Click on a person's name or image to view his or her biography.
Executive Officers
Brian E. Simpson Chief Executive Officer
Brian E. Simpson was formerly a senior executive officer and Operating Committee member at First Union Corporation, the predecessor of Wachovia Corporation, a banking and financial services company. Mr. Simpson served as the Senior Vice President, Managing Director and Head of Structured Products Group of First Union from January 1998 to December 2001 and as Senior Vice President, Managing Director and Head of Balance Sheet Management of First Union from January 1998 to December
2000. During his 17-year banking career, Mr. Simpson was responsible for balance sheet management, including
the management of interest rate sensitivity, funding, and liquidity. He also led segments of First Union’s capital markets activities. In addition, Mr. Simpson led First Union’s Asset/Liability Committee and was a staff liaison to the Credit/Market Risk Committee of the board of directors. Mr. Simpson also served on First Union’s Credit Committee, Market Risk Committee, and Capital Markets Commitment Committee, and on First Union’s senior regulatory contact team. Mr. Simpson has served as President of Casa Fiora, a family-owned custom drapery business, since its founding in 2002.
Beth S. DeSimone Executive Vice President/General Counsel/Secretary
DeSimone was appointed General Counsel in November 2011. Prior to joining the Company, DeSimone was an attorney at Arnold & Porter, LLP, where she practiced law in the corporate and financial institutions areas. At Arnold & Porter, DeSimone had been representing the Company since October 2010.
While at Arnold& Porter, DeSimone structured and negotiated mergers and acquisitions and investments of financial services companies. She also focused on establishing new financial institutions and nonbank subsidiaries for financial services and diversified companies, and assisting institutions in strategic planning and charter review.
DeSimone also concentrated in the consumer banking area. She structured lending and deposit programs for banks and financial services companies, including lending programs that facilitated the exportation of interest rates from one state to another. She negotiated business alliances to expand consumer product and services opportunities to new customers, using new technologies. She also assisted in structuring and resolving issues associated with various card products and alliances. DeSimone was a regular contributor to the blog on consumer marketing legal issues, www.consumeradvertisinglawblog.com.
DeSimone assisted in resolving regulatory issues arising under mortgage and other lending activities, including those arising under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and the Truth in Lending Act, and assisted clients in monitoring the effectiveness of their fair lending programs.
David C. Lavoie Chief Risk Officer
From June 1977 to July 2002, Mr. Lavoie served as a Senior Vice President at Bank of America, a banking and financial services company. At Bank of America, Mr. Lavoie served as a nationwide risk executive for several consumer lines of business
totaling over $100 billion in asset size, including consumer real estate, consumer banking, professional and executive banking, dealer financial services, and student loans. Mr. Lavoie has also served as a nationwide risk executive for small business lending. He led a middle-market lending group and served as a regional commercial
risk executive in the Florida market. In the commercial real estate lending area, Mr. Lavoie served as Florida Risk Management Executive for Bank of America’s portfolio in that state, including its homebuilder division. In addition, Mr. Lavoie was responsible for the consumer portfolio analysis group, loss forecasting, and the
supporting data warehouses at Bank of America.
Angus M. McBryde III Treasurer
Angus M. McBryde III serves as Treasurer for the Company. From January 1985 to February 2009, he served in a number of positions for First Union Corporation, the predecessor of Wachovia Corporation, and later at Wells Fargo after the two financial services companies merged, including as a Senior Vice President of Wachovia from February 2004 to February 2009. He was a member of the Treasury Balance Sheet Management team responsible for funding and liquidity management. Mr. McBryde chaired the corporate-consolidated Liquidity and Capital Planning Committee, Thrift Liquidity and FHLB Management Committee, and Off Balance Sheet Business Committee. He was also a member of the Deposit Management Committee and a regular participant on the Asset/Liability Committee. Mr. McBryde was the primary OCC and Federal Reserve contact for funding and liquidity issues and had a C-level leadership role in managing through the financial crisis. His management responsibilities included leading a ten-person team performing daily management of funding desk and Federal Reserve accounts, liquidity forecasting, contingency-planning stress testing, and planning and executing bank and holding company debt issuance. Prior to his senior role in Treasury Balance Sheet Management, Mr. McBryde ran Wachovia’s funding desk and was a Managing Director in Capital Markets in charge of money market trading. Mr. McBryde spent the first eight years of his career with Wachovia as a commercial lending officer in the Charlotte Corporate Banking Group.
Gregory P. Murphy Chief Workout Officer
Gregory P. Murphy serves as Chief Workout Officer for the Company. From August 2009 to January 2010, he was a Managing Director at Helix Financial, LLC, an international boutique consulting firm that provides professional services and technology solutions to all facets of the commercial real estate, structured finance and investment management industries. From May 2008 to August 2009, Mr. Murphy oversaw the servicing of distressed loan portfolios for two failed real estate construction lenders (IndyMac Bank in Pasadena, California and Silverton Bank in Atlanta, Georgia) at MMC Group, the largest contractor for the FDIC for the servicing of distressed loan portfolios of failed banks. From May 2007 to May 2008, Mr. Murphy was a Managing Director of CRG Partners, a management consulting firm. Mr. Murphy was an Executive Managing Director at Patriarch Partners, LLC, a New York based Asset Management Company, from 2001 to November 2006. He was responsible for establishing its Charlotte office to service approximately $1.3 billion of distressed and underperforming loans purchased from Fleet Boston Financial. The office grew to approximately $4 billion under management at the time of Mr. Murphy’s departure. Prior to joining Patriarch Partners, from 1991 to 2001, Mr. Murphy served as Senior Credit Officer for Bank of America’s Real Estate and Commercial Special Assets (distressed) lending groups. Before that, he established and managed the real estate and oil and gas distressed loan functions for a Bank of America’s predecessor in
Texas. His tenure with Bank of America spanned 18 years. Before he joined Bank of America, Mr. Murphy spent 12 years as a member of the FDIC’s Division of Liquidation, including serving as Liquidator-in-Charge, with responsibilities that included the reconciliation of the books and records of failed banks as well as the management, servicing and ultimate disposition of the institutions’ lease and loan portfolios.
David L. Nielsen Chief Financial Officer
David L. Nielsen serves as Chief Financial Officer for the Company. From July 1998 to May 2010, he served in a number of positions for Wachovia Corporation and later at Wells Fargo, after the two financial services companies merged, including as
an Executive Vice President and Group Risk Officer for Wholesale Banking at Wells Fargo. In that position, Mr. Nielsen was responsible for the multi-year integration of Wells Fargo’s commercial/middle-market banking, commercial real estate, corporate and investment banking, and asset management businesses with those of Wachovia. Specifically, his responsibilities included integrating financial and risk management systems, managing large integration expense budgets, and delivering significant acquisition synergies. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Mr. Nielsen was a Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer for the corporate banking,
commercial real estate, investment banking and capital markets businesses at Wachovia. He managed strategic and financial planning, divisional management and operational metric reporting, operational risk management, development of quantitative financial models, and various other operating and risk management activities. He
integrated a number of acquired banks and mortgage companies, executed multiple business restructurings,
implemented expense rationalization efforts and capital efficiency programs, and managed annual investment budgets. He was a member of senior operating and capital commitment committees at Wachovia.
Robert L. Reid President
Robert L. Reid has 30 years of financial services experience, particularly in branch banking and community banking. At the time of his retirement in June 2009, Mr. Reid was Executive Vice President/Managing Director of the Real Estate Division for Wachovia Corporation, a banking and financial services company. From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Reid was President of the Retirement and Investment Products Group at Wachovia. From December 2000 to April 2003, Mr. Reid served as the CEO of First Union – Pennsylvania/Delaware, providing direct management and leadership for First Union’s branch banking business in Pennsylvania and Delaware. From December 1997 to December 2000, Mr. Reid served as the CEO of First
Union – Atlantic, overseeing First Union’s branch banking business in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. In his various leadership positions, Mr. Reid has managed diverse areas such as retail banking, corporate banking, commercial banking, business banking, real estate finance, capital management and wealth management.
Board of Directors
Austin A. Adams Chairman
Austin Adams retired in 2006 as Chief Information Officer and Executive Committee member at
JPMorgan Chase, a banking and financial services company. He was responsible for technology and operations,managing nearly 28,000 employees and a multi-billion dollar budget. Mr. Adams has 35 years of banking
experience. He previously served as CIO and Executive Committee Member at Bank One Corporation and First
Union. Mr. Adams has spent most of his career overseeing technology and operations during dramatic
consolidation in the industry, and he has extensive integration and conversion experience, having managed over 100 mergers. Mr. Adams has been recognized by several leading publications as one of the most influential CIOs in the industry. Mr. Adams currently serves on the board of directors of two public companies, Dun & Bradstreet and Spectra Energy.
John J. Bresnan
John Bresnan has served as a Managing Director with The Carlyle Group, a private equity investment
firm, since February 2010. He also serves as the Chief Risk Officer to Carlyle’s Investment Grade Opportunity group and Senior Advisor to Carlyle’s Global Financial Services group. Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Bresnan worked with Wachovia Corporation, a banking and financial services company, from June 1995 to February 2009, when he retired as Managing Director, Head of Global Markets Capital Management. In that position,
Mr. Bresnan was responsible for the management and oversight of credit and market risk throughout Wachovia’s Corporate and Investment Bank, including activities such as the corporate loan book (with $100 billion commitments), the commercial conduit, and all warehouse lines to structured products. He was formerly a director of Wachovia Bank International and Blue Point Re Ltd.
Scott B. Kauffman
Scott Kauffman has served as a Principal at Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm, since March 2009. At Oak Hill Capital, Mr. Kauffman has focused on the firm’s financial services investments. He is responsible for originating, structuring and managing the investments in the Business and Financial Services Group. Prior to joining Oak Hill Capital, from May 1996 to March 2009, Mr. Kauffman
worked in the Financial Institutions Group at Goldman, Sachs and Co., a global investment banking and securities firm, where he became a Managing Director in October 2008 and was actively engaged in maintaining and building client relationships, providing strategic advice and transaction execution and expertise to boards of directors and executive and senior management of financial institutions. Mr. Kauffman was Co-Chief Operating Officer for the America’s Financial Institutions Bank Group and a member of the Merger Leadership Group at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Kauffman holds his Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research and a member of Investment Analyst Society of Chicago.
Jerry R. Licari
Jerry Licari joined KPMG LLC in 1968 and served as a partner from 1977 until his retirement in 2005.
Mr. Licari was a lead audit engagement partner for KPMG and served major U.S. banks and insurance
companies from 1977 to 2004. Mr. Licari also served as an SEC reviewing partner (concurring partner) for insurance and bank clients filing with the SEC from 1981 to 2000. Mr. Licari also held numerous leadership positions at KPMG, including serving as Director of the Global Center for Industry Solutions from 2004 to 2006, U.S. Banking Partner in Charge from 2002 to 2004, and U.S. Partner in Charge of the Financial Risk
Management Practice from 2000 to 2001. Mr. Licari has significant industry knowledge of banking, mortgage banking, investment banking, investment management, and insurance, and significant experience in risk management for the financial services industry. Mr. Licari also has considerable experience in banking mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Licari currently serves as a director of a number of non-profit organizations in Charlotte.
J. Chandler Martin
Chandler Martin served as Treasurer at Bank of America, a banking and financial services company, from 2005 until he retired in March 2008. Mr. Martin joined Bank of America’s predecessor, North Carolina National Bank, in 1981 and, in the following 27 years, held a variety of line and risk management roles, including leadership roles in commercial real estate risk management, capital markets risk management, and private equity investing. As Treasurer, he was responsible for funding, liquidity, and interest rate risk management. Previously, from 2003 to 2005 he was the Enterprise Market and Operational Risk Executive and
from 1999 until 2003 the risk management executive for Global Corporate and Investment Banking. Mr. Martin
returned to Bank of America in October 2008 to assist in the integration process for Enterprise Risk Management
following Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch. After three months working on the transition, Mr. Martin served as the Enterprise Credit and Market Risk Executive. From April 2008 through July 2008, Mr. Martin served as a Policy Group Member of the Counterparty Risk Management Policy Group III and co-chaired the Risk Monitoring and Risk Management Working Group. The Policy Group’s report entitled “Containing Systemic Risk: The Road to Reform” provides a forward-looking and integrated framework of risk
management best practices.
H. Ray McKenney Jr.
H. Ray McKenney, Jr. is President of MBM Auto Management, a multi-franchise automobile and power sports management company he founded in 1981. He currently serves on the board of trustees of Gaston Christian Schools. He also serves on the boards of directors of Carolina Chevrolet Dealers and Carolina Cadillac Dealers. He served as a director and for a period as chairman of Holy Angels, Inc., a non-profit organization serving developmentally challenged children, from 1991 to 2003. Mr. McKenney was a founding director of First Gaston Bank of North Carolina and served on its board of directors from 1995 to 2006, also serving a term as chairman. He also served on the board of directors of its parent holding company, Integrity Financial Corporation, during that period, with terms as chairman of the board and chairman of the credit committee. Mr. McKenney has served as a director of FNB United and CommunityONE since FNB United acquired Integrity Financial Corporation in 2006.
R. Reynolds Neely Jr.
R. Reynolds Neely, Jr. is the Planning Director of the City of Asheboro, North Carolina Planning Department. Active in the community, he has served on various boards, committees and task forces at the county, city and regional levels. Mr. Neely has also been a strong supporter and advocate for the Boy Scouts of America, serving on various committees and holding leadership positions within the organization. Mr. Neely has been a director of FNB United and CommunityONE since 1980.
Robert L. Reid
Robert L. Reid has 30 years of financial services experience, particularly in branch banking and community banking. At the time of his retirement in June 2009, Mr. Reid was Executive Vice President/Managing Director of the Real Estate Division for Wachovia Corporation, a banking and financial services company. From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Reid was President of the Retirement and Investment Products Group at Wachovia. From December 2000 to April 2003, Mr. Reid served as the CEO of First Union – Pennsylvania/Delaware, providing direct management and leadership for First Union’s branch banking business in Pennsylvania and Delaware. From December 1997 to December 2000, Mr. Reid served as the CEO of First
Union – Atlantic, overseeing First Union’s branch banking business in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. In his various leadership positions, Mr. Reid has managed diverse areas such as retail banking, corporate banking, commercial banking, business banking, real estate finance, capital management and wealth management.
Louis A. Schmitt Jr.
Louis A. “Jerry” Schmitt was Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Capital Markets for First Union Corporation, a financial services company, from January 1994 until his retirement in December 1998. He had responsibility for overall management of trading, sales, and underwriting related to all fixed income activities—government securities, investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and commercial mortgage backed securities. In addition, Mr. Schmitt had overall responsibility for funding activities and other activities affecting liquidity. He was responsible for the bank’s portfolio of investments, derivatives trading and sales, and foreign exchange trading and sales. Mr. Schmitt chaired the Asset/Liability Management Committee, which served as the overall risk committee for corporate-wide rate sensitivity, corporate liquidity, new product risk assessment, earnings projections and overall portfolio strategy. Mr. Schmitt served on the Executive Committee of First Union and was a staff liaison to the Credit/Market Risk Committee of the board of
directors. Mr. Schmitt currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Belmont Abbey College, and serves as chairman of its finance committee.
Brian E. Simpson
Brian E. Simpson was formerly a senior executive officer and Operating Committee member at First Union Corporation, the predecessor of Wachovia Corporation, a banking and financial services company. Mr. Simpson served as the Senior Vice President, Managing Director and Head of Structured Products Group of First Union from January 1998 to December 2001 and as Senior Vice President, Managing Director and Head of Balance Sheet Management of First Union from January 1998 to December
2000. During his 17-year banking career, Mr. Simpson was responsible for balance sheet management, including
the management of interest rate sensitivity, funding, and liquidity. He also led segments of First Union’s capital markets activities. In addition, Mr. Simpson led First Union’s Asset/Liability Committee and was a staff liaison to the Credit/Market Risk Committee of the board of directors. Mr. Simpson also served on First Union’s Credit Committee, Market Risk Committee, and Capital Markets Commitment Committee, and on First Union’s senior regulatory contact team. Mr. Simpson has served as President of Casa Fiora, a family-owned custom drapery business, since its founding in 2002.
Boyd C. Wilson Jr.
Boyd C. Wilson, Jr., 58, is Executive Vice President of Broyhill Investments, Inc., an investment company located in Lenoir, North Carolina, where he has served in such capacity since 2005 and has served as a Director since 2007. Mr. Wilson also serves as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of BMC Fund, Inc., a regulated investment company located in Lenoir, North Carolina, where he has served in such capacity since 2006. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Wilson served as Vice President of Finance and Administration of Kincaid Furniture Company, Incorporated, a furniture manufacturer located in Hudson, North Carolina. Mr. Wilson has served as a director of Granite and Bank of Granite since 1996. Mr. Wilson is a certified public accountant.