Speakers and Panelists
Taylor Begley is an assistant professor of finance at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests include financial intermediation, financial regulation and housing markets. His recent research uncovers unintended consequences of various financial regulations and government lending programs, including those that exacerbate existing racial disparities in credit access. His work has been published in the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. Begley holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Kentucky and earned his Ph.D. in finance at the University of Michigan.
Cynthia L. Blankenship is vice chairman, corporate president and chief financial officer of Bank of the West, Grapevine, Texas. Bank of the West specializes in small business lending and has eight locations in Texas. She is currently a member of the board of directors for the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA). She is a past chairman of the ICBA and is the immediate past chair of the ICBA services network. Blankenship has also served on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Community Banking Advisory Board. She was appointed Dean for Bankers and chaired the Southwestern School of Banking Foundation at Southern Methodist University from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking, Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business. Blankenship served as chair of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT) in 2002 and served as chair of the IBAT Education Foundation which raised more than $1 million for financial literacy. In 2004, U.S. Banker magazine named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Banking. Blankenship has served her community through the Colleyville Women’s Club, the Community Bankers Education Foundation, the Bear Creek Community Development Project, and Dallas Summer Musicals. She is a member of the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce and a recipient of the 1999 Arts Education Award and the 2004 Colleyville Women’s Club Novus Award. Blankenship currently sits on the board of directors of the Grapevine, Texas, Convention and Visitors Bureau. In November 2010, she was named as one of the 2010 Great Women of Texas.
John Hackney is an assistant professor of finance at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. He graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., with a degree in finance and economics, and spent his working life before graduate school in his family’s screen-printing business, which directly benefited from community bank funding. He received his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Washington in 2016. His research currently focuses on the effects of government regulation on small business financing.
John Kandrac is a senior economist in the division of monetary affairs at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, where he works on topics related to monetary policy implementation and money markets. His research focuses on monetary economics, banking and financial intermediation, and financial markets. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve, he was an analyst at J.P. Morgan and received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.
John W. Ryan is the president and CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, the national association representing state banking supervisors and the leading advocate for advancing the state banking system. Before being named CSBS president and CEO in August 2011, Ryan was CSBS's executive vice president, a position he had held since October 2003. He first joined CSBS in 1997 as an assistant vice president for legislative affairs. Prior to joining CSBS, Ryan worked at Newmyer Associates, a public affairs consulting firm, where he led the company's financial services consulting practice. Previous to his work at Newmyer Associates, Ryan spent four years as a professional staff member to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs. Ryan received a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from the University of California-Berkeley.
Julie Stackhouse is executive vice president and managing officer of supervision, credit, community development and learning innovation for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Prior to joining the St. Louis Fed in September 2002, Stackhouse served as vice president and managing officer of the Risk Management department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. In addition, she was formerly an officer with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City prior to relocating to Minnesota in 1995. She served in many capacities at the Kansas City Reserve Bank, starting as an examiner in 1980. Stackhouse holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Drake University and is a graduate of the Wisconsin Graduate School of Banking. She currently serves as president-elect of the Board for National Charity League, Inc., a mother-daughter philanthropic organization, and as a member of the St. Louis Forum. In 2010, Stackhouse was named a St. Louis Business Journal “Most Influential Business Women” recipient, and in 2016, was recognized with the Delta Sigma Pi Lifetime Achievement Award.
Michael Stevens is the senior executive vice president at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). He is responsible for leading the organization's public policy, financial supervision, federal coordination, communications, industry relations and professional development functions. Stevens also serves as the principal deputy to the state banking member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Prior to his appointment in September 2011, he served as the senior vice president for regulatory policy, representing the state banking system in the development of policy in the areas of financial stability, prudential supervision and consumer protection. He joined CSBS in 1999 to work in all facets of CSBS's professional development division. Stevens is a frequent instructor and speaker on banking policy, examinations and financial analysis. He serves on the faculty of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado and at Texas Tech University's School of Banking. He began his regulatory career as a bank examiner for the Iowa Division of Banking, where he served 11 years.