HOTEL
One of the stars of the Spring Seminar is likely to be the venue, the brand new Omni Viking Lakes Hotel in Eagan, Minn. Omni Viking Lakes Hotel is an awe-inspiring destination for both leisure and business travelers alike. Drawing upon Nordic architectural traditions, this 14-story hotel features elements inspired by the American-Nordic landscapes. It is conveniently located along I-494 with easy access to both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. If you're looking for shopping options in the area, the hotel is just a short drive (about 8.4 miles) from Mall of America. Featuring incredible amenities like our hotel’s indoor heated pool, a full-service spa, bars and restaurants, we’ll help you get the most out of your visit.
This luxurious hotel is beautifully designed for an event of our size. It is located next to the Minnesota Vikings Football training facility, which includes the Vikings Museum. After we conclude early Friday afternoon, you are highly encouraged to take in the museum. If you are a Viking fan, you will appreciate the unique collection of memorabilia.
Book your room today to lock in our special rate! The deadline to book at our special rate is Monday, April 18th.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Sean Payant
Haberfeld
Dr. Sean Payant is Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Executive Officer with Haberfeld, a Lincoln, Neb.-based consulting firm serving financial institutions across the country. Payant served as the Executive Director of the Schools of Banking for nine years prior to joining Haberfeld. He has administered, instructed, and authored materials for 17 different banking schools attended by bankers from 18 states. He has published articles on financial institution marketing, employee engagement, goal setting and community financial institution differentiation. He has Masters and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Nebraska.
Damien R. Martin
BKD
Damien Martin provides tax compliance, consulting and planning services to individuals, families and fiduciaries and provides proactive succession planning for high-net-worth individuals and their family-owned businesses as the East Regional Leader of BKD Private Client. He also focuses on helping affluent clients build and preserve their family’s legacy through an integrated suite of services designed to assist families manage and transfer multigenerational wealth.
He is the host of Simply Tax, a podcast dedicated to delivering practical and timely content to simplify tax challenges. He spent three years serving in BKD’s National Office where his major focus was the 2017 tax overhaul.
Martin is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, where he currently serves on the Tax Profession Strategic Advisory Group, and Illinois CPA Society, where he has served on the Estate, Gift and Trust Committee.
He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a graduate of Golden Gate University, San Francisco, with a master of science degree in taxation.
Kathryn Pearson
University of Minnesota
Kathryn Pearson is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota specializing in American politics. Her research focuses on the United States Congress, congressional elections, political parties, and women and politics.
Her research has recently appeared in The Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, and Politics & Gender, and she has published several book chapters. Her book titled Party Discipline in the House of Representatives was published in 2015 by the University of Michigan Press. It combines quantitative data analysis and interviews of key elites to examine party leaders' strategic use of their legislative prerogatives to reward loyal party members and punish defectors. It is an extension of her dissertation that won the APSA Legislative Studies Section's Carl Albert Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the area of legislative studies. She is working on a new book project, Gendered Partisanship in the House of Representatives, analyzing congresswomen's pursuit of power in a partisan era.
Pearson is a recipient of the Morse Alumni Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. In 2002- 2003, Pearson was a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and from 1993 to 1998, she worked on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Assistant for two members of Congress.
Brian Leibfried
Performance Trust
Brian Leibfried serves as the Managing Director of Client Insights at Performance Trust. He serves on the board of First Federal Bank in Lake City, Fla. As a former banker, Leibfried leverages an exceptional and powerful talent stack – combining treasury, bank management, investment banking, and capital markets. He delivers holistic strategies expressed objectively with clarity and conviction through the Shape Management methodology. He also serves as lead instructor at the nationally recognized Performance Trust University where he provides balance sheet and strategic insights to thousands of high-level banking executives throughout the United States. Brian is a CFA charter holder and has a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Florida. He is Series 7 and 63 registered.
Joshua Juergensen
CliftonLarsonAllen
Joshua Juergensen is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen. He works with banks and credit unions nationwide, managing audit engagements, directors' exams, external loan file reviews, internal audits, and other consulting services. He has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Accounting and Legal Studies in Business from The University of St. Thomas, St. Paul Minn. In addition, he is a 2014 graduate of the Graduate School of Banking in Boulder, Colo.
David Heneke
CliftonLarsonAllen
David Heneke is a principal with the financial institutions group at CliftonLarsonAllen, dedicated to certified audits, director’ examinations, internal audits, and general control review. Heneke began his career with CLA in 2005, and has 12 years of experience working with financial institutions. He has a Masters of Accountancy degree with an emphasis in management of information systems, and a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree with a major in accounting. Both degrees are from the University of Iowa. In addition, he is a graduate of the Graduated School of Banking in Boulder, Colo.
Liz Rider
CliftonLarsonAllen
Elizabeth Rider of CliftonLarsonAllen manages audits, internal audits and Sarbanes Oxley compliance for public and privately held financial institutions with assets of up to $3 billion. She has 17 years of experience with audit and accounting services for financial institutions. Her consulting experience includes providing loan review, FDICIA, HUD, SBLF, SOX, internal audit and operational review services for financial institutions. She is experienced with overseeing multi-bank charter engagements. She is knowledgeable in the area of policy and procedure review and recommendations. She specializes in assisting banks with FDICIA transition plans at $500 million and $1 billion in total assets.
Johnny Quinn
Keynote Speaker
Johnny Quinn is a highly sought-after speaker for businesses and organizations of all sizes. He is a U.S. Olympian in the sport of bobsled and competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Quinn is also a former pro football player, spending time with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL.
When Quinn is not on the road speaking, he owns and operates the Johnny Quinn Insurance Agency, helping families all over the state of Texas with their insurance needs. Quinn’s newest book, PUSH: Breaking through the Barriers is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Target. Johnny Quinn his wife Amanda and their two children, Amelia and Oliver, reside in McKinney, Texas.
Brandon Oliver
BankTech Ventures
Brandon Oliver is Strategy and Operations Manager for BankTech Ventures, a newly launched venture capital fund with the mission to invest in technology companies whose products serve community banks and their end-customers, ultimately helping drive banks’ competitiveness and growth in this evolving industry.
By leveraging BankTech Ventures’ strategic relationships within the banking and tech industries, the Fund will seek to build a portfolio of high-quality, committed tech companies, which investors can utilize for their own strategic and operational needs.
Oliver has a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry with strong attention given towards fintech solutions for banking. Skilled in Market Research, Management, Organizational Alignment, Business Relationship Management, Project Management, Financial Analysis and Financial Modeling, Oliver has a Master of Business Administration degree focused in Finance from Bentley University, Boston.
Marcie Bomberg-Montoya
Wipfli
Marcie Bomberg-Montoya leads the Strategic Advisory Services practice across all industries Wipfli serves, with a personal focus on the technology and financial services Industries. She specializes in futurist planning, emerging technologies, and digital evolution. Prior to joining Wipfli, Bomberg-Montoya held leadership roles in financial services for 25 years, and then shifted focus to the technology industry. She founded and led a consulting firm that worked with fintech companies specializing in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and payment solutions. Her experience includes serving as CEO of a software-as-a-service company focused on document management utilizing revolutionary blockchain technology, serving highly regulated industries, and serving as executive vice president of a community bank in the greater Chicago area.
Justin Bjerkaas
Micah Group
Justin Bjerkaas is Founder and CEO of Micah Group, a Minneapolis-based fintech that solves lending inefficiencies for banks and financing companies by leveraging AI, machine learning and computer vision. Prior to founding Micah, Bjerkaas spent a decade as a banker. Today, he translates his technical knowledge to understandable insights for bank leaders who are navigating the digital transformation journey.
Bjerkaas began his career at Associated Bank, where he was selected for its rising star leadership program and most recently served as Senior Manager, overseeing the Minneapolis market. Bjerkaas later worked in commercial lending at U.S. Bank and Great Western Bank. In 2017, Bjerkaas wiped out his savings to pursue his dream of forming Micah Group. He partnered with technologists from MIT, Harvard and George Washington University to build Micah™, the intelligent lending platform. Bjerkaas and team worked to automate the data gathering, financial spreading and credit presentation processes that delay customer decisions. Micah evolved to handle the job of multiple systems and automate decisioning, allowing banks to grow loan portfolios without adding staff. In 2021, Micah Group doubled its team size and added nearly 80 new users to its system.
Marcia Malzahn
Malzahn Strategic
Marci Malzahn is the president and founder of Malzahn Strategic, a financial institution consultancy focused on strategic planning, enterprise risk management, treasury management, and talent management. Malzahn has 23 years of banking experience, the last 10 as the EVP/CFO/COO of a community bank she co-founded where she oversaw all the bank operations areas. In her last year as EVP/COO/CRO, Malzahn created and focused on the bank’s risk management program. She was also the corporate secretary of both the holding company and the bank. Malzahn has a Bachelor of Arts degree in business management from Bethel University, is a certified life coach, and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, Wis.
John Biestman
FHLB - Des Moines
John Biestman joined the Federal Home Loan Bank System in 2003. He started out with FHLB Seattle and transitioned over to FHLB Des Moines after the merger in 2015. Biestman is currently a vice president, senior relationship manager who works primarily with banks in the western region. Biestman is a highly regarded financial strategist, speaker and writer as well as the host of the FHLB Des Moines Insider and On the Record podcasts. Biestman has more than 40 years of national and international financial experience, including leadership positions at Barclays Capital, First Interstate Bank and Dean Witter Reynolds. He has a Master’s in Business Administration degree from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and a Bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Caitlin Houlton-Kuntz
Fredrikson & Byron
Caitlin B. Houlton-Kuntz, a senior associate at Fredrikson & Byron, represents banks and other financial institutions in a variety of regulatory, mergers and acquisitions, and other transactional matters. In addition, Houlton-Kuntz routinely negotiates critical contracts with bank vendors, including core processing agreements and drafts customer agreements. Having grown up in a community banking family, Houlton-Kuntz has dedicated her practice to helping the community banking industry thrive. Prior to joining Fredrikson & Byron, she coordinated regulatory examinations and communications at a large national bank, focusing on safety and soundness, stress testing and corporate treasury.
Dr. Elliot Eisenberg
Keynote Speaker
Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D., is an internationally acclaimed economist and public speaker specializing in making the arcana and minutia of economics fun, relevant and educational. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with first class honors from McGill University in Montreal, as well as a Masters degree and Ph.D., in public administration from Syracuse University. Eisenberg, a former Senior Economist with the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C., is the creator of the multifamily stock index (the first nationally recognized index to track the total return of public firms principally involved in the ownership and management of apartments), the author of more than 85 articles, serves on the Expert Advisory Board of Mortgage Market Guide and is a regular consultant to several large real estate professional associations, hedge funds and investment advisory groups.
Dr. Eisenberg is the Chief Economist for GraphsandLaughs, LLC, a Miami-based economic consulting firm that serves a variety of clients across the United States. He writes a syndicated column and authors a daily 70-word commentary on the economy. He is a frequent speaker on topics including economic forecasts, economic impact of industries such as home building and tourism, consequences of government regulation, strategic business development and other current economic issues.
Tammy Bangs
NYDIG
Tammy Bangs joined NYDIG as the Banking Relationship Manager in early 2021. She’s a CAMS certified 30-year-plus veteran of community banking and spent more than 17 of those years working for JHA in a variety of roles. She has had a focus for the past decade in AML/Fraud, cybersecurity, and digital banking. Bangs has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Evangel University, Springfield, Mo.
SCHEDULE
SPONSORS
