Financial Institutions Conference

Greg Gonzales is the 18th commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, who began serving in this role in 2005, and was reappointed by Governor Bill Haslam. He has served in the department since 1986. In this position, Gonzales serves as Tennessee's chief regulatory officer of all state-chartered depository and licensed non-depository financial institutions. Additionally, he has served as assistant commissioner and general counsel for the department.

Gonzales is a past Chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), which is the professional organization of state banking commissioners in the United States. Commissioner Gonzales, for a number of years, served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Money Transmitter Regulators Association (MTRA), an organization of a majority of the states that Greg Gonzales is the 18th commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, who began serving in this role in 2005, and was reappointed by Governor Bill Haslam. He has served in the department since 1986. In this position, Gonzales serves as Tennessee's chief regulatory officer of all state-chartered depository and licensed non-depository financial institutions. Additionally, he has served as assistant commissioner and general counsel for the department.

Gonzales is a past Chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), which is the professional organization of state banking commissioners in the United States. Commissioner Gonzales, for a number of years, served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Money Transmitter Regulators Association (MTRA), an organization of a majority of the states that regulate funds transfer companies. He serves as Chairman of the State Liaison Committee that incorporates the state supervisory perspective into the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The FFIEC affects regulatory guidance on all depository financial institutions in the United States. He served on the U.S. Treasury's Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group. Commissioner Gonzales currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission. Gonzales also currently serves on a national task force studying how new technologies are affecting the U.S. payment systems.

Commissioner Gonzales was born in Cookeville, Tennessee and graduated Cum Laude in Cursu Honorum with a bachelor's degree from Tennessee Technological University in 1980. Gonzales served as a research assistant in 1980 to Sir Patrick Cormack, a Conservative Party member of the British Parliament. He earned a law degree from the University of Tennessee in 1984.

Commissioner Gonzales is an avid baseball fan and has rooted for the Chicago Cubs since the 1960s, which has taught him great life lessons in perseverance and that loyalty is eventually rewarded.

Michael Davis is a member (owner) in the KraftCPAs assurance services department. As such, he is responsible for building and maintaining client relationships, overseeing the work of engagement teams, reviewing ongoing work, approving final reports, and presenting our work to management and board members.

As member-in-charge of the KraftCPAs financial institutions industry team, Michael performs external audits and reviews, internal audits, compliance engagements, loan reviews, Sarbanes-Oxley implementation, enterprise risk management (ERM assessments), trust department audits, and other consulting engagements for the firm's clients in the financial institutions industry.

Michael has been with KraftCPAs since beginning his career as an intern with the firm in 1997.

Kris is the FDIC’s Field Supervisor for Nashville Territory and has been in the role since October 2022. The Territory encompasses the entire state of Tennessee and comprises over 80 State Non-Member banks. Prior to assuming his current role, Kris was as a Field Supervisor in the Louisiana Territory for three years.

As a Field Supervisor, Kris directs and observe staffs comprised of first line supervisors, senior examiners, large financial institution examiner teams, and pre-commissioned examiners and interns. He serves as a subject matter expert in Capital Markets and spent six years working as a Senior Capital Markets Specialist and a Senior Examination Specialist. He is also a trainer for FDIC and Interagency examiner training courses.

Kris holds three Bachelor of Science degrees in business disciplines from Winston-Salem State University, a Master of Science in Finance and Economics from West Texas A&M University and a Master of Science in Management from Texas A&M-Commerce. He is currently studying for his Doctorate in Public Administration at Valdosta State University.

Jordan Brown is a Bank Regional Supervisor for Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions with over 10 years of bank examiner experience. He also currently serves as Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions Accounting Liaison. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting at Tennessee Technological University. While working at Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, he also graduated from Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. Jordan utilizes his education and years of experience to lead his examination teams to provide a regulatory balanced approach to the banking industry within the state of Tennessee. During his time away from the banking industry, Jordan spends time with his wife and two children while volunteering at his local church and coaching youth sports.

As Managing Partner at HUB | Taylor Advisors, Omar works with institutions across the country to provide profit driven balance sheet management solutions. He began his banking career as investment and asset liability manager for several billion plus institutions in Texas and served as an Advisory Board Director for the Lone Star New Markets Fund, L.P. Omar has been a frequent speaker at various financial institution programs including the Federal Home Loan Bank System and Bank Director Magazine.

Christopher Olsen, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Olsen Palmer LLC, has been advising financial institutions for the entirety of his career including on more than 150 M&A transactions totaling more than $10 billion in total transaction value. He is the #1 ranked individual bank M&A advisor across the entire U.S. based on the number of such transactions advised upon over the past 5 years, according to S&P Global.

Mr. Olsen holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BBA from The George Washington University. He also completed additional professional studies at Columbia Law School on M&A Law and through the American Bankers Association's Institute of Banking.

Prior to co-founding Olsen Palmer, Mr. Olsen worked in the investment banking divisions of Morgan Stanley, Houlihan Lokey, and Hovde Financial. He began his career in community banking, first at Norwest Bank (now Wells Fargo) then at a 3-branch community bank.

Originally from the Midwest, Mr. Olsen now resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and 2 children.

David provides more than 25 years of experience in information technology. His specialties include IT compliance/audit, security, risk analysis, disaster recovery, network design, installation, and implementation. David's accomplishments include IT assessments/audits for Gramm Leach Bliley, Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council (FFIEC), National Credit Union Association (NCUA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA/HiTECH), National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), SOC 1 (SSAE 16), SOC 2, and the Bank Secrecy Act.

Additionally, David serves as an IT subject matter expert in the AICPA SOC Peer Review Program. He teaches the AICPA Advanced IT Audit School and is a member of the AICPA SOC Task Force. He also serves as the current editor of the ISACA Information Systems Control Journal. David has served on the faculty of Troy University as an Adjunct Professor, a speaker and instructor for groups and associations such as the AICPA IT Executive Committee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee Society of CPA's. David designed and built one of the first internet service providers in Alabama providing deep experience in cyber security. David is the Director of Information Technology Audit and Assurance for Carr, Riggs, & Ingram a super-regional CPA firm ranked number 21 out of over 45,000 CPA firms in America.

Nick is an Audit Manager in the Crowe Financial Services Practice in the Louisville, Kentucky office. He has 8 years of experience in auditing and 6 years of experience servicing the financial services industry.

Throughout his career, Nick has focused his efforts on serving financial institutions and has experience with public company audits, business combinations and related SEC filings, and SOX and FDICIA controls audits. He has experience with public and private financial institutions ranging from $100 million community financial institutions to a $46 billion public company.

Ashley Brandon is an Audit Senior Manager based out of Crowe's Franklin, TN office. She has over ten years of experience with Crowe providing a variety of client services in financial services industry. Ashley's experience includes clients ranging from $100 million to $50 billion in assets. Ashley has a deep specialization in auditing financial institutions, including SOX 404 audits.

Dr. Chris Kuehl is a Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence. He provides forecasts and strategic guidance for a wide variety of corporate clients around the world. He is the chief economist for several national and international organizations, Fabricators and Manufacturers Association, National Association of Credit Management, Finance, Credit and International Business and the Business Information Industry Association. He is also the economic analyst for several state accounting societies – Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Kansas.

Prior to starting Armada in 1999 he was a professor of economics and finance for 15 years – teaching in the US, Hungary, Russia, Estonia, Singapore and Taiwan. He holds advanced degrees in economics, Soviet studies and East Asian studies.

Chris is the author of Business Intelligence Briefs and Executive Intelligence Briefs - both publications from Armada. He is also responsible for the Credit Manager's Index from NACM and Fabrinomics from the FMA.