Speaker Biographies
Wayne A. Abernathy serves as executive vice president for Financial Institutions Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the American Bankers Association (ABA), where he joined in February of 2005. Abernathy oversees ABA groups that deal with policy development, regulatory and compliance issues, bank supervision and resolution, securities and investment, wealth management, derivatives policy, and risk management. Before joining ABA, he served as Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions under President George W. Bush. In that office, he was also a member of the board of directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Prior to his work in the Treasury, Abernathy served as staff director of the Senate Banking Committee, under Chairman Phil Gramm. Abernathy earned his bachelor's degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University. He received his master's degree in international studies from the School of Advanced International Studies, also from Johns Hopkins.
Mark G. Holladay is executive vice president and chief risk officer for Synovus. Holladay oversees the company's enterprise risk management operations and related activities. Direct departments include Compliance, Operational Risk, Credit Review, and the Enterprise Risk Management Department. Holladay was appointed senior vice president of Commercial Lending in 1992. In 1994, he was named executive vice president of the Commercial Group, and in 1998 he was promoted to executive vice president of Banking/Client Delivery. In 2000, Holladay accepted the role of executive vice president and chief credit officer. In 2008, he was named to the role of executive vice president and chief risk officer. Holladay has a BS in biology from Columbus College and has completed the Graduate School of Banking and Master's Program of Banking at Louisiana State University. He is currently president of the Graduate School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University.
Scott Hughes is director of the Risk Analysis Unit in the Supervision and Regulation division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Prior to becoming director, he was a subject matter expert in the division and was responsible for monitoring emerging trends in the banking industry and residential and commercial real estate. In April 2007, Hughes came to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from the FDIC in Atlanta, where he had worked for 10 years as a regional economist. With field exam teams as an audience, he analyzed regional economic and banking trends for the FDIC's Atlanta Region. Before working for the FDIC, Hughes was an economist with two economic consulting firms. At these companies, his responsibilities included forecasting and analyzing economic trends in the Southeast.
Michael Johnson is an executive vice president in the Supervision and Regulation division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He oversees the Sixth District's supervision of state member banks, bank and financial holding companies, and U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banking operations. Having spent his entire career with the Federal Reserve System, Johnson has held a number of leadership roles within banking supervision, including senior vice president at the Atlanta Fed and vice president and managing director of the large institutions group at the San Francisco Fed. He began his career at the Dallas Fed, where he spent 10 years in bank supervision. In addition to his Atlanta Fed responsibilities, Johnson serves on the System's Supervision Committee and as co-chair of the Large Banking Organizations Management Group. A Texas native, Johnson earned bachelor's degrees in economics and business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sam Khater is the deputy chief economist at CoreLogic, America's largest provider of advanced property and ownership information, analytics, and services. He is responsible for analysis and commentary on the real estate and mortgage markets and is regularly quoted by trade publications and national news outlets. Prior to joining CoreLogic, he was a senior economist at Fannie Mae in the Economics and Housing and Community Development divisions. His responsibilities included economic, mortgage, and housing finance policy research and analysis. Before joining Fannie Mae, he was an economist at the National Association of Realtors, where he was in charge of producing economic and housing forecasts.
David Kohl is currently president of AgriVisions LLC, a knowledge-based consulting business providing cutting-edge programs to leading agricultural organizations worldwide. He is also a business coach and part owner of Homestead Creamery, a value-added dairy business in the Blue Ridge Mountains. For 25 years, Kohl was professor of agricultural finance and small business management and entrepreneurship in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech. Kohl has addressed the American Bankers Agricultural Conference for more than 35 consecutive years, and has appeared before numerous state bankers' schools and conferences throughout the world. He is chancellor of Farm Credit University, which has trained over 2,000 lenders using an online and face-to-face educational approach. Kohl received his MS and PhD degrees in agricultural economics from Cornell University.
John Kolb is a vice president in the Supervision and Regulation division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, based in the Birmingham Branch. He directs the work of the Risk and Resiliency Group and leads the division's risk council. Previously, Kolb was an assistant vice president in Supervision and Regulation with primary responsibility for capital, credit, market, and liquidity risk management. Since joining the Atlanta Fed in 2000, he has served as directing examiner, senior capital markets specialist, large bank central point of contact (examiner-in-charge), and director of capital markets. Before joining the Federal Reserve, Kolb was a national bank examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Kolb's financial industry experience includes roles at community, regional, and multinational institutions. Kolb graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in finance and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He has also completed executive development programs at Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
Dennis P. Lockhart is the 14th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is responsible for all Bank activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and payment services. He has also served on the Federal Open Market Committee. From 2003 to 2007, Lockhart was on the faculty of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He also was an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. From 2002 to 2007, he was chairman of the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, a sponsor/operator of emerging markets venture capital/private equity funds. During his career, Lockhart also was managing partner at the New York-based private equity firm Zephyr Management LP and president of Heller International Group, which had activities in commercial finance and merchant banking in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. In 2000, he served as chairman of the advisory committee of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Lockhart earned a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Stanford University and a master's degree in international economics and American foreign policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Chris Marinac is senior managing principal and director of research at FIG Partners. He co-founded FIG Partners in 2003 with Geoff Hodgson and Adam Desmond and is responsible for the firm's equity research department. Marinac has been a research analyst since 1992, covering banks, thrifts, real estate investment trusts, and finance companies during his career. Prior to FIG, Marinac served as senior research analyst at the Robinson-Humphrey Co., SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, and Interstate/Johnson Lane (now Wachovia Securities). Marinac graduated from Kent State University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Jim McAlpin Jr. is partner and leader of Bryan Cave's Financial Services Client Service Group. The group represents banks and other financial services entities throughout the United States. In addition to his work in the financial services industry, he has extensive experience in representing private companies, including family-owned entities, in connection with capital and acquisition strategies, board disputes, and dissident shareholders. He counsels private companies and banks on corporate governance matters, regulatory issues, strategic planning, and succession planning. McAlpin has expertise in the duties, responsibilities, and fiduciary obligations of corporate directors, and he regularly represents boards of directors and special committees. McAlpin served as chairman of Powell Goldstein LLP from March 2004 until its combination with Bryan Cave LLP in January 2009. He subsequently served on the executive committee of Bryan Cave until October 2014. He received a JD and BS in business administration from the University of Alabama.
Ed O'Boyle is global practice leader at Gallup Inc. He is an accomplished marketing professional and consultant who helps organizations around the world align and drive their employee and customer engagement. His expertise in branding, purchasing patterns, and behavioral economics enables a wide range of clients to optimize performance by better understanding and managing the intricacies of human nature. At Gallup, O'Boyle oversees strategic vision for the company's workplace and marketplace practices. He was instrumental in developing the company's B2B framework, which empowers clients to achieve exponential increases in performance through customer engagement and impact. O'Boyle brings more than 18 years of marketing and branding experience to Gallup. He previously served in roles in brand management, strategic planning, and innovation at Diageo, Capital One, and Frito-Lay. O'Boyle earned his master's degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his bachelor's degree in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Thomas Payne is dean of the College of Business at Tennessee Tech University. In this role, Payne serves as the senior academic and administrative officer, provides leadership and vision, and sets strategic, operational, and financial direction for the college. Prior to joining Tennessee Tech in 2015, Payne served as the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM) Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking and as chair of the UTM Department of Accounting, Finance, Economics and Political Science. His prior professional experience includes positions at Texas Instruments Incorporated, Rockwell International, and University of Tennessee–Chattanooga. He served as a visiting professor at the University of Orléans (France), partnered with Financial Services Volunteer Corporation to assist the Savings Bank of Albania during its privatization, and hosted a management program for Russian bank executives. Payne holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Arkansas, an MBA with a concentration in finance from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a PhD in finance from the University of Arkansas.
Domonic Purviance serves as a senior financial specialist within the Supervision and Regulation division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In this function, Purviance is primarily responsible for conducting an ongoing assessment of risks associated with residential real estate markets and the potential impacts they may pose to the financial system. In addition, he is responsible for developing real estate-related analytical reports and tools used throughout the Federal Reserve System to aid in risk surveillance and banking supervision. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve, Purviance served as the president of Market Advisory Services LLC, a research and consulting firm that provides analytics for developers, homebuilders, and lenders to assist in property valuations and to help assess the viability of submarkets for new development. He also previously served as a senior consultant at Metrostudy, a residential real estate research company, where he was responsible for the firm's consulting operations in the Atlanta region. Purviance received his BA in urban planning from Morehouse College and his masters in city and regional planning from Georgia Tech.
Maria Romero Smith is an assistant vice president in the Supervision and Regulation division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Within the Risk and Resiliency Group, she has responsibility for operations and IT risk, credit risk, and the Risk Analysis Unit. She joined the Bank in 1992 at the Miami Branch as an examiner, and during her career has held various positions of increasing responsibility. Most recently, she served as assistant vice president over the Regional Banking Organization Group. From 2013 to 2016, Smith served as secretary to the Conference of Presidents of the Federal Reserve System. The conference consists of the 12 Reserve Bank presidents who meet periodically to discuss matters of common interest and to consult with and advise the System's Board of Governors. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Smith earned a degree in finance from Florida International University. She also successfully completed the Executive Development program at Harvard Business School.
Carl Tannenbaum is an executive vice president and chief economist for Northern Trust. In this role, he briefs clients and colleagues on the economy and business conditions and prepares the bank's official economic outlook. He is a member of the bank's investment policy committee, its capital committee, and its asset/liability management committee. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Tannenbaum spent four years at the Federal Reserve, where he led the risk section. He was deeply involved in the central bank's response to the 2008 financial crisis, helped to create and conduct its stress testing program, and advised senior Federal Reserve leaders on developments in banking and the financial markets. Prior to that, he served for more than 20 years at LaSalle Bank/ABN AMRO as the organization's chief economist and head of balance sheet management. Tannenbaum is a member and past chairman of the American Bankers Association's Economic Advisory Committee, the National Association for Business Economics, the Conference of Business Economists, and the North American Asset/Liability Management Association. Tannenbaum holds an MBA and a BA in finance and economics from the University of Chicago.