Sandra Thompson

Acting Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)

On June 23, 2021, the White House appointed Sandra L. Thompson as the Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

Since 2013, Thompson has served as Deputy Director of the Division of Housing Mission and Goals where she oversaw FHFA's housing and regulatory policy, capital policy, financial analysis, fair lending and all mission activities for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

Prior to joining FHFA, Thompson worked at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for more than 23 years in a variety of leadership positions including the Director of Division of Risk Management Supervision. During her time at FDIC, Thompson led the Agency's examination and enforcement program for risk management and consumer protection at the height of the financial crisis. She also led the FDIC's outreach initiatives in response to a crisis of consumer confidence in the banking system. Her experiences range from supervision to consumer protection, risk management and consumer outreach activities.

Thompson is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Jon Seward

Principal Deputy Chief, Department of Justice (DOJ)

Jon Seward is currently Principal Deputy Chief in the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice where he supervises fair lending cases involving a pattern or practice of discrimination. From 2003 to 2007, Jon was Fannie Mae's vice president and deputy general counsel for fair lending, where his duties included managing Fannie Mae's anti-predatory lending guidelines across all business channels and ensuring compliance with fair lending and related laws. From 1994 to 2003, Jon served as a trial attorney and deputy chief in the Housing Section where his responsibilities included developing fair lending cases with a focus on predatory lending, reverse-redlining and redlining. Jon developed his passion for fighting housing discrimination as a trial attorney in HUD's Fair Housing Division. Jon received his juris doctorate degree from Rutgers Law School where he was the managing business editor for Rutgers' Civil Rights Journal.

Mark Pearce

Director of Depositor and Consumer Protection, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Mark is the Director of the FDIC's Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection (DCP) and leads the FDIC's efforts to protect depositors and consumers nationwide. The Division has responsibility for the FDIC's compliance and CRA examination and supervision for state non-member institutions, research and policy development related to consumers' use of financial products and services, depositor and consumer assistance, community affairs, financial education and economic inclusion efforts.

Prior to joining the FDIC, Mark was the Chief Deputy Commissioner of Banks for the State of North Carolina. He has served as President of the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators. Previously, Mark was President of the Center for Responsible Lending and has worked for Self-Help, one of the largest community development financial institutions in the nation.

Mark graduated from Harvard Law School (1996) and has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Joseph Firschein

Associate Director and Community Affairs Officer, Federal Reserve Board of Governors (FRB)

Joseph Firschein is Associate Director and Community Affairs Officer at the Federal Reserve Board's Division of Consumer and Community Affairs. He leads the Board's Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) team that is responsible for developing and implementing CRA regulations to support bank lending, investment, and services in low- and moderate-income communities. He also oversees the Board's community development team that that works with a range of stakeholders to promote the economic mobility of low-income individuals and communities.

Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Board, Joseph served as a Director in Fannie Mae's Housing and Community Development Division where he managed the business segment responsible for financing community development financial institutions. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Joseph managed lending to community development financial institutions at the U.S. Treasury Department Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and served as lead community development analyst at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Housing Branch. Joseph has served as a board member of several nonprofit community development and policy organizations and is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and George Washington University, where he teaches courses on community development finance and policy. Joseph has an MBA in Finance from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business; a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy; and a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University.

Ed Kramer

Senior Advisor, Asurity

Ed Kramer is a Senior Advisor on the Asurity team. Ed brings decades of financial services experience and a wealth of expertise in regulatory and compliance matters, the mortgage and software industries, and business management and development.

Mr. Kramer serves as a Director of ICE Mortgage Technology (IMT). IMT combines the innovation and expertise of Black Knight, Ellie Mae, Simplifile and MERS, as the only provider focused on automating the entire mortgage process - from consumer engagement through loan registration, servicing, and every step in between. IMT offers the only digital network that applies robust data connections across the industry to virtually every loan in the market.

Ed is also the Independent Director of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS). He has served in that capacity since April 2011. MERS serves as the mortgagee in the land records for loans registered on the MERS® System, and is a nominee (or agent) for the owner of the promissory note.The MERS® System is a national electronic registry system that tracks the changes in servicing rights and beneficial ownership interests in mortgage loans that are registered on the System.

From April 2016 to March 2020 he was a member of the Senior Advisory Board for Treliant, LLC, a multi-disciplinary compliance, risk management and strategic advisory firm for the financial services industry and consumer-oriented businesses.

Mr. Kramer was Executive Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services from late 2006 to the end of 2015. Prior to this position, Mr. Kramer was Deputy Superintendent of Banks in charge of the Consumer Services Division of the New York State Banking Department, which is responsible for performing consumer compliance and fair lending examinations and administering the Community Reinvestment Act. The division also coordinates economic development and CRA outreach activities with banks and community organizations.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Kramer served as First Senior Vice President and Director of Residential Mortgage Lending at The Dime Savings Bank of New York, and was Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Banks.

Mr. Kramer is a member of the Northeastern Regional Board of Directors of Operation Hope, Inc. and serves on the Advisory Board of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City (NHS). He is a lecturer at Pace University Center for Governance, Reporting & Regulation.

Mr. Kramer received his MBA in Management, with distinction, from Pace University.

Andy Sandler

Founder and CEO, Asurity

As an entrepreneur, investor, and strategic advisor to the financial services industry, Andy also leads Temerity Capital Partners, the Sandler family office and private investment company, which invests in and advises early-stage FinTech and RegTech companies. He founded Treliant Risk Advisors, a preeminent privately owned and operated financial services industry consulting firm; and founder of The Sandler Family Foundation, which focuses on impact investing and supporting social entrepreneurship. Andy also previously led Buckley Sandler, a premier financial services law firm.

For the past 30 years, Andy has been a trusted legal advisor and counsel in significant litigation and enforcement matters to the financial services industry first as a Partner at Skadden and later as Chairman and Executive Partner of Buckley Sandler. Chambers USA has recognized Andy as "one of the leading stars of the financial services regulatory firmament."

Andy holds a JD and MBA degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Wharton School of Business; an MA from the University of Warwick (U.K., Rotary Foundation Fellow), and a BA from Union College. He is a fellow in the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. His leadership roles at the American Bar Association Litigation and Business Law Sections have included Chair of the Consumer and Civil Rights Committee and Vice Chair of the Banking Law Committee.

Andy has been named a recipient of HousingWire's 2019 Vanguard Award in recognition of his achievements and influence within the housing industry.

Dr. Anurag Agarwal

President - RiskExec

Dr. Anurag Agarwal is the president of Asurity's compliance risk analysis and report platform RiskExec.

He is a recognized expert in fair lending, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and related areas. As the main architect, designer, and developer of the platform, Anurag continues to lead the development of the RiskExec line of compliance technologies.

During his career, Anurag has consulted with and advised large financial institutions in the areas of compliance, fair lending, statistical analysis, and regulatory risk management.

Andrea Mitchell

Managing Partner, Mitchell Sandler

Andrea is a nationally recognized adviser to banks, financial services companies, and third-party service providers on enforcement, regulatory, and compliance matters. She represents clients throughout the country on fair lending, fair servicing, and responsible banking issues, including matters that involve claims of disparate impact; disparate treatment; and unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices (UDAAP). Her work in this area includes advising on redlining, pricing, underwriting, steering, product development, sales and marketing, social media, limited English proficiency, artificial intelligence and machine learning, overdraft and other deposit account practices, credit reporting, servicing, collections, and loss mitigation.

She frequently advises clients on board governance and bank regulatory issues, including supervisory appeals, merger and acquisition strategy, supervisory relations, and examination management. She also assists banks with applications to change primary bank regulators and with their transitions into Consumer Financial Protection Bureau jurisdiction upon crossing $10 billion in assets.

Andrea also has conducted internal investigations and served as lead counsel on dozens of government investigations and enforcement matters.

Melissa Hammer

SVP, Fair Lending Product Management, RiskExec

Melissa Hammer is Senior Vice President of Fair Lending Product Management for RiskExec, Inc. and brings over 20 years of broad financial industry risk and compliance expertise to the company. Most recently, she served as TD Bank's Vice President and Senior Group Manager of Compliance, U.S. Conduct Risk and Ethics.

Throughout her career, Melissa has focused her efforts on managing enterprise risk and ensuring regulatory compliance, including CRA, fair lending, and UDAAP. Melissa is a highly credentialed (CRCM, CERP, CCEP) professional, with broad public speaking and publication experience. Prior to joining the Asurity organization, she earned her BBA in Finance from Columbus State University, and her MBA from Auburn University.

Lisa Rice

President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance

As President and CEO, Lisa Rice leads the National Fair Housing Alliance's (NFHA) efforts to advance fair housing principles, preserve and broaden fair housing protections, and expand equal housing opportunities for millions of Americans. NFHA is the trade association for over 200 member organizations throughout the country and is the nation's only national civil rights agency solely dedicated to eliminating all forms of housing discrimination.

Ms. Rice is a published author contributing to several books and journals addressing a range of fair housing issues including - The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences, and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act; Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World; Discriminatory Effects of Credit Scoring on Communities of Color; and From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupancy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Credit.

She played a major role in crafting sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and in establishing the Office of Fair Lending within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She also helped lead the investigation and resolution of precedent-setting fair housing cases which have resulted in providing remedies for millions of people as well as the elimination of systemic discriminatory practices involving lending, insurance, rental, and zoning matters. Ms. Rice also serves on various Boards and Advisory Councils.

Linda Ezuka

Founder, CRA Today and the CRA Hub

Linda Lewis Ezuka is the Founder of CRA Today and the CRA Hub, an exclusive membership
for bank professionals to master the art of the CRA, get exam ready and transform
communities through the power of economic development. Linda also hosts the CRA
Podcast, a podcast to elevate conversations around the Community Reinvestment Act.

Ms. Ezuka has over 30 years of community development experience, with emphasis in CRA
compliance, training, community development finance and CDFI initiatives. Linda has led
CRA programs within large banks and have consulted with banks of all sizes and regulators.

Ms. Ezuka currently serves on the board and investment committee of the HMSA
Foundation and on the Advisory Board of the Patsy T. Mink Center for Business and
Leadership and has served chairwoman of the board for the YWCA of Oahu, Hospice Hawaii
and HCRC CDFI. Linda is a past CDFI New Markets Tax Credit and CDFI Reader, a Pacific
Century Fellow, SBA Financial Services Advocate of the Year Awardee and Pacific Business
News 40 Under 40 honoree.

Linda is the author of the book: Outstanding: A Practitioner's Guide to Exam Readiness.

Daniella Casseres

Partner, Mitchell Sandler

Daniella serves on Mitchell Sandler's management committee and leads the firm's mortgage regulatory practice group.

She advises mortgage lenders, financial institutions, and consumer finance companies on regulatory compliance and enforcement matters, bringing the insight of a former banking regulator at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to her work. The head of Mitchell Sandler's mortgage practice group, she regularly counsels clients on state and federal laws relating to fair lending, advertising, licensing, and privacy. She has particular experience helping mortgage lenders and others comply with the requirements of the Truth in Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, and state regulatory requirements.

Daniella has served as lead counsel to clients in federal and state regulatory investigations and enforcement matters involving the:

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Department of Justice
• New York Department of Financial Services
• California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation
• Various other state financial regulators

Dr. Marsha Courchane

VP and Practice Leader, Charles River Associates

Dr. Marsha J. Courchane, Vice President and Practice Leader of the Financial Economics Practice at Charles River Associates, is an economist and leading expert in the areas of mortgage and consumer lending, and engages in research, consulting, and litigation support with respect to mortgage markets, discrimination in lending, consumer credit, credit scoring, credit risk, and redlining issues. She has published in several academic journals. She is a member of Counselors in Real Estate (CRE) and a Fellow of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics. She served as the Executive Vice President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (2008–2019). She has held previous positions at Freddie Mac, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and various universities in the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand.

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Department of Justice
• New York Department of Financial Services
• California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation
• Various other state financial regulators

Arvind Jagnnath

Senior Director Product Management, Sagent

Arvind Jagannath is a Sr Director of Product Management at Sagent. In his technology product management career spanning over 2 decades, Arvind's primary focus has been on improving the lives of "Humans in the business process" and "Humans Impacted by the outcomes of these business processes" through innovative use of technology. Drawing on his product management experiences at WoltersKluwer/PCI building CRA/HMDA/FairLending solutions and his more recent experiences at Altisource and Guaranteed Rate/AIFoundry with Big Data /AI /ML solutions for Mortgage Servicers and Originators. Arvind brings a pragmatic perspective to what works and what doesn't when it comes to assessing and managing risks of disparate treatment and/or Impact on borrowers in mortgage originations and servicing.

Todd Karazim

Counsel, Mitchell Sandler

Todd prides himself on being a valued strategic business partner to mortgage servicers and lenders. He has vast experience with each, including servicers' in-house and subservicing platforms and lenders' consumer direct, digital, correspondent, retail, and wholesale divisions.

Todd routinely advises on multi-state compliance matters involving mortgage lending, servicing, and debt collection, including technology and licensing matters. He has worked with a variety of trade groups, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, as well as state legislatures in submitting industry comment letters covering a variety of areas, including debt collection, Property Assessed Clean Energy, junior mortgage requirements, and loss mitigation programs.

He has also assisted in reviewing and streamlining a variety of agreements and disclosures as part of the mortgage lending and servicing businesses. He works with business partners in reviewing policies, procedures, and practices to fit business needs and regulatory requirements, including TILA, RESPA, SCRA, GLBA, vendor selection/oversight/due diligence, remote online notarization/eClosings, and a variety of state requirements.

Chris Napier

Partner, Mitchell Sandler

Chris advises banks, financial technology companies, and financial service companies on a variety of regulatory compliance and enforcement matters, including matters involving fair lending, fair servicing, unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP), Community Reinvestment Act compliance, money transmission and payments, alternative credit, and deposit issues. He frequently represents clients during examinations and investigations by the Department of Justice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, and state regulators. Chris also advises a wide variety of financial technology companies on product development, establishing bank and other partnerships, and navigating the complexities of state and federal regulations.

Prior to joining Mitchell Sandler, Chris was an associate at Buckley Sandler focused on the financial services industry, and had a decade-long career in retail banking and lending before entering the law.

Experience

• Buckley Sandler
• New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division

Education

• J.D., Rutgers School of Law, magna cum laude
• Executive Editor of the Rutgers Law Review
• B.S., Rutgers University, cum laude

Admissions

• New York
• New Jersey
• District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

David Roell

VP, Compliance Products and Analytics, RiskExec

David Roell is Vice President of Compliance Products and Analytics. He is responsible for the design, development, and commercial advancement of RiskExec's business analytics product suite.

Prior to joining the Asurity organization, David served as Lead Data Scientist, HMDA Operations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that role, he combined his passion for financial markets with extraordinary data analytics skills to develop quality assurance initiatives, testing processes, and reporting dashboards to enable data visualization and the tracking of key metrics. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce.

Jeff Walker

CEO and Co-Founder, CredEvolv

Jeffrey Walker is the Co-Founder and CEO of CredEvolv, a fin-tech platform that revolutionizes the way consumers achieve and maintain good credit. CredEvolv's mission is to turn "no" in to "not yet" by breaking down the barriers to credit equity and guiding consumers seeking improved credit on a journey to sustainable, lifelong credit well-being.

Prior to founding CredEvolv, Mr. Walker held a number of mortgage industry leadership positions, most recently with Fannie Mae. Mr. Walker's responsibilities with Fannie Mae included SVP/Co-Chief Customer Officer and SVP for Strategy, Insights, and Business Enablement. In these capacities Mr. Walker leveraged his passion for customer loyalty and customer experience innovation.

Before joining Fannie Mae Mr. Walker was an EVP with SunTrust Mortgage, where he led sales and loan-origination activities for their national retail and consumer direct mortgage channels. Earlier in his career, he served as President, Consumer Direct Lending for The Federal Savings Bank, Managing Director and EVP, National Mortgage Production Manager at CitiMortgage (where he led all mortgage production and sales teams), SVP Correspondent Lending with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and Sales Director for Freddie Mac.

Walker has a BS, Finance from Virginia Tech, is a graduate of the MBA School of Mortgage Banking, and a graduate of MIT's Executive Education where Mr. Walker was a recipient of the Sherlock Award for Lean Management Problem Solving.

Lindsay Yousif

Executive Director, Compliance, Ally

Lindsay is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) with over 21 years of experience serving as Chief Compliance Officer, Fair Lending Officer, and CRA Officer at large-sized institutions. She specializes in Fair Lending, UDAAP, CRA, and HMDA, and has successfully created compliance programs at financial institutions ranging from $500MM to over $175BB while managing regulatory examinations under the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OTS, OCC, and CFPB. During her career Lindsay has completed over 11 M&A's, including as lead of the Compliance Workstream for the TCF and Chemical Bank merger of equals in 2019.

Lindsay is dedicated to ensuring credit opportunities are accessible to underserved persons and markets, and has taught numerous financial literacy courses to youth to prepare them for the future. She has passionately served on boards and committees of over 20 non-profit organizations including as President of the former Housing Opportunities for Macomb; Chair of the Macomb County CRA Association; Member of the Michigan Women's Business Council's Certification Committee; Co-Chair of the Neighborhood Stabilization Committee for the Nevada Banker's Collaborative; and currently as a Board Member of the Fair Housing Center of Metro Detroit.

Lindsay earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Public Administration Degree from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

Britt Faircloth

Senior Director of the Office of Fair and Responsible Banking, Citizens Bank

Britt Faircloth is an industry expert with over 25 years of banking experience including roles in the retail branch system, operations, and compliance. As a former consultant, she served institutions of all sizes with her deep knowledge base in HMDA, CRA, Fair Lending, and UDAAP. Currently Britt is the Senior Director of the Office of Fair and Responsible Banking at Citizens Bank where her team manages second line functions related to HMDA, Fair Lending, UDAAP, Complaints, SCRA, and ADA.

Beverly Donawho

Director of Fair and Responsible Banking, Cornerstone Capital Bank

Beverly (Bev) Donawho has over 22 years of financial services industry experience in compliance and risk management in CRA, HMDA, Fair Lending and UDAAP. She has built and managed many successful programs, including regulatory change implementation, regulatory exam management, and compliance risk analytics. Prior to joining Cornerstone in October of 2021, her most recent position was with RiskExec as the VP of Compliance Products and Services.

Throughout her career, Bev has shared her expertise as a regional and national level speaker, as well as held multiple leadership roles in community and interagency partnerships. She has been recognized over the years by her peers and colleagues through a variety of awards. She earned a BBA from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. 

Tyler Wichmann

Deputy General Counsel and Head of Legal Compliance for Movement Mortgage

Tyler Wichmann serves as the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Legal Compliance for Movement Mortgage. As Deputy General Counsel, he oversees all matters relating to the operation of the organization. This includes managing the company's litigation portfolio, oversight of labor & employment, capital markets, warehouse lending, real estate, M&A, MSR and all servicing related issues, structured transactions as well as consumer complaints and corporate investigations.

In his role as Head of Legal Compliance, Tyler has oversight of advertising agreements, licensing, audit, BSA/AML departments and all GSE's, all third-party related regulatory issues, including fair lending, advertising, licensing, privacy, TILA, RESPA, FHA, and FCRA requirements. He also is actively involved in federal and state regulatory exams and investigations.

Arielle Sutherland

Director, Compliance Services and Implementation, RiskExec

Arielle Sutherland is the Director, Compliance Services and Implementation for RiskExec, Inc. at Asurity. Arielle brings extensive knowledge and experience relating to collection, analysis, and validation of data collected under HMDA, CRA, and other fair lending regulations. Throughout her career as a Compliance Officer and Compliance Consultant, Arielle has developed a deep understanding of both the compliance and operational challenges facing banks and credit unions related to HMDA and CRA data and has served as a subject matter expert in these areas for the past decade. In addition, Arielle is currently working towards obtaining her Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) designation.

Katey McBurney

Director, Client Success and Engagement, RiskExec

Katey McBurney is the Director of Client Success & Engagement for RiskExec at Asurity.

Katey has expertise in client experience, building and fostering strong relationships with her customers, collecting feedback, and addressing any questions or concerns that her clients may have. Katey is the former Associate Director of Customer Success at WeddingWire, the nation's leading wedding technology company. There she helped build their customer experience program.

Katey's primary duty is to be the main point of contact to clients that have purchased licenses for Asurity's RiskExec product. RiskExec is a browser-based SaaS compliance analysis and reporting solution that automates HMDA, CRA, and fair lending processes. Katey's duties include owning the entire client lifecycle, from pre-sale support to implementation and through the client's lifespan with the product.

Brett Lewis

VP, Software Development, RiskExec

Brett Lewis is the VP of Software Development, RiskExec. He leads design, development, implementation, and support of the RiskExec line of compliance technologies in addition to providing innovative, custom solutions for RMS clients. He has continually sought to improve the offering by listening to the needs of clients, taking advantage of new technologies, and integrating cutting edge statistical and geospatial tools and services.

Jeff Jaffee

Director, Consumer Protection Compliance, Freddie Mac

Jeff Jaffee, Compliance Director with Freddie Mac, is a seasoned executive with regulatory compliance and regulatory relations experience at large banks and at mortgage companies. He has over 30 years of industry experience in directing originations, servicing, technology, and third-party oversight. His subject matter expertise includes fair lending, Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP), the Servicemember Civil Relief Act (SCRA), the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). He has spoken at several conferences on CRA, Fair Lending and HMDA.

At Freddie Mac, Jeff is responsible for fair lending and consumer protection compliance.

Prior to joining Freddie Mac, Jeff held senior compliance leadership positions with Bank of the West, including Senior Vice President, Protecting the Interests of Clients, where he was responsible for US consumer protection laws including ECOA, FHA, UDAAP, UDAP, GLBA, CCPA, ADA and CRA. He was a member of the Enterprise Leadership Team and presented regularly to senior management and the Board of Directors. Prior to Bank of the West, Jeff was the Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer for CitiMortgage, where he managed the firm’s interactions with internal and external stakeholders. Prior to CitiMortgage, Jeff was the VP of Consumer and Community Affairs at Saxon Mortgage, where he managed engagements with regulators, attorneys general, and other stakeholders. Jeff was also the Mortgage Product Director for retail mortgage for Citi in EMEA where he led the rollout of mortgage lending in several EU countries. Prior to that, he was the CRA and Fair Lending Director for Citigroup, where he managed the CRA and fair lending examinations for 11 legal vehicles, managed the HMDA and CRA data processes and wrote several corporate policies. He has also been a leader in mortgage technology projects and was a retail branch manager and mortgage sales executive.

Jeff holds a BA in Government from Georgetown University.

Brenda Baylor

Director of Fair Lending Compliance, Cross River

Brenda Baylor is the Director of Fair Lending Compliance at Cross River Bank. She is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) with 26 years of experience in regulatory compliance, risk management, and financial services. Brenda specializes in fair lending laws and regulations, leading efforts in the field over the past 12 years. In her role Brenda provides day-to-day management of the Bank's Fair Lending Program, including lending compliance for FinTech partners, regulatory examination management, and execution of a robust control framework. Prior to joining Cross River Bank, Brenda worked as a Director at Treliant, LLC, advising a multitude of FinTech and banking clients on fair lending compliance topics. Through prior employment, Brenda also worked in the capacities of CRA Officer and Compliance Officer at large regional banks.

Tim Smyth

Managing Associate General Counsel - Fair Lending, Freddie Mac

Tim is the Managing Associate General Counsel for Fair Lending, Anti-Predatory Lending, and Equity at Freddie Mac. Tim is a seasoned attorney with deep expertise in fair lending, fair housing and equitable housing matters. Prior to joining Freddie Mac, Tim spent several years at HUD, where he was a member of the Senior Executive Service. During his time at HUD, Tim was the Director of Systemic Investigations in the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity and he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement in the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Prior to HUD, Tim worked as a trial attorney and litigator at Relman Colfax PLLC and the Connecticut Fair Housing Center.