The Directors’ Symposium provides bank board members with current data, thought-provoking industry trends and networking opportunities with other directors and regulators. The program is designed to benefit both new directors and seasoned veterans on the Board.

Dates & Hotel Information (Meeting Space; Parking)

April 22, 2025 – Blacksburg, VA

Hotel Address

The Inn at Virginia Tech
901 Prices Fork Rd
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Meeting Rooms

• Registration: Assembly Hall Foyer
• Continental Breakfast/Sessions: Assembly Hall
• Lunch: Latham A

Parking Information 

Self-parking is complimentary for all attendees.

April 23, 2025 – Richmond, VA

Hilton Short Pump
12042 W Broad St
Richmond, VA 23233

Meeting Rooms

• Registration/Continental Breakfast: Capital Ballroom Foyer
• Sessions: Capital Ballroom E
• Lunch: Capital Ballroom ABCD

Parking Information 

Self-parking is complimentary for all attendees.

April 24, 2025 – Columbia, MD

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel
5485 Twin Knolls Rd
Columbia, MD 21045

Meeting Rooms

• Registration/Continental Breakfast: Baltimore Room Foyer
• Sessions: Washington Room
• Lunch: Baltimore Room

Parking Information 

Self-parking is complimentary for all attendees.

Agenda

8:30 a.m. Breakfast/Registration

9:00 – 9:05 a.m. Welcome

9:05 – 9:55 a.m. Economic Outlook

Blacksburg, VA	Richmond, VA &  Columbia, MD
Ramon Kumar, Ph.D. | Pamplin College of Business At Virginia Tech	Sonya Waddell | Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

9:55 – 10:45 a.m. Legal Panel 

Blacksburg, VA	Richmond, VA	Columbia, MD
Moderated by: DeMarion Johnston | Virginia Bankers Association  Panelists: Heather Eastep | Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP; Scott Richter | Williams Mullen; Seth Winter | Troutman Pepper Locke LLP	Moderated by: DeMarion Johnston | Virginia Bankers Association  Panelists: Andrew Bulgin | Gordon Feinblatt LLC; Heather Eastep | Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP; Scott Richter | Williams Mullen; Seth Winter | Troutman Pepper Locke LLP	Moderated by: DeMarion Johnston | Virginia Bankers Association  Panelists: Andrew Bulgin | Gordon Feinblatt LLC; Heather Eastep | Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP; Greg Parisi | Troutman Pepper Locke LLP

10:45 – 11:00 a.m. Networking Break

11:00 – 11:50 a.m. Owning Cyber Risk at the Board Level

Blacksburg, VA & Richmond, VA	Columbia, MD
John Harrison | Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency	Chris Ramos | Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency

For years, cyber risk was considered part of information technology (IT) risk and largely delegated to IT and security teams within the bank. More recently, however, bank boards have begun to see cyber risk for what it is: a strategic, enterprise risk, which they—not their Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)—own.  The time is now for CEOs and Boards to actively embrace corporate cyber responsibility as a matter of good governance, recognizing that every organization has an obligation to reasonably assure the safety of their employees, partners, and customers. In this session, the speaker will share what this means to today’s bank board members by sharing his thoughts on how bank boards can fully embrace this new way of looking at the cyber function at their banks.

11:50 a.m. – 12:50 p.m. Lunch

12:50 – 1:40 p.m. The Extra Transactional Ray Langen| StrategyCorps 

Welcome to a journey beyond the ordinary, where the boundaries of traditional banking dissolve, and the future of financial interactions becomes seamless, intuitive and profoundly personal. In this session we explore the evolving landscape of fintech and its transformative impact on banking behavior, customer experience and financial advice. Witness the cutting-edge technologies that are reimagining the way consumers engage with their finances.

1:40 – 1:50 p.m. Networking Break

1:50 – 2:40 p.m. Optimizing Loan Portfolio Management in Today’s Evolving Economic Landscape

Blacksburg, VA	Richmond, VA	Columbia, MD
AJ Eschle | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP Susan Sabo | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP	Pam Hemstreet | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP Susan Sabo | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP	Brittany Stern | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP Susan Sabo | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

In this session, we will analyze current economic trends affecting community bank loan portfolios, identify emerging industry concerns, discuss regulatory expectations, review key loan portfolio management strategies, and address best practices for loan management in a dynamic environment. We will specifically focus on effective risk management practices, including the adequacy of credit risk reviews and concentration risk management practices, identification of refinance risk, accuracy of risk ratings, and stress testing considerations for commercial and agricultural portfolios, including commercial real estate loans.

2:40 – 3:30 p.m. Retention Takes Bold Leadership Stephen Robichaux | Capital City Consultants

We have heard it before – staff turnover is costly, both in time and money.  During this session, Steve Robichaux, President of Capital City Consultants, will dive into how banks can engage staff so they are not even tempted to look for other employment and share what employees really need to work and how to deliver. 

Meet the Speakers

Andrew Bulgin | Gordon Feinblatt LLC

Andy is a member of the firm’s Securities Law, Business Law and Financial Services groups. He represents a wide variety of businesses, entrepreneurs and investors, with a particular focus on matters relating to Maryland corporations, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and financial institutions. Andy regularly advises both companies and investors regarding best practices in corporate governance, director duties, stockholder rights, capital raising efforts, acquisitions and sales, and public company reporting and compliance matters, and he regularly supports our litigation team with respect to corporate matters when disputes arise. Andy also advises many of the federal- and state-chartered banks and credit unions that do business in Maryland with respect to corporate regulatory compliance, mergers and other acquisitions, branching matters, loan sales, bank holding company formation, investments in subsidiaries and other affiliates, charter conversions, the exercise of trust powers, and investigations by federal and state regulatory authorities.

In addition to his financial services clients, Andy has served as counsel to Maryland REITs, investors in Maryland REITs, one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States, a specialty pizza manufacturer, a publicly traded cupcake bakery, a provider of international payment processing services, an online education company, an international software reseller, a service provider to municipal red light and speed camera programs, a clothing distributor, a pain-management device manufacturer, owners of a research vessel, multistate insurance agencies in all lines of authority, and a coal export terminal. 

Heather Eastep | Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP

Heather’s practice focuses on corporate and regulatory representation of small to large regional and national financial institution franchises. She has counseled institutions on M&A transactions, as well as provided representation on securities offerings, capital planning, and corporate restructuring. She also advises financial institutions and financial service providers on emerging regulatory and compliance issues, mostly recently related to high-risk customers and Fintech opportunities.

AJ Eschle | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

A.J. has more than 17 years of experience providing audit, internal audit, risk management, and accounting services to financial institutions. A.J. serves more than 40 institutions ranging in total assets from $10 million to $6.5 billion through financial statement audits, outsourced internal audit services, compliance, and other specialized advisory services.

John Harrison | Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency

John Harrison is the Cybersecurity State Coordinator for the Commonwealth of Virginia, Region 3, with DHS CISA and is responsible for proactively engaging with members in private and public sector to increase the nation’s critical infrastructure resiliency and further protect it from cyber-attack. Previously, Mr. Harrison has worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Elections, Franklin County Virginia and Prince William County Virginia.  He has spent the last two decades as an IT leader in the SLTT community.  In his career, he has served as a subject matter expert on local government technology and participated in numerous advisory panels at the state and local level for IT leadership and cybersecurity on topics related to governance, risk management, incident response, cybersecurity maturation, and policy development.  Mr. Harrison has and continues to serve on several advisory panels and partnerships related to cross jurisdictional collaboration, business resiliency, cybersecurity awareness, data analytics, state and local partnering initiatives, and security maturity within the SLTT space.  Mr. Harrison has continued his education throughout his career to include a B.S. in Physics, M.S. in Information Technology and various certifications and courses in Quality Control and Process Engineering, Cybersecurity, Project Management, Ethics and Leadership.

Pam Hemstreet | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

Pam has 25 years of financial services experience. She has more than 15 years of public accounting experience providing financial statement opinion audits, outsourced internal audit services, consulting, and other specialized accounting services to financial institutions ranging from $10 million to more than $15 billion in assets. Pam also spent 10 years as a controller and CFO for institutions with $3 billion in assets.

Ramon Kumar, Ph.D. | Pamplin College of Business At Virginia Tech

Dr. Kumar’s research is in the areas of investments, derivative securities, market microstructure, and more specifically on the interactions between the stock and options markets. His research has been published in premier peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and in other high-quality peer-reviewed academic journals such as Journal of Corporate Finance and Journal of Banking and Finance. His research on the corporate practice of repricing of executive stock options highlighting their potential misuse at the expense of shareholders published in the Journal of Financial Economics was soon followed by both NYSE and NASDAQ instituting shareholder approval of repricing’s as a listing requirement. His research on the beneficial impact of the trading of stock options on the quality of the market for the underlying stocks in the stock market was published in the Journal of Finance and has been very widely cited in the academic and practitioner journals for its significant contributions to the important question on whether the derivative markets have a beneficial or a harmful impact on the market for the underlying securities. His paper proposing the use of Real Collar-Options in Public-Private Partnership transportation projects has been widely cited in academic and practitioner journals in construction management. His current research is focused on the motivations and possible explanations for the dramatic increase in corporate payouts using stock buybacks and in developing a new and economically-sound measure for measuring investors returns over multiple-periods with intermediate deposits/withdrawals and varying periodic returns.

Dr. Kumar’s teaching experience ranges from undergraduate to PhD courses. He has taught PhD courses in investments and in econometric methods that are used for research in finance. At the MBA and undergraduate levels, he has taught courses in investments, derivative securities and international finance. For excellence in teaching, he has received numerous teaching awards, including the William E. Wine Award for Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech Teaching Excellence Award, MBA Outstanding Faculty Award (multiple years), Outstanding Faculty in Doctoral Education Award (twice), and the Warren Lloyd Holtzman Outstanding Educator of the Year Award. In recognition of his scholarly achievements and his significant contributions to the university’s tripartite mission of research, teaching and service, he was appointed as an Alumni Distinguished Professor by Virginia Tech in 2024.

Ray Langen | StrategyCorps 

Ray Langen is Regional Director for StrategyCorps and works with financial institutions across the Great Lakes region to design, build and implement retail checking products and strategies to more effectively compete in the new subscription economy. Ray began his career as Director of Marketing for a community bank in central Illinois, is a graduate of the Illinois Bankers School and served on the Bank Marketing Board of Directors for the Illinois Bankers Association.

He joined the bank marketing firm FISI-Madison Financial in 1984 and went on to lead the national sales team working to develop checking acquisition strategies and mature market products with some of the largest regional banks in the country. In 1999 he left the banking industry to become a partner/owner at Journal Communication, a custom publishing company focusing on economic development and agribusiness content. He helped quadruple the sales of the custom publishing company, focusing on adding digital content delivery with Livability.com and built a new division, Farm Flavor Media, into a national leader in connecting consumers and agriculture. Among the many state-wide titles was a local favorite, Virginia Agriculture published for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Ray is a graduate of Illinois State University and the Institute for Organizational Management. He resides in Brentwood, Tennessee with his wife of 37 years and in his spare time enjoys bicycling, backpacking, barefoot water skiing and fly fishing.

Greg Parisi | Troutman Pepper Locke LLP

With nearly 20 years of experience, Greg focuses on capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, securities law and exchange compliance, public disclosure obligations, corporate governance, and commercial matters. Greg represents public and private companies in a variety of industries, with substantial experience representing financial institutions and fintech and other financial services companies. Greg often serves as principal outside counsel for his clients.

Greg leverages his broad experience and pragmatic approach, bringing a wealth of knowledge, business insight and practical problem-solving skills to efficiently manage transactions and advise clients in an evolving legal landscape. He combines his corporate and transactional experience with a robust knowledge of bank regulatory issues to provide valued legal solutions for financial institutions, financial technology companies and other businesses. Greg often works closely with clients to design and implement internal policies and procedures and contractual safeguards in commercial arrangements in connection with corporate and regulatory requirements and risk management best practices.

Greg leads transactions across the business cycle, from venture financings and private placements to public offerings and from asset acquisitions and sales to significant public company mergers. He advises both issuers and underwriters in securities offerings.

Greg also enjoys supporting a variety of pro bono clients and has focused on providing practical education to at-risk individuals on the responsible use of credit.

Chris Ramos | Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency

Chris Ramos serves as the Cybersecurity State Coordinator (CSC) for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In support of CISA’s mission of reducing risks to US critical infrastructure, Mr. Ramos works with public and private sector critical infrastructure owners and operators to strengthen their cybersecurity, reliability, and resilience.
As a CSC, Mr. Ramos is a regional cybersecurity point of contact to CISA, and conducts numerous cyber preparedness, risk mitigation and incident response coordination activities across the region. These activities include conducting various outreach efforts, cybersecurity assessments, cybersecurity workshops, fostering public and private partnerships, and assisting in cyber incident response coordination efforts.

In his career he has served as a subject matter expert on cybersecurity providing guidance on risk management, incident response, and best practices for securing digital assets across various industries both domestically and in Asia. Prior to joining CISA, he worked for the State of Delaware Department of Technology and Information, and Department of Elections. With the latter, served as Director of Information Technology where he oversaw the organization’s technical operations, cybersecurity, and physical security. His other roles with the State of Delaware included Information Security Officer, and Information Resource Manager. He works as an adjunct instructor at a local technical college when schedule permits.

Mr. Ramos currently holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and possesses the following professional industry certifications: Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) from ISC2; Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) from ISACA; and Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) from DRI International.

Scott Richter | Williams Mullen

Scott Richter represents community banks and other financial service companies in corporate and securities matters, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and bank regulatory issues. A partner on our firm’s Corporate and Securities team, Scott serves as a strategic advisor for our clients’ boards of directors and C-Suite executives. He also devotes a significant portion of his practice to counseling our publicly held clients with the reporting, proxy and other disclosure obligations imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. For companies and firms seeking corporate finance advice, Scott represents issuers and underwriters in initial and secondary public securities offerings, as well as private placements of debt and equity securities. 

He has been named the Best Lawyers® Richmond’s “Lawyer of the Year” for Securities Regulation (2015), Securities/Capital Markets Law (2020) and Banking and Finance Law (2021). He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® – Securities/Capital Markets Law (2010-present), Corporate Governance Law, Securities Regulation (2011-present), Banking and Finance Law, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law (2013-present). Scott earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin, and a B.B.A. degree in management from the College of William & Mary.

Stephen Robichaux | Capital City Consultants

Originally from New Orleans, Steve earned a BS degree in Psychology and an MBA from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He has been professionally affiliated with the university for more than 25 years.

He has served as an instructor in the Department of Management at the LSU E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration, Public Management Institute, Executive Education Program, Department of Continuing Education as well as the Graduate School of Banking. He holds the distinction of being voted Most Outstanding Teacher by the LSU class of 1994, and for the past five years has ranked as Top Teacher in the Executive Education Program. Steve taught Team building to the LSU National Championship Football Team under then head coach, Nick Saban.

Steve’s diverse educational background and professional experience has provided him with an extensive knowledge of organizational behavior. His finely honed group processing skills, combined with creativity and dedication make Steve Robichaux effective in his work with private industry, business and governmental agencies.

Susan Sabo | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

Susan is a CPA with more than 20 years of combined experience in public accounting and the financial services industry, including experience with Fortune 500 financial services companies. Susan serves as the managing principal of CLA’s financial services group. Her responsibilities include providing engagement oversight in the areas of assurance and internal audit. In addition, Susan provides board advisory and management consulting services in the areas of strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions. She has been involved in multiple mergers and acquisitions of sizes ranging from $150 million to $500 billion with engagement at all stages of the process.

Brittany Stern | CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

Brittany has more than 15 years of experience and specializing in providing audit and accounting services to financial institutions. In addition to planning, managing, and performing financial statement audits for institutions ranging in total assets from $10 million to $50 billion, she has performed engagements designed to test the adequacy of loan documentation and reserves, adherence to internal control policies, outsourced internal audit, and consulting engagements for various compliance requirements.

Sonya Waddell | Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Sonya Ravindranath Waddell joined the Research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in January 2008. She oversees the regional and community development research area within the department. Her responsibilities include running surveys of businesses and other organizations, directing and engaging in analysis on economic and community development issues, analyzing and providing information on regional and national economic trends, and directing the incorporation of regional information into the Richmond Fed monetary policymaking process. Prior to joining the Richmond Fed, Waddell worked as an economist in the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget and at ICF International in Washington, D.C.  She received a B.A. from Williams College in 2001 and an M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. She currently serves on the boards of the Virginia Association of Economists, the YWCA of Richmond, the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation, and the Virginia Opera. She is also a member of the Joint Advisory Board of Economists for the Commonwealth of Virginia and has served on the board of the Richmond Association of Business Economics.

Seth Winter | Troutman Pepper Locke LLP

Seth represents publicly traded companies and financial institutions, including banks and bank holding companies, nonbank lenders, and other fintech and financial services companies, on regulatory, compliance, strategic, corporate law, securities law, and disclosure matters.

He regularly represents financial institutions in mergers and acquisitions, including bank mergers and acquisitions of nonbank institutions. State and nationally chartered community banks, and their boards of directors and executive officers, rely on him to handle a variety of regulatory, compliance, and corporate governance issues; Seth regularly advises boards of directors on legal issues and fiduciary duties in the context of complex strategic transactions. He also represents financial institutions in connection with applications to federal and state regulatory agencies, including applications related to organic and M&A growth, new lines of business, and entry into new geographic markets.

Seth has significant experience advising clients on periodic and current public disclosure obligations, corporate governance issues, annual and special meetings of shareholders, securities exchange listing and compliance issues, and equity and debt offerings.

Session Materials

Session materials are linked below.  Please note – all materials are password protected.

Password: Directors2025

• April 23 - The National and Regional Economic Outlook
• April 24 - The National and Regional Economic Outlook
• Owning Cyber Risk at the Board Level (Blacksburg & Richmond)
• Optimizing Loan Portfolio Management in Today's Evolving Economic Landscape
• CISA Vulnerability Snapshot Resource (Ramos - Columbia, MD) – Please note, the PowerPoint presented by Chris Ramos (Columbia) will not be shared.
• ET - The Extra Transactional

Rosters

Blacksburg Roster – click here
Richmond Roster – click here
Columbia, MD Roster – click here

Event Policies

By registering for this event, you are agreeing to the Event Policies.

CANCELLATION POLICY

All cancellations will be charged a $25.00 administrative fee. Cancellations received less than 72 business hours before the program will be charged a $75.00 administrative fee plus any additional fees associated with the training. Substitutions are allowed prior to the beginning of the conference.

SPECIAL NEEDS & AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES NOTICE

If you have special needs that may affect your participation in this event, please contact Kristen Reid to discuss accommodations.

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

 

CRS Data
Alwyn Staley, Partner
abstaley@crsdata.com | (800) 374-7488 ext 150
www.crsdata.com

For over 30 years, CRS Data has been dedicated to delivering powerful, accurate property data backed by superior customer service. Their Financial Suite product is tailored made for financial institutions. Offering public tax records, sales and mortgage histories, property comparables, warranty deeds, interactive GIS plat maps, area demographics. CRS helps banks manage their commercial loan portfolio generate non-interest income and manage risk. They offer the power of clear and current property information to help you generate income and make sound decisions.

 

PWCampbell
Marshall Jett, Vice President
marshall.jett@pwcampbell.com | (412) 737-2508
www.pwcampbell.com

PWCampbell is a full-service provider of design-build services, branded environments, technology solutions, and consulting to the financial industry. Their Complete Facility SolutionSM reflects their dedication to delivering all-encompassing services needed to create a dynamic retail environment—from data-driven facilities planning to quality-assured project completion—managed all under one roof. With over 114 years of experience and as a certified Women’s Business Enterprise by the WBENC, they pride themselves on being an industry leader with a team that consistently delivers expertise, passion, and creativity to address their clients’ current needs and future ambitions.

 

ServisFirst Bank
Caroline Yates, Assistant Vice President, Correspondent Relationship Manager
cyates@servisfirstbank.com | (334) 301-9449
www.servisfirstbank.com

ServisFirst Correspondent Banking is strategically committed and structured to effectively serve the needs of community banks throughout Virginia and across the U.S. with liquidity management solutions, tri-party settlement services, credit and lending expertise, holding company financing, and our industry-endorsed Agent Bank Credit Card program.

 

SRA Watchtower
Megan Turcios, Regional Director
mturcios@srawatchtower.com | (804) 714-4668
www.srawatchtower.com

SRA Watchtower is a leading SaaS provider of innovative risk management and financial insight solutions, serving the financial services industry and beyond. Our suite of proprietary technology solutions and methodologies was built “by risk pros for risk pros” and designed to help customers optimize risk to accelerate growth. Watchtower, The Holistic Risk and Business Intelligence Platform™ provides practitioners, executives, and the Board with a timely, panoramic view of risk, enhanced by AI-powered data analytics, to make risk-informed decisions. 

 

The Travelers Companies
Greg Jabs, Account Executive Officer | Financial Institutions
gjabs@travelers.com | (571) 287-6273
www.travelers.com

Travelers offers a range of insurance protection through Travelers SelectOne+ ®. This flexible product line provides a robust portfolio of insurance options for banks, including D&O, cyber, bankers professional liability, financial institution bonds, ID fraud expense reimbursement and property/casualty coverages. 

 

VCDC
Bernard Rogers, Director of Equity Funds & Investor Relations
brogers@vacdc.org | (804) 297-3005
www.vacdc.org

As the only Virginia-based tax credit equity fund, they have been creating high-performing equity funds for over 30 years that prioritize the diverse needs of their investor and development partners, as well as the communities in need of affordable housing and economic development opportunities. Through their efforts, they have facilitated and managed 59 equity funds, directing funding to the construction and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing and economic development real estate projects across Virginia and in surrounding states.