NCIF would like to thank Donna Gambrell, Director of the CDFI Fund, Eugene Ludwig, Founder and CEO of Promontory Financial Group and former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, and Sandra Thompson, Director, Division of Risk Management Supervision, FDIC, for their participation as keynote speakers for the 2012 Conference. You can download a PDF of the 2012 Conference speaker and panelist bios: 2012 Speaker and Panel Bios

Find out about our past conferences, including summaries and access to presentations, when you visit: Conference - Background and History

Keynote Speakers

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Honorable Donna Gambrell
Director
CDFI Fund

Donna J. Gambrell has served as Director of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) since November 26, 2007. The CDFI Fund’s mission is to increase economic opportunity and promote community development investments for underserved populations and in distressed communities in the United States.  Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $1.4 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through its programs.  In addition, the CDFI Fund has allocated more than $30 billion in tax credit authority through the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

Under the leadership of Ms. Gambrell, the CDFI Fund has seen significant growth, more than doubling funding under its flagship CDFI Program.  Ms. Gambrell has also overseen the implementation of several new programs which have broadened the CDFI Fund’s ability to support small business financing, affordable housing development, and financial education.  Ms. Gambrell also created the CDFI Fund’s Capacity Building Initiative, which has increased training and technical assistance opportunities for CDFIs nationwide through a variety of focused training series. 

Prior to the CDFI Fund, Ms. Gambrell spent 16 years at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 1991 to 2007. In her most recent position, she served as Deputy Director for Compliance and Consumer Protection where she was responsible for overseeing the FDIC’s national compliance bank examination, community affairs, consumer affairs and deposit insurance education programs. 

During her tenure at the FDIC, and at the request of former FDIC Chairman Donald E. Powell, she served 18 months in the Gulf Coast Region, working on rebuilding initiatives in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which struck the region in 2005.  Ms. Gambrell worked onsite in Louisiana and Mississippi spearheading partnerships among financial institutions, government agencies and community–based organizations to promote community and economic development in areas devastated by the hurricanes, including low–and moderate–income neighborhoods.

Prior to joining the FDIC, Ms. Gambrell worked at the Resolution Trust Corporation (1989-1991), the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (1987-1989), and the U.S. General Accounting Office (1979-1987).  Ms. Gambrell received a B.S. Degree from Towson State University, Baltimore, Maryland, and an MS Degree from New York University. In 2009, Ms. Gambrell was the recipient of Woodstock Institute’s Community Reinvestment Award for her steadfast leadership in community and economic development.
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Eugene Ludwig
CEO
Promontory Financial Group

Eugene A. Ludwig is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Promontory Financial Group, a trusted adviser to financial services companies worldwide. Since he founded the firm in 2001, more than half the world’s largest banks, and eight of the 10 largest financial institutions worldwide, have turned to Promontory for strategic and/or risk control guidance.

Prior to founding the firm, Mr. Ludwig was Vice Chairman of Bankers Trust Company, then the 7th largest U.S. bank holding company by asset size and one of the world’s largest banks as ranked by assets under management. In this role, he was responsible for risk controls and strategic planning, and ultimately for engineering Bankers Trust’s sale to Deutsche Bank.

From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Ludwig headed the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal agency responsible for supervising federally chartered commercial banks and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. As Comptroller, Mr. Ludwig spearheaded efforts to modernize the banking industry and reform the Community Reinvestment Act. Mr. Ludwig has also served as the Chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), member of the Basel Committee on International Bank Supervision, Director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Chairman of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.

Mr. Ludwig graduated from Yale University with a J.D. He received a Masters as a Keasbey Fellow from Oxford University and graduated magna cum laude from Haverford College.
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Honorable Sandra Thompson
Director, Division of Risk Management Supervision
FDIC

Sandra L. Thompson leads the FDIC’s supervision of more than 4,800 state nonmember banks as well as its back-up examination activities for all federally insured depository institutions. As Director of the Division of Risk Management Supervision, Ms. Thompson is responsible for all aspects of FDIC supervisory activities nationwide. She oversees a workforce of more than 3,800 employees deployed in six regional offices and 84 field offices nationwide.

Ms. Thompson is responsible for the FDIC’s programs designed to promote financial institutions’ safety and soundness, and those institutions’ compliance with consumer protection statutes and regulations. She leads the FDIC’s domestic and international banking policy development, including initiatives of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and programs dealing with anti-terrorism and anti-money-laundering. She also oversees the FDIC’s supervisory enforcement initiatives and manages regulatory approvals that allow banks to engage in certain activities or transactions.

As Director, Ms. Thompson coordinates with her regulatory counterparts to effect vigilant supervision of the nation’s financial institutions. She regularly testifies before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee on issues such as risk management, consumer protection and other policy matters. She represents the FDIC as a member of bank regulatory professional organizations, including the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Task Force on Supervision and she is a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Supervisors of Banks of the Americas.

Ms. Thompson is a vigorous advocate of the FDIC’s consumer/community affairs and outreach activities and speaks frequently on such issues as affordable housing and foreclosure prevention. She is passionately committed to protecting America’s consumers.

Previously, Ms. Thompson served in several executive positions. She was formerly Deputy to the FDIC Vice Chairman, Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection’s Deputy Director, Assistant Director for Electronic Banking, and DRR’s Assistant Director for Capital Markets. She also served as the Director of Securitization for the Resolution Trust Corporation, where, among other things, she was responsible for issuing more than $41 billion in mortgage-backed securities.

Before joining the FDIC in 1990, Ms. Thompson served as an associate with Goldman Sachs. She holds a degree in finance from Howard University, Washington, D.C.
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