Xudong (Sean) An is a vice president in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He oversees the Bank’s stress testing function and supervisory research function. An’s areas of research include retail credit, consumer finance, securitization, and risk management. His research papers have appeared in academic journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. An is currently the First Vice President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) and serves on the editorial boards of Real Estate Economics and the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and is an elected Fellow of the Weimer School of the Homer Hoyt Institute.

Andy Anderson is president and CEO of the Bank of Anguilla, Anguilla, Mississippi, where he also holds the role of chief financial officer and director. He has been with the bank for more than 40 years. He  has served two terms as chairman of the Mississippi Bankers Association and  serves on the American Bankers Association’s Community Bankers Council. He is also on the Board of Directors of the American Bankers Association. He sits on the Conference of State Bank Supervisors Banker’s Advisory Board and served several years as its chairman.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Development Bankers Association in Washington, D.C.  Anderson also serves as a mentor in the Graduate School of Banking of Colorado’s Executive Development Institute for Community Bankers.  He is actively involved in two committees that are spearheading fund raising efforts for tornado relief in his hometown of Rolling Fork, Mississippi. He serves on the Rolling Fork Visitor Center and Museum Board and is a member of the local Rotary Club, among other state and local groups. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Mississippi and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. 

Michelle W. Bowman took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on November 26, 2018, to fill an unexpired term ending January 31, 2020. In September 2019, she was appointed to 14-year term.  Prior to her appointment to the Board, Bowman served as the state bank commissioner of Kansas from January 2017 to November 2018. She also served as vice president of Farmers & Drovers Bank, Council Grove, Kansas, from 2010 to 2017. In addition to her experience in the banking industry, Bowman worked in Washington, D.C. for Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas from 1995 to 1996 and served as a counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight between 1997 and 2002. In 2002, she became director of congressional and intergovernmental affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. From 2003 to 2004, she served as deputy assistant secretary and policy advisor to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Following her time in Washington, D.C., Bowman led a government and public affairs consultancy based in London before returning to Kansas in 2010. She received a Bachelor of Science in advertising and journalism from the University of Kansas and her Juris Doctor degree from the Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, Kansas. She is a member of the New York bar association.

Charlie E. Clark was appointed Director of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) on April 1, 2019.  He first joined DFI in 2012 and served in the roles of Division of Consumer Services Enforcement Program Manager and Division Director before serving as agency Deputy Director beginning in November 2016.  Prior to joining the DFI, Charlie represented the DFI as its lead litigation counsel as an Assistant Attorney General from 2005 through 2011.  Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, he worked as an attorney in private practice.  Charlie sat on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators from 2014 to 2023, serving as its President from 2018 to 2020.  He also currently sits on the Board of Directors and serves as Chair Elect of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, having previously served as Secretary, Treasurer and Vice-Chair.  He received his undergraduate degree in Accounting and an M.B.A. from California State University, Sacramento.  He received a J.D. degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.  

Tony Cookson is a Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado - Boulder. Tony is a Montana native.  After earning his bachelor's degree in economics and master's degrees in Statistics and Applied Economics from Montana State University, he received his Ph.D. in Economics from University of Chicago.  He has been on faculty at University of Colorado since 2013. His research is empirical and covers a wide range of topics in finance and economics.  His research makes use of unique data sets and empirical settings to study how households and corporations make financial decisions.  Through his research, Dr. Cookson has become an expert on how investors use social media, the casino industry, the political economy of Native American reservations, and the consequences of the fracking revolution for households.  His research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Law and Economics, and Management Science.  He is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Financial Economics and Financial Management. Since 2022, he is a director of the Financial Research Association, which organizes a prominent academic finance research conference in Las Vegas annually. Tony also serves as the faculty director for the MS in Finance program at CU Boulder.

James M. Cooper (Jim) is the president and CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), the national organization of financial regulators from all 50 states and U.S. territories. He was named president and CEO in June 2022 by the CSBS Board of Directors. In this capacity, Cooper leads the professional staff at CSBS in assisting state regulators with developing policy; engaging with their federal counterparts, the Administration and Congress; originating research on industry trends; identifying best practices; and conducting professional development. CSBS also operates on states’ behalf the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS), a licensing and registration system for non-depository financial services industries. Under his leadership, CSBS is pursuing a strategy known as Networked Supervision to help states license and supervise more efficiently using common standards and technology platforms. Prior to being named president and CEO, Cooper led the policy and supervision function at CSBS for more than nine years as assistant vice president and more recently as executive vice president. He joined CSBS following a 30-year career at the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions where he served as deputy director from 1994 to 2013. In that role, Cooper oversaw the supervision and examination of all state-charted depository institutions in Indiana, including banks, credit unions, corporate fiduciaries, savings banks and savings associations. He is an alumnus of Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.

Edward Joseph Face, Jr. (Joe): Face has served as the commissioner of financial institutions for the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Financial Institutions (Bureau) since 1997. The Bureau regulates and supervises over 35,000 financial institutions, licensees and registrants controlling some $125 billion in assets. Face has been with the Bureau since 1979, when he began work as an examiner. He became deputy commissioner of financial institutions in 1993. From 2006-2007, Face served as the Chair for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). He has also represented state regulators in numerous groups, committees and coalitions, including the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council (FFIEC), the Federal Reserve Board’s Cross-Sector Umbrella Regulatory Working Group, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group, and the “Operation Jump$tart Coalition” financial literacy effort. Face received his Bachelor of Science in commerce and business administration from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama and his Master of Science in administration from Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

Brenda Foster is the chairman, president and CEO of First Western Bank & Trust, headquartered in Minot, North Dakota with branches and offices in Minot, Bismarck and West Fargo, North Dakota; Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Alexandria, Minnesota, the Baxter/Brainerd Lakes area of Minnesota and Eden Prairie, Minnesota. She has been employed with First Western Bank & Trust for 42 years. Foster is a graduate of Minot State University (MSU) with an associate degree in legal secretarial studies and a Bachelor of Science in accounting with a concentration in banking and finance. Foster currently serves as a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, as well as a member of the North Dakota State Banking Board and the
MSU Board of Regents. She also serves as an advisory board member for the Bank of North Dakota and is a current member of the federal delegate board, as well as a director-at-large, for the Independent Community Banks of America. Foster is a past president of the Independent Community Banks of North Dakota’s board of directors and was instrumental in starting the Junior Achievement program in Minot.

Jim Fuchs is a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, overseeing the operations of the bank’s Applications, Credit, Reserves, Statistics, Business Line Training Services, Quality Assurance, Digital Transformation Consulting, Supervision Policy Research and Analysis, and Supervision Outreach units. Fuchs also oversees a wide range of national outreach programs developed by the St. Louis Fed for community bankers and is a member of several Federal Reserve System workgroups focused on community banking issues. Fuchs also chairs the organizing committee the Federal Reserve/ Conference of State Bank Supervisors’/FDIC annual Community Banking Research Conference. Before joining the St. Louis Fed, Fuchs served as a banking policy adviser and directed financial communications for New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Earlier, he was chief of staff to former New York State Banking Superintendent Diana Taylor and served as an advisor to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He is a former captain in the United States Air Force serving during Operations Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. Fuchs received his MBA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and his Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy. He also earned a graduate certificate in communications from the University of Oklahoma and a teaching certificate in secondary mathematics from City College in New York. In addition, Fuchs is a graduate of the Department of Defense Information School and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Justin Gallagher is an assistant professor at Montana State University in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics. He was previously an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University. Gallagher earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and a MA in public policy from the University of Chicago. Gallagher is an applied microeconomist whose work is grounded in economic theory and motivated by the public policy relevance of the questions he asks. His primary research field is environmental economics with broad interest in household finance, labor economics, and public economics.

Michael Gelman is an assistant professor of finance at the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. Previously he was a visiting scholar with  the Department of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D. in finance from Ben-Gurion University of the Negrev, Beersheba, Israel, with a merit award for excellence. He holds his Bachelor of Arts and his MBA in economics and finance from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Gelman’s primary areas of research are banking & financial intermediation, household finance and financial misconduct. His teaching experience includes a variety of courses on finance, financial risk management and economics for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as executives. He also has served as a consultant for several financial institutions.

Martin Gruenberg is the chairman of the FDIC Board of Directors. He has been a member of the FDIC Board since August 2005 and previously served as Vice Chairman from August 2005 to July 2011 and as Chairman from November 2012 to mid-2018.  He has also served as Acting Chairman on a number of occasions. Prior to joining the FDIC, Gruenberg served as senior counsel to Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D.-Md.) on the staff of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs from 1993 to 2005. He also served as staff director of the Banking Committee's Subcommittee on International Finance and Monetary Policy from 1987 to 1992. In addition, he served as chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council from April 2017 to June 2018. Beginning February 15, 2022, Gruenberg assumed the role of chairman of the Resolution Steering Group (ReSG) of the Financial Stability Board. Since June 2019, Gruenberg has served as chairman of the board of directors of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (NeighborWorks America), and he has been a board member since April 2018. He received his Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve Law School and his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

Charles R. Hageboeck (Skip) is the president and CEO of City Holding Company and its banking subsidiary, City National Bank, which currently has 99 branches in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio. Hageboeck was formerly with Indiana National Bank, NBD Bank, N.A. and Peoples Bank of Indianapolis. He is a past chairman of the West Virginia Banker's Association and currently serves on the boards of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the West Virginia Bankers Association. In 2018, Hageboeck was named "Community Banker of the Year" by American Banker. In 2023, City was named third out of the top 25 banks in the U.S. evaluated by Bank Director for its annual “RankingBanking” report. Hageboeck holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Indiana University, where his dissertation was in the area of bank failures.

Kiah Lau Haslett is the Banking & Fintech Editor of Bank Director. In addition to writing and editing web content and magazine features, she is the host of the FinXTech Reinventing Banking podcast and a monthly cohost of the Fintech Takes podcast. Her areas of focus include how technology is changing banking, balance sheet management, accounting, operations, strategy, and trends in mergers and acquisitions. She was previously a financial institutions reporter at S&P Global Market Intelligence, and has worked for Businessweek.com, The Arizona Republic, the Chicago Tribune and the Omaha World-Herald. Kiah has a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Nebraska.

Ivan T. Ivanov is a senior economist in the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Previously, he served as a principal economist with Systemic Financial Institutions and Markets section of the Research division with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Ivanov’s research examines questions in financial intermediation, corporate finance, climate finance and public finance. His work centers on the financing of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the importance of banks for that process. His most recent research examines the effect of carbon pricing policy on the ability of SMEs and large companies to raise capital as well as the effectiveness of disclosure regulation in the municipal debt market. His research has been published in the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Financial Economics and has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, the Bond Buyer and the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. Ivanov holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Dr. Stephen Karolyi is a Senior Economic Advisor in the Supervision Risk and Analysis Department in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). In his current position, his primary responsibility is to manage research working groups of economists in support of agency-wide initiatives. Before joining the OCC in 2020, Dr. Karolyi earned his Ph.D. in Financial Economics from Yale University and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in finance, accounting, and applied econometric methods at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Karolyi’s current research interests are in financial intermediation and corporate finance.

Seil Kim is an associate professor of accounting at Baruch College, City University of New York. His main research interests are in the areas of accounting for financial institutions and corporate governance. He received a Ph.D. in Accounting from NYU Stern in 2016. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Seoul National University.

Oskar Kowalewski is professor of finance at the IESEG School of Management (Campus Paris), member of LEM-CNRS 9221 and researcher at the Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Science. He was previously associate professor at the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), Kozminski University and Vistula University in Warsaw.

His main research interests are in the areas of banking, corporate finance, and corporate governance, and recently agroeconomics. His contributions to the field were recognized in 2014 when he received a prestigious award from the President of the National Bank of Poland for his habilitation, marking a historic milestone for the central bank. He has supervised numerous research grants financed by public and private agencies.

Oskar Kowalewski received his habilitation in Finance from the Warsaw School of Economics in 2014. He holds an PhD and MS degree from the Kozminski University in Warsaw and LLM degree from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.

Lise Kruse is the current Chair of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Financial Institutions. She was named commissioner in 2017. She joined the Department of Financial Institutions as a financial institutions examiner in 2004 and was promoted to chief examiner-banks in 2011.  Prior to joining the DFI, she worked for a life insurance company in Fargo, ND. She received a Bachelor of Arts with majors in business and organizational communication from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn. And her MBA with an emphasis in information technology from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Kruse is also a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.  In 2020, Kruse was elected by her peers to serve on the CSBS executive board. She also serves on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Regulatory Advisory Board.

Elena Loutskina is a professor of business administration and the Peter M. Grant II Bicentennial Foundation Chair in Business Administration at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia (UVA). Her research is centered on financial intermediation. She originally started her work by exploring the impact of securitization on management of financial and nonfinancial companies. Over time, her research interest expanded to exploring more dimensions of commercial banks strategic management. Her papers have addressed topics in consumer finance, mortgage markets, small business lending and regulation of financial intermediaries. In 2019, Loutskina received the UVA Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award. Her work has been published in the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. She is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation. She has served as a visiting scholar with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and as fellow of the Wharton Financial Institutions Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Loutskina received her Ph.D. in finance from Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She received her Bachelor of Science in mathematical economics and her Master of Science in applied math in economics from Belarus State University, Minsk, Belarus.

Kathleen Navin is a senior business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in the division of Supervision. Navin’s responsibilities pertain to analyzing and presenting on economic and banking conditions in the United States and regionally. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Navin held the position of Economics Executive Director in U.S. Economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence, joining the firm through the acquisition of Macroeconomic Advisers. In this role, she produced analysis on economic data and forecasts related to the US economic outlook and developed alternative macroeconomic scenarios for use in bank stress testing. She was previously a research associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in the division of Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy. Navin graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Economics and her Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. Navin is an active member of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), currently serving a three-year term as a member of its board of directors. She became a member of NABE’s inaugural class of Certified Business Economists in 2015.

Kathy O’Neill Paese is interim president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Ms. O’Neill Paese has more than 35 years of experience with the Federal Reserve System, most at the St. Louis Fed. Ms. O’Neill Paese also currently serves as first vice president (FVP), chief operating officer and Federal Reserve System Treasury product director. In her role, Ms. O’Neill Paese is responsible for managing the Reserve Bank’s operations throughout the entire seven-state region of the Eighth Federal Reserve District. In addition, she chairs the St. Louis Fed’s Management Committee and is a member of the Discount Window Lending Committee.

Prior to becoming FVP/COO, she was the executive vice president in charge of the Treasury Division, providing oversight and direction to the Treasury Relations and Support Office (TRSO) and 14 operational/technical services that the St. Louis Fed provides to the U.S. Treasury. As Fed System Treasury product director, Ms. O’Neill Paese and the TRSO have national responsibility for managing the relationship between the Federal Reserve System and the financial bureaus of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and for coordinating and monitoring all of the Federal Reserve System’s Treasury support functions.

In addition to her local responsibilities, Ms. O’Neill Paese leads the Federal Reserve System’s Risk Management Committee, responsible for identifying and reporting on enterprise operational risk management activities, and serves on the Fed System Committee that oversees Research, Supervision and Community Development functions.

Prior to her roles in support of the Treasury, Ms. O’Neill Paese held a variety of positions in the Bank’s operations, Public Affairs and Business Development functions.

Ms. O’Neill Paese received her bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and is a graduate of the Kellogg School of Business’ Executive Leadership Program at Northwestern University. She remains active in the community by serving as an executive member of the St. Louis Anchor Action Network, and on the Chairman’s Executive Council of Greater St. Louis, Inc. Ms. O’Neill Paese also serves on the Board of Trustees for Webster University.

George G. Pennacchi has been with the Department of Finance at the University of Illinois since 1990, recently as the Bailey Professor of Money, Banking and Finance. He is currently a managing editor of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and is an affiliate professor of finance at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research focuses on financial intermediaries, fixed-income securities and government guarantees. He has served as the president of the Financial Intermediation Research Society, the managing editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation, and an associate editor of several journals including the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies. His consulting experience includes work for the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the Bank of Finland and the Financial Stability Board. He has been a visiting professor at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy and was a member of the finance faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Pennacchi received a Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Joey Samowitz is a director of policy development with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). He serves as the senior analyst and facilitator on multiple committees and provides analysis on regulatory and legislative topics. Samowitz’s areas of focus include cryptocurrency, fintech and bank supervision. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, going on to serve as campaign manager for then Maryland House of Delegates Majority Leader Anne Kaiser. After the campaign’s completion, he worked for the Washington Commanders football team, eventually becoming an assistant for owner Dan Snyder. He joined CSBS in 2017.

Jeff Schmid is president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, where he leads a workforce of 2,000 people located in offices in Kansas City, Denver, Oklahoma City and Omaha.

Schmid has more than 40 years of experience in banking and banking supervision. Prior to joining the Kansas City Fed in August 2023, he served as the president and CEO of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking Foundation at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, where he led the Foundation’s efforts to provide career development and education for banking professionals.

Schmid began his career in 1981 as a field examiner in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Kansas City office. From 1989 to 2007, he served as president of American National Bank in Omaha, Nebraska, growing the bank from $500 million to $1.5 billion in assets. In 2007 he was selected by Mutual of Omaha to lead the 100-year-old insurance provider’s entry into the banking sector. As chairman and CEO of Mutual of Omaha Bank, Schmid led the institution’s growth from $700 million to nearly $9 billion in assets with nearly 2,000 employees before it was sold to CIT Bank in 2019.

As president of the Kansas City Fed, Schmid represents the Tenth Federal Reserve District on the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy for the United States. Schmid participates in each FOMC meeting and will be a voting member in 2025, following the established rotation schedule for Federal Reserve Banks. He also hosts the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, an annual event in Wyoming that brings together international central bankers, academics, policymakers, and others who convene to discuss economic and financial issues of mutual concern.

Jeff is a graduate of both the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU. He is a native of Nebraska.

The Kansas City Fed is responsible for conducting monetary policy, providing financial services to depository institutions and the U.S. Treasury, and supervising nearly 1,000 banking organizations within a seven-state region that includes western Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, and northern New Mexico. The Tenth District has a diverse economic profile that includes a mix of agriculture, energy, manufacturing, tourism, real estate and small business, and has a large number of community banking organizations.

Thomas Siems is the chief economist with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). He joined CSBS in 2019 after serving 34 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and more than 20-year teaching at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Siems earned a Bachelor of Science in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and his Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in operations research from Southern Methodist University. Siems is also a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado and has published more than 75 articles in academic, Federal Reserve and referred journals. He delivered a 2015 TEDxSMU Talk, “The Wealth of Innovations,” and has authored five children’s picture books, including “The Dangerous Pet,” which poetically helps readers understand the dangers of debt. 

Brian Sullivan is a senior media relations officer with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and host of the FDIC Podcast. For more than 20 years, he has served in the public sector as a spokesperson and public affairs specialist for the FDIC, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Prior to his government experience, Sullivan spent the first 20 years of his professional career in broadcasting, which included reporting, editing and producing local and national news at Milwaukee Public Radio, the former Mutual Broadcasting System, Westwood One, NBC Radio and WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. He received his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Growing up in the D.C. area, Sullivan will tell you he got his real start in the media early on when he delivered newspapers for the Washington Post and Evening Star. 

Jeff Szyperski is chairman, president and CEO of Chesapeake Financial Shares, Inc. and Chesapeake Bank, a $1.331 billion institution based in Kilmarnock, Virginia. He is also chairman of Chesapeake Wealth Management. Sullivan is a past chairman of the American Bankers Association (ABA), as well as a past ABA executive committee member, board of directors member, nominating committee chairman, auditing committee chairman, and past chairman and member of the ABA’s Membership Council. He is also a past chairman of the Virginia Bankers Association (VBA), as well as a past VBA executive committee member, VBA board of directors member, and immediate past chairman of the VBA Education Foundation.  He is a current member of the Federal Reserve Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council.  Szyperski is a former senior manager with KPMG Peat Marwick in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is a former chairman and member of the Lancaster County Economic Development Authority. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University; and holds CPA (inactive) and CFP® (inactive) designations.  Szyperski is a current member of the GO Virginia Region 6 council and executive committee and the Bon Secours Rappahannock General Hospital campaign committee. 

Siddharth Vij is an assistant professor of finance in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. His research interests are in financial intermediation and regulation. Topics of recent projects include failed bank acquisitions, zombie lending, and the revolving door between government and industry. Vij currently teaches corporate finance to undergraduate students. He has a Ph.D. in Finance from the New York University Stern School of Business. He received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka.

Carl White is the senior vice president of the Supervision, Credit, Community Development and Learning Innovation division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. White has 32 years of experience in the Supervision division, serving in various roles within the Safety and Soundness unit. He began his career as a bank examiner. White has served as lead instructor and course developer for numerous Federal Reserve System training courses, including an international assignment in Brazil. In addition, he served as the central point of contact for the Federal Reserve Eighth District’s largest state member bank before and during the financial crisis. He and his team were nominated for the District’s President’s Award for Innovation as a result of efforts to implement and enhance off-site loan review and examination processes. White holds a bachelor’s degree with a major in finance from St. Louis University.

Alexander Wirth is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.  Their research interests include financial intermediation, household finance, corporate finance, and fintech.  Prior to pursuing a Ph.D., they worked as a pricing actuary in health and disability insurance.  They earned an undergraduate degree in Actuarial Science and Finance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.