Speaker Biographies
Mike Allen serves as executive vice president, director of real estate credit risk at Cadence Bank in Atlanta. Prior to the January 2019 merger with Cadence Bank, Allen served as executive vice president, senior credit officer of State Bank and Trust Company in Atlanta. He also served as director of special assets division of State Bank. His banking experience spans 40 years, having worked with several banks in various capacities including retail, consumer, commercial and credit. Allen currently serves on the credit committee for the Georgia Bankers Association, where he also serves as an instructor leading seminars on loan documentation, analyzing financial statements, and asset-based lending. He is also a member of the faculty at the University of Georgia Banking School, sponsored by the Georgia Banking Association. Allen is also a member of the faculty at the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University (LSU). He is a 1991 graduate of the school. He was the 2017 recipient of the T. Eugene Spragens President's Award, presented annually by the LSU Graduate School of Banking to an outstanding faculty member. Allen also serves on the executive committee of the LSU Graduate School of Banking as president elect.
Don Bardwell is a portfolio director in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and has more than 20 years of experience in supervising financial organizations. In addition to his supervisory responsibilities for a number of community banks and financial institutions in the Sixth District, he is part of the System's education and instructor team. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed in 2011, Bardwell was an examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where he focused on credit risk, regional banks, and troubled institutions. He was chief financial officer for some small startup companies in the greater Chicago area before coming to the Federal Reserve System, and he spent several years as a bank examiner with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Bardwell graduated with honors from the University of Illinois with a degree in business administration and marketing and is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School.
Raphael W. Bostic took office June 5, 2017, as the 15th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is responsible for all the Bank's activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and payment services. In addition, he serves on the Federal Reserve's chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). From 2012 to 2017, Bostic was the Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC). He arrived at USC in 2001 and served as a professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development. His research has spanned many fields, including home ownership, housing finance, neighborhood change, and the role of institutions in shaping policy effectiveness. He was director of USC's master of real estate development degree program and was the founding director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast. From 2009 to 2012, Bostic was the assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Bostic worked at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1995 to 2001, first as an economist and then a senior economist in the monetary and financial studies section. He served as special assistant to HUD's assistant secretary of policy development and research in 1999. He was also a professional lecturer at American University in 1998.
Michelle W. Bowman took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on November 26, 2018. 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 in Kansas from 2010 to 2017. In addition to her experience in the banking industry, Bowman worked in Washington, DC for Senator 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, Bowman 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 adviser to Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge. Following her time in Washington, DC, Bowman led a government and public affairs consultancy based in London before returning to Kansas in 2010. Bowman received a BS in advertising and journalism from the University of Kansas and a JD from the Washburn University School of Law. She is a member of the New York Bar.
Michael J. Dean is the regional director for the Atlanta Region at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Dean has been the acting regional director for that office since April 2014. Dean oversees the FDIC's bank supervisory and compliance activities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Atlanta Region supervises 819 institutions with assets of more than $454 billion. Dean has held a variety of executive positions during his 28-year career with the FDIC, including deputy regional director in risk management and compliance, national minority depository institution coordinator, acting deputy director for strategic planning and human resources, and acting associate director for compliance. He holds a risk management commission and has served in the FDIC's offices in Atlanta, Memphis, and Washington, DC. Dean holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts and is a graduate of Bryan College and the Graduate School of Banking of the South.
Amala Duggirala is executive vice president and head of operations and technology for Regions Bank and is a member of the company's executive leadership team. Duggirala has responsibility for application development, corporate computing, information security, and information technology governance, as well as deposit operations, payment operations, fraud and cash operations, card and ATM operations, loan operations, collections, and the contact center. Duggirala joined Regions in 2017 as enterprise chief information officer. Prior to joining Regions, she served as chief technology officer at Kabbage and executive vice president of global software development and implementation services at ACI Worldwide. Duggirala began her career as an engineer in telecommunications for Century Link and British Telecom, where she held a variety of leadership positions. Duggirala holds a master of science degree from Columbia University with a specialization in business and digital transformation, an MBA from the University of Omaha, an electronics and communications degree from Osmania University, and a certification in advanced project management from Stanford University.
Calvin Evans developed and manages Synovus Financial Corporation's credit market intelligence initiative in Columbus, Georgia. He is responsible for determining how market factors influence the strategic direction of commercial real estate (CRE) and commercial and industrial lending, and he serves as an economic adviser for the company. Prior to joining Synovus in 2008, Evans worked as a commercial real estate appraiser and private consultant in the Athens, Georgia, area. He earned his degree in economics in 1997 and his MBA with a dual concentration in real estate and finance in 2005, both at the University of Georgia (UGA). While completing the MBA program, Evans taught both undergraduate- and graduate-level finance at the Terry College of Business at UGA. He is a faculty member at the UGA/Georgia Bankers Association Graduate School of Banking and the Louisiana State University Graduate School of Banking, where he teaches real estate markets and finance, and he serves as a CRE market adviser for the Georgia Association of Assessing Officials. Evans is a member of the Atlanta ULI Capital Markets Committee and serves as the chair of Synovus's Economic Advisory Council. He conducts ongoing educational programs for several governmental, real estate, and educational enterprises.
Kevin Hagler is the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and has held this role since July 2013. Prior to his appointment as commissioner, Hagler served as deputy commissioner for supervision since August 2008, where he was directly responsible for supervision of depository financial institutions (state-chartered banks and trust companies, state-chartered credit unions, and bank holding companies and foreign banking organizations conducting business in Georgia). Hagler began his career as an assistant financial examiner with the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance in 1997. He progressed through the examiner ranks and became a supervisory examiner in 2002 in District 1 (Northwest Georgia). In 2003, Hagler was appointed to the position of district director in District 1, where he assumed field regulatory and supervisory responsibilities for the financial institutions in the District. Prior to joining the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, Hagler started his career by working for Altus Bank before taking a position with the Bank of Mobile. In 1994, he moved to Atlanta to work for SunTrust Bank. Hagler is a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in finance and is a Certified Examination Manager.
Joseph "Jody" Hudgins has served as senior executive vice president and chief credit officer at First Florida Integrity Bank since December 2012. Prior to his current role, Hudgins served as executive vice president and Florida executive for First National Bank of Pennsylvania, overseeing all lending functions in Florida. He began his banking career in 1977 and in 1986 joined SouthTrust Bank in Decatur, Alabama, as president and chief executive officer. In 1990, Hudgins became president and chief executive officer of SouthTrust Bank in Sarasota, Florida. In 1991, he joined West Coast Bank in Sarasota as president and chief executive officer. That bank later became First National Bank of Florida, where he served for 14 years. For more than 20 years, Hudgins has served as an instructor at the Florida School of Banking at the University of Florida. Additionally, for more than 10 years he has taught at the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University, where he currently serves as president.
Scott Hughes is director of the risk analysis unit in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit 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 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (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, Regulation, and Credit Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In this role, 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. Johnson has spent his entire career with the Federal Reserve System and served in 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. Prior to that, he was an assistant vice president and director of the risk monitoring and analysis group. 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 cochair to the supervision performance and planning committee. A native of Texas, Johnson holds a bachelor's degree in economics and a bachelor of business administration, both from the University of Texas.
Christopher Marniac has more than 26 years of financial services and research analysis experience. He leads Janney Montgomery Scott's equity research team that covers more than 150 banks, thrifts, and real estate investment trusts as the managing principal and director of research. Marniac is frequently quoted in the media. He also authors Weekly Musings, bank industry analysis delivered every Monday. Before joining Janney (formerly FIG Partners), Marniac worked for six years as managing director at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and spent five years as research analyst at Wachovia Corporation (formerly Interstate/Johnson Lane Inc.). He received a bachelor of science degree in accounting and finance from Kent State University. Marniac is a past president and current member of the board of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Atlanta.
John Silvia is enjoying the process of launching his firm, John E. Silvia, Dynamic Economic Strategy. Silvia recently retired from his position as managing director and chief economist for Wells Fargo. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, he held that position since he joined Wachovia in 2002 as the company's chief economist. Prior to Wells Fargo, Silvia worked on Capitol Hill as a senior economist for the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and as chief economist of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Before that, he was chief economist of Kemper Funds and managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments. His first book, Dynamic Economic Decision Making, was published by Wiley in August 2011. Silvia holds bachelor and PhD degrees in economics from Northeastern University and a master's degree in economics from Brown University.
Maria Romero Smith is an assistant vice president in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit 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, Smith earned a degree in finance from Florida International University. She also successfully completed the executive development program at Harvard Business School.