Banking and Finance Meetup to Feature National Industry Experts
The third annual Banking and Finance Meetup at Eastern Kentucky University, presented by Central Bank & Trust Co. will be held on Thursday, September 26, and Kentucky's bankers are taking notice.
Representatives from area banks, regulatory agencies and financial service providers will convene in EKU's Business and Technology Center for the sector-focused event. The afternoon of networking will showcase business majors with a special address from Kentucky Banking Commissioner Charles A. Vice as well as a presentation from Loughlin Cleary and Har Rai Khalsa.
The Meetup will convene at 12:30 p.m. in the Dr. Janna P. Vice Atrium of the Business and Technology Center at EKU, with opening remarks from College of Business and Technology Dean Dr. Tom Erekson. Commissioner Vice will speak on “Financial Services Industry in Kentucky” and then open the floor for questions. Following the presentation by Vice, students, faculty and financial institutions will convene in the BTC Atrium for a networking session until 3:15p.m. Once the networking session is complete Loughlin Cleary from Independent Community Bankers of America along with Har Rai Khalsa will speak on “Why Innovation and Fintech will Shape the Future of Banking.”
Charles A. Vice was appointed Commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) in August 2008. He continues to serve in a national leadership role through the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). As a former chairman, he maintains the status of director emeritus of CSBS. He is only the second commissioner from Kentucky to have led the national group.
Vice had previously served on other national regulatory groups, including the State Regulatory Registry LLC Board of Managers, the Education Foundation of State Bank Supervisors, and two Federal Financial Institution Examination Council groups, the Taskforce on Supervision and the State Liaison Committee.
Prior to joining DFI, he was an employee of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for 18 years, serving in the Lexington, Kentucky, field office. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1990 and resides today in Winchester, Kentucky.
Loughlin Cleary is Executive Vice President, Business Development for the Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA). He is a graduate of Dickinson College and earned a Master’s of Business Administration from Boston College.
Cleary leads ICBA’s Member Relationship team. He has more than 20 years of financial services experience. Clearly joined ICBA in 2016 as vice president of member relations for ICBA’s Northeast region. Prior to that, he worked for a retail bank and a trust company and spent 17 years at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, where he served in various roles including sales, financial management and product development.
Har Rai Khalsa is the CEO and co-founder of MK Decision, a loan origination platform on a mission to make lending simple. More information on MK Decision can be found at: mkdecision.com. MK Decision believes community financial institutions are the backbone of our national economy and is driven to stimulate local borrowing and local lending. Before founding MK Decision in 2016, Khalsa led the growth team at Service Finance Company as the nationwide home improvement lender grew its yearly loan volume from $97M to $2B.
At the age of 23, Khalsa became the President of Marketing and Sales for 108 Solutions in 2011. While there, he was responsible for a dozen retail finance locations in Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Washington, and San Diego with over 35 employees and $50MM in Retail Installment Contract (RIC) revenue. Khalsa is an expert in strategy, sales, marketing, and branding with more than eight years of experience as a FinTech executive. He has a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Sociology and Anthropology from Lewis and Clark College.
Members of the financial services industry and students may register for the event online at finance.eku.edu/eku-banking-and-finance-meetup or by contacting Maggie Abney: maggie.abney@eku.edu or 859-622-8998.
Written by Christina Dunavan, Student Writer
Published on September 25, 2019