Charles Baxter is a special agent in the U.S. Secret Service (USSS). Baxter has been employed with the Secret Service since October 2000. He began his career working in the USSS forensic labs conducting examinations on counterfeit currency and instructing new USSS agents. He then transferred to the USSS Uniformed Division and worked as a federal police officer at the White House, where he provided protection for the president and vice president as well as the White House facilities. After about two years, he became a special agent in the Washington field office. He conducted financial crimes investigations and continued to provide protection for the president, vice president, and visiting foreign diplomats. In August 2006, he transferred to the USSS's Atlanta field office. He is currently assigned to the Electronic Crimes Task Force, for which he conducts criminal investigations, computer forensics, and cyberthreat investigations.
Michael Blume is the director of the Consumer Protection Branch (CPB) of the U.S. Department of Justice. The CPB is charged with enforcing federal consumer protection statutes. Its attorneys and staff investigate and prosecute cases involving food and drug safety, financial and consumer fraud, and consumer product safety. Its work is both criminal and civil. Since 2009, work of the branch, in coordination with federal prosecutors, has led to recoveries of more than $6 billion and 140 criminal convictions. Blume joined the CPB in 2011, after having spent about nine years as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Blume also practiced law for the City of Philadelphia, for a private law firm, and as a clerk to a federal judge. Blume is a 1996 graduate of the Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Charles Bretz is director of payment risk at the Financial Services Information and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC). Bretz has more than 20 years of executive management experience with a major regional bank in online sales, online service delivery, mobile banking, and bank cards. He supports FS-ISAC's Payment Processor Information Sharing Council and Payment Risk Council. Bretz has also served on the board of directors of NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama and has an MBA from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Josh Burke is a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Consumer Protection Branch, which handles a wide variety of civil and criminal enforcement of consumer protection statutes. Burke has investigated and litigated civil and criminal cases throughout the country, including off-label marketing of pharmaceuticals, telemarketing fraud, abusive debt collection practices, dangerous children's products, and odometer tampering. He is currently investigating banks and third-party payment processors that have processed ACH debits and other types of payments for fraudulent merchants.
Burke graduated from the University of Virginia and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2011, he received the John Marshall Award, the highest award the Department of Justice awards to attorneys.
Paul Carrubba is a partner in the law firm of Adams and Reese LLP. His primary focus is on banking law, payment system laws and regulations, and bank operations issues. He is a frequent speaker at industry trade organization events, vendor user conferences, and webinars on banking and banking law issues. He serves as litigation consultant and expert witness in matters dealing with banking procedures. Before starting the practice of law, Carrubba was executive vice president and managing director of Carreker Corporation in Dallas, Texas. In this position, he was responsible for the management of profit and loss for the software business units. Before joining Carreker, Carrubba had a consulting firm and provided bank operations consultation to banks in the United States, litigation support and expert testimony, and legal services to financial institutions.
Carrubba started his banking career at Deposit Guaranty National Bank in Jackson, Mississippi, where he worked for more than 20 years. At the time of his departure, he was senior vice president and manager of operations, served as chairman of the board of directors of the Southern Financial Exchange, was a member of the executive committee and board of directors of the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), a member of the Bank Administration Institute's Council for Educational Services and the Operations and Technology Commission, and chairman of the Operations and Automation Committee of the Mississippi Bankers Association. He is the author of five books, including Revised UCC Article 3 and 4, A Banker's Guide to Checks, Principles of Banking, and Remote Deposit Capture Practical Considerations.
Tony DaSilva has been a senior examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta since 2003. He is a member of the Community Bank Organizations Group focusing on back office operations functions, information technology, and payment processing functions.
DaSilva has 21 years of commercial banking experience. He began his banking career at the Citizens & Southern Bank of Georgia—now Bank of America—where he spent 18 years in various operations management positions. Before joining the Atlanta Fed, he was the vice president of marketing and product management for Prudential Bank. He has held management and senior management positions in deposit operations, item processing, credit card, merchant credit card, ACH, loan processing, branch support, and remittance processing operations. He also has product, marketing, sales, project, and client relations management experience. He was a participant at the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) IT Symposium that helped originate the remote deposit capture guidance. He also is one of the primary contributors to the revision of the FFIEC's IT examination handbook on retail payments. He has been an instructor for the AIB, the ABA, The Payments Institute, and a regular speaker at the American Bankers Association, NACHA, BAI conferences, and other regional conferences.
DaSilva received his bachelor's degree from the University of North Georgia and master's degree in management from the University of Alabama Huntsville. He is an Accredited ACH Professional and a Certified Information Systems Auditor.
Peggy Gachesa, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Automated Clearing House Association (GACHA), worked in the electronic banking department at Delta Employees Credit Union for 18 years. Here, she was responsible for the management of ACH, wire transfer, check processing, and online banking. During her tenure at Delta, she served as the treasurer for the GACHA board of directors. After retiring from Delta Employees Credit Union in 2004, Gachesa worked as an independent consultant for GACHA, performing ACH audits and onsite training. In 2007, she accepted an interim position as GACHA president, which led to her current role with GACHA. Gachesa has served on several committees for the NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association: the Rules and Operations Committee and Strategic Planning Committee, and the Regional Payment Association's Executive Steering Committee. She regularly serves on industry workgroups and committees and is a member of NACHA's Internet Council, the Georgia Society of Association Executives, the Association for Financial Professionals, the Georgia Bankers Association, and the Community Bankers Association of Georgia. Gachesa obtained her Accredited ACH Professional certification in 2002.
Mary Kepler is vice president and chief risk officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In this role, she leads the Atlanta Fed's compliance and enterprise risk identification and management efforts. She also directs the Atlanta Fed's Retail Payments Risk Forum. Her responsibilities with the Forum include collaborating with financial institutions and other industry participants, regulators, and law enforcement to identify, understand, and mitigate risks in retail payments.
Kepler joined the Atlanta Fed's supervision and regulation department in 1992 after spending nearly eight years at the Kansas City Fed. In 1998, she was promoted to assistant vice president in the information technology department and in 2002 was named vice president. Kepler later joined the Retail Payments Office (RPO), where she managed the Federal Reserve System's retail payments services to the U.S. Treasury Department and oversaw the RPO's initiatives on intellectual property rights. In 2005, Kepler became the senior officer over human resources. In this role, she chaired the Atlanta Fed's human resources committee and was an adviser to the Bank's Management Committee. In 2007, Kepler took on new responsibilities in the financial management and planning department, where she oversaw the accounting, budgeting, procurement, strategic planning, and enterprise risk management functions.
A native of Missouri, Kepler received a bachelor of business administration degree with a concentration in finance from the University of Central Missouri. She has also completed the executive development program at Northwestern University.
Jane Larimer currently serves as NACHA's executive vice president of ACH network administration. She is also the organization's general counsel. She leads the department responsible for all activities that support NACHA's role as administrator of the ACH network, including rulemaking, risk and compliance, and network development. Larimer also provides legal support for NACHA Operating Rules and for NACHA's activities in the areas of electronic commerce, electronic check initiatives, electronic bill payment and presentment, and electronic benefits transfer. Before joining NACHA, Larimer practiced law with the Lending, Banking and Public Finance Group of Bryan Cave LLP, formerly Powell, Goldstein, Frazer, & Murphy in Atlanta.
Judy Long has served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of First Citizens Bancshares since August 1999. Long was corporate secretary for First Citizens National Bank (1997–2011), and was appointed in 2011 to the board of directors of First Citizens Bancshares and First Citizens National Bank. Long previously served as senior vice president and chief operating officer (1997–99), senior vice president and administrative officer (1996–97), and vice president and loan operations manager (1992–96).
Long serves on the boards of directors of Fidelity National Information Systems Charter Bank Group and of NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association, and as chairperson of the Tennessee Bankers Technology Conference Advisory Committee. In addition, Long has worked with such charitable organizations as the Rotary Club (past president), American Cancer Society, Leukemia Society of Tennessee, Life Choices, Dyersburg State Community College Annual Fund Campaign, and Dyer County Agricultural Committee.
Long holds a bachelor of business administration with a major in finance and is a graduate of the Mid South School of Banking, the School for Bank Administration, BAI Graduate School of Bank Operations and Technology, and Dyersburg/Dyer County Leadership and Weststar Leadership programs.