2026 Baker Tilly Bank Leadership Lab

Aaron joined KBW in 2000 and is a managing director in the Depositories Investment Banking Department and the firm’s Financial Services & Financial Technologies Department.

Aaron is based in the San Francisco office, with specialties including strategic advisory, capital planning, recapitalizations, restructurings, sponsor coverage, shareholder engagement, shareholder defense, special situations and mergers and acquisitions.

Dr. Chittenden is president and CEO of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, where he leads one of the nation’s premier executive education programs for community bankers.

A recognized authority on banking, finance, and economic analysis, Dr. Chittenden is a past president of both the San Antonio Association for Financial Professionals and the Academy of Financial Services. His insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, USA Today, American Banker, and numerous other publications. He has also appeared on television and radio in the United States, Canada, Australia, Austria, Germany, and Singapore.

Dr. Chittenden is the co‑author of The Art of Transforming Data: A Banker’s Guide to Dashboards and Scorecards. He has consulted for financial institutions nationwide and speaks regularly to professional organizations across the United States and Canada on banking, economic, and financial‑industry issues.

Ronda is responsible for providing independent assurance to First National Bank’s (FNB) Audit Committee and Board of Directors regarding the effectiveness of governance, risk and control processes.

She has served as FNB’s Senior Vice President, Chief Operational Risk Officer, responsible for proactively developing and overseeing FNB’s enterprise and operational risk management programs.

Before joining FNB, Ronda served as a risk and governance audit executive at USAA and has over 25 years of financial services industry experience, including executive roles at PNC and various positions in enterprise risk management and audit. In addition, she has held audit and consulting roles with KPMG.

Marc is a cybercrimes and fraud detective, certified fraud examiner, and the founder of Fraud Hero, a fraud prevention and education company dedicated to helping financial institutions, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and communities fight back against modern scams.

For more than 14 years, Marc has been on the front lines investigating the criminals behind today's most sophisticated fraud schemes. From social engineering attacks and bank account takeovers to ransomware, identity theft, money laundering, and organized cybercrime, his work has exposed the tactics, psychology, and evolving playbook used by fraudsters worldwide.

His investigations have led to arrests, criminal convictions, and the recovery of millions of dollars in stolen funds and assets. More importantly, they have provided a rare insider's perspective into how these crimes succeed and what individuals and organizations can do to stop them.

As a sought-after speaker and educator, Marc translates real-world investigations into practical strategies that help people recognize threats, strengthen defenses, and stay one step ahead of criminals. His mission is simple: turn knowledge into action and make fraud prevention accessible to everyone

Ryan leads Stifel’s Fixed Income Financial Institutions Strategy Group, which works closely with executive management teams and portfolio managers in providing balance sheet strategies and analyses related to economics, interest rates, investments, and interest rate risk management. In addition to the balance sheet and investment strategy, he focuses on interpreting shifting regulatory and accounting environments.

Ryan joined Stifel in 2015 as part of the firm’s acquisition of Sterne Agee, where he had served as lead financial strategist since 2006. He’s a frequent speaker at national and regional banking and financial conferences.

Rob partners with senior executives across financial services to drive digital transformation, product innovation, and operating model change. He works with clients to modernize technology platforms, improve customer and employee experiences, and unlock efficiency through automation and AI.

Rob’s experience includes leading complex initiatives such as cost transformation, platform modernization, and large-scale outsourcing, helping organizations translate strategy into measurable business outcomes.

Gabe joined the firm in 1995 and has been a principal in the financial services practice since 2005. Gabe served as the quality control coordinator for one of the firm’s largest practice offices for 15 years, routinely dealing with professional standards and independence matters. In 2016, Gabe was appointed to a task force of the AICPA’s Depository Institutions Expert Panel, focused on addressing CECL modeling challenges for the banking industry. In 2021, he was appointed to the AICPA’s Depository Institutions Expert Panel.

Gabe’s client base consists exclusively of financial services companies, many with complex accounting and auditing issues. His areas of expertise include integrated financial statement audits (SOX 404b), enterprise risk management implementation and evaluation, technical accounting, customer profitability, due diligence engagements, credit review and allowance methodologies, and SEC financial reporting, including periodic reporting and registration statements.

Andrew has led internal audit functions at Boston-area regional banks since 2014, including Boston Private and Berkshire Bank—now part of Beacon Bank & Trust. He’s been involved in transforming and modernizing each of his groups, leading each through successful external quality assessments.

Andrew has also worked at State Street Bank & Trust and PwC. At PwC, he started on the external audit team and moved to finance and operational consulting for financial institutions, working with many of the world’s leading banks and investment managers.

At Beacon Bank & Trust, Andrew leads a team of 12 people, including generalists and specialists in IT and compliance.

Katie works on BankTech Venture’s investment team, identifying bank-enabling fintechs that best serve our limited partner banks and the broader banking industry. She supports the investment process from origination to execution and everything in between.

Katie has previous fintech investment experience at a seed stage fund, as well as a track record of driving audience growth, revenue, and innovation for startups and Fortune 500 companies, including American Express.

Carey is an SaaS entrepreneur, executive, investor and advisor, and has started, grown and/or led eight B2B and consumer SaaS companies during startup and growth phases. He’s currently president of Operate and the managing director of BankTech Ventures, a newly-launched strategic investment fund focused on compelling technologies for community banks, and founded and funded by leaders in the community bank ecosystem. With full support and endorsement by the ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America) and The Venture Center, Finovate’s 2020 Accelerator of the Year, the fund serves the community banking ecosystem through strategic investments, education and collaboration with its limited partners.

Carey is active in the SoCal startup and investment community—OCTANe, CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County (CLA-OC) and has been an instructor or guest lecturer at numerous schools, including UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, Chapman, Cal State Fullerton, Biola and Vanguard.

He has recruited and hired nearly 1,000 people over the last 20 years and passionately believes that purpose, culture, and team are key ingredients for successful companies. He has frequently spoken at financial, software and other conferences such as SaaStock, Recurring Revenue, Lendit, AltFI, Innovation Project, Frost & Sullivan and IMA.

A 30-year veteran of the financial services industry, Becky has extensive experience in risk strategy, mitigation, and regulatory remediation across both traditional and fintech banking. She was recently promoted to her current role after serving as the Bank’s BSA officer and director of financial crimes compliance over the past two years, successfully remediating an OCC Enforcement Action focused heavily on BSA/AML Compliance in less than 24 months.

In her role, Becky has oversight of the bank’s compliance across financial crimes, consumer, third-party risk management, and business continuity management.

Phil is a principal with Baker Tilly’s digital solutions practice and a co-lead on the strategy and transformation team. Phil and his team help clients evaluate and enhance their operating models, aligning processes, technology, and human capital to meet corporate goals. Together, they assess digital and growth strategies to ensure alignment with the organization’s vision and capabilities.

Their work includes designing and implementing improved processes and technologies, envisioning future states for better performance and cost savings, and modernizing data management through intelligent automation and advanced AI solutions. These services support companies at various stages throughout their growth journey.

Patrick leads TRM's global GTM strategy and team—driving revenue growth through new customer acquisition, account expansion, and strategic partnerships.

Before joining TRM, Patrick was chief development officer at the Chamber of Digital Commerce, where he grew the advocacy association’s membership base to include global financial services entities, leading cryptocurrency businesses, and some of the largest professional services firms. In addition to development, Patrick focused on organizational strategy and member relations.

Prior to his experience at the Chamber, Patrick was an executive at Accenture, where he managed a portfolio of programs across the defense and intelligence sectors and oversaw their federal blockchain practice.

Alex Treece is the CEO and co-founder of Stablecore, a digital asset core enabling banks and credit unions to offer stablecoin, tokenized deposit and digital asset products. Prior to Stablecore, Alex was a product leader at Coinbase. Prior to Coinbase, Alex was Co-founder of the digital asset data aggregation platform Zabo (acquired by Coinbase).

Crystal is a managing director in Baker Tilly’s risk advisory practice. She has more than 20 years of experience working with financial institutions, with a focus on financial crime compliance. She leverages her industry experience and deep regulatory knowledge to lead and transform Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions and fraud compliance programs for financial institutions of all asset sizes, from community banks to global investment firms.

Crystal has a proven track record of delivering innovative solutions that exceed regulatory expectations and enhance business performance.

Mark is an experienced risk professional and the leader of Baker Tilly’s financial services risk advisory team. Throughout his career, he has focused on serving community and regional banks and fintech companies, specializing in internal audit, compliance, risk management and business transformation.

Mark has a strong background in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA) and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance within the highly regulated environments governed by the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). He has worked across all three lines of defense to assess, develop, implement, and test processes and controls that align with evolving regulatory expectations. Mark’s approach emphasizes transforming internal audit functions through innovative solutions, including data analytics.