Panelists

Joshua Almond serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Volume 28 of the North Carolina Banking Institute Journal. Almond earned his undergraduate degree in Music from James Madison University. After graduation, Almond will join the law firm Potter Anderson & Corroon in Wilmington, Delaware as an associate.

Michelle Alt is a Co-Founder and Partner at Klaros Group. Alt advises banks and fintechs on regulatory issues critical to growth and sustainability, with a focus on aiding fintechs with their U.S. business plans and U.S. bank licensing. Her recent activity follows a long career as a lawyer. She spent 22 years at the OCC as a leader in the Law Department’s Legislative and Regulatory Activities section and as the OCC’s district council in Chicago. Her time there overlapped with the global financial crisis which led her to the forefront of the regulatory space. After the OCC she spent nearly a decade at Promontory Financial Group leading major bank licensing efforts and assisting numerous major banking organizations on a range of Dodd-Frank and Volcker Rule interpretive and implementation matters. In addition to her work at Klaros Group, she also hosts a podcast called “Radically Clear,” where she discusses changes in banking regulation.

Alt received her BA from the University of Michigan and her JD from Wayne State University.

Greg Baer serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer at the Bank Policy Institute. Prior to this role, he was President at The Clearing House Association and Executive Vice President and General Counsel of The Clearing House Payments Company, the largest private sector payments operator in the United States. Baer has also been Managing Director and Head of Regulatory Policy at JPMorgan Chase. Previously he served as Deputy General Counsel for Corporate Law at Bank of America, and as a partner and co-head of the financial institutions group at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr. From 1999 to 2001, Baer served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, after serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary. Prior to working for the Treasury Department, Mr. Baer was managing senior counsel at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Baer is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School and the author of The Great Mutual Fund Trap and Life: The Odds (And How to Improve Them).

Baer received an AB from UNC and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Kellie Bickenbach is the Head of Controls Assurance at First Citizens Bank. She previously worked as Head of Operational Risk Management at SVB Financial Group, and prior to that served as Chief Operational Risk Officer of Fannie Mae, Chief Risk Officer of Finastra and US Bank’s technology and operations division.  She began her career as a consultant for Arthur D. Little and then worked in corporate operational risk for Bank of America. Bickenbach has a BBA and BS from the College of Charleston and an MBA from The Citadel.

Loren Bushkar is an Innovation Policy expert at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. In her role, she develops innovation policy and strategy to help with the supervision and regulation of the banking sector. She specializes in topics like artificial intelligence, open banking, and the use of data. Earlier in her career, she was Managing Director of the Global Membership Department at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and held a variety of roles at J.P. Morgan, including Executive Director and Investment Strategist. During the passage of Dodd-Frank, Bushkar was the chief of staff to the CEO at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Bushkar received her MS, BS, and BA from the University of Virginia.

Lisa Carr leads Reputation, Issues and Crisis Communications at USAA. Her team is responsible for protecting USAA’s reputation by anticipating and mitigating issues, planning for and responding to crises, and inspiring trust with all key stakeholders. She has held various roles during her 26-year career at USAA including leading communications during the banking and financial crisis of 2007+. She serves on the Board of the Issues Management Council.

Carr earned her BS at The University of Texas at Austin.

Christopher Davis is an attorney in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity. In his role at the Bureau he provides legal and subject matter advice, policy advice, and legal services related to fair lending laws, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), and assists with regulatory implementation efforts related to Section 1071 of the Dodd‐Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the small business lending data collection rule). He joined the Bureau in 2012.

Davis received his BA from the University of Tampa and his JD from the American University Washington College of Law.

Beth DeSimone is the Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel at SouthState Bank, N.A. She oversees risk functions, corporate governance, and legal, including M&A, contract negotiation and vendor management for the organization. Previously, she served as the executive Vice President and General Counsel of CommunityOne Banccorp. Before going in-house, DeSimone was a financial services attorney at Arnold & Porter, LLP.

DeSimone received a BA from Wheaton College and a JD from William & Mary Law School.

Tom Eck is Corporate Secretary for USAA Federal Savings Bank. He leads a team of attorneys providing legal advice on corporate governance matters related to USAA and USAA FSB. He has held a variety of senior level attorney positions in his more than thirty years of practice in financial services including serving as Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary for Huntington National Bank, Associate General Counsel for Capital One, and General Counsel for Calusa Investments and other private companies. He began his legal career with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, then served as Senior Litigation Counsel for Bank of America, and was a Senior Trial Attorney at the OCC.

Eck earned a BA and JD from the University of Southern California.

Kacie England serves as the Executive Editor for Volume 28 of the North Carolina Banking Institute Journal. Upon graduating from law school, she will join the civil litigation team at the Raleigh office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough. England earned her BA in US History and Southern Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Grovetta Gardineer is the Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Gardineer directs the formulation of policies and procedures for the supervision and examination of national banks and federal savings associations, chairs the agency’s Committee on Bank Supervision, and serves on the OCC’s Executive Committee. She also oversees the units for policy related to credit risk, market risk, operational risk, and compliance risk, as well as the units responsible for international banking and capital policy, accounting policy, and community affairs. Previously, Gardineer served as the Senior Deputy Comptroller for Compliance and Community Affairs since March 2016. In that role, she oversaw agency compliance exams on national banks and federal savings associations and supervised the agency’s Community Affairs and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) programs.

Gardineer earned her JD from North Carolina Central University and her bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University.

Alaina Gimbert serves as in-house counsel to The Clearing House Payments Company with responsibility for supporting the company’s payment systems.  Her work includes providing legal support to CHIPS®, a systemically important, high value funds transfer system, as well as the RTP® System, a real-time inter-bank payment system. Gimbert is also responsible for following policy, regulatory, legislative and litigation developments with respect to payments, economic sanctions and financial crimes and engaging with regulators and industry participants to advance the interests of The Clearing House and its owner banks.  In recent years she has been closely involved with cross-border payments matters such as ISO 20022 implementation, projects to link the RTP System with instant payment systems in other countries, and private sector engagement with the Financial Stability Board’s cross-border payments initiative.  She is a frequent industry speaker and an author and editor of payments-related articles and treatises. Prior to joining The Clearing House in 2011 Gimbert was counsel to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, supporting its Retail Payments Office.

She received both her BA and JD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ed Ivey is the Head of the Swaps & Derivatives Practice at Moore & Van Allen. He advises clients on swaps, derivatives, general corporate matters, and various types of debt and equity capital market activities, including regulatory matters associated with the Commodity Exchange Act, Investment Company Act, and Securities Act. Prior to Moore & Van Allen, he worked in New York at a Magic Circle law firm with a lean team of New York lawyers advising on US regulatory matters impacting his clients, including the Dodd-Frank Act, Volcker Rule, Risk Retention Rules and all matters relates to swap and derivatives. He has also spent time at Morgan Stanley’s structured product desk and Wells Fargo advising on US derivatives and regulatory matters. He has been ranked in the IFLR1000 for derivatives and capital markets since 2014.

Ivey received his BSBA from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and his JD from UNC School of Law.

Larry Kaplan is the Chair of the Bank Regulatory group at Paul Hastings. Kaplan focuses on corporate structuring, control, operations, compliance, problem banks, and enforcement. He advises clients on anti-money laundering and sanctions programs and data security and privacy matters. Kaplan regularly works with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, particularly the Volcker Rule. In addition to his work at Paul Hastings, Kaplan serves as an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Law School. Before his time with Paul Hastings, Kaplan was partner at Nelson Mullins.

Kaplan received a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from George Washington University Law School.

Ryan Kelly is Vice President & Assistant General Counsel at Bank of America. He specialized in consumer financial services with a particular focus on the Bank’s digital payments portfolio. He advises on emerging and legacy payments, product development, and regulatory & payment system compliance. Prior to Bank of America, Kelly was in-house counsel for Fiserv and InComm Payments counseling on FinTech and bank regulatory matters, including money transmission, digital assets, and payment networks. Kelly was also an associate at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP in Atlanta.

Kelly received a BBA from Georgia Southern University, and a JD from Michigan State University.

Paul Kurzeja is an Associate General Counsel & Director at Bank of America. He advises on structured finance products including CMBS, ABS, secured lending, commercial mortgage lending, and more. Prior to his time with Bank of America, Paul practiced structured finance at Mayer Brown and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. Paul has also been a CPA at Deloitte, litigation attorney at Womble Carlyle and a federal judicial clerk for Judge Russell A. Eliason.

Matt Martin serves as Chief Counsel & Corporate Secretary at First Citizens Bank. He is responsible for overseeing the company’s corporate and general bank legal functions and litigation, and advising executive management and the board of directors on legal matters. Prior to joining First Citizens, Martin served as U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. In this role, he led the U.S. Department of Justice prosecution office responsible for all federal investigations and prosecutions in the Middle District. Prior to serving as U.S. Attorney, Martin was Associate General Counsel of Duke Energy, where he was responsible for litigation, risk management, and dispute resolution, and chaired an internal leadership development program. Before joining Duke Energy, Martin was partner with the law firm of Smith Anderson in Raleigh, N.C. He began his legal career with the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

Martin received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina.

Barbara Meeks is a partner in Chapman’s Banking and Financial Services Department and a member of the Bank Corporate Group. Meeks provides legal advice to a range of global, regional, and community banks, as well as fintech, treasury management, payments, insurance, wealth management, and brokerage companies. Her practice addresses regulatory, compliance, transactional, governance, risk management, and investigative matters. She has experience regarding commercial and consumer transactions, Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR), living will requirements, interest rate transition, Bank Secrecy Act, broker-dealer, and insurance licensing matters. Prior to joining Chapman, Meeks was a partner at Moore & Van Allen. She began her career with Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman and then served as Association General Counsel for Wells Fargo & Company.

She earned her BA at Wake Forest University and JD at Wake Forest University School of Law.

Brandon Milhorn is the president and chief executive officer of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), the national association representing state financial regulators and a champion for the system of state financial supervision. He was appointed by the Board of Directors in December 2023. CSBS supports state regulators by advocating for responsible policy; engaging with federal regulatory counterparts, the Administration, and Congress; providing research on economic matters, industry trends, and best practices; conducting training and professional development; and developing transformative supervisory technology, such as the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and Registry.

Milhorn previously held leadership roles at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), serving as deputy to Vice Chairman Travis Hill and as chief of staff and deputy to Chairman Jelena McWilliams. Before the FDIC, he spent seven years in the private sector with Raytheon Corporation. Prior to Raytheon, he held numerous positions over a decade of public service, including as staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as an attorney at the CIA. He began his career with two federal clerkships.

Milhorn holds a BS in economics from East Tennessee State University and a JD from Cornell Law School.

Donald Mosher heads Schulte Roth’s Bank Regulatory Group. His practice focuses on the regulation, acquisition and sale of payments companies and money transmitters, licensing and registration of traditional and non-traditional money services businesses, and the laws and practices applicable to mobile, digital, virtual, electronic, paper- and card-based payment products and systems. Mosher has represented leading banks, payments companies, card associations, money transmitters and private equity firms in transactional and regulatory matters associated with payments, prepaid cards, digital currencies, and money transmission.

He earned a JD at St. John’s University School of Law and a BA at State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Ed O’Keefe is the Co-head of Financial Regulatory Advice & Response at Moore & Van Allen. In his role, he advises and represents financial institutions, including investigations, litigation, regulatory compliance, governance, cybersecurity, compensation, and risk management. In addition, he advises on law department management and effective legal engagement with regulators and control functions. Prior to joining Moore & Van Allen, he served as the Global General Counsel of Bank of America Corporation and a senior executive with Bank of America’s compliance, technology, human resources, and operations functions.

O’Keefe earned a BA from the University of Rhode Island and a JD from Fordham University School of Law.

Alexandra O’Rourke is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Vectari, a banking AI tool to help manage regulatory risk. She specializes in AI and how it can be used to enhance the financial services industry. Prior to her new business endeavor, she served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Valon. O’Rourke’s prior experience includes Bank of America, Womble Bond Dickinson, McGuireWoods, the CFPB, and the U.S. Department of State.

O’Rourke graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, has an LLM from Queens University in Belfast and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Lauren Pless serves as the Managing Editor for Volume 28 of the North Carolina Banking Institute Journal. After graduation, Lauren will be joining the Raleigh office of Ogletree Deakins. Lauren earned her BA in History and Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jywanza Robinson is a senior examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta with more than 20 years of experience. He currently serves as co-chair of the Market and Liquidity Risk Coordinators Group of the Federal Reserve System. In this role, he leads a group of market and liquidity risk specialists across the Federal Reserve System as they take actions to promote the highest quality supervision related to market and liquidity risk. Robinson has participated in examination work related to banks with a broad range of asset sizes and complexity. Throughout his career at the Federal Reserve, he has provided substantial market and liquidity risk expertise, mentorship, and training to others in the Federal Reserve System.

Gavin Smith is Senior Counsel in the Monetary Affairs and Payment Systems Section of the Federal Reserve Board’s Legal Division. In this role, he focuses on a variety of subject matters, including payment systems, fintech, crypto, consumer, and other financial regulatory issues.  Prior to joining the Board in 2016, he worked as in house counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City for several years after beginning his career in private practice.

Smith earned his BS from Bob Jones University and his JD from Baylor University.

Eric Spitler joined the UNC Law faculty in 2020 as an Adjunct Professor of Law. His teaching and research interests include banking and securities law, with a focus on legal responses to financial crises. Spitler is the author of a comprehensive review of the efforts to amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. His work has appeared in the American Banker and the North Carolina Banking Institute. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on deposit insurance, financial reform and financial crises. Early in his career, Spitler practiced law at Neely & Player in Atlanta, Georgia and worked for two Members of Congress. Subsequently, Spitler served as Director of Legislative Affairs for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during the 2008 financial crisis and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during the negotiations and passage of the Dodd Frank Act.  After retiring from the federal government, he formed Delverton Strategies, LLC, a financial consulting firm.

Mitria Spotser is the Vice President and Federal Policy Director at the Center for Responsible Lending. She is an expert on consumer protection, affordable housing, economic development, and oversight of financial institutions. Her expertise has taken her to testify before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services regarding consumer protection in the evolving marketplace. Spotser’s past experience is extensive, including time with the Consumer Federation of America, the Credit Union National Association, House Financial Services Committee for Chairwoman Maxine Waters, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, DC Housing Finance Agency, and Committee on Economic Development for the Council of the District of Columbia.

Spotser received her JD from the University of Texas School of Law and, post-graduation, served as a law clerk in the Supreme Court of Alabama and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Meg Tahyar is Head of Financial Institutions and a member of the Fintech team at Davis Polk. She provides strategic bank and financial regulatory advice to clients including many of the largest U.S. and non-U.S. financial institutions, regional banks, fintechs, cryptocurrency exchanges and other digital assets companies. In 2023, she led the teams representing the Signature and Silicon Valley bridge banks and advised JPMorgan on its acquisition of the assets and liabilities of First Republic. This work built on years of representing more than two dozen clients on living wills. She has been involved in several regional bank combinations. She also advises on corporate governance, consent order remediation, bank chartering, payment systems, fintech partnerships, bank powers and activities, cryptocurrencies, digital assets, securities disclosure, capital and liquidity and the Federal Reserve’s liquidity programs.

Tahyar is a member of the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. She co-authored Financial Regulation: Law and Policy, a leading textbook, and FinTech Law: The Case Studies. Tahyar received her AB from the University of Michigan and a JD from Columbia Law School.

Joseph Vitale leads the Bank Regulatory Practice at Fried Frank. He advises banks and other regulated financial institutions with respect to various issues such as regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and financial transactions. Vitale’s clients include private investment funds, banks, and other licensed financial service providers. He has authored numerous alerts and articles published in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, The Banking Law Journal, and American Banker.  Before working with Fried Frank, Vitale practiced at Schulte Roth & Zable in New York and, prior to that, K&L Gates in Washington, DC.

Vitale received an AB from College of the Holy Cross and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.