Gayle Appelbaum is a partner at McLagan’s corporate and consumer banking consulting practice, based out of the Minneapolis office. Ms. Appelbaum brings over 30 years of experience to her clients. Her extensive knowledge of compensation trends and the banking industry, coupled with her keen ability to understand each client’s needs, enables her to create solutions unique to each situation. She specializes in developing incentive compensation plans that balance short and long-term risk while building shareholder value. Ms. Appelbaum’s expertise encompasses the full spectrum of compensation and benefits issues, including corporate governance, pay-for-performance, risk assessment, taxation, regulatory compliance and compensation agreement provisions.

Mike Blanchard is the CEO of Blanchard Consulting Group. He has extensive experience in the human resources field and has conducted or supported over 500 compensation planning, market research and organizational development projects over the past 25 years, with over 20 years specific to the banking industry. Mr. Blanchard has presented to various banking associations including Bank Director’s Annual Compensation Conference, American Bankers Association and several state banking associations on a variety of compensation and board governance topics. Mr. Blanchard’s experience includes advising clients on assessing total compensation for executives and directors, incentive planning, equity plan design, salary administration and performance management.

Mike Bonner is a principal at Compensation Advisory Partners in New York.  Since joining CAP in 2013, he has worked with compensation committees and senior management teams to address a wide array of executive and non-employee director compensation issues.  His typical projects include incentive plan design, executive and non-employee director compensation benchmarking, and performance measurement.  Mr. Bonner has experience working with both public and private company clients across industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and retail.  He also has experience working with companies on executive compensation matters in special situations, including mergers and acquisitions and IPOs.

Matt Brei is president at Blanchard Consulting Group.  He has been a compensation consultant since 2000 and has been exclusively focused on the banking industry since 2002.  Prior to founding Blanchard Consulting Group, he worked at Amalfi Consulting, Clark Consulting, and Arthur Andersen.  He serves in a lead role with his client engagements and focuses on identifying the unique compensation needs and concerns of each individual client.  Mr. Brei’s areas of expertise encompass multiple disciplines within executive, director, and staff compensation.  Mr. Brei frequently speaks at banking conferences on various compensation related topics and has written a number of published articles within banking specific publications.

Jinyoon Chung is principal at Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC.  She has over 20 years’ experience as an executive compensation consultant serving the banking industry.  She plans and manages a broad range of executive compensation and board advisory services for clients of all sizes, ownership (publicly traded, privately-held, private equity held) and business stages (start-up, turn-round, pre-IPO and mature).

Ms. Chung’s work in executive compensation includes peer group development, executive and outside director compensation benchmarking, research and analysis of compensation practices and trends, short- and long-term incentive plan design and implementation, pay-for-performance alignment, proxy disclosure, LTI valuations, realizable/realized pay analysis, compensation risk assessment, ISS modeling, performance metric selection, severance arrangement, reward and retention strategies.

Prior to joining Meridian, Ms. Chung was vice president at Pearl Meyer for nine years.

Lynda Crouse is a partner at Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP.  She assists clients with the design, implementation, and administration of all types of employee and director compensation and benefit arrangements, including employment agreements, incentive plans, equity plans, 401(k) plans, ESOPs, SERPs, and other deferred compensation plans.  Although Ms. Crouse represents all types of public and private companies, much of her practice is within highly regulated industries, including banking and financial services and energy.

Jeff Fairchild is a SVP, Lead Consultant at Blanchard Consulting Group. Jeff has experience consulting with Compensation Committees, Board of Directors, and Senior level Executives to review executive and director compensation practices and related compensation programs relative to market.  He has been focused on this since 2010.

Flynt Gallagher is the president of Newcleus Compensation Advisors. He leads in its mission of assisting clients in attracting, motivating and retaining personnel critical to achieving success. Mr. Gallagher brings considerable experience and expertise to his role of providing CA’s clients with comprehensive and effective support. He combines extensive knowledge of accounting and income tax matters related to community banks with years of experience within the financial services industry.

Mr. Gallagher’s career began in the field of public accounting and continued for 10 years while moving into manager and partner positions with a regional firm before accepting the tax manager positions with Florida National Bank and First Union National Bank. He worked with key clients of these banks on compensation, wealth management, income tax and related IRS issues. Mr. Gallagher established his own consulting firm and began offering these services to the banking community for the past 20 years.

Laura Hay is a partner at Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC.  She has 25 years of experience advising institutions on executive compensation and its related governance.  Specializing in banks, insurance, diversified financials and Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), she believes that financial institutions provide the foundation for a strong economy and that good corporate governance results in long-term sustainability and shareholder value.

Ms. Hay advises boards and management teams on a broad array of compensation issues.  Recent projects include compensation decision-making related to merger and acquisitions, equity plan strategy, pay and performance alignment, line of business compensation and proxy advisor guideline interpretation and consultation.

Prior to joining Meridian, Ms. Hay led the national banking industry group for a major compensation consulting firm.  She also has corporate experience and managed the global executive and director benefit and stock plan programs for Duke Energy Corporation.

David Jones is a principal at Pearl Meyer. For over 30 years, he has consulted with a broad range of public and private companies, as well as non-profit organizations, on all matters related to executive and board compensation, with a particular industry emphasis in banking. He is a member of Pearl Meyer’s national banking industry team and has been accepted as an expert witness in the US Tax Court on executive compensation in the financial services industry.

Kelly Malafis is a founding partner at Compensation Advisory Partners LLC (CAP) in New York.  She has 20 years of executive compensation consulting experience working with compensation committees and senior management teams.  Ms. Malafis’ areas of focus include compensation strategy development, evaluating the pay and performance relationship for senior executives, annual and long-term incentive plan design, compensation program governance and board of director compensation.

Ms. Malafis has advised large and small publicly traded companies in a variety of industries, including financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and retail.  She has also provided advice on compensation issues for privately held companies and companies with special circumstances such as IPOs and spin-offs.  Ms. Malafis has also advised the U.S. Department of the Treasury on executive compensation matters.  She writes and speaks frequently on executive compensation.

Shannon Patterson is counsel at Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP.  She is a skilled corporate and securities practitioner who handles corporate governance, public disclosure, and executive compensation matters for U.S. public companies.  She works closely with directors and executive management on a range of corporate and regulatory requirements under federal securities regulations, stock exchange listing rules, and state corporate law.

Christie Summervill is the CEO at BalancedComp, LLC., a salary and compensation firm that specializes in salary administration for banks and credit unions across the country, using expertly crafted web applications and highly valued HR consultants with experience in HR management in banking. She is the nation’s leading expert on salary and compensation for the financial industry.

Greg Swanson is managing director at Pearl Meyer, and is a member of the firm’s national banking practice. Mr. Swanson has more than 20 years’ experience consulting with public and private companies on all aspects of executive and board compensation, including governance, education, compliance, communication, philosophy, design, monitoring, benchmarking, succession planning, employment agreements and more. The majority of his work in recent years has been focused on executive and director compensation issues affecting community and regional banks. Mr. Swanson is a frequent speaker at banking association conferences and is a regular author on board and executive pay topics.

Prior to joining Pearl Meyer, Mr. Swanson was the founder and managing member of Swanson Advisory Services, LLC, an independent compensation consulting firm focused exclusively on serving the needs of community and regional financial institutions. Mr. Swanson merged his practice into Pearl Meyer when he joined the firm in April 2012.