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Travillian's Keith Daly sits down with Cornerstone Advisors' Al Dominick to talk bank strategy and execution, bank boards, the next generation of bank CEOs, a change of heart on BaaS, and why tokenization belongs on every CEO's 2027 agenda.

Keith Daly of Travillian talks with Hussain Ali, Head of TMT & FinTech at Hovde Group, about Hovde Group's new fintech practice, his Money20/20 takeaways on AI, stablecoins and payment rails, the outlook for fintech M&A in 2027, what makes a fintech worth buying and whether charter mania should worry sponsor banks.

Brian Love sits down with Nicolet Bank Chairman, President and CEO Mike Daniels, who grew a Green Bay de novo into a $15 billion bank. Mike talks bank M&A, keeping the right people after a deal, scaling past $10 billion, and hiring for hustle.

Keith Daly of Travillian talks with Hatch Bank President Amanda Swoverland about her path from Fed examiner to Unit's Chief Compliance Officer to the top seat at a sponsor bank. Amanda shares the mentors who shaped her, why she treats culture as something you model every day, what it means to give your Legos away, and where Hatch Bank is headed in 2027.

Mid Penn Bank CEO Rory Ritrievi and Stephens' Frank Sorrentino join Travillian's Brian Love to talk bank M&A, liquidity and talent. Rory shares how Mid Penn grew from $550 million to more than $7 billion, how he keeps culture intact through acquisitions and why the bank is pausing M&A to prove its organic growth engine. Frank breaks down why crossing $10 billion changes how investors value a bank, what's driving deals right now and the questions every bank board should be asking.

This week, Travillian headed to Chicago for The 2026 Deposit Conference, and our usual host found himself on the other side of the mic. Between leading a panel on the rise of the Chief Deposit Officer and catching up with industry leaders, Brian Love, our Head of Banking & Fintech, slipped backstage for an interview with Caleb Stevens of SouthState Bank to answer the questions for once. Brian spent ten years as a community banker bringing in deposits before moving into executive search, and he draws on both careers here. He talks about what’s behind bank consolidation and why Chief Deposit Officers are becoming more common. He explains how Travillian uses storytelling to bring passive, top-tier candidates to the table. He also covers the qualities that help new executives win over a skeptical organization. It’s a candid look at the work Travillian does with community banks and fintechs across the country, and at the trends Brian sees shaping banking leadership next. Topics Discussed: Brian's path from community banker to executive recruiterWhat's really driving bank consolidation and M&AHow storytelling helps land passive, top-tier talentThe rise of the Chief Deposit Officer, and when a bank needs oneHow AI is (and isn't) changing executive searchLeadership lessons for new executives, plus the fintech charter wave ahead

Welcome to the second episode of Travillian Next: Investment Banking Edition! Hosted by Dave Yancoskie, Managing Partner & Head of Investment Banking at Travillian, and Adam Yancoskie, Principal, Investment Banking, with guest Avi Upreti, Principal, AI Strategist at Hebbia. Cutting Through the AI Fluff From Guggenheim fintech banker to building the AI tools he wished he'd had in the seatCoverage to origination: setting triggers across hundreds of sponsor portfolio companies when oil prices movePulling comps, precedents and buyers lists with AI agents, with every number sourced and citedThe VP's job shifts from checking for correctness to checking for relevanceWhy zero manual review is the wrong goal, and why no vendor should promise itUnlocking siloed pockets of intelligence inside banks without breaking complianceFewer juniors per deal, more deals per banker, and review becoming a scarce skillThe new apprenticeship: less model-building, more "what if the synergies don't happen?" Framing the right question is still the differentiator

Welcome to the first episode of Travillian Next: Investment Banking Edition! Hosted by Dave Yancoskie, Managing Partner & Head of Investment Banking Search at Travillian, with guest John Butler, Managing Partner & Head of the Insurance Investment Banking Group at Piper Sandler.Secrets To Sustained Success Over Time • Security can no longer be a second hat on the IT manager's desk• AI agents are exploiting decades-old control gaps — the Hugging Face breach• Governance beats technology; no silver-bullet tool is coming• Third- and fourth-party risk, and the due diligence that happens before signing• Tabletop tests that surface real gaps instead of an A+• Board reporting fails when it's too technical• Full-time CISO, fractional, or outsourced — complexity drives the answer, not asset size• Real-time patching replacing the 30-day window, and what it costsSecurity as culture, not just controls

Your deposits aren't as loyal as they used to be. Nationwide's Mark Hackett and Wolf & Company's Jeff Marsico explain why money is on the move, even in a strong economy, and what community banks should do about it.The economy looks good: consumers are spending, the stock market is healthy, and the AI build-out is fueling growth. So why is it getting harder for banks to hold onto deposits? On this episode of Travillian Next, Brian Love, Head of Banking & Fintech at Travillian, zooms out with Mark Hackett, Chief Market Strategist at Nationwide, and Jeff Marsico, Principal at Wolf & Company, to talk rates, deposits, private credit, M&A, and AI.

At most community banks, cybersecurity sits with an IT manager who already owns hardware, software, vendor risk, and board reporting. AI agents are now exploiting the same access control and segmentation gaps the industry has known about for twenty years, and that job has outgrown one desk. Amber Buker, Chief Research Officer at Travillian, sits down with Chris Bedel, Founder, President and CEO of Bedel Security, and Cyrene Wilke, COO of Verve, a Credit Union, to work through what security leadership needs to look like inside a $1 to $10 billion institution, and how to tell whether yours needs a full-time CISO, a fractional partner, or something else.

Many niche banking initiatives rely more heavily on tailored messaging and distribution than on fundamentally differentiated financial products. But building a real growth engine requires a clean slate, a willingness to innovate at the product level, and deep research into the customers a bank wants to serve. Amber Buker, Chief Research Officer at Travillian, sits down with Mary Kate Loftus, President, Impressia Connect, CNB Bank, to break down the tactical playbook for truly serving women entrepreneurs. They unpack how to spot hidden gaps in your commercial loan book, build bespoke products like fertility financing, and scale high-touch relationships using sharp digital discipline.

Chris Marinac, Director of Research at Brean Capital, breaks down Q2 2026 bank earnings with Brian Love of Travillian. Why margin is just a statistic, why deposits still win, where M&A goes next, and how banks are rebuilding their talent pipeline.

Capital is flowing again for community banks but deploying it well is the hard part. Bridgewater Bank's Joe Chybowski, AllianceBernstein's Michael Howard, and Performance Trust's Matt Shields join Travillian's Brian Love for a roundtable on capital structure, what investors reward, bank M&A, deposits, and succession in 2026. A candid look at what earns investor confidence and whaterodes it fast.

Everyone's talking about Banking-as-a-Service. Almost no one has actually built it — and even fewer have done it twice. Patrick Slain has. In this episode, the Stearns Bank fintech lead sits down with host Amber Buker to get real about what building a BaaS program takes: why it's a six-year commitment, how to keep it aligned with the bank's risk appetite, what separates a great fintech partner from a deal you should walk away from, and why the industry's loudest debates miss what customers actually want. A candid look at doing BaaS the patient way.

Stablecoins are moving from the headlines into the banking system, and community banks are paying attention. In this episode of Travillian Next, Alex Treece, CEO and Co-Founder of Stablecore, and Branden Hansen, President at Bank of Utah, join Travillian's Keith Daly to discuss why now is the moment for community banks to act. They cover the GENIUS Act and clearer regulation, a stablecoin market that's grown from about $30 billion to $330 billion with trillions projected ahead, real-world use cases like cross-border payments and smart contracts, the risk to low-cost deposits, and why community banks may be better positioned to win than they think.