Where, exactly, do you look for truly innovative financial technology ideas and relationships? Maybe more importantly, WHY are you seeking new tools, strategies and partnerships? In parallel to the financial industry’s premier growth event — Acquire or Be Acquired — we invite those executives in a CEO’s “inner tech circle” to participate with their peers in a program designed to explore how to grow one’s business with the help and support of various technology companies.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26

10:45 AM – 4:30 PM
Seeing is Believing: An Immersive Branch Transformation Experience
Sponsored by: DBSI Inc.
Research shows 81% of bank executives consider branch channel optimization an imperative, yet only 1 in 10 have a clear vision of what a solid strategy looks like. Join Bank Director as we visit DBSI’s Ideation Center to explore new ideas in branch design and transformation – a place where nearly 900 financial institutions have started their efforts! Spend your time there learning and interacting with designs, sensory experiences and technologies that align with where the branch is headed, along with research-based advice, trends and insight into how your peers are doing with their branch strategies. The Branch Transformation Experience is located off-site and is exclusive to the first 100 bank attendees who register to participate in this experience. Lunch and transportation will be provided to and from DBSI’s Ideation Center.

5:30 PM – 6:45 PM
Welcoming Reception + Registration
Sponsored by: Piper Jaffray & Co.
The allure of the Acquire or Be Acquired Conference is as much for the networking as it is for the various presentations. Accordingly, we welcome all registered participants and their guests to this outdoor reception on the Ballroom Lawn at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge to kickoff this year’s conference.

Day One | SUNDAY, JANUARY 27

Transforming the Bank

6:45 AM – 8:00 AM
Registration + Breakfast
Sponsored by: ProBank Austin and Stinson Leonard Street LLP

8:00 AM – 8:10 AM
Setting the Stage for 2019
Al Dominick, CEO, Bank Director
Acquire or Be Acquired remains a meeting ground for the banking industry’s key leaders to engage with each other and learn how to grow and compete in today’s market. To open this year’s event, we highlight how and why the conference agenda explores financial growth opportunities, strategic planning ideas and the intersection of technology with financial services.

8:10 AM – 8:55 AM
The State of the Financial Industry
Thomas B. Michaud, President & CEO, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., A Stifel Company
The financial services sector is big and broad.  The banking industry represents the largest portion of this industry and the largest banks are gaining share and profitability, while consolidation continues unabated.  Is digital banking a threat or an opportunity? As in previous years, we open our Acquire or Be Acquired Conference with the CEO of KBW taking a 30,000-foot perspective on the current operating environment.  Understanding where key performance indicators are – and why certain emerging issues and trends need to be on a leadership team’s radar – sets up the rest of the day’s presentations.

8:55 AM – 9:25 AM
Key Economic Indicators
Dr. Alan S. Blinder, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman, Promontory Interfinancial Network
Led by well-known American economist Alan Blinder, this presentation surfaces key economic indicators relevant to all participants. Topics include projected levels of consumer and business confidence along with emerging investment trends.

9:30 AM – 10:10 AM
FinXTech Session: The Next Wave of Innovation
For Bank Executives Focused on Digital Strategies, Technology & New Product Development
Karen Garrett, Partner, Stinson Leonard Street LLP
Additional Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by: Al Dominick, CEO, Bank Director
As banks explore new ways to generate top-line growth and bottom-line profits through partnerships, collaboration and technology investments, we invite those executives responsible for digital strategies and technology partnerships to gather with their peers to look at what’s coming and where it might impact the financial services sector.

10:10 AM – 10:30 AM
Refreshment Break
Sponsored by: Twain Financial Partners

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Workshops (select one)

Workshop: Getting Started with Blockchain
While big banks continue to invest in blockchain efforts, regional and community banks have immediate opportunities to get started with the technology. For many at this conference, questions about blockchain are strategic (e.g. should I do it?) and also practical (e.g. if I decide to get in, where do I start?). For those intrigued by the transformational potential of blockchain-based digital banking, smart identity, know-your-customer, cross-border payments, and loyalty and rewards programs, this is a session you don’t want to miss.

Workshop: Developing Your Deposit Strategy
Speaker To Be Announced, Promontory Interfinancial Network
The best acquisition a bank can make is of a new customer.  But let’s face it: organic growth is hard. For this workshop, we focus on new considerations for institutions focused on growing their deposits.

Workshop: The Urgency To Own Your Commercial & Consumer Payments
It has been said that payments represent the beachhead for one’s entire banking relationship. At a time when companies like Apple and Google have emerged as household names, more and more community banks find themselves devising strategies for digital banking that incorporate potential payments solutions. This workshop lays out what you need to know to turn your growth aspirations into real business initiatives.

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Networking Peer + Guest Lunch
Sponsored by: Covington & Burling LLP and Griffin Financial Group LLC

1:00 PM – 1:40 PM
What Is My Bank Worth?
Curtis Carpenter, Principal & Head of Investment Banking, Sheshunoff & Co. Investment Banking
Understanding a bank’s value is a key measure in any M&A transaction. During this session, we look at how current market conditions, recent transaction trends and future pricing expectations might impact the banks in attendance.

1:40 PM – 2:20 PM
Now Is Not the Time for Complacency
Neil E. Grayson, Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP
Matt Hutton
, Partner, M&A Transaction Services, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Jeffrey D. Jones, Managing Director, Co-Head of Depository Investment Banking, Stephens Inc.
John Roddy, Managing Director, Head of Financial Services Investment Banking, Raymond James Financial, Inc.
Moderated by: Mika Moser, President, Bank Director
For many, earnings pressures, regulatory and compliance costs and the continued drumbeat to become more of a digital business present recurring challenges to consistently compete with other institutions while pursuing profitability. Clearly, now is not the time to maintain the status quo, and this session explores how and where banks might dedicate new resources or additional time and focus.

2:35 PM – 3:20 PM
Breakout Sessions (select one)

Breakout: Deposit Growth Strategies for the Digital Age
Speaker To Be Announced, nCino, Inc.
Banks succeed or fail relative to their competitors, and there are only so many deposits available. To secure a resilient, low-cost funding stream, banks must strike the right balance between providing competitive products, delivering high-quality customer service and gathering core deposits. This session shows how your institution can increase deposit growth by leveraging technology to attract and retain high-value customers, and brings an nCino customer on stage who can share their success story.

Public & Private Capital Raising: How To Fund Your Bank for Growth and/or Change
Michael T. Rave, Partner, Day Pitney LLP
Dory A. Wiley, President & CEO, Commerce Street Capital, LLC
This session focuses on the various means to raise capital for both private and public banks. The presentation describes the typical types of transactions and outlines the process. Additionally, hear guidance for optimizing your bank’s capital structure for regulatory purposes, investor types and an overall strategic focus.

3:20 PM – 3:40 PM
Refreshment Break
Sponsored by: Mercer Capital

3:40 PM – 4:20 PM
Aligning Yourself for Future Growth
Jonathan Hightower, Partner, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
Steven D. Hovde
, Chairman & CEO, Hovde Group, LLC
Additional Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by: Al Dominick, CEO, Bank Director
What has worked in the past may not support one’s future plans. Indeed, new competitors are continually changing the business of financial services. Given that bank executives and board members need to prioritize the issues and initiatives that are going to make a difference to their bank, this session lays out the new strategic imperatives for a bank’s CEO and board to consider.

4:20 PM – 5:00 PM
Bank Director’s Annual L. William Seidman CEO Panel
Michael J. Blodnick
, President & CEO, Glacier Bancorp, Inc.
Joseph W. Turner
, President & CEO, Great Southern Bancorp, Inc.
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by: John Maxfield, Executive Editor, Bank Director
Former FDIC chairman and Bank Director’s publisher, the late L. William Seidman, advocated for a strong and healthy U.S. banking market. In his memory, we annually convene a panel of bank CEOs to explore a number of timely and relevant issues. In 2019, the conversation addresses culture and teams in the strategic sense of communications to staff, due diligence of talent in a deal and how to integrate teams. In addition, we discuss how the shift to information technology, data, algorithms and smart analytics in a still-traditional industry like ours is likely to change how value and profit are created.

5:00 PM – 5:05 PM
Wrapping Up Day One
John Maxfield, Executive Editor, Bank Director

5:05 PM – 6:15 PM
Networking Peer + Guest Reception
Sponsored by: Directorpoint LLC

Day Two | MONDAY, JANUARY 28

Growing the Bank

7:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Breakfast
Sponsored by: Raymond James Financial, Inc.

7:30 AM – 8:15 AM
Discussion Groups (select one)

Discussion Group: How To Safely Generate Income Through SBA Lending
Brian Carlson, President & CEO, SBA Complete, Inc.
SBA lending is one of the key lending activities that can quickly and dramatically improve the bottom line of a community bank. It is not that difficult for a bank to generate $20 million in SBA loans, which will earn the institution between $1.0 to $1.2 million in pretax net income, if the loan guarantees are sold. Some bankers get concerned because they have heard stories of the SBA denying loan guarantees and that the SBA loan process is too time consuming and complex. This discussion outlines how to create a profitable SBA department and what your related staffing and cost structure should look like.

Discussion Group: The Connected Commercial Customer
Steve Brennan, Senior Vice President of Lending Technology, Validis North America
In this session, we discuss the information gathering process in commercial lending, explore current processes of getting a borrower’s data, and talk about the challenges these processes present for both the lender and the borrower.  Additionally, the session focuses on how to connect with borrowers in a way that meets their expectations and provides greater insights into their financial health for the lender. Attend this session to understand how to overcome these challenges so that lenders can focus on revenue growth opportunities and connect with commercial borrowers in a meaningful way.

8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
FinXTech Simulation: Creating a Due Diligence Framework
Kevin Erwin, Counsel, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
James J. McAlpin, Jr.
, Partner, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
Additional Speakers To Be Announced
In order to form effective partnerships, banks and fintechs must perform comprehensive initial, and ongoing, due diligence to ensure that the collective enterprise has the requisite expertise, resources, systems and compliance structures required to effectively implement and deploy new technologies together. The challenge is that this is time-consuming and expensive — and there is no standardized approach to what these fintech partnerships should look like. This session works through how to conduct this kind of due diligence, and in doing so, highlights best practices and covers cultural differences to help you work better with your next bank or fintech partner.

During this hands-on workshop, attendees from banks with technology titles and their counterparts at fintechs participate in an executive-level simulation — ensuring that both banks and tech companies come to the table prepared.

9:55 AM – 10:10 AM
Refreshment Break
Sponsored by: Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP

10:10 AM – 10:55 AM
Breakout Sessions (select one)

Breakout: Leveraging Analytics & Technology for Credit Analysis of Target Portfolios
Charity Duvall, SVP, Senior Credit Officer, Pacific Western Bank
Corey Goldblum, Principal, Deloitte LLP
This session explores an analytical-based approach that leverages technology to assess and estimate expected credit losses in target portfolios, complementing existing M&A credit diligence activities. Probability of default (PD) and loss given default (LGD) concepts are also introduced as part of the case study.

Breakout: Balance Risk and Reward: Considerations for Banks Partnering with FinTechs
Mike Dempsey, Senior Manager, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP
Matt West, Chief Strategy Officer, MVB Financial Corp.
As banks partner with FinTech companies, regulatory expectations have increased around risk management processes. Management teams and board members are challenged to consider third-party risk management processes, review critical activities, and monitor risk and oversight requirements. Collaboration is essential to understand the risk profile of a technology partner and identify opportunities to generate value. Learn key risk management dimensions to build a successful partnership.

11:10 AM – 11:50 AM
FinXTech Session: How Banks Can Fuel Growth and Profitability Through a Digital Robotic Workforce
Jack Deano, EVP & CTO, IBERIABANK
Neil Hartman, Director, West Monroe Partners, LLC
Mark Snyder, Senior Manager, West Monroe Partners, LLC
Today’s customers demand a personalized, seamless banking experience.  Most banks rely on arduous manual processes and static back office systems to meet these expectations.  Successful banks are embracing robotic workforces (RPA) which automate back office functions like new-customer onboarding, loan booking and treasury management fulfillment.  For these banks, RPA has transformed tedious data entry and validation efforts into a streamlined process that shrinks SLA’s, reduces error rates, allows for scalable operations, enables a more engaged back-office workforce and achieves that seamless banking experience customers demand – all without changes to existing back-office systems.

In this panel discussion, three banks share how they have combined the power of technology and robotic process automation to differentiate themselves, maximize productivity and fuel growth.

12:05 PM – 1:05 PM
Networking Lunch

1:05 PM – 1:45 PM
FinXTech Session: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You:  Payments Continues to be Ripe for Disruption
Michael Carter, Executive Vice President, Strategic Resource Management, Inc.
The payments space is anything but boring. Starting with the days when consumers’ only payment options were cash, checks and house credit, merchants and financial services innovators have continued to add new payments alternatives at a dizzying pace. Today, new payments players, products and services are emerging at a faster pace than ever before. Combine this with the fact that 87 percent of financial institutions lack a formal payments strategy, and the stage is set for ongoing disruption from non-traditional providers. This presentation provides an overview of fintech activities in the payments space and discusses the potential impacts represented.

1:45 PM – 2:25 PM
FinXTech Session: Leveraging AI to Expand Market Share
Speakers To Be Announced
Looking to leverage artificial intelligence? Ready to unlock the internet of things? Keen on chatbots, augmented customer experiences and enhanced services? As this session makes clear, you’d better listen to your data to deliver the digital services that reflect what your customers want.

2:25 PM – 2:45 PM
Refreshment Break
Sponsored by: Day Pitney LLP

2:45 PM – 3:30 PM
Breakout Sessions (select one)

Breakout: Planet of the Apps – The Evolving Battle for Customers & Cross Selling in a Mobile World
Dave DeFazio, Partner, StrategyCorps
This session focuses on live demonstrations of the mobile apps that are re-imagining everyday banking tasks. Live app demos include: Credit Karma, Quicken Loans, AmEx, PayPal, Bank of America’s Erica voice activated banking and Chase’s Finn.

Breakout: Growth Without the Growing Pains: Equipping the Bank for Success at the Next Level
John W. Allison, Chairman, Home BancShares
Cort O’Haver, President & CEO, Umpqua Bank
Mary Ann Scully, Chairman & CEO, Howard Bank
Moderated by: Bob Newman, Managing Director, Financial Institutions, Chatham Financial
Growth, whether organic or via acquisition, provides opportunities for scale and efficiency, but it can also bring new risks and threats. In this session, bank executives share the tools and strategies they have adopted to confront the challenges they faced as they crossed over major asset-size milestones.

Breakout: Leveraging Fintech to Survive & Thrive in the Digital Age
Andrew K. Gibbs, Senior Vice President, Mercer Capital
Jay D. Wilson, Jr., Vice President, Mercer Capital
Developing a fintech strategy for your bank to enhance profitability, efficiency, shareholder value and customer satisfaction can be challenging. This session helps to navigate fintech and develop a fintech strategy; provide case studies of successful partnerships between community/regional bank and fintechs; and give an overview of fintech valuation and M&A trends.

Breakout: Improving Customer Experience and Employee Engagement During Integration
John Stockamp, Director, West Monroe Partners, LLC
Think you can’t successfully integrate two banks without losing your 360-degree view of the customer and destroying employee engagement? Think again. In this session, West Monroe and their client walk through how the client increased customer referrals while focusing on retaining and engaging key employees.

Breakout: How Applied Banking Insights Can Help Bridge the Gap at Your Bank
Andy Heusel, SVP, Community & Regional Client Success, PrecisionLender
John Tull, SVP, Director of Strategic Finance and Treasurer, Union Bank & Trust
Getting everyone in your organization rowing in the same direction after an acquisition or merger can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. Join PrecisionLender and their client, as they discuss how Union Bank & Trust has eased this acquisition pain by empowering their relationship managers with the right tools at the right time, allowing them to meet customer needs in a smart and highly personalized way. The result? A more connected credit, sales and pricing culture across the organization.

3:45 PM – 4:25 PM
Generating Smarter Scale
Robert C. Azarow, Partner, Arnold & Porter
Christine A. Edwards, Director, BMO Financial Group
Rory McKinney, Managing Director, Head of Investment Banking, D.A. Davidson & Co.
Steve Williams, President & Partner, Cornerstone Advisors, Inc.
Moderated by: John Maxfield, Executive Editor, Bank Director
Given that new competitors and innovations are continually changing the business of financial services, bank executives and board members need to assess the issues and initiatives that are going to make a difference to their bank. This afternoon’s session lays out various risks — and subsequent rewards — that officers and directors need to know as they strategically plan for the next few years.

4:25 PM – 5:05 PM
Don’t Let Your Digital Strategies Fail
Speaker To Be Announced, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Additional Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by: Mika Moser, President, Bank Director
Given the digital strategies being put in place at large financial institutions like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, bank executives need to understand exactly how and where innovative technologies can help win and keep loyal customers, improve operational efficiencies and enhance their overall cyber-security measures. By extension, decisions also include how much they might need to spend — and how to address the growing digital skills gap that might prove to be the achilles heel to any well-thought out plan.

5:05 PM – 5:10 PM
Wrapping Up Day Two
Mika Moser, President, Bank Director

5:10 PM – 6:15 PM
Acquire or Be Acquired’s 25th Anniversary Reception
Sponsored by: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., A Stifel Company

Day Three | TUESDAY, JANUARY 29

Protecting & Running The Bank

7:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Breakfast
Sponsored by: Sheshunoff & Co. Investment Banking

8:30 AM – 8:40 AM
Day Three Opening Remarks: Leadership Lessons
John B. McCoy, Retired Chairman & CEO, Bank One Corporation
John McCoy retired as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bank One Corporation in December 1999, where he had been CEO since 1984. During his tenure, the company grew from $9.1 billion in assets to $269.4 billion. As CEO, he participated in over 100 acquisitions of other financial institutions; he also created management tactics that allowed his teams to flourish. To kick off our Tuesday presentations, we invite all to listen and learn from this legendary banker.

8:40 AM – 9:10 AM
Making It Work
Archie M. Brown, Jr., President & CEO, First Financial Bank
Claude E. Davis, Executive Chairman, First Financial Bancorp and First Financial Bank
Moderated by: Al Dominick, CEO, Bank Director
What does it take to put a deal together that makes it a true merger, maintains the value of the cultures and also realizes expected financial returns? In this morning’s presentation, we share two examples of recently completed deals that delivered on all three counts.

9:10 AM – 9:45 AM
Don’t Give Up Your Deposits
Scott Hildenbrand, Principal & Chief Balance Sheet Strategist, Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P.
Meenaz Sunderji, SVP, Partner Growth, Zafin
While the nation’s biggest banks continue to organically grow their customer bases, don’t sleep on the efforts of credit unions, specialty finance, payments and insurance companies. During this time when big banks are attracting new deposits at a much faster pace than are banks with less than $1 billion assets, banks need to have a clear strategy to compete.

9:45 AM – 10:00 AM
Refreshment Break
Sponsored by: MJC Partners, LLC

10:00 AM – 10:45 AM
Breakout Sessions (select one)

Breakout: Digitizing the Bank Customer Experience
Christian Ofner
, VP Sales, Financial Institutions, First Data Corporation
Eric Smith
, Head of CFI Partnerships, First Data Corporation
Sit down with key experts to learn why the shift towards digitizing the bank customer experience is so important to payments.

Breakout: Value of a Credit Rating
Robin Elliot, COO & CFO, First Busey Corporation
Dale Gibbons, CFO, Western Alliance Bancorporation
Duncan Smith, EVP, Chief Financial Officer, CBB Bancorp, Inc.
Moderated by: Van B. Hesser, Senior Managing Director, Head of Corporates and Financial Institutions, Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc.
This session focuses on a perspective of the creditworthiness of banks and ways a credit rating can add value in the current banking environment.

Breakout: How Banks Can Unlock Shareholder Value with Business Banking
William Phelan, President, PayNet, Inc.

11:00 AM – 11:35 AM
Lessons from the Past & Advice for the Future
Thomas K. Brown, CEO, Second Curve Capital, LLC
H. Rodgin Cohen, Senior Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Mitchell S. Eitel, Managing Partner, Financial Services Group, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
As we wrap up this year’s 25th Acquire or Be Acquired Conference, hear from experts in the industry as they share the lessons they have learned and their advice for moving forward.

11:35 AM – 11:40 AM
Closing Remarks
Mika Moser, President, Bank Director

11:40 AM – 12:00 PM
Boxed Lunches

1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
L. William Seidman Annual Acquire or Be Acquired Golf Tournament
Sponsored by: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Enjoy the afternoon playing golf with your peers. While the tournament is FREE to registered conference attendees, space is limited. Reserve your spot today!

5:45 PM – 7:00 PM
Closing Peer + Guest Reception
Sponsored by: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Attendees and their guests join in the fun to see who is this year’s winner of the L. William Seidman Golf Tournament!

For more information and to register, please email events@bankdirector.com or call our events department at 877-397-7595.