OUR TEAM OF EXPERTS
Is Here For You...
Joseph Bala
VP of Cloud Services
Experienced technology professional who has designed, built and implemented technology solutions across a number of industry verticals.
Responsible for spearheading Neocova’s cloud services management, software/application development and technology strategy development.
Former Enterprise Architect with Tag, an international marketing services company.
Established himself in the technology marketplace as a partner in a technology startup and IT management for a specialty retail convenience chain.
Graduated from West Virginia Northern Community College.
Matthew Beecher
Chief Operating Officer
A 25-year fintech serial entrepreneur, innovator, operator and investor.
Former CEO of Vault, co-founder of Redstar Ventures, co-founder of SCS Financial (acq NASDAQ:FOCS), and early employee at myCFO (acq NYSE:BMO).
Proficient in growing and scaling financial service companies that help tackle financial challenges such as: retirement, student debt, financial education, and wealth transfer.
Engineers the Neocova team on establishing and safeguarding advanced operations and procedures uniquely designed to expand and deliver the vision.
Raymond Chandonnet
Chief Revenue Officer
Seasoned banking executive with over 30 years’ experience at the nexus of financial strategy and bank technology with community and regional banks.
Founded an advisory business working with early-stage technology companies focused on community banks and credit unions. Previously Head of Bank Strategy for Sandler O’Neill, J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, First Union Capital Markets and FHLBank Boston.
Responsible for driving Neocova’s go-to-market strategy, as well as aligning all revenue-related functions including business development, sales, pricing, product delivery and revenue management.
Began banking career designing enterprise technology for a Boston-area community bank. Currently serves on the Board of Directors of Kearny Bank / Kearny Financial corp where he chairs the Asset-Liability Management committee and serves on the Enterprise Risk Management committee.
Received his BS in Computer Science from Merrimack College and his MS in Finance from Bentley University.
Mel Clements
Senior Digital Director
Leads Neocova’s digital marketing team in planning, developing, implementing and managing overall digital marketing strategies.
Drove global digital marketing initiatives at Mastercard, creating and executing the digital, social, mobile, and content strategies across high-profile global sponsorship properties.
Directed the branded entertainment team for 20th Century Fox Film and managed creative production and branding at both Microsoft and Qualcomm.
Received his BA Political Science from Emory University.
Lauren Covell
Director of Accounting/Finance
Leads Neocova’s day-to-day accounting and finance activities and collaborates with senior leadership to build robust accounting functions.
Oversaw all corporate accounting areas, including debt, leases, fixed assets, prepaids, and expense accruals for a direct-to-consumer health care start-up.
Managed consulting and auditing services to consumer lenders with PwC’s Consumer Finance Group.
Received her BS in Accounting from Providence College and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Gregory Harris
Senior Director of Product, AI
Manages Neocova’s technology development to ensure effective leveraging of AI/ML, initially to improve community banks’ AML/BSA, compliance, and fraud mitigation.
Co-founded Endjinn, which raised $1.3 million to test out the economic incentive structures of Ethereum smart contracts and tokens with 10Ks of agents running the AI model type used first by Deep Mind’s AlphaGo.
Accepted into Dubai Future Accelerators program in 2016, obtained seed funding and designed and led development of Spindle, a breakthrough in integrated machine learning and data management suite.
Chief Product Officer at Machine Colony, helping build an end-to-end automatic data preprocessing and MLaaS platform adopted by Fortune 500s and multiple federal governments.
Received his BS in Sociology from Florida State University and an MA in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dennis Hild
Chief Risk Officer
Over 25 years of experience working with financial institution regulatory policy.
Serves as direct liaison to federal financial service regulators and legislators, manages trade association activities and establishes strategic industry partnerships.
Former Managing Director, Regulatory Affairs with Crowe’s Financial Services Risk Consulting Practice, where he monitored updates to regulatory guidance and evaluated the impact on financial institutions.
Spent nearly fifteen years with the Federal Reserve serving as a Commissioned Safety and Soundness Examiner and Supervisory Policy Analyst.
Received his Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Temple University and an MBA from The George Washington University.
Zafar Iqbal
VP of Product
A veteran fintech product leader, with over 20 years of experience driving sustainable innovation and building scalable businesses at Capital One, E*TRADE, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and BNY Mellon.
Former head of digital product at Capital One’s wealth management business and innovation leader for Capital One Bank across branch, ATM and contact center channels. Led product and customer experience teams across bank and brokerage at E*TRADE.
Launched startup banks for Citibank and Deutsche Bank in the US and Latin America and a mobile payments platform for Citibank in Asia.
Active industry thought leader serving on the Pershing Technology Advisory Board, the CEB Wealth Technology Executive Council and the IRS Digital Transformation Advisory Committee.
Received his BS in Accounting from Syracuse University and an MBA in Finance & Corporate Strategy from The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Lee Keith
President Banking Services
Former commissioner of the Missouri Division of Finance with a banking career spanning nearly four decades.
Led several Midwest banks as President & CEO.
Experience includes areas of strategic planning, capital raising, asset management, mergers and acquisitions and compliance with state and federal banking requirements.
Serves as Neocova’s ambassador to the financial institutions, regulatory organizations and key actors that make up our ecosystem.
Received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Lindsay Lockhart
Chief of Staff
Industry thought-leader and co-founder of Apiary + Co., with specialties in brand strategy, brand identity, market research, content marketing and social media.
Partners with global brands and corporations like True Refrigeration, Bacardi, The Wine Group and Monsanto as digital brand expert and marketing strategist.
Former COO of Hatch, a market research firm specializing in B2B and B2C qualitative and quantitative insights and analytics.
Peter Longo
SVP Banking Solutions
Entrepreneur and former bank executive with 14 years experience in retail and digital banking.
Former VP of Digital Banking & Marketing for Axiom Bank where he led the development and growth of all digital banking solutions, including the bank’s digital brand AxiomGO and its surrounding ecosystem partners.
Championed the digital transformation of Surety Bank as Chief Operating Officer and helped architect the bank’s digital strategy to launch new products and platforms in the fintech space.
Received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and his M.B.A from Stetson University.
Steven Maniec
VP of Business Development
Former Banking Executive with over 30 years experience assembling sales and operational support teams.
Senior partner and expert for both B2B and B2C development.
Responsible for implementing the Neocova Business Development process from conception through post sale support.
Focused on building strong client rapport and brand loyalty through expanding and improving team and business strategies for Surety Bank.
Graduated from Dayton State College and actively serves on the board for The Rotary Club of Debary, Deltona, and Orange City Florida.
Sultan Meghji
Chief Executive Officer
Led the rebuilding of the entire banking platform, infrastructure and business process at American Express.
Responsible for building a new equities technology group focused on the NYSE, resulting in over $1.5b net revenue per year of NYSE traffic at ABN AMRO.
Worked on the first web browser, the largest cloud computing exit of its time, and the first cloud-based genetic analysis platform.
Advisor to G7, US Treasury, FBI, FDIC, OCC and others in cyber security, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.
Present Washington University Adjunct Faculty member.
Cynthia Murdoch
Chief Human Resource Officer
Accomplished HR management executive who has served in senior leadership roles at leading companies including Centric Group, LLC – a division of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Nature’s Variety and AON.
Founded Murdoch Consulting Group, Inc., a turnkey human resources provider, where she worked with clients such as Lion’s Choice, Mercy Hospital Radiology, Lighthouse for the Blind and Speech and Language Learning Systems.
Executive Board Member for CASA of St. Louis, on the Advisory Board for the Bach Society of St. Louis and a Member of the National Charity League. She is also
Founder and President of the Smiles of Hope Foundation, which benefits cleft/palate patients and research at St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Past recipient of the MS Corporate Achievers Leadership Award and named St. Louis Business Journal’s Most Influential Businesswoman in 2006.
Bradley Nelson
Director of Operations/Strategy
Directs Neocova’s analysis and implementation of adaptably consistent operations and procedures across all aspects of the business to expand and deliver the company’s vision.
Managed business applications, developed internal processes and served as strategic advisor at high-growth fintech startup offering SaaS and DaaS analytics solutions to institutional investors.
Designed revenue operations program, orchestrated Salesforce architecture and managed system integrations to better track and evaluate organizational effectiveness.
Received his BA in Film & Media Studies from Washington University in St. Louis and completed coursework in Python development from New York University.
Robert O’Connor
Chief Information Security Officer
Security specialist with 30 years experience aligning global information infrastructure to business requirements incorporating cyber and physical security.
Founded three businesses and has worked in the public and private sector.
Spent a third of his career in government service, including as Chief Information Security Officer for the third largest County in the U.S. and Deputy Director of Enterprise Information Security at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Studied at Washington University in St. Louis, Georgetown University and the University of Vienna and has degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, German and Music.
Robert Phelps
VP of Marketing
Data-driven marketer and researcher with nearly a decade of experience marketing directly to the C-Suite and board members of U.S. banks.
Former Director of Marketing at Bank Director, the leading information resource for CEOs, senior management and board members of U.S. banks.
A former associate editor of Modus Vivendi, he has published research on the topics of international security, terrorism and ethnic nationalism.
Studied at Rhodes College and The University of Antwerp and graduated with a major in International Studies and a minor in Economics.
Maxwell Rebo
Chief of Artificial Intelligence
Four-time startup founder with over 12 years of experience in machine-learning development and research.
Founder and CEO of Machine Colony, where he helped build an end-to-end automatic data preprocessing and MLaaS platform adopted by Fortune 500s and multiple federal governments.
Oversees Neocova’s AI technology development and management to improve community banks’ efficiency and compliance protocols.
Sought-after public speaker on machine learning at worldwide forums including the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul. Additionally, serves as an active advisor to a number of Masters and PhD students on advanced AI methods.
Received his Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics from the University of Montana.
Penny Sanders
Director of Risk and Compliance
20 year track record of effectively managing the complexities of a highly regulated environment as a values based leader in the financial services industry.
Directed the Enterprise Wide Risk Management and internal audit function as the Chief Risk Officer of Axiom Bank.
Former Controller and Compliance Officer with Surety Bank where she maintained the bank’s general ledger and all financial records. Additionally, she was responsible for ensuring adequate internal controls, efficient accounting systems and compliance with generally accepted accounting practices.
Oversees Neocova’s compliance strategy and execution and helps to achieve, maintain and demonstrate compliance with security standards.
Mary Scott-Jones
Director of Product
Accomplished fintech product management executive, with over 20 years of experience developing and implementing design-thinking digital solutions at Capital One, ProShares, E*TRADE, and NTT/VERIO.
Dynamic product development leader who created compelling user experience solutions across bank and brokerage at E*TRADE and core customer data platforms at Capital One.
Deployed self-service, natural language tools for enhanced customer user experience and streamlined efficiency at E*TRADE, including its Virtual Assistant, Live Chat, and Click-to-Call functions.
Received her Bachelor of Science from Morgan State University and an MBA from Clark Atlanta University.
Bianca Spangler
Director of Sales Operations
Oversees the optimization and scalability of operational processes across Neocova’s revenue-generating activities.
Completed Enterprise IT fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) before working at a risk and healthcare management firm.
Managed large-scale technology and cybersecurity implementations for Fortune 100 clients including Walmart, Cigna, and Charter Communications as a project manager and Certified Scrum Master.
Worked to create strategic partnerships between community banks and fintechs at FinXTech alongside Neocova Co-Founder Kelsey Weaver.
Received a B.A. with Honors in Philosophy, Politics, and the Public from the Honors Scholars Program at Xavier University and a Masters in Public Health from the University of South Florida.
Kelsey Weaver
Chief Innovation Officer
Founder of Empact Innovation, a consultancy firm connecting banks and fintech companies for maximum success.
Former publisher of Bank Director magazine, the leading information resource for C-Suite and Directors of financial institutions across the U.S.
Founder and President of FinXTech, a media entity that helped banks navigate the fintech industry.
Current SebastianStrong Board Member, raising awareness and funds for childhood cancer cures.