Team Biographies

Company Principals

Steven Brown, Chairman     CRD #2140935     Series 7, 8, 24 and 63 licenses
Mr. Brown brings nearly 19 years of investment, portfolio management and banking experience to the Banc Investment Group, the capital markets subsidiary of Pacific Coast Bankers' Bancshares. Mr. Brown is Chairman of the Banc Investment Group, President and CEO of Pacific Coast Bankers Bank and sits on the Executive Committee at Pacific Coast Bankers Bancshares. Mr. Brown previously served as Co-President and CEO of the Banc Investment Group, a company he Co-Founded in 2002. Prior to the Banc Investment Group, Mr. Brown worked for 3-years as Co-Founder of FinancialOxygen, an Internet-based capital markets platform connecting independent banks to the world's largest providers of cash and fixed income products and services. Before launching the online trading company, Mr. Brown spent 5 years as a Managing Director in charge of independent bank sales at Banc of America Securities. Other experience includes over 4 years at Garban-Intercapital, the world's largest inter-dealer broker in financial markets and 5 years as Assistant Treasurer of an independent bank. Mr. Brown is a member of the FINRA, with certification including Series 7, 8, 24 and 63 licenses. Mr. Brown received his Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration from the University of Arizona.

Chris Nichols, President and CEO     CRD #2375174     Series 7, 24, 53 and 63 licenses
Mr. Nichols has 17-years of bank investment, loan and asset-liability management experience on both the buy and the sell side. Mr. Nichols is currently President and CEO of the Banc Investment Group, the capital markets arm of Pacific Coast Bankers' Bancshares. Prior to the Banc Investment Group, Mr. Nichols was Co-Founder of FinancialOxygen, a web-based capital markets trading platform connecting independent banks to the world's largest providers of cash and fixed income products and services. Prior to FinancialOxygen, Mr. Nichols was a principal with Banc of America Securities, where he was cofounder of the Banking Investment Strategies Group. Prior experience includes Director of Bank Product Brokerage at ICAP, Loan Underwriter and securities Portfolio Manager at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and a bank consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Nichols is active on several board of directors, a frequent lecturer at banking conferences, serves on various banking school staffs and writes regular columns for a variety of national trade publications. Mr. Nichols is a member of good standings with the FINRA with certification including Series 7, 24, 53 and 63 licenses. Chris received his Bachelors of Arts in Economics from the University of California.

Executive Management

Mike Dohren, Financial & Operations Principal     CRD #4453093     Series 28 license
Mike has over twelve years experience in financial services serving as Accountant, Auditor, Controller and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Dohren holds a Series 28 license, is a certified public accountant (CPA), and is the Financial & Operations Principal and Chief Financial Officer for Banc Investment Group, as well as the Chief Financial Officer for Pacific Coast Bankers' Bancshares. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Mike served as a Controller for two Internet companies providing applications to many of the top 50 US financial institutions. Mr. Dohren worked in public accounting as an audit manager for Johnston Gremaux & Rossi and Petrinovich, Pugh & Company. Mr. Dohren has a Bachelor of Science in Business & Public Administration with a concentration in Accounting from the University of the Pacific and has completed graduate level coursework in Financial Management at Golden Gate University.

Allen Sztukowski, Managing Director, CCO     CRD #2230934     Series 7, 8, 24 and 63 licenses
Allen has over 13-years of securities trading and operations management experience. Prior to Banc Investment Group, he was the Client Satisfaction and Operations Manager at FinancialOxygen since 2001. He was responsible for solving user related issues for the Site, managing the mutual fund trading process and providing support for the sales group. Prior to Banc Investment Group, Allen held positions at Charles Schwab, Salomon Smith Barney and BA Investment Services, where he managed operations, trading, regulatory and customer service departments.

Sales Team Members

Beth Abrams, Managing Director     CRD #1671502     Series 7 license
Beth has 30-years financial markets experience. In her current capacity, she is a Managing Director in charge of the Funding Division of the Banc Investment Group. Prior to joining the Banc Investment Group in early 2004, Beth was Vice President in charge of the BankOxygen product line at ICAP, the world's largest inter-dealer broker. Before ICAP's purchase of BankOxygen, she was Director of National Sales with FinancialOxygen, with a particular emphasis on both independent and money center bank clients. Before that position, she worked at Garban-Intercapital for 11 years as Vice President of the Fed Funds Desk for their West Coast office. Other experience includes sales at inter-dealer broker Hilliard Farber & Co., Inc. where she was a broker of Government Securities.

Earl Charneske, Vice President     Not currently FINRA Registered
Earl has over 21 years experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining the Banc Investment Group, he was Vice President at Bank of America Capital Markets group. Earl has spent over 15 years in the Capital Markets, including over 10 years of marketing Derivatives products and solutions to banks and financial Institutions that ranged from the large money center banks, Foreign banks, Investment and Community banks. Earl also covered a number of Insurance Companies and Trust Companies. Earl spent several years managing the Capital Market Operations and was a member of the bank's Technology Committee. Earl spent four years as CEO of several Healthcare companies that focused on providing technology and outsourcing solutions to large healthcare provider and hospital networks.

Robert Fitzgerald, Sales Director     CRD #4246798     Series 7, 63 and 65 licenses
Rob has over 6 years experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Rob ran the CD Desk at Great Pacific Securities, a regional broker-dealer located in southern California. While at Great Pacific he specialized in assisting banks manage their assets and liabilities by utilizing the brokered CD and fixed income markets. Although he focused on both sides of the balance sheet, his primary function was to raise funds for banks as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Rob currently is working on his CFA designation and is a graduate from Duke University with a BA in Economics.

Omar Halwani, Vice President     Not currently FINRA Registered
Omar has 6 years of banking experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Omar was with Promontory Interfinacial Network LLC. While at Promontory, he worked on the Treasury Desk selling wholesale funding to various financial institutions through the country, as well as assisting community banks with marketing strategies to garner core deposit. Omar received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Florida International University in Miami, Florida.

Hamid Hussain, Managing Director     Not currently FINRA Registered
Hamid has over 10 years experience in lending and the financial services industry. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, he was a Senior Vice President and Team Leader at Wells Fargo Bank responsible for managing a diversified loan portfolio in excess of $1 billion. Hamid also served as a credit loan officer and a Director in the corporate finance group at Scotia Capital. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of Toronto and an MBA in finance from Queen's University.

Ed Kofman, Managing Director     CRD #4871757     FINRA series 7 and 66
Ed has over 13 years experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining the Banc Investment Group, he was a financial risk manager at Wells Fargo Bank's Capital Markets group. Prior to Wells, Ed was responsible for the production of capital allocation tools and risk-adjusted return on capital models at Bank of America. Ed also served as a credit loan officer and a Director in the corporate finance group at Bank of Nova Scotia. Prior to his banking experience, Ed practiced corporate/commercial law. Ed received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto, his joint MBA/JD from York University, and he holds a CFA designation.

Maxine Lew, Director     CRD #1682219     Series 7 and 63 licenses
Maxine has over 24 years of fixed income and banking experience. In her current capacity as Director, Maxine is primarily responsible for fixed income sales and trading. Prior to joining the Banc Investment Group in 2002, Maxine worked at FinancialOxygen where she focused on providing cash products and fixed income securities to independent bank clients via the firm's online trading platform. Maxine was also employed by Banc of America Securities for 15 years where she specialized in fixed income sales, portfolio management and marketing bank products to independent banks and middle market corporations.

Doug Pagliaro, Vice President     Not currently FINRA Registered
Doug has over 15 years experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Doug worked on the Treasury Desk at Promontory Interfinancial Network, where he focused on providing wholesale funding to banks through the CDARS and IND programs. Prior to Promontory, Doug was an Investment Manager at FISN, a broker dealer providing various fixed income products and services. Before that, Doug spent 8 years at the institutional brokerage firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. as Vice President of Institutional Sales. Doug covered some of the country's largest mutual funds, money managers, and hedge funds. Doug received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from The George Washington University.

Joe Palmer, Vice President     CRD #4585785     Series 7 and 63 licenses
An equity capital specialist, Joe works closely with banks to help them with their funding needs. He specializes in a variety of funding products such as Trust Preferred Securities, Holding Company Loans and Subordinated Debt. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, LLC, Joe worked in fixed income trading and sales developing investment strategies for community banks in the Midwest and Western regions. Joe is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in History.

Rick Ruso, Vice President     Not currently FINRA Registered
Rick joined Banc Investment Group in November of 2006 after spending 2 years within Wells Fargo's Real Estate Group, underwriting commercial real estate projects in Northern California and Nevada. Prior to his banking experience, Rick worked for 2 years in the High-Tech sector for Applied Materials in the Corporate Trade division. Rick received his Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Finance, as well as his MBA, from Santa Clara University.

Donald Jay Saunders, Managing Director     CRD #2467499     Series 7 and 63 licenses
Don has over 12 years experience in the financial service industry. He has spent the last 6 years working exclusively with financial institutions underwriting and distributing new issue brokered CD's. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group Don served as Senior Vice President of the brokered CD division of Morgan Keegan and Company. He focused primarily on assisting banks obtaining liabilities by underwriting and distributing new issue brokered CD's on a national a scale.

Ramu Singh, Managing Director     Not currently FINRA Registered
Ramu has over 18 years experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Ramu was a Managing Director at Promontory Interfinancial Network, where he ran the Treasury Desk focused on providing funding to banks through the CDARS and IND programs. Prior to Promontory, Ramu was an Agency Trader and covered FHLBs for Derivative Sales at Wachovia. Before that, Ramu was the Treasurer at FHLB, Des Moines. Ramu received a Ph.D candidature in Finance (ABD) from the University of Southern California.

John Sutorius, Director     Not currently FINRA Registered
John has over 6 years of experience in the banking industry. In his current role at Banc Investment Group, he is responsible for trading and dealer sales in the Brokered CD division. John began his career at Fifth Third Bank as a fixed income trader in the Investment Advisors division trading for Fifth Third's Bond and Money Market Funds. He later transitioned into a position on the funding desk in the bank's Treasury department. More recently, John was an officer at M&I, Marshall & Ilsley Bank, a large regional bank located in Milwaukee. There he worked in a variety of capacities focused around the bank's wholesale funding needs, derivative activity, and correspondent banking products. John has a B.S. in Finance from Miami University in Oxford, OH.

Consulting Team Members

Peter Cheng, Vice President     CRD #5008710     Series 7 and 66 licenses
Peter has over 3 years of financial and risk analysis experience. Most recently, he was managing Bancmetrics' bond accounting operations. Peter's prior financial analysis experience has been at FinancialOxygen running their bond accounting and analytics offerings, and at Bank of America doing risk analysis for their FX operations. Peter received his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Hiroaki Furukawa, Senior Financial Analyst     Not currently FINRA Registered
Originally from Osaka Japan, Hiroaki ('Hiro') has five years experience analyzing the financial performance of independent banks. Hiro has also spearheaded many initiatives to create custom software tools used to perform quantitative performance analysis for independent banks. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Hiro worked as a bank consultant for Moss Adams LLP, a regional accounting and consulting firm, where he provided performance enhancement strategies and financial reporting consultations for independent banks. Hiro received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Portland State University in Oregon as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English Language Studies from Kansai Gaidai University in Kyoto Japan.

Doug Hensley, Managing Director     Not currently FINRA Registered
Doug brings over 25-years finance experience to Banc Investment Group. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group in 2002, he was a principal of Hensley Consulting, serving banking, capital markets and municipal financial professionals. Experience includes 15 years of investment portfolio management.

Kim Jackson, Managing Director     Not currently FINRA Registered
Kim has 15 years experience in the financial services industry and portfolio management. She began her career in sales, marketing equity derivatives and fixed income at Bank of America. From there she transitioned into portfolio management, managing a fixed income fund for Charles Schwab and Co. Kim comes to us most recently from Redwood Trust, Inc., where she managed a mortgage portfolio with credit exposure to over $200bln. Kim received her Bachelor of Arts from John F. Kennedy University.

Greg Judge, Vice President     Not currently FINRA Registered
Greg has over 19 years of experience in the banking industry, and has been with Banc Investment Group since 2005. He actively assists a nationwide base of clients through his COF Benchmarking and Strategies Reports, and through his primary focus of Liability Coach Consulting which we introduced in 2006. His innovative funding assistance has helped many clients significantly improve their funding performance and profitability. Prior to this assignment, Greg spent eight years with the FHLB Des Moines as the Senior Financial Strategist in the sales and marketing department. Greg began his career as a regulator with the FSLIC in Washington, DC in 1987, and then with the FHLB/OTS as a supervisory analyst/examiner during the thrift crisis and recovery. In 1994, joined the FHLB Topeka as a credit officer and developed financial models, including the 5-Year Plan, Marginal Cost of Funds (MCOF) and other models. He joined the FHLB Des Moines in 1997 and established a solid track record assisting bank managers, BODs, and ALCO committees with their funding needs. Greg has been recognized nationally and is an instructor at the Graduate School of Banking and Investing at the University of South Carolina. He received his Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Business from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

Gemma Lajom, Vice President     Not currently FINRA Registered
Gemma has over 10 years of experience in banking and risk management software. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Gemma acted as one of the primary business resources for IPS-Sendero within the Development and Client Services groups in support of several risk management software solutions. She has also served as Treasury Manager for a St. Louis, MO community bank where she was responsible for asset/liability and treasury management including wholesale funding and investment operations. Gemma received her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting Information Systems from Maryville University in St. Louis, MO.

Mike Middleton, Managing Director     Not currently FINRA Registered
Mike has over 14 years of finance experience in the banking industry. He is currently Managing Director of the Performance Consulting Group at Banc Investment Group. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Mike was with Moss Adams LLP, a regional accounting and consulting firm. While at Moss Adams LLP, he organized and directed a group that provided performance and revenue enhancement strategies for independent banks. Mike's career in banking began at NationsBank in North Carolina where he worked on financial management reporting and analysis initiatives. After leaving NationsBank, Mike served at West Coast Bank in Oregon where he oversaw the investment portfolio, asset liability management functions, and budgeting and forecasting efforts. Mike received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.

Reid Ten Kley, Senior Financial Analyst     Not currently FINRA Registered
Reid has five years of financial reporting and financial analysis experience and is a certified public accountant (CPA). Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, Reid worked as a bank consultant for Moss Adams LLP, a regional accounting and consulting firm, where he provided performance enhancement strategies and financial reporting consultations for independent banks. Reid also served as a financial statement audit team manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Reid received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting as well as a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Sciences from George Fox University in Oregon.

Beth VanArsdel, Vice President     CRD #2065106     Series 7, 63 and 65 licenses
Ms. VanArsdel brings 17 years of investment portfolio management and banking experience to the Banc Investment Group. Prior to joining Banc Investment Group, she worked at an independent bank and was responsible for the management of the bank's investment portfolio. That position also included the investment management of accounts for trust clients of the bank, both fixed income and equities. Previous experience included trust investment management and marketing for another independent bank, and 8 years as an investment broker working with individual investors. She is an honors graduate of Cannon Trust School and holds the ICB designation of CTFA (Certified Trust and Financial Advisor). She received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas, and a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.