoine
VP/Marketing Director
Home Bank
Jim Marous
Fintech Strategist/Co-Publisher, The Financial Brand
Jim Marous is consistently rated as one of the top 5 most influential people in banking and one of the most sought after keynote speakers for industry and corporate events. Known for his understanding of the disruption in the banking industry, Marous is the co-publisher of The Financial Brand, and owner and publisher of the Digital Banking Report. Jim speaks on innovation, digital transformation, customer experience, marketing strategies, channel distribution, payments and change management.
Jim has been featured on CNBC, CNN, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, The American Banker, Fintech Finance and Accenture and has spoken to audiences worldwide.
Marous has also advised the White House on banking policy and is a contributor for Forbes and the Breaking Banks radio show.
Jim Marous
Fintech Strategist/Co-Publisher
The Financial Brand
Jeff McCarthy
VP, Marketing Director, First Bank Financial Centre
Jeff McCarthy serves as the VP, Marketing Director at First Bank Financial Centre. His specialties include working with clients from a variety of categories, specifically within financial services and healthcare, as well as exposure to other consumer and B-2-B categories. He is a graduate of both Marquette University and St. Norbert College. He is currently a marketing committee member for the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts.
Jeff McCarthy
VP, Marketing Director
First Bank Financial Centre
Karen McGaughey
Principal, Vice President, Strum
Karen McGaughey currently serves as Principal, Vice President of Client Services at Strum. She’s a passionate leader, professional speaker and brand and culture trainer. Karen graduated with a B.A. in Communications from Washington State University. She currently resides in Seattle, Washington.
Karen McGaughey
Principal
Weber Marketing Group
Craig McLaughlin
CEO, Extractable
Craig McLaughlin is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Extractable – an agency focused on digital solutions for wealth and health. Over the last two decades he and Extractable are proud to have driven successes for large-scale FIs, community banks, credit unions and fin-tech start-ups. Craig’s passion for using digital to drive and define financial experiences has earned him the reputation as an innovative and expert leader in Silicon Valley – and beyond. He is on a mission to positively impact the field of finance.
Craig holds a BSBA from San Diego State University and an M.S. in Information Systems & Web Technology from Hawaii Pacific University. When he’s not thinking about digital + finance, Craig loves spending time with his beautiful family and friends. He also enjoys wine, cycling and running – not necessarily in that order.
Craig McLaughlin
CEO
Extractable
Paula Milstead
Director of Marketing, Chesapeake Bank
Paula Milstead directs the marketing for Chesapeake. She began her career with us 16 years ago and has been in banking for 23 years. She has gathered experience with customer service, lending, financial planning and marketing through working in a bank call center, serving customers in a retail branch, performing marketing research, and holding business development roles. She holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. degree in Marketing Management from Grove City College, Pennsylvania. She is also a 2006 graduate of the American Bankers Association’s School of Bank Marketing and Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Additionally, in 2007 she was awarded the Certified Financial Marketing Professional (CFMP) designation from the Institute of Certified Bankers (ICB) which is sponsored by the ABA.
Paula has served and continues to serve her community as past fundraising chair and board member for the YMCA, past treasurer of St. John’s Episcopal women’s group, and current treasurer of the community pool. She is active in her church with fundraising and outreach efforts.
Paula Milstead
Director of Marketing
Chesapeake Bank
Michael Mothner
CEO & Founder, Wpromote
Michael Mothner is the Founder & CEO of Wpromote LLC, one of the world’s leading search engine marketing firms. An Economics and Computer Science major at Dartmouth College, Michael is a respected member of the online marketing community. He is one of four annual invitees to the Google Client Forum, a member of ThinkLA, a regular speaker at industry events, and an oft-quoted source in the search engine marketing industry. Michael has been featured as “30 CEO’s under 30 To Watch” by LLC magazine, a recipient of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Entretech Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit, and featured in Entrepreneur Magazine.
Michael Mothner
CEO & Founder
Wpromote
Lux Narayan
CEO, Unmetric
Lakshmanan aka Lux Narayan mans the helm of Unmetric, a social media intelligence company that helps digital marketers, social media analysts, and content creators harness social signals to track and analyze competitive content and campaigns, and to create better content and campaigns of their own.
Prior to founding Unmetric, Narayan was a co-founder at Vembu Technologies, an online data backup company. He also helped found and volunteered at ShareMyCake, a non-profit started by his wife that focuses on encouraging children to use their birthdays to channel monetary support towards a cause of their choosing.
As Unmetric’s CEO, he leads a team of 70 people distributed across the company’s operations in Chennai and New York City.
Outside of work, he is a perpetual learner of various things — from origami and molecular gastronomy to stand-up and improv comedy. He enjoys reading obituaries and other non-fiction and watching documentaries with bad ratings. Narayan makes time every year for trekking in the Himalayas or scuba diving in tropical waters, and once he learns to fly, he hopes to spend more time off land than on it.
Lux Narayan
CEO
Unmetric
Drew Neisser
Founder/CEO, Renegade
Drew Neisser is founder and CEO of Renegade, the award-winning agency that has been helping courageous marketers cut through the crap since 1996. Described by Inc as one of the “sharpest minds” in marketing, Drew is a recognized authority on cutting-edge techniques having won innumerable awards for creativity and campaign effectiveness.
Drew has interviewed over 200 Chief Marketing Officers in the last few years for his podcast Renegade Thinkers Unite, his book The CMO’s Periodic Table: A Renegade’s Guide to Marketing, and his AdAge CMO Spotlight column, earning the nickname “the CMO whisperer.” A prolific blogger, Drew is also a regular contributor to Forbes, CMO.com, TheCMOClub.com and SocialMediaExplorer.com.
Drew Neisser
Founder/CEO
Renegade
Allison Nygaard
Vice President- Program Development Manager at Regions Financial Corporation
Allison Nygaard currently serves as Vice President- Program Development Manager at Regions Financial Corporation. She at studied the University of Alabama. Allison resides in Birmingham, Alabama.
Allison Nygaard
SVP/Corporate Marketing
Regions Bank
Sean Payant
Chief Consulting Officer, Haberfeld
Sean Payant is the Chief Consulting Officer at Haberfeld. His primary mission in life is to make a difference for individuals and organizations.He does this through teaching, coaching and mentoring. As a business strategist, he enjoys helping organizations move forward, enhancing the customer experience while improving the internal culture. Sean graduated with his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He currently resides in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Sean Payant
Chief Consulting Officer
Haberfeld
Joe Pulizzi
Founder, Content Marketing Institute
Joe Pulizzi is the Amazon bestselling author of Killing Marketing, Content Inc. and Epic Content Marketing, which was named a “Must-Read Business Book” by Fortune Magazine. His latest book is The Will to Die, his debut novel.
He has founded three companies, including the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), and has launched dozens of events, including Content Marketing World. In 2014, he received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Content Council. His podcast series, This Old Marketing with CMI’s Robert Rose, has generated millions of downloads from over 150 countries. He is also the author of The Random Newsletter, delivered to thousands every two weeks. His Foundation, The Orange Effect, delivers speech therapy and technology services to children in over 25 states.
Joe Pulizzi
Founder
Content Marketing Institute
Wil Reynolds
Founder/Director of Digital Strategy, Seer Interactive
Wil is the founder & director of strategy at Seer Interactive. He has worked across every vertical, including pharmaceuticals & hospital systems to e-commerce and SaaS. With over 15 years experience doing and talking about search, he loves to speak at conferences about the future of search, and tends to lead his agency to think about search through different lenses.
Wil Reynolds
Founder/Director of Digital Strategy
Seer Interactive
Louis Richardson
Chief Storyteller, IBM
Louis Richardson currently serves as the Chief Storyteller at Syniti. He previously served as Chief Storyteller at IBM for 15+ years. He received his degree in Computer Science from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Louis resides in Marietta, Georgia.
Louis Richardson
Chief Storyteller
IBM
Barnaby Riedel
Pyschologist & Lead Researcher, Riedel Strategy
Barnaby is co-founder and Chief Research Strategist at Riedel Strategy, an independent market research and communications consultancy dedicated exclusively to the financial services industry. Since being founded in 2013, Riedel Strategy’s work has delivered dramatic results for clients and has been featured in numerous trade publications as well as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Observer.
Barnaby has over 15 years of experience in qualitative and quantitative social science research. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Human Development from the University of Chicago and for 3 years served as the Earl S. Johnson Instructor in the Division of the Social Sciences. Barnaby has completed his Series 6 training with FTC and is principally interested in leveraging social science methodologies and theoretical perspectives within the financial sector. Some of the clients he has conducted research and strategy for include United Capital, Cetera Financial Group, HighTower Advisors, First Eagle Investment Management, Janus Capital Group, Invesco Powershares, Aston Asset Management, Oak Ridge Investments, Ariel Investments, and Fairholme Capital Management.
Barnaby Riedel
Psychologist & Lead Researcher
Riedel Strategy
James Robert Lay
CEO, Digital Growth Institute
James Robert Lay is one of the world’s leading digital marketing advisors for financial institutions. As the CEO of Digital Growth Institute, he leads a team on a mission to simplify digital marketing to help community banks and credit unions generate 10X more loans and deposits through the Digital Growth Program that combines expert lead digital marketing training, planning, and implementation. James Robert has been named one of Financial Brand’s “Top Global Financial Services Influencers to Follow,” a CUNA “Credit Union Rock Star,” and a CU Times “Under 40 Trailblazer.” He has spoken at more than 150 financial services events around the world and is frequently in dozens of leading publications including US News and World Report, The Financial Brand, American Banker, CU Times, and CU Journal among many others.
James Robert Lay
CEO
Digital Growth Institute
Deborah Robinson
Senior Partner, Centier Bank
Deborah Robinson is the senior vice president of community relations and business development at Centier Bank. She previously worked for First Merchants Banks, following its acquisition of Americana Bank, where she was chief banking officer. A seasoned banker, Robinson has also previously worked at Old National Bank, overseeing the Bank’s marketing and retail expansion efforts in Indianapolis, Louisville, Fort Wayne, Lafayette and South Bend. She leads a team of banking professionals spanning across the state to develop and coordinate the bank’s philanthropy, community outreach, financial wellness and Community Investment Act initiatives. Robinson is a graduate of Ball State University and the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin. She serves on the Marketing Advisory Board for Miller College of Business at Ball State University and is Chairperson for the Journalism Alumni Board of Directors at Ball State University.
Deborah Robinson
Senior Partner
Centier Bank
Scarlet Sieber
VP, USAA Labs, USAA
Scarlett Sieber is a respected leader, driving organizational change at startups and global enterprises alike. Most recently she was Vice President at USAA where she led the newly created business development initiative. Prior, Scarlett was Chief Innovation Officer of Opus Bank, a $8B public retail and commercial bank, where she led the digital strategy and transformation for Opus and its $15B trust subsidiary, Pensco. During her time at BBVA, Scarlett was Senior Vice President of Global Business Development. In this role, Scarlett leveraged BBVA’s assets to secure partnerships within the ecosystem accelerating the global innovation strategy within the US. Scarlett was also the US lead for BBVA’s millennial initiative. Prior to BBVA, she was Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of data visualization tech startup, Infomous, whose clients include The London Olympics, Super Bowl XLVII, NFL Films, The Economist, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian and USA TODAY. Outside of work, she is a contributor to the Huffington Post, Forbes, and WeWork. She is a NYC Fellow of Startup Leadership Program.
Scarlett Sieber
VP, USAA Labs
USAA
Brian Solis
Principal Analyst, Altimeter
Brian is a digital analyst, business strategist and futurist who creates new media strategies and frameworks that build bridges not only between companies and their customers, but also with employees and key stakeholders. Brian specializes in change management that empowers business leaders to introduce new media resources, systems and processes, and deliver an infrastructure that allows their organizations to excel in today’s era of the connected customer.
Brian joined Prophet as part of Altimeter. Prior to joining Altimeter, Brian led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities and Web 2.0 startups since 1999 as principal of FutureWorks.
Brian Solis
Principal Analyst
Altimeter
Kerry-Ann Stimpson
Group Chief Marketing Officer, JMMB Group
Kerry-Ann is an expert financial marketer whose strong passion for her craft has led to continued top-level performances, and a marketing career defined by excellence. With over 10 years marketing management experience in the financial services sector, Kerry-Ann added even greater heft to the JMMB marketing team in late 2012, when she assumed responsibility for marketing strategy development and execution for the JMMB Group, as Group Marketing Manager.
Her professional journey in marketing began at the former Dehring, Bunting & Golding Limited (DB&G), in 2002. Under her leadership, the marketing approach of the DB&G brand became synonymous with both a unique style of creativity and pushing the proverbial envelope. In 2007, she then took up the role of Assistant Vice President, Marketing and Public Relations, at First Global Bank Limited; then moved to an expanded role as Assistant Vice President, Marketing, for First Global Bank and First.
Kerry-Ann Stimpson
Group Chief Marketing Officer
JMMB Group
Joe Sullivan
CEO, Market Insights
Joe Sullivan is the CEO and founder of Chicago-based Market Insights. He is a consultant, author, strategic planner and speaker with more than 20 years of experience working with financial institutions throughout the United States and Canada. Joe’s forward-thinking approach and energetic style engages his clients and his audiences and consistently makes him a top-rated speaker and consultant.
Joe Sullivan
CEO
Market Insights
Mark Troske
SVP, Director of Digital Banking, TCF Bank
Mark Troske currently serves as SVP, Director of Digital Banking at TCF Bank. He is a passionate and adaptable Information technology executive with over 20 years of demonstrated success in engaging and inspiring team performance, developing talent, acting as a strategic thought leader, and delivering highly successful results to solve complex problems for large organizations, as well as start-ups. He received his BA in Government, Computer Applications and Programming from the University of Notre Dame. Mark currently resides in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Mark Trokse
SVP, Director of Digital Banking
TCF Bank
Katie Ullman
Marketing Manager, First Source Credit Union
Katie Ullman is Marketing Manager at First Source Federal Credit Union. Her skill-set ranges from client relations, project and account management, strategic account planning, branding and brand communications, creative solutions, public relations and event planning. She also has marketing expertise in finserv, home improvement retail, non-profits, medical, wellness, health and humans services, aircraft and aviation, food and beverage, music events, manufacturing and education. She graduated with a BFA from Syracuse University in Advertising Design. Katie currently resigns in Utica, New York.
Katie Ullman
Marketing Manager
First Source Credit Union
Jenn Wade
CMO, Deer Valley CU
Jenn Wade serves as CMO at Deer Valley CU. She is one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley, and an expert on innovation. She currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
Jenn Wade
CMO
Deer Valley CU
Karl Wirth
CEO & Co-Founder, Evergage
Karl is the CEO and Co-founder of Evergage. Passionate about helping businesses improve conversion rates through relevant, in-context communication, Karl leverages his background to support leading companies in retail, financial services, technology, travel, media and gaming drive measurable benefits from real-time personalization.
Karl Wirth
CEO & Co-Founder
Evergage
Randi Zuckerberg
Former Head of Marketing
Randi Jayne Zuckerberg is an American businesswoman. She is the former director of market development and spokesperson for Facebook, and a sister of the company’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Prior to working at Facebook, she was a panelist on Forbes on Fox. As of May 2014, she is founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media, editor-in-chief (EIC) of Dot Complicated, a digital lifestyle website, and creator of Dot., an animated television show about a young girl (the eponymous Dot) who uses technology to enhance both her educational experiences and recreational activities.
Randi Zuckerberg
Former Head of Marketing
Tracey Zywicki
VP, Treasury Management, 4Front CU
Tracey Zywicki is the Treasury Analyst at Hagerty. Before joining Hagerty she served as VP, Treasury Management at 4Front CU. She graduated from Davenport University with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Marketing. She currently resides at Traverse City, Michigan.
Tracey Zywicki
VP, Treasury Management
4Front CU
Brenda Arndt
VP Content and Search, U.S. Bank
Brenda Arndt is VP Content and Search at U.S. Bank. She is primarily responsible for supporting bank business lines with their online marketing efforts by providing SEO consultation and best practices. Brenda has over 14 years of online, digital marketing and social media experience for both large and small business. Before joining U.S. Bank she was the Digital Marketing Manager for the Miracle-Ear franchise. Brenda and her husband are also former owners of three web based companies which helped small businesses build online relationships. Brenda has a passion for helping businesses grow. For five years she taught web, SEO and social media strategy in conjunction with SCORE and has given numerous seminars in the online marketing space at conventions and forums. She received her degree in Graphic Design from the University of Wisconsin STOUT. Brenda lives on the west side of Minneapolis with her husband, daughter Amanda and their two very precocious cats Cutie and Ruby. She has kissed a stingray in Grand Cayman, sailed in the blue waters off Tortola, swam with turtles in Maui, taken river tours of Riesling country in Germany, hiked across the London Bridge, watched a glacier calf in Alaska, ridden her bike 500 miles across Iowa, snorkeled the waters of St Croix, and enjoys experimenting with new and innovative technologies in her spare time.
Brenda Arndt
VP Content and Search, U.S. Bank
Michael Balsimo
President
Balsimo Strategic
Michael Balsimo is President at Balsimo Strategic Marketing. Here he focuses on helping small businesses and financial service companies solve problems, drive traffic, and increase revenue. Formerly Michael was VP/Marketing Officer at Peoples Bank where he oversaw the development and implementation of all marketing, public relations, corporate communications and product development. He graduated from Ohio Valley University with a BS in Marketing, Business Management and Human Resource Management. Michael currently resides in Columbus, Ohio.
Michael Balsimo
President, Balsimo Strategic
Tim Bennett
Tim Bennett is a consultant at CAVU Strategy Consulting. Previously Tim served as Chief Brand Officer at TDECU. He has led brand strategy, market research, data analytics, marketing/product planning and eCommerce efforts for companies and clients in financial services, autos, food and beverages. Tim is a global marketer who has resided and worked in U.S., Europe and Asia and produced robust growth-strategy solutions in more than 20 countries.
He graduated with an MBA in Distinction, Marketing and Finance from the University of Michigan – Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Tim currently resides in Melbourne, Florida.
Tim Bennett
Consultant, CAVU Strategy Consulting
Jonah Berger
Marketing Professor, Author “Contagious: Why Things Catch On”, Wharton School
Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and bestselling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On and Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior.
Dr. Berger has spent over 15 years studying how social influence works and how it drives products and ideas to catch on. He’s taught Wharton’s top ranked online course, published dozens of articles in top-tier academic journals, consulted for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, and popular outlets like the New York Times and Harvard Business Review often cover his work.
Jonah Berger
Marekting Professor, Author “Contagious: Why Things Catch On”, Wharton School
Ed Boyle
CEO, Medici Bank
Ed Boyle is the CEO of Medici Bank. A payments and digital banking expert, Boyle has more than 15 years’ experience in varied product and marketing roles at American Express. After serving as U.S. managing director of Fidor Bank in Germany, Boyle brings a deep customer orientation and knowledge of banking technology, and partnership development to create more open and efficient solutions.
Ed Boyle
CEO
Medici Bank
Allison Brown
VP of Marketing
Essential Federal Credit Union
Allison Brown is Vice President of Marketing at Essential Federal Credit Union. Here her responsibilities include strategic planning, brand management, budget/forecasting, profitability analysis, market share studies, business development opportunities, community involvement, public relations, product management, and online banking initiatives and enhancements.
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Allison Brown
VP of Marketing, Essential Federal Credit Union
Brennie Conkle
Vice President, Digital Banking Officer, First State Bank
Brennie Conkle is Vice President, Digital Banking Officer at First State Bank. She previously served as Vice President, Customer Strategy at Invoca. As a strategic marketing and project manager with executive communication skills, she specializes in digital marketing strategy and marketing integration with traditional marketing. Brennie currently resided in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Brennie Conkle
Vice President, Customer Strategy
Invoca
Andrew Davidson
SVP/Chief Insights Officer, Mintel
Andrew Davidson serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Insights Officer at Mintel Comperemedia, Andrew provides insights to clients around key trends and industry marketing activity. Andrew has 19+ years of financial services research experience and is passionate about helping financial services companies understand and react to an ever-changing competitive environment.Andrew is a regular speaker at high profile industry events including conferences in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He has been interviewed on Fox Business News and is frequently quoted in key business publications including the Wall Street Journal, American Banker, Forbes and USA Today. Prior to Mintel, Andrew was Vice President of Competitive Tracking Services for Synovate where he was responsible for Mail Monitor, a service tracking trends in credit card acquisition mail, card ownership, attitudes and behavior. His research experience includes both syndicated and custom projects as well as domestic and international assignments. He has also worked at GfK NOP and IPSOS in the UK. Andrew has a BA (Honors) in Business Studies, specializing in Marketing, from London Metropolitan University.
Andrew Davidson
SVP/Chief Insights Officer
Mintel
Ray Davis
Former CEO/President, Umpqua Bank
Ray Davis, is the former president and CEO of Umpqua Holdings Corporation, where he pioneered a customer-centric banking strategy and culture that transformed his company and challenged the industry.
Davis recognized the opportunity to reimagine bank product delivery and customer experience, and set out to reinvent what a bank looks like, how it operates and how it engages the communities it serves. Today, the company continues to focus on combining technology and culture to create cutting-edge experiences across multiple channels that reflect changing consumer habits.
In addition to the rapid growth under Davis’ leadership, Umpqua has been recognized in numerous national publications, including theWall Street Journal, New York Times, Fast Company, and BusinessWeek, and CNBC for challenging the industry’s status quo and setting a new bar for banking. In addition, Davis has been named one of high finance’s twenty-five most influential people by U.S. Banker Magazine.Since 1994, when Davis first joined as CEO, Umpqua has grown from six locations and $140 million in assets to more than 330 locations and $24 billion in assets. Today, Umpqua has a national and international reputation as one of the world’s most innovative banks. The company annually hosts dozens of banks and other companies from around the world who travel to study Umpqua’s unique culture and distinctive approach to design, service, and staffing.
Davis chronicled Umpqua’s path to expansion and its success navigating the economic crisis in his books, Leading for Growth: How Umpqua Bank Got Cool and Created a Culture of Greatness andLeading Through Uncertainty: How Umpqua Bank Emerged from the Great Recession Better and Stronger than Ever. Both have been praised by business publications and leaders alike for their clear-cut take on innovation, leadership and navigating change.
Ray Davis
CEO/President
Umpqua Bank
Dave DeFazio
Partner, StrategyCorps
Dave has spoken at conferences nationwide about innovations in retail banking, mobile banking, customer engagement, product and customer profitability, product design and bank marketing. He has extensive financial services experience and continues to have a passion for exploring the intersection of data, marketing and technology.
As partner at StrategyCorps, Dave works with bank and credit union clients to design, build and implement a variety of checking, marketing and training programs. He develops consumer sites and mobile apps that deliver value to customers as well as analysis tools that allow clients to have a deeper understanding of customer relationships and product profitability.
Dave received his B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Ohio Wesleyan University.
Dave DeFazio
Partner
StrategyCorps
Jim Dellavilla
Chief Client Officer, Catalyst
Jim Dellavilla is the Chief Client Officer at Catalyst. At Catalyst, Jim builds relationships with existing clients by identifying strategic opportunities to increase their revenue. Reporting directly to the managing directors, he also serve on the Catalyst Executive Committee and supervises all senior-level client services staff. He graduated from Siena College with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. Jim currently resides in Rochester, New York.
Jim Dellavilla
Chief Client Officer
Catalyst
Jim Dicso
President & CRO, SundaySky
Prior to joining SundaySky, Jim was executive vice president of sales and services at LivePerson, a SaaS-based provider of real-time online customer engagement solutions. During his tenure, LivePerson business solutions revenue grew from $17M to $96M and operating earnings grew from $2M to $30M. While at LivePerson, he built the enterprise sales organization from scratch and led the extended sales and service organization in developing and executing the go-to-market strategy while also leading the introduction of new business models to scale the business. Prior to LivePerson, Jim held multiple sales leadership roles in his two years at Witness Systems and eight years at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), including a four-year assignment in the UK and Europe. Prior to that, Jim served in a variety of sales positions over four years with Xerox Corporation.
At SundaySky, Jim drives the go-to-market strategy, sales execution, business development and revenue growth for SundaySky to support the growing market demand for the company’s solution. Mr. Dicso received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University.
Jim Dicso
President & CRO
SundaySky
Kirk Duke
Vice President of Marketing, Main Savings
Kirk Duke is Manager of Global Fleet Marketing Communications at WEX. In this position he oversees and directs internal creative teams and manages relationships with external agencies. Previously, Kirk served as Vice President of Marketing at Main Savings. He has studied at Penn State University, University of Baltimore and Columbia Business School. He currently resides in Portland, Maine.
Kirk Duke
Vice President of Marketing
Main Savings
Roxanne Emmerich
CEO, The Emmerich Group
Roxanne Emmerich is a New York Times best-selling author and founder and CEO of The Emmerich Group, the leading business transformation firm that helps companies get results beyond what they even dreamed possible.
She has spoken to and consulted with the leadership of many of the largest and most respected companies in the world, including Verizon, Merck, and Lockheed, but is best known in banking, having worked with half of the top 1 percent performers.
She is the author of Thank God It’s Monday!: How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love, Profit-Growth Banking, commonly referred to as the bible of high-performance banking, and Profit-Rich Sales. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Extraordinary Banker magazine.
Successful Meetings magazine listed Roxanne as one of the top 12 most in-demand speakers in the country. She has been featured in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Woman’s Day magazine and is frequently interviewed on CNN, FOX, CBS, and radio and TV stations throughout the country.
Recipient of the 2010 NSA “Philanthropist of the Year” Award, she is also the founder of Permission to Be Extraordinary Summit, an unprecedented and exclusive CEO executive breakthrough program referred to as a “miracle transformation” that helps leaders eliminate the head trash that keeps them from their next level of performance.
Roxanne Emmerich
CEO
The Emmerich Group
Rick Hall
Managing Director, Banking and Financial Services, BKM Marketing
Rick has spent over 20 years working in banking and management consulting and advisory. His experience has helped him develop a unique perspective on the needs of financial institutions though targeted marketing programs, new product development, go-to-market strategy formation and acquisition integration as well as many other growth-focused initiatives. For the past 10 years, he has focused particularly on the financial services needs of small businesses, middle market companies, and large corporate companies (B2B).
As Managing Director for Banking and Financial Services, Rick is responsible for developing strategic solutions for banks, specialized financial service firms, B2B payment disruptors and payment providers, ensuring the Company’s alignment with the needs of the industry. As a former client of BKM, he shares the Company’s passion for creating meaningful marketing programs to yield positive results based on strategy and analysis. Rick has an understanding of not only the needs of clients but also the underlying drivers behind those needs and how to address them, knowing that each client is unique.
Prior to BKM, Rick was Director of the Commercial and Enterprise Payments practice at Mercator Advisory Group. During that time, he conducted research into the emerging market of commercial payments and advised a number of leading banks and financial services companies on their payment strategies and key market trend impacts.
Rick held leadership positions for Associated Bank, First National Bank of Omaha, CEB TowerGroup, and Rockland Trust. These roles have helped establish his distinct and broad understanding of the need for banks to effectively compete and differentiate themselves while operating in an increasingly regulated industry.
Rick holds a BA in Marketing from Ohio State University and completed an executive management program in Strategy Formulation from Wharton School of Management.
Rick Hall
Managing Director, Banking & Financial Services
BKM Marketing
Bill Handel
VP/Research&Development, Raddon Financial Group
Bill Handel has worked in the financial services industry since the 1980s, primarily in the areas of research and analytics, providing insight and innovative solutions for both large and small financial service providers. Since joining Raddon in 1990, he has developed many unique programs to assist financial institutions in the effective management of their organization, including Performance Analytics, Relationship Survey, Market Analytics, and Channel and Card Analytics. His deep knowledge of the financial needs of consumers and businesses, economic analysis, and demographic trends, coupled with an understanding of how profitability is achieved in the financial services industry, has proved invaluable to these programs and to Raddon clients.
Bill is a highly regarded industry speaker and works extensively with Boards of Directors and senior management teams at many financial service firms each year. He attended Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio), majoring in Economics, and graduated with Honors and Distinction. He has written several books for the financial services industry in the area of product pricing and product development.
Bill Handel
VP/Research & Development
Raddon Financial Group
Nancy Harhut
Behavioral Scientist & Chief Creative Associates, Harhut & Associates
Nancy Harhut is passionate about the impact behavioral science can have on marketing. A BostInno “50 on Fire” winner, Online Marketing Institute Top 40 Digital Strategist, and Social Top 50 email marketing leader, she has spearheaded integrated campaigns for clients large and small. She and her teams have won over 175 awards for digital and direct marketing effectiveness. Harhut is known for her interesting and actionable insights that focus on the impact of behavioral science on marketing. A top-ranked speaker, she’s wowed audiences from the US Department of Defense to Moscow marketers to SXSW attendees.
Nancy Harhut
Behavioral Scientist & Chief Creative Officer
Harhut & Associates
Carie Kelly
Vice President, Acquisition at Radius Bank
Carie Kelly leads the consumer and business acquisition efforts for Radius Bank’s virtual branch through data-driven digital marketing implementation. She specializes in sourcing, onboarding and developing relationships with online marketing and technology partners to enhance the Bank’s nationwide client base. Prior to joining Radius more than 4 years ago, Carie transitioned dozens of financial institutions all over New England from traditional marketing into the digital space. She is Google AdWords & Google Analytics Certified and formerly served as the Vice President of the New England Financial Marketing Association’s Board of Directors.
Carie Kelly
AVP/Direct Channel Manager
Radius Bank
Martin Kelly
SVP/CMO, Firefly Credit Union
Martin Kelly is a member of Firefly Credit Union’s executive management team. Responsible for all aspects of marketing and business development, including branding, promotions, market research, SEG relations, member education, public relations, target marketing, and product development. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa. Mark currently resides in Minneapolis.
Martin Kelly
SVP/CMO
Firefly Credit Union
David Kerstein
President, Peak Performance Consulting Group
David Kerstein is a financial services industry leader. He has held senior management positions at Citigroup, Bank One (now J.P. Morgan Chase) and Old Kent Financial Corp. (now Fifth Third Bank). His responsibilities included Division Executive and Regional President with responsibility for retail banking, consumer lending, business banking, private banking, marketing and strategic planning.
Mr. Kerstein served as Chair of the BAI’s Retail Financial Services Commission and the Planning Committee for the Retail Delivery Systems Conference. He was a founding member of the International Retail Banking Council, where he chaired the Branch Banking and Distribution Management Board. He has been active in education programs for the banking industry, and served on the Education Council of the Consumer Bankers Association.
David Kerstein holds an MBA in Marketing and an MA in Public Administration. He was on the faculty of the University of Missouri, where he taught Consumer Marketing, and has taught classes or seminars in financial services marketing at several colleges and universities, including the Univ. of Illinois and the Univ. of Wisconsin. He was a contributing author to the Direct Marketing Handbook and served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Retail Financial Services.
A frequent speaker at industry forums, Mr. Kerstein has participated in conferences throughout the United States and in Europe, South America and Asia where he has spoken on distribution strategy, customer acquisition strategies, and sales management. He has been quoted in The American Banker, US Banker, US News and World Report and other business publications and newsletters.
David Kerstein
President
Peak Performance Consulting Group
Ryan Kilpatrick
SVP/Business Development & Director of Culture Strategies, Origin Bank
Kilpatrick has a Bachelor of Arts in history from Louisiana Tech University and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. He is community focused, currently serving as a board member for the Louisiana Tech Foundation and is a former chairman of the board for a number of organizations, including MedCamps of Louisiana, the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and Ducks Unlimited. He is a past board member for United Way of Northeast Louisiana and the North Louisiana Economic Partnership. He has a number of community awards to his credit, including being selected as the Ruston-Lincoln Parish Young Business Person of the Year, a Louisiana Tech Young Alumnus of the Year and as a Northeast Louisiana Top 40 Under 40 honoree.
Kilpatrick is married to Sarah Kilpatrick and together they have three sons.
Ryan Kilpatrick
SVP/Business Development & Director of Culture Strategies
Origin Bank
Pete Koomen
Co-Founder & CTO, Optimizely
Pete Koomen is the Co-Founder and CTO of Optimizely. Before co-founding Optimizely with Dan Siroker, Pete spent three years as a Product Manager at Google, where he helped launch and grow the App Engine platform. Pete holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, as well as a master’s in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In his spare time, Pete enjoys rock climbing and mountaineering.
Pete Koomen
Co-Founder & CTO
Optimizely
Kesna Lawrence
Chief Data Scientist, Datamyx(Deluxe)
Kesna Lawrence is the senior vice president for client strategy at Datamyx, a provider of data-driven technology solutions for direct marketing in the financial services, automotive and insurance industries. He graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in Finance and Economics. Kesna currently resides in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Kesna Lawrence
Chief Data Scientist
Datamyx (Deluxe)
Shelly Loftin
Chief Marketing Officer, Bear State Bank
At 35, Shelly Loftin had already worked in the banking industry for 20 years.
She moved from keying in the amounts on checks to the teller window. Then she moved to Bank of the Ozarks while finishing a degree in marketing and IT at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
She joined First Federal Bank of Harrison in 2011, about the time of a major recapitalization, and worked on updating its branding and corporate culture.
A bigger job came in 2014, when First Federal merged with banks in Hot Springs and Jonesboro to create Bear State. The bank’s unique logo was Loftin’s doing.
Loftin oversees both marketing and retail banking, human resources, mortgage origination and investments and has been a speaker and panelist for multiple national banking organizations.
Shelly Loftin
Chief Marketing Officer
Bear State Bank
Don MacDonald
CMO, MX
Don MacDonald
CMO
MX
Dan Marks
Chief Marketing Officer, Hancock Whitney Bank
Dan is leading a digitally enabled client-focused transformation as Chief Marketing Officer for Hancock Whitney with responsibility for overall strategy and execution of marketing. He has previous experience as CMO for another top 50 bank and a national retailer. He has deep experience using marketing and product levers to drive profitable revenue. Dan has been responsible for all marketing functions and the digital / eCommerce consumer channels. Innovative mobile product launches exceeded expectations. He champions a culture of excellence, innovation, and teamwork with his teams. He is frequently asked to speak to marketing, financial services, and technology audiences on a wide range of topics including marketing leadership, marketing metrics/ROI, branding the customer experience, product innovation, channel innovation, mobile, social media, and macro trends shaping the future of business. Recognitions have included the Presidents Circle CMO Award, “Top CMO on Twitter,” and “Top 40 under 40.”
Dan Marks
Chief Marketing Officer
Hancock Whitney Bank
Jim Marous
Co-Publisher at The Financial Brand/Owner of Digital, The Financial Brand
Jim Marous is consistently rated as one of the top 5 most influential people in banking and one of the most sought after keynote speakers for industry and corporate events. Known for his understanding of the disruption in the banking industry, Marous is the co-publisher of The Financial Brand, and owner and publisher of the Digital Banking Report. Jim speaks on innovation, digital transformation, customer experience, marketing strategies, channel distribution, payments and change management.
Jim has been featured on CNBC, CNN, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, The American Banker, Fintech Finance and Accenture and has spoken to audiences worldwide.
Marous has also advised the White House on banking policy and is a contributor for Forbes and the Breaking Banks radio show.
Jim Marous
Co-Publisher
The Financial Brand
Kelly McDonald
Marketing Expert & Best Selling Author
Kelly McDonald is a marketing and advertising specialist and considered one of the nation’s top experts in consumer trends, generational differences and leveraging the customer experience. She is the founder of McDonald Marketing, which has twice been named one of the “Top Ad Agencies in the U.S.” by Advertising Age magazine and ranked as one of the fastest-growing independently-owned companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.
She has been featured on CNBC, in Forbes Magazine, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, on CNNMoney.com and on SiriusXM Radio.
Her client experience includes iconic brands such as Toyota, State Farm, Nike, Harley-Davidson, Miller-Coors and Sherwin-Williams.
In addition to her extensive public speaking experience, she is also the author of three bestselling books:
Her latest, “How to Work With & Lead People Not Like You”, was #9 on the list of Bestselling Business Books of 2017.
Her first, “How to Market to People Not Like You”, was #7 on the list of Bestselling Business Books of 2011
Her second book, “Crafting the Customer Experience for People Not Like You”, was #5 on the list of Bestselling Business Books of 2013
Kelly is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She now lives in Denver, Colorado. When she’s not speaking and traveling for business, she enjoys hiking in the mountains and being outside. And shopping for high heels.
Kelly McDonald
Marketing Expert & Best-Selling Author
Robert McKinnon
Practice Leader/Financial Services, SirusDecisions
Robert has more than 20 years of financial services experience – managing teams in marketing, sales, research and product development. He joined SiriusDecisions in February 2015 and has a truly global understanding of the challenges facing marketing and sales leaders across the financial services industry. Robert has managed sales and marketing organizations based in Latin America, EMEA and North America, specializing in implementing data-driven strategies to enhance institutional sales and marketing operations in asset management, capital markets and investment banking.
Prior to joining SiriusDecisions, Robert was a managing director at Asas Capital, a global asset management firm specializing in emerging market equities, real estate investment and private equity. While in this role he managed the strategic rationalization of the product portfolio and developed data-driven campaigns targeting the institutional investor market. Before Asas Capital, he served as managing director of Al Mal Capital’s equity brokerage operations, initiating the emerging market brokerage’s agency partnerships with companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
Robert has also held senior roles at Salomon Smith Barney, Credit Suisse First Boston and Naeem Global Asset Management. Robert received an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and a BA from the University of Richmond.
Robert McKinnon
Practice Leader/Financial Services
SiriusDecisions
Craig McLaughlin
President/CEO, Extractable
Craig McLaughlin is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Extractable – an agency focused on digital solutions for wealth and health. Over the last two decades he and Extractable are proud to have driven successes for large-scale FIs, community banks, credit unions and fin-tech start-ups. Craig’s passion for using digital to drive and define financial experiences has earned him the reputation as an innovative and expert leader in Silicon Valley – and beyond. He is on a mission to positively impact the field of finance.
Craig holds a BSBA from San Diego State University and an M.S. in Information Systems & Web Technology from Hawaii Pacific University. When he’s not thinking about digital + finance, Craig loves spending time with his beautiful family and friends. He also enjoys wine, cycling and running – not necessarily in that order.
Craig McLaughlin
President/CEO
Extractable
Joe Meier
Principal Analytical Lead, Google
Joe Meier is Head of Search Automation at Google where previously served at Principal Analytical Lead. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Joe currently resides in San Francisco, California.
Joe Meier
Principal Analytical Lead
Deborah Mersino
Chief Marketing Officer, Oregon Community Credit Union
A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Deborah has built a career based upon her passions, including marketing, education, digital channels, customer experience, and nonprofits. She has worked across numerous verticals and is regularly invited to speak nationally on the subjects of member experience, digital marketing, millennial marketing, and the future of financial institutions.
Deborah Mersino
Chief Marketing & Experience Officer
OCCU
Brad Montgomery
Happiness Expert, Speaker and Author
Brad teaches people how to use happiness to boost productivity, creativity, innovation & profits. He turns typical meetings into transformational events using, the power of happiness. Oh, and he’s pretty funny.
Brad has transformed audiences in all 50 states and on four continents. His clients include Microsoft, Verizon, the FBI (yes, that FBI) the CIA (yes, that CIA) and the IRS (where he withheld 30% of his best strategies.)
Brad specializes in using humor, interactivity, sound, music and visuals to ignite audiences so that they can use happiness as a tool to improve their lives and their jobs
Audiences and meeting planners describe Brad as “authentic.” He’s a real guy on stage and off. Thinking of a canned & over-polished motivational speaker? Brad is the polar opposite.
Other speakers TALK about happiness. But Brad SHOWS them how to harness the power of happiness in hands-on experiences that they’ll remember and implement. It’s the difference between a “speech” and an “event.”
Brad Montgomery
Happiness Expert, Speaker and Author
Melissa Musgrove
VP/Head of Social Media, Regions
Melissa Musgrove is VP/Head of Social Media at Regions. She has lived abroad and traveled to more than 40 countries. She’s passionate about how travel educates and broadens our perspectives. She graduated from Northwestern University. Melissa currently resided in Birmingham, Alabama.
Melissa Musgrove
VP/Head of Social Media
Regions
Jeff Nowicki
AVP/Partnership & Product Manager, Radius Bank
Jeffrey Nowicki currently serves as the SVP Strategic Partnerships & Marketing Director at The Provident Bank. Here he is responsible for the strategy and oversight of all facets of marketing and public relations. He graduated with his Master’s Degree from Suffolk University. Jeffrey currently resided in Boston, Massachusetts.
Jeffrey Nowicki
AVP/Partnership & Product Manager
Radius Bank
Meredith Olmstead
President, Social Stairway
With a passion for communicating and life-long learning, Meredith founded Social Stairway in 2013 because she saw a real need in the small business world for highly skilled expertise in Social Media Marketing.
Meredith has 6+ years of experience working with financial institutions in markets of various sizes around the United States, and as an experienced Director of Online Marketing, she has helped design and implement numerous marketing and sales campaigns. Meredith has truly mastered the art of turning social media engagement into measurable results and customer satisfaction.
In 2015 Meredith Founded Social Stairway with a focus on social media marketing, but has since expended services to all areas of Inbound Marketing, so rebranded the company to FI GROW Solutions in 2018. The FI GROW team works exclusively with Credit Unions and now Community Banks, taking staff step-by-step through the process of launching all of their Digital Marketing efforts, as well as implementing full Inbound Marketing campaigns and providing Sales Enablement training and support.
Meredith Olmstead
President
SocialStairway
Jessica Pate
Marketing, Brand and CX Consultant, Rally App
Jessica Pate is a Marketing, Brand and CX Consultant at Rally App. She previously served at Ally Bank for 9+ years where she was committed to delivering digital financial services built on the brand pillars of Do Right, Tirelessly Innovate and Obsess over the Customer. She has her BA in Advertising from Southern Methodist University. Jessica currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Jessica Pate
Senior Director of Brand
Ally Bank
Jim Perry
Senior Strategist, Market Insights
Jim Perry serves as Senior Strategist at Market Insights, Inc.. He has worked with organizations in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors. In addition to his own private practice, he has helped community banks and credit unions through his affiliation with Market Insights. He has experience in organizational management, marketing, branding, communications, executive coaching, leadership development and strategic planning. He has studied at Southwestern College and Kansas Wesleyan University. Jim currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.
Jim Perry
Senior Strategist
Market Insights
Philip Philippides
Group Engagement Manager, Infosys
Philip Philippides currently serves as Group Engagement Manager at Infosys. At Infosys he leads the Salesforce practice for the Americas. Responsible for managing client engagement, solution development, and managing the Americas go to market team. He graduated with his BS from California State University. Philip currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Philip Philippides
Principal
Capgemini
Steven Ramirez
CEO, Beyond the Arc
Steve currently serves at CEO of Beyond the Arc. Steven’s expertise focuses on effective customer experience and communication strategies to help companies achieve success through key corporate initiatives, and mergers and acquisitions. His work spans strategic planning, optimizing customer and internal communications, and social media strategy.
Steven also leads Beyond the Arc’s practice in data science and predictive analytics. He advises clients on how to deploy advanced data and analytics technology to make better decisions. Under Steven’s leadership, Beyond the Arc was recognized by CIO Review as one of the 100 Most Promising Big Data Solution Providers 2017.
Steven Ramirez
CEO
Beyond the Arc
Wil Reynolds
Founder & Director of Digital Strategy, Seer Interactive
Wil is the founder & director of strategy at Seer Interactive. He has worked across every vertical, including pharmaceuticals & hospital systems to e-commerce and SaaS. With over 15 years experience doing and talking about search, he loves to speak at conferences about the future of search, and tends to lead his agency to think about search through different lenses.
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Wil Reynolds
Founder & Director of Digital Strategy
Seer Interactive
Steve Rice
EVP, EverFi
Steve Rice is Executive Vice President of Financial Education at EverFi, the nation’s leader in Financial Education. He is based in Washington DC and has a career in technology, publishing, marketing, personal finance, and education. He is also the Executive Director of the Financial Capability Network.
Steve Rice
EVP
EverFi
Eric Ryan
Co- Founder, Chief Brand Architect, Method
Eric likes to make things. Really nice things. Like soap that smells like unicorns, delicious gummy vitamins, and bandages so pretty you look forward to needing one (well, sort of). He started out squeaky clean when he and his high school buddy Adam launched every designer’s dream soap, method, back in 2001. Together they built it into a global industry leader for both design and sustainability.
Because the guy never sleeps, Eric quickly shed his clean rep and shifted from soap maker to pill pusher when he launched OLLY in 2015. A disruptive line of gummies & proteins that shook up the vitamin aisle with smart design and downright deliciousness. As they grow he’s pivoting roles once again to “Mr. Worldwide” to help OLLY take over the globe. OK, Europe and Asia to be exact, but can he still have the cool title?
Fun fact: he once won Connect Four in three moves. And because three is the magic number, this serial entrepreneur is at it again. He recently Co-Founded Welly, maker of the finest fabric bandages and ointments, in the cutest stackable tins you’ve ever seen. Really. And if that’s not enough, despite his less than average build (he said it!), this adrenaline junkie is an avid kite-surfer, snow skier, sailor and Dad to three lively kiddos.
Eric has been named an eco-leader by Vanity Fair, an eco-revolutionary by TIME Magazine, PETA’s Person of the Year, a recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award, and was named to Fortune’s 40 under 40. Sadly, he is now over 40. But who’s counting? Well, Eric actually–to 1 billion, twice (don’t ask)
Eric Ryan
Co-Founder, Chief Brand Architect
Method
Tina Seelig
Professor, Department of Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Tina Seelig is Professor of the Practice in Stanford University’s Department of Management Science and Engineering, and is a faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. She teaches courses in the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) and leads three fellowship programs in the School of Engineering that are focused on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Dr. Seelig earned her PhD in Neuroscience at Stanford Medical School, and has been a management consultant, entrepreneur, and author of 17 books, including Insight Out (2016), inGenius (2012), and What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 (2009). She is the recipient of the Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, the Olympus Innovation Award, and the Silicon Valley Visionary Award.
Tina Seelig
Professor, Department of Management Science & Engineering
Standford University
Chris Snook
Author of “Digital Sense” and Brand Humanizer at Large
Chris J. Snook is managing partner at Launch Haus. A digital agency and tech startup veteran, he is also the brand humanizer-at-large for a network of agency partners.
He mentors entrepreneurs with Founders Institute globally and ASU Project Humanities.
He is the coauthor of three other books including the international bestseller Wealth Matters Makeover Edition (in its 3rd edition).
Chris Snook
Author of “Digital Sense” and Brand Humanizer at Large
David Sosna
CEO & Co-Founder, Personectics
David Sosna is the co-founder and CEO of Personetics and an expert in the use of AI in financial services. Prior to Personetics, he was the co-founder and CEO of Actimize, a leading provider of AI-based analytics that help financial institution detect compliance and financial crime risks. Following the sale of Actimize to NICE, David turned his attention to the use of AI and predictive analytics to help consumers manage their financial lives, and teamed up again with his Actimize partner David Govrin to found Personetics.
David Sosna
CEO & Co-Founder
Personetics
Korey Thurber
SVP- Solutions at C2G Partners
Korey is the SVP of Solutions at C2G Partners. His responsibilities include: ideation, development and delivery for CRM, decision science, data and insight solutions. Previous to C2G, Korey was the Chief Data and Analytics Officer for Harte Hanks. He was also the VP of Quantitative Marketing Group at Merkle. In these roles, he managed large international teams of data scientists, analysts and data solutions providers. He has helped many brands to successfully adapt and integrate analytics to develop, execute and optimize marketing strategies across diverse online and offline media. Korey holds an MBA from UNCG with a focus in Econometrics. Outside of work, Korey is passionate about family, science fiction, cars, auto and motorcycle racing. He also is very passionate about his wife’s equestrian business where his wife and two teenage daughters care for and train over 25 horses, ponies and their riders. Korey lives in North Carolina with his wife and two daughters.
Korey Thurber
SVP- Solutions
C2G Partners
Ron Tite
Branding & Creativity Expert
Ron has been an award-winning advertising writer and Creative Director for some of the world’s most respected brands, including Air France, Evian, Fidelity, Hershey, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Intel, Microsoft, Volvo and many others.
His advertising work has been recognized by The London International Advertising Awards, The New York Festivals of Advertising, The Crystals, The Extras, The Canadian Marketing Association, The Advertising & Design Club of Canada and The Marketing Awards, to name just a few.
He is Founder and CEO of Church+State (originally The Tite Group), a Toronto-based content marketing agency and publisher of This is That Travel Guide to Canada – a best-selling, award-winning satirical book from the creators of CBC Radio’s hit show, This Is That.
His past work includes being Executive Producer & Host of the award-winning comedy show Monkey Toast, in addition to writing for a number of television series, penning a children’s book, and writing, performing, and producing the play The Canadian Baby Bonus. In demand as a speaker on innovation, branding and content marketing, Ron continues to speak to leading organizations all over the world about “The Expression Economy” – his take on modern business.
Ron’s own book, Everyone’s An Artist (Or At Least They Should Be), was published by HarperCollins in 2016.
Ron Tite
Branding & Creativity Expert
Mark Weber
CEO & Founder, Weber Marketing Group
Mark is a marketing analyst, brand strategy consultant, and financial services industry expert. He advises clients on strategic brand and growth initiatives. He is a national speaker and author, and blogs on branding, branch prototyping, emerging technologies, and consumer behavior trends. Mark was the VP of Marketing for one of the 10 largest savings banks in the US and head of marketing for a Seattle-based credit union. He has over 30 years of strategic marketing and brand consulting experience in high-tech and financial services. He advises some of the largest credit unions and community banks in the US and Canada.
Mark started Weber Marketing Group in 1988 after a ten-year senior level career in bank, credit union and clean technology marketing. He helped raise funding and launch two de novo niche business banks, serving on the board of Pacifica Bank for six years. He has advised, branded and marketed many startup technology companies. With a passion for tackling the hardest marketing challenges, Mark began his marketing agency with a goal of helping his clients transform their culture, brand image, facilities, technologies and market position to accelerate profitable growth.
Today, with a LEED Gold headquarters in Seattle, WA, and offices in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Atlanta, GA, Weber Marketing Group is an award-winning provider of brand strategies, branded environments, and interactive marketing to financial institutions and emerging growth companies across North America. Weber Marketing Group has been named four times to Washington’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies.
In his spare time, you’ll find him watching his kids play soccer or hiding out in his man-cave playing acoustic guitar. He travels regularly to Latin America and Africa working with NGO’s in advancing new cooperative and sustainable models to end generational poverty.
Mark Weber
CEO & Founder
Weber Marketing Group