Team

Our tech team assists clients in the evaluation, procurement, and implementation of technology solutions, while our former bankers and senior regulators work closely with clients and technology partners to verify tech solutions’ fit-for-purpose and conformity to regulatory mandates and guidance.

The BlueSaaS leadership and its seasoned tech professionals and financial services experts bridge the gap between banking regulatory domain experience and technology to drive better outcomes for clients.

William M. Isaac

CHAIRMAN

Bill Isaac has an unparalleled career in the financial industry and public service, spanning over 50 years. He served as Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 1978 through 1985, working to maintain stability during the banking and thrift crises of the 1980s, when over 3,000 banks and thrifts failed. Today, Bill is a leading commentator and consultant to financial institutions and governments. He is the author of Senseless Panic: How Washington Failed America with a foreword by Paul Volcker. Mr. Isaac’s articles are published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, American Banker, and other leading publications. More information can be found at http://www.williamisaac.com.

Bill Isaac headed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 1978 through 1985, during the banking and thrift crises of the 1980s. He worked closely with the late Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Paul Volcker, helping to maintain stability in the financial system during one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. banking history, when over 3,000 banks and thrifts failed, including many of the largest in the nation. Bill was appointed to the board of the FDIC by President Carter and confirmed by the Senate at the age of 34 and was named Chairman by President Reagan two years later, making him the youngest FDIC board member and chairman in history. Bill also served as chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (1983-85), as a member of the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee (1981-85), and as a member of the Vice President’s Task Group on Regulation of Financial Services (1984).

In addition to his service as FDIC Chairman, Bill Isaac has decades of experience in regulatory counseling and risk management services. He founded The Secura Group, a leading consulting firm, in 1986. Secura was acquired by FTI Consulting in 2011, where he served as senior managing director. Bill then partnered with Howard Milstein in the financial services business, serving on the boards of New York Private Bank & Trust and Emigrant Bank, as well as serving as Chairman of Sarasota Private Trust and Cleveland Private Trust. Bill is focused on expanding the trust business throughout the US and on developing a significant financial services consulting firm of which Blue SaaS Solutions will be an important part.

Bill Isaac is former Chairman of Fifth Third Bancorp, one of the nation’s leading banking companies, and is a former board member at TSYS, a leading payment processing company (now part of Global Payments). He has also served on the boards of Amex Bank, The Associates (a finance company formerly owned by Ford Motor Company), TransUnion (a credit reporting company formerly owned by the Pritzker family), and MPs Group (a staffing firm now owned by Adecco).

Bill is involved extensively in thought leadership relating to the financial industry. He is the author of Senseless Panic: How Washington Failed America with a foreword by Paul Volcker. His articles are published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, American Banker, Forbes, Financial Times, Washington Times, and other leading publications. He also appears regularly on television and radio, testifies before Congress, and is a speaker throughout the world.

Bill was formerly a senior partner of Arnold & Porter, which was a founding partner of The Secura Group. He left the firm in 1993 when Secura purchased Arnold & Porter’s interest in the firm. Before his appointment to the FDIC, Bill served as vice president, general counsel and secretary of First Kentucky National Corporation and its subsidiaries, including First National Bank of Louisville and First Kentucky Trust Company. Bill began his career with Foley & Lardner where he practiced general corporate law specializing in banking law.

Bill Isaac received a Distinguished Achievement Medal in 1995 from Miami University and a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013 from The Ohio State University. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Miami University Foundation and is a Life Member of the Board of Directors of The Ohio State University Foundation. In 2016 Bill co-founded with his former classmate the William Isaac & Michael Oxley Center for Business Leadership at Miami University. Further information on Bill’s background can be found at www.williamisaac.com.

Stephen Smith

PRESIDENT & CEO

Steve Smith is a senior software executive with a 25+ year record of successfully building, leading and inspiring top-performing direct, partner channel and service delivery teams. His career includes founder and executive roles in the Software Solutions and Services sector, from start-ups to Enterprise Technology organizations. More recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Certent, where he helped navigate a successful exit with an acquisition by TA Associates. Prior to Certent, he spent 9 years at IBM in various North America and global leadership roles.

Steve Smith is an accomplished senior executive with a strong track record in executing corporate strategy, optimizing resource allocations, and identifying key business drivers. His leadership is based on trust, integrity and a commitment to over-achievement.

Steve joined forces with Bill Isaac and the Isaac-Milstein Group company in 2021 to form Blue SaaS Solutions. The firm provides financial services clients with customized, tech-based solutions that offer full compliance with today’s regulatory requirements.

Prior to co-founding Blue SaaS with Bill Isaac, Steve served as Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Certent, leading a global team of 25 sales professionals, delivering over $50 million in revenue, and overseeing a successful exit for Certent’s private equity firm through an acquisition by TA Associates.

Prior to joining Certent, Steve spent nine years at IBM in various North America and global leadership roles, including North America Business Unit Executive for Financial & Operational Planning Solutions, Global Business Unit Executive for Sales Performance Management Solutions, North America Business Unit Executive for Performance Management Solutions, Southeast Business Unit Executive for Software Solutions Group, and Southeast Business Unit Executive for Business Analytics.

Steve spent 10 years at Cognos prior to IBM acquiring Cognos in 2008. While at Cognos, he served in various regional direct and channel sales leadership roles. Early in his career, he founded a regional application development and systems integration company that was subsequently acquired by a regional technology services firm in 1998.

Phil Pillsbury

SENIOR EXECUTIVE ADVISOR

Phil Pillsbury is a former technology executive who served in numerous key leadership roles during his 20 years with leading enterprise software companies IBM, Hyperion and PeopleSoft. Prior to joining Blue SaaS Solutions as Chief Revenue Officer, Phil led IBM’s Financial and Operational Performance Management Group, a role which included oversight for sales, marketing and recruiting across North America. During his tenure at IBM, teams under his leadership significantly increased market share and achieved double-digit growth in multiple geographies, earning several top sales and performance rankings in the process, including being named global sales leader for IBM’s business analytics division.

Phil led high-impact P&L centers for multi-billion-dollar technology enterprises and is recognized for his ability to build high-performing sales, product, services and marketing organizations at enterprise software company Zuora, before the firm went public.

He applies his considerable expertise in software licensing and delivery models (SaaS), the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence to help clients in the banking, insurance and financial services sectors evaluate, select and modernize their front and back-office systems. Among his diverse customer base are media, retail, and life science companies, and federal and local agencies. Phil embraces a ‘customer-first’ philosophy and the application of ‘best-of-breed-technology’ in its respective category.

A Minnesota native, Phil firmly believes in visionary leadership to build powerful, people-centric organizations with vibrant cultures and a focus on performance, trust and collaboration.

James C. Watkins

SENIOR EXECUTIVE ADVISOR

James C. Watkins has nearly four decades of domestic and international bank regulatory experience. James may be the only senior official to have served the FDIC through the bank and thrift crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, the Great Recession’s financial and banking crisis of 2008 to 2013, and the pandemic of 2020. He is a recognized expert on crisis management, credit risk assessments, liquidity strategies, operational risks, bank stress testing, resolution plans, prudential regulatory standards, and complex regulatory applications. James also has expertise in community banking and the formation of new banks.

Jim Watkins has nearly four decades of domestic and international bank regulatory experience. He may be the only senior official to have served the FDIC through the bank and thrift crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, the financial and banking crisis of 2008 to 2013, and the pandemic of 2020. Jim is a recognized expert on crisis management, credit risk assessments, liquidity strategies, operational risks, bank stress testing, resolution plans, prudential regulatory standards, and complex regulatory applications. He also has expertise in community banking and the formation of new banks.

Previously, Jim was Senior Deputy Director of Supervisory Examinations leading all FDIC safety and soundness programs nationally.  In this capacity, he led units responsible for the regulatory and deposit insurance oversight of community and large banks.  Jim was a key advisor to the Chairman, Board members, and others on significant policy initiatives; complex, unique or sensitive matters; banking conditions and trends, and strategies for addressing troubled banks.  Regulatory programs overseen under his authority included remediation for severely troubled institutions and organizations, leadership of Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) activities, issuance of enforcement actions on culpable individuals, development of the current large bank examination strategies, and processing of complex applications. He has also participated in international policy development while he represented the FDIC as a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Supervision and Implementation Group.

Jim, a CPA, holds an M.B.A. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management and a B.S., cum laude, from James Madison University. He is also a graduate of the Stonier School of Banking.

Brian Abernathy

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT TECHNOLOGY

Brian joins Blue SaaS Solutions with over 15 years of professional experience in Finance and Technology. During his tenure at Royal Bank of Canada, Ameriprise Financial, IBM and Wells Fargo Brian held strategic positions that incorporated technology into business functions to improve efficiencies, reduce risk and increase profitability. In addition to Brian’s experience within the operational functions of companies, he has held sales and solution engineering roles at emerging and Fortune 500 organizations.

Brian has a proven track record of identifying, providing recommendations and delivering technology-based solutions. He takes an enthusiastic approach to solving business problems that has resulted in enterprise transformations, new revenue streams and improved business operations.

A Minnesota native and graduate of Opus College of Business at St. Thomas University, Brian believes through hard work, passion and a great coffee anything can be accomplished.

Michael J. Dean

SENIOR ADVISOR

Michael J. Dean had a storied career of public service in financial regulation and bank supervision, encompassing both safety and soundness, and consumer protection programs with the FDIC. He served in an array of key leadership and executive roles with the FDIC over his thirty-year tenure. Michael rose through the bank examiner ranks to an executive role in the Atlanta Region and undertook several special assignments at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the FDIC. He was a key leader in recruiting and developing the professional examination staff of the agency, led strategic planning and human resource initiatives, and served as a highly respected and accomplished mentor to others.

A notable area of focus of Michael has been preserving minority banks, and he served as the National Minority Depository Institution Coordinator for the FDIC. He built strong community outreach programs and he continues to strive to expand banking services to all, especially to underserved communities and the unbanked.

In 2014, the FDIC appointed Michael as Regional Director for the Atlanta Region. In that role, he was responsible for examination programs in regulatory compliance, Community Reinvestment Act, information technology, trust, and safety and soundness, for financial institutions located in the Atlanta Region (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia). He had oversight responsibility for approximately 400 examiners and field supervisors located throughout the southeast and supervisory responsibility for over 600 financial institutions. Michael handled numerous enforcement actions and regulatory applications, including large and complex cases.

Michael's Atlanta Region's large bank supervision program included the largest banks directly supervised by the FDIC. His administration of the large bank program required close coordination with the Federal Reserve, State Banking Authorities, among others. These activities included onsite assessments, targeted examination reviews, offsite analysis, continuous monitoring of financial and operational performance and risks, stress testing, and resolution planning.

Donna Gambrell

SENIOR ADVISOR

Donna Gambrell has nearly four decades of government and public service, including banking, community and economic development, consumer protection, grants management and community relations. Donna is a highly regarded leader with a record of accomplishments directing start-up organizations and “right-sizing” organizations adversely impacted by financial and resource constraints. She has an impressive string of achievements, including enhancing the capacity of community-based organizations, and administering a multi-million-dollar awards program that assists low-income communities nationwide.

As Director of the U.S. Department Treasury’s CDFI Fund, Donna led initiatives to fulfill CDFI’s mission, expand its funding, and implement new programs that broadened support of small business financing, affordable housing development, community facilities, and financial education. She administered U.S. Treasury’s only community and economic development program office and implemented programs that provided capital, credit and financial services to distressed and underserved communities across the country. Donna led the restructuring of the CDFI Fund, which resulted in improved business processes and protocols; enhanced standard operating procedures; a significant reduction in award processing timelines; more efficient disbursement of awards; a greater emphasis on human capital investment and workforce diversity; and an overhaul of the Fund’s infrastructure, including its information technology, financial management, compliance, and certification programs. She provided congressional testimony and briefings and conducted frequent outreach events to the public.

During a distinguished 16-year tenure at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Donna held a number of senior leadership roles overseeing the FDIC’s national compliance bank examination, community affairs, consumer protection, and deposit insurance programs. This oversight involved guiding over 500 managers and staff in compliance, the Community Reinvestment Act, fair lending, consumer protection and deposit insurance regulations, as well as community and economic development principles and practices.

In 2017, Donna was hired as President and CEO of Appalachian Community Capital (“ACC”), an intermediary organization created in 2013 to bring new sources of capital to a consortium of community development financial institutions serving small business owners in the Appalachian Region, one of the most economically distressed regions in the country. ACC’s capital has helped finance renewable energy projects, manufacturing sites, elder care facilities, restaurants, farms, ecotourism centers, and downtown redevelopment projects, among other projects. Members who have received loans through ACC report that the proceeds resulted in 90 loans totaling $18.5 million to Appalachian small businesses. Two-thirds of these loans went to businesses with general annual revenues of $1 million or less, and 47% went to minority- and women-owned businesses. These initiatives have created or retained over 1,800 jobs, about 44% of which low-income residents occupy. Selected as a Forbes Opportunity Zone 20 Catalyst, ACC is partnering with local, state, and national leaders, along with grant support t from the Appalachian Regional Commission, to attract investors to Opportunity Zone projects in the region.

Mitchell L. Glassman

SENIOR EXECUTIVE ADVISOR

Mitchell Glassman has over 40 years of leadership experience in commercial banking, financial services, and business management. He joined Deloitte Consulting from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), where he served as Director of the Division of Resolutions and Receiverships for more than a decade.

Mitchell advised the FDIC Board of Directors and Chairman on all substantive receivership matters and served on high-level decision—making and policy-setting committees. During his tenure as Director, he led the FDIC’s successful efforts to resolve hundreds of failed financial institutions, including the resolution of the largest U.S. bank insolvencies in history.

Mitchell Glassman is a strategic regulatory and financial advisor who served in the FDIC’s Division of Resolutions for 40 years, heading the Division for this last ten years at the FDIC. During his tenure as Director, Mitchell led the FDIC’s successful efforts to resolve hundreds of failed financial institutions, including the resolution of the largest U.S. bank insolvencies in history. He provided leadership over the management and staffing to handle complex portfolios of more than $45 billion in assets, subsidiaries, and $176 billion in structured transactions.

Mitchell left the FDIC in 2011 to join as a Director at Deloitte Consulting, LLC. In his client work at Deloitte, Mitchell had a dual focus. First, he is focused on helping financial institutions and government clients — both in the U.S. and globally — build and/or modernize their technology infrastructure. Second, his longstanding senior leadership role at the FDIC enables him to strategize with financial services clients globally around what to expect and what must be accomplished as the Dodd-Frank Act’s rules continued to unfold. He has extensive knowledge of strategic planning, leadership development, execution, and program management.

Among other career highlights, Mitchell directed the FDIC’s Y2K Failed Financial Institution Contingency Planning Task Force, which created comprehensive testing and training to deal with potential institution failures resulting from Y2K. He also served as dean of FDIC’s College of Leadership Development and created a progressive FDIC-wide leadership-training program for the development of future executives.

Mitchell successfully led multiple projects including the development of an award-winning e-commerce web-based marketing and claims system, technical advisory services on international bank rehabilitations for the State Department, and development of major quality management programs. He has also provided testimony during Congressional hearings and given keynote speeches at international regulatory symposiums. Mitchell has been interviewed by NBC’s “Today Show,” CBS’s “60 Minutes,” and Public Broadcast Radio, as well as quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Bloomberg News.

Roger O. Goldman

SENIOR EXECUTIVE ADVISOR

Roger O. Goldman brings 45 years of practical and forward-thinking experience as a successful CEO, board member and senior management leader for private and publicly traded companies. He recently ended his 16-year tenure as Chairman of the Executive Committee of American Express National Bank, after serving as Chairman of the Board and chairing all major committees, including Audit, Risk and Compliance. Roger currently serves as a board member and as an executive advisor with multiple companies in industries as diverse as biotech, consumer goods, fintech and real estate.

After getting his law degree, Roger joined the corporate lending business at Citicorp in 1969. He spent the next seven years in various management positions, leading a high-risk leveraged buyout team and becoming the youngest senior credit officer at Citicorp. In 1977 Roger joined the new consumer banking group headed by John Reed, where he served in a variety of more senior positions until 1983. He left the company to become CEO of a troubled California community bank, recapitalizing the bank and returning it to profitability.

From 1986 to 1990, Roger was a partner in a boutique consulting firm specializing in developing strategy for domestic and foreign banks. In 1990, at the request of regulators, he joined a $12 billion savings bank on the cusp of failure, where he was responsible for the workout of troubled real estate and a large retail and middle-market portfolio. He then joined NatWest Bancorp, at that time the 15th largest bank in the US, as Executive Vice President responsible for its branches, middle-market lending, private banking, credit cards, and non-bank distribution. After NatWest Bancorp sold, he started a direct marketing company, growing it to $700 million in sales and profitability before it was sold in the year 2000.

With over four decades in board level, executive and advisory roles, Roger has guided many companies and their teams to sustainable long-term value by focusing sharply on employees, customers, communities and shareholders. Organizations rely on his deep expertise and his strong operational background as CEO and COO to increase market capitalization and revenue, boost profitability and employee engagement. He has led multiple companies to additional market cap and increased a Top 25 bank's revenue by 25% and grew a startup profitably. Widely respected for his thought leadership and change-management expertise, Roger champions a culture that is based on trust, accountability and transparency to build more vibrant and valuable businesses.

Roger served as Chairman of the Board and Chairman Emeritus for Lighthouse International, a charitable organization dedicated to vision rehabilitation. He is past Board Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes research.

Edward T. Hida II

SENIOR EXECUTIVE ADVISOR

Ed Hida is among the most preeminent risk and regulatory experts in the financial services industry. He has worked with global, national and regional banks, insurers, asset managers, financial infrastructure and specialized finance companies. Ed is a trusted, strategic advisor to the C-suite and boards of many of the world’s largest and most recognizable brands in the financial services industry. He is a financial expert and Qualified Risk Director®.

Prior to joining the Secura/Isaac Group’s leadership team as Senior Executive Advisor, Ed spent more than 30 years leading risk and regulatory practices and large-scale projects as a Deloitte Advisory Partner, serving Deloitte’s most important clients, among them 7 of the 10 largest global banks.

He led his clients through the most significant disruption to the banking industry during and after the 2008 financial crisis, helping them with the execution of regulatory remediation, enterprise risk management program development, CCAR and DFAST stress testing program design and implementation, and bank charter conversions among other programs.

He has advised major financial institutions on multi-billion dollar M&A transactions by conducting asset quality, infrastructure, risk management and regulatory due diligence. He has also served as the lead capital markets partner for large domestic and global banking audit clients, executing the assessment of risk management programs and reporting to the SEC and CFTC. Given the strategic and high-stakes nature of his work, Ed often reported directly to the Boards of Directors and to bank regulatory bodies, including the Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC.

He served as an advisory board member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals and on the Blue Ribbon Panel of The Professional Risk Managers’ International Association. Ed is a prolific writer and speaker and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Nikkei, Time Magazine, Bloomberg TV, Sky Business TV and Yahoo Finance TV.

He received his Master of Science in Management, Accounting and his Bachelor of Business Administration, Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant in the state of New York. Ed is a member of the Japanese American Citizens League and the Ascend Asian Executive Network.

Richard J. Wolf

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Rick Wolf, is a former corporate and legal executive with extensive experience as a consultant specializing in designing governance, regulatory and corporate compliance, and risk management programs. Since the enactment of Sarbanes Oxley Act and related, broad changes to the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, Rick has designed and implemented start-up compliance programs for several multi-national corporations, designing programs for employees and executives in over 50 countries. His body of work includes creating ethics and compliance programs, whistleblower systems, regulatory compliance programs, enterprise risk management systems, corporate governance charters and reporting procedures, targeted training and awareness programs, and education for boards of directors and executives on ethics and leadership.

Rick has worked as a Senior Advisor for FTI Consulting, and founded Lexakos Consulting LLC, a leading legal business consulting firm specializing in designing governance, regulatory and corporate compliance, and risk management practices for public, private and non-profit organizations. Following the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York engaged Rick to serve as a special compliance advisor, where he handled a variety of critical assignments, including revisions to the central bank’s BSA/AML and OFAC Sanctions compliance policies and procedures.

Rick is also the former Chief Ethics Officer of HSBC North America, Inc., where he developed a comprehensive ethics program for the US-based subsidiary of one of the largest banks in the world and helped lead a team that formulated a global whistleblower system for managing global financial crime risk and early fraud detection. Rick earlier served as Senior Vice President — Legal and Head of Global Compliance at Cendant Corporation, where he was a managing lawyer and the multinational corporation’s first compliance and information governance executive. His vertical industry expertise includes financial services, health care, franchising, chemical, petroleum, automotive and non-profits.

Rick was recently appointed to the member consultative team for the upcoming Restatement on Corporate Governance, published by the American Law Institute (ALI), where he has been a member since 2007, and the ALI Principles of the Law, Compliance, Risk Management, and Enforcement. He is also the former president and board chairman of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Greater New York Chapter, where he directly succeeded then general counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then general counsel of the Port Authority of NY & NJ. He has also served as a certified mediator for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and to the Panel of Distinguished Neutrals for the CPR International Institute for Conflict Resolution, where he has officiated over commercial mediation and arbitration.

Rick is a frequent lecturer on topics of governance, risk management and compliance and has been a featured speaker and subject matter expert for organizations such as The Conference Board, Compliance Week, Practising Law Institute, American Bar Association, and ARMA International, among others.

Rick began his career as an attorney at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, and Pitney, Hardin, Kipp & Szuch (now Day Pitney). He earned a B.A. from Stockton University and a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was an editor on Washington University Law Review.

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