Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

An accomplished leader, speaker and seasoned legal & mortgage banking professional, Mr. Le Roy is founder of PHOENIX Consulting, LLC, one of the Founding Members and a Principal of ProSys, LLC, and the founder of The PHOENIX Group Network, LLC. In these capacities, he draws upon more than 24 years of experience in the Legal & Mortgage Loan Servicing Industries. Mr. Le Roy has been published by The American Bar Association, University of South Carolina School of Law, Law Review, and featured by Servicing Management, Mortgage Servicing News, National Mortgage News, MBA News link, Mortgage Bankers Magazine, and DS News. Mr. Le Roy is the recipient of numerous industry awards, including CMIS�s Lifetime Achievement & Visionary Award. Mr. Le Roy was the founding CEO of the American Legal & Financial Network. In this role, he developed all corporate strategies, and lead initiatives to expand the ALFN�s role in legal and mortgage industry advocacy, public policy, education & professional development. Mr. Le Roy is professionally associated with numerous industry organizations, and currently holds a founding member seat on the Coalition for Mortgage Industry Solutions Board of Directors, and a seat on Window Rock Capital�s Advisory Board.

Rick Danos is the Director of Product Management for CSG International’s Interactive Messaging group, which delivers an integrated portfolio of contact center, IVR and multi-channel messaging technologies designed to help companies accelerate business—anywhere. Danos has over 15 years of experience working with large scale telecommunications providers and dot com companies across ordering, billing, revenue assurance, and provisioning spaces – including extensive time spent leading North and South American professional services divisions responsible for deploying product-based billing support system software, fraud systems, and OSS integration software products. Danos holds a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, and MBA from the University of Michigan.

Richard Volel is the Vice President, Contact Management at American Home Mortgage where he manages approximately 2,000 employees in Five call centers around the world. He has worked with predictive dialers and call center operations for more than 20 years and also helped pioneer one of the first blended call centers. Richard has worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, ITT Finance, Fleet Financial, Associates Home Equity and Fannie Mae.

Michael R. Merchant was named Commissioner of the Department of Buildings by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on May 16, 2011. Merchant has made increasing efficiency and reforming the department his top priorities. Under his direction, the department has adopted the electronic plan review program, which allows design professionals to submit plans electronically and plan reviewers to review and approve permits simultaneously. The department has also started requiring mandatory certified plan corrections and permit fee deposits, both in an effort to reduce the time required to issue building permits. A member of the Illinois Bar, Merchant served under Mayor Richard M. Daley as Deputy Director in the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. He was responsible for advancing the Mayor’s City Council legislative agenda, which including passage of the city’s budget, as well as assisting the city council in resolving legislative, policy and city service issues. This was his second stint in the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. In between, he worked as a Director in the Chicago Public Schools Office of Intergovermental Affairs, where he lobbied on behalf of CPS concerning various matters related to local, State and Federal issues, including legislative, policy, and financial concerns. He also counseled the CEO and various departments concerning government issues and managed a department that included internal CPS employees and external contract lobbyists. Merchant has a long history in public service and legal affairs. He worked as an Assistant Public Defender in the offices of the Cook County Public Defender as well as a contract attorney for the legal services firm Special Counsel. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, where he investigated housing discrimination complaints based on the Fair Housing Act and analyzed data and prepared final claims determinations. Merchant spent several years with the U.S. Peace Corps. He conducted speaking engagements for minority recruitment and spent time on a Basic Education Support Project in Namibia, Africa. As part of his responsibilities, he worked with government officials, educational leaders, international education development agencies, community leaders and community members to facilitate the workshops for teachers and principals to aid in the design of a national certification program. His career started as a teacher at Columbus Merriville, an affiliate of Brenneman School, in the Chicago Public School System. He taught mathematics to students in a residential setting who were wards of the State of Illinois. Merchant was admitted to the Illinois Bar in November, 2003 and holds a Juris Doctor from the Depaul University College of Law in Chicago and a Bachelor's of Science in General Science from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Alfred Pollard serves as General Counsel of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). His supervision of FHFA’s Office of General Counsel includes work on regulatory matters affecting the housing government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks), in-house legal issues, and relationships with other government agencies and the Administration. Mr. Pollard serves on the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bank Fraud and Mortgage Fraud Working Groups. He teaches (adjunct) at the Georgetown University School of Business and has previously taught at the University of Virginia School of Law (adjunct). Mr. Pollard has served as Senior Director for Legislative Affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, a CEO-level trade group for the nation’s largest financial institutions, and as Director of Government Relations for the Savings and Community Bankers of America. Before that, for 12 years, Mr. Pollard was Senior Vice President and Director of the Washington office for Security Pacific Corporation and, briefly, for Bank of America. Mr. Pollard worked on the staffs of two United States Senators and served as general counsel for a national trade association. Mr. Pollard earned his Ph.D in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. He earned both his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Barbara Peterson is currently a Vice President in the Default Servicing Group at M&I, where she is responsible for managing the Bank’s Loss Mitigation, Charge Off and Bankruptcy Departments for Retail and a segment of the Small Business Portfolio. Barb joined M&I in February of 2008 with over 20 years experience in the Banking and Mortgage Banking industries. She has held management positions at Chase and Wells Fargo in their Loss Mitigation Departments.

James J. Butera is a Washington attorney specializing in financial institutions legislation, and regulation. He is from the Philadelphia area and received his Bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s University. He was then commissioned in the United States Marine Corps and served two combat tours in Vietnam. His decorations include the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. After graduating from Georgetown University Law School in 1972, Mr. Butera began his law and government relations career at the American Bankers Association. He has published law review articles on a variety of topics, and in 1988, was also among the industry experts selected to prepare The American Agenda, under the direction of former Presidents Carter and Ford, to identify the major issues facing the Administration of President George H.W. Bush.Mr. Butera is a partner at the Jones Walker law firm consisting of more than 375 attorneys, providing a comprehensive range of legal services to a national and international corporate client base through offices in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and the District of Columbia.