Kirk Hovde is managing principal & head of investment banking at Hovde Group, LLC.  He is responsible for leading the firm’s investment banking practice, as well as evaluating the financial and strategic options of financial institutions.  In this capacity, Mr. Hovde performs financial analyses and valuations of banks and thrifts, assists in the facilitation of M&A transactions and capital offerings, and assesses the impact of national and regional trends on the financial services industry.  Mr. Hovde is also a member of Hovde Group’s management operating committee, which is tasked with the day-to-day management of the firm and implementation of the longer-term strategic plan and vision.

Prior to joining Hovde Group, Mr. Hovde was with Deloitte & Touche LLP in Chicago, Illinois, where he provided assurance services to both public and private clients in a broad array of industries.  These services primarily consisted of regular financial audit and Sarbanes-Oxley attestation engagements, but also included special projects for acquisitions and divestitures.

Kevin Toomey is a partner at Arnold & Porter. He represents banks and other financial services companies, along with their boards of directors and senior management, in a wide range of enforcement, regulatory and corporate governance matters. Mr. Toomey has deep and broad experience representing institutional and individual clients before the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, Department of Justice, CFPB, FinCEN and OFAC. Many of those matters have involved complex, sensitive investigations involving multiple agencies and parties. As part of his public service and private practice, he has developed expertise in areas such as federal and state banking laws and regulations, consumer protection statutes, the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering requirements.

Chambers USA has recognized Mr. Toomey as a leading lawyer in the nationwide category of financial services regulation: banking (enforcement and investigations), and has highlighted that major financial institutions often seek his counsel to lead their response to investigative and enforcement proceedings involving multiple government agencies.

Cory Kronheim is a partner at Crowe LLP. He has over 11 years of experience with Crowe providing a variety of client services in the financial services industry. His experience includes banking clients ranging from $100 million to over $20 billion in assets and financing companies averaging $150 million in assets. Mr. Kronheim has deep specialization in auditing financial institution mergers and acquisitions and SOX 404 internal control audits.

Beth Johnson is principal of managed technology consulting at RSM US LLP.  She specializes in overseeing the delivery of a broad suite of technology-related engagements across the financial services, industrial products and tribal government and gaming industry with 4,500 business applications, integrators, network, enterprise content management and security engineers located throughout the US and globally.  Ms. Johnson also serves on RSM’s board of directors and is on the executive management team for technology consulting and helps drive overall technology solutions to her clients.

Niki Nolan is a senior consultant at Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC.  She joined Meridian as an intern in the summer of 2014 and began as a consultant in 2015.  She consults on a wide range of executive compensation matters, including executive and outside director compensation benchmarking, peer group development, short- and long-term incentive design, pay and performance analyses, and realizable/realized pay assessments.

Ms. Nolan has worked with a broad range of industries including retail, business services, and has also worked with public, private and non-profit companies.  She is a member of Meridian’s financial services team.  Additionally, Ms. Nolan is involved in research relating to governance and design, compensation trends, severance plan design, and relative TSR plans.