Event & Class Speakers
Dianne Barton, is President of Performance Solutions, inc. (PSi), training and consulting company that specializes in providing solutions to the key challenges facing banks today in attracting and building relationships with their customers. PSi's training programs are designed to “close the gap” between the banks’ needs and employees' skills. Her trademark “real world” scenarios give attendees insight into the practical application of new skills and knowledge. Dianne is a well-respected facilitator and presenter and has spoken to banking audiences across the country for over 30 years. Her training and consulting expertise in strategic planning, leadership, deposit and consumer regulatory compliance, retail growth strategies, performance management, as well as sales culture development is recognized as providing “real world solutions” by both regional and community banks. Before starting Performance Solutions in 1983, she held senior positions with BankSouth Corporation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the John H. Harland Company. Dianne is a graduate of Georgia State University and is on the faculty of several national and state banking schools.
Denise Baumann is an Account Manager for the Metro Atlanta area with Arch Mortgage Insurance Company (Arch MI). She has 19 years of experience in the mortgage insurance industry and has been with the company since 2011. Denise is currently on the executive board of the Atlanta Mortgage Bankers Association (AMBA) and is actively involved with the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia (MBAG) as the MBAG Foundation chair. Denise’s compelling background gives her a strong understanding of her customers’ needs and makes her deeply passionate about helping customers grow their businesses.
Karen Bitler, Senior Consultant and Facilitator at Performance Solutions, Inc., has over 35 years of experience as a banker, regulator, and consultant with regulatory, internal audit, examination, compliance, anti-fraud, risk management and lending knowledge. Her background and the majority of her experience is centered around financial institutions in all areas of Risk Management, Regulatory Compliance, and Information Security. Karen graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College with a Bachelors in Business Management, received her ACAMS certification in 2013 and has a Six Sigma Greenbelt Certification. She is married with one son who is currently working full time for a well-known fast food chain.
David Branch is the President and CEO of Branch Solutions Group, a business and leadership training company. His perspective as a business coach and teacher stem from his 24 years of “in the trenches” experience as the owner of a construction company and an environmental remediation company. Being fully engaged in the daily functions of these businesses, David knows first-hand the daily struggles business owners face. David will share how he used open book leadership to become completely debt free and take his business from surviving to thriving.
Stephanie Clark is a talented and experienced training expert who hits the mark when delivering mortgage training focused on customer business needs. She oversees course development, curriculum design, documentation standards and the facilitation of classroom training for Arch MI customers.Before joining Arch MI, Stephanie was with Capital One Home Loans, where she was responsible for building and facilitating the operations curriculum. She has more than 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry, including positions in operations and underwriting.
Anetria Connell is a Vice President at ProBank Austin . Prior to joining the firm, she served as legal counsel to the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions which regulates depository, non-depository, and securities entities. Her primary responsibility at the Department was the Dodd-Frank Act, whereby she assessed its effect on federal and state law and provided information and training to examiners and staff. In addition to her regulatory experience, Ms. Connell practiced business, real estate, and banking law. She graduated from The George Washington University Law school in 2004 with honors, and is licensed to practice law in Ohio and Kentucky.
Leah M. Hamilton, JD is a Vice President and Senior Consultant with ProBank Austin’s Education Division. She has a broad range of expertise in federal regulatory compliance. With nearly 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, her compliance knowledge spans Lending, Deposits, BSA/AML and Compliance Management. Leah is nationally recognized for her practical compliance advice and her engaging approach to teaching regulatory compliance matters with her quick wit, sense of humor and examples, making compliance an enjoyable educational experience. Where compliance is every employee’s responsibility every day, she provides tools and valuable insight to effectively understand and manage compliance. As a compliance expert, Leah has served as a lead advisor on consent order remediation engagements and management responses to examiner concerns. She is often called upon to assist in potential RESPA Section 8, UDAAP and Overdraft matters. Leah has trained more than 1,000 lenders on TRID and served as a TRID and 2018 HMDA expert for the American Bankers Association. Prior to joining the firm, Leah has served as the Chief Compliance Officer for a $4 billion community bank, a start-up mortgage company and, most notably, for TriComply, Temenos’ compliance division. Additionally, she has served as inhouse counsel and worked for several leading banking software firms. Leah received her Juris Doctorate from Northern Illinois University College of Law and her Bachelor of Arts in General Studies degree from the University of Texas at Dallas where she majored in law and minored in business management. Leah also serves as a faculty member of Southern Methodist University’s SW Graduate School of Banking in Dallas where she teaches Compliance 101, Fair Lending and the Mortgage Loan Process.
Darla Harms is a Leadership Coach, Speaker, and Trainer. She graduated with a Master's Degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Leadership and Adult Education in 1999 and has been studying leadership for over 20 years. In those 20 years she has also become a trained John Maxwell coach, speaker and trainer and has also become a certified life coach with the Arbinger Institute out of Salt Lake City, UT. Darla started her own leadership company five years ago called, Darla Harms Leadership. Since that time she has worked with hundreds of individuals from Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Nebraska, Washington State, Oregon, and North Carolina and spent thousands of hours coaching, training, and speaking on the subject of leadership. She is currently working on her first leadership book to be released in spring 2019.
Jeffery Johnson, President and founder of Bankers Insight Group, Decatur, Georgia. He is formerly executive vice president and senior consultant at Bankers Management, Inc. He began his career as a management trainee and was promoted to group vice president for South Trust Bank, Atlanta. Johnson also was senior vice president and commercial banking division manager for Citizens Trust Bank, Atlanta. He has taught AIB classes and lending seminars for Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee Bankers Associations. Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse College, Atlanta; John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio; and the Prochnow Graduate School of Banking, Madison, Wisconsin. He received graduate certification in bank management from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Teri Laudano is a Senior Consultant at ProBank Austin. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Laudano served in the banking industry in the St. Louis Metropolitan and Lincoln County areas since 1982. She has nearly 30 years as a bank officer and manager of centralized loan administration departments with experience training consumer and commercial compliance, banking laws and regulations. As a Senior Consultant, Ms. Laudano presents ProBank Austin seminars and provides consulting services on regulatory compliance topics with emphasis on lending operations.
David Luken is a Vice President at ProBank Austin. Prior to joining the firm in 1992, Mr. Luken was senior vice president and general counsel for a billion dollar metropolitan bank holding company. While at ProBank he has served on the faculty of the FDIC's Advanced Consumer Protection School, Bank Operations and Compliance School and the OTS Compliance School. He has also served on the faculties of banking schools conducted by the New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Arkansas bankers associations. Mr. Luken conducts over 100 seminars a year in the areas of lending and deposit compliance, Bank Secrecy Act, internet banking, information security and privacy law.
Ashli Matson, is Vice President & Account Executive‐Georgia with the, a Crescent Mortgage Company, a CBA endorsed member company. Mrs. Matson has served as an Account Executive for Crescent Mortgage Company since 2011. Prior to joining Crescent Mortgage Company, she was a Sr. Mortgage Loan Processor from 2005‐2011 in secondary retail and wholesale mortgage lending. Ashli is currently a member of Mortgage Bankers Association of GA Investor Liaison Committee, National Association Professional Mortgage Women and part of the CBA Associate Member Advisory Council. Mrs. Matson resides in Cumming, Georgia with her husband and two teenage daughters.
Charity Smith is VP of Training and Business Development for Crescent Mortgage. She began her career over 20 years ago as a mortgage loan processor moving into origination then underwriting and managing secondary market lending departments. She has spent the last 10 years sharing her knowledge and experiences with Crescent’s partners across the country.
