Mavericks already on board.

At BAI Mavericks in Banking there is no “them” and no “us.” Everyone who attends is interested in re-thinking the logic of how business gets done. The following mavericks will be joining the forum:


Dick Kovacevich, Chairman of the Board of Directors,
Wells Fargo Bank & Company
Richard Kovacevich served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo for over ten years, becoming Chairman in 2001. He spear-headed key industry trends including expansion into non-traditional banking businesses, such as investments and insurance. This culminated in the game-changing Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

It was Kovacevich who “re-conceived” Wells Fargo Bank branches as “stores” that sell a diversified range of “products.” This concept has been emulated by Washington Mutual and a host of other banking institutions. Imitation is, indeed, the sincerest form of flattery.

More information on Kovacevich's past experience, details on Wells Fargo's financial services business model and thoughts on innovation, leadership and smart expansion decision-making can be found in a recent interview in BAI's Banking Strategies magazine. Read the interview now.

Kovacevich is a member of the Board of Directors of Cisco Systems, Inc.; Cargill, Inc.; and the Federal Reserves Federal Advisory Council, among others.

Chris Larsen, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Prosper
Chris Larsen is CEO and Co-Founder of Prosper, America’s largest people-to-people lending marketplace.

For over a decade Chris Larsen has focused on using the Internet to make consumer lending more efficient, fair, honest, open, and trustworthy. Prior to Prosper, Mr. Larsen co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-LOAN. Under Mr. Larsen’s leadership, E-LOAN closed over $27 billion in consumer loans, and was consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most trusted consumer brands. E-LOAN earned consumers’ trust by taking radically pro-consumer actions such as being the first company to provide consumers with access to their credit scores, and playing a critical role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation. Mr. Larsen led E-LOAN through a successful IPO in 1999, and oversaw the company’s acquisition by Popular, Inc. in 2005.

Mr. Larsen holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.

Tom Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Second Curve Capital;
Founder, bankstocks.com
Thomas K. Brown is the CEO of Second Curve Capital, LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that invests principally in the equity securities of financial services companies. In addition, he is the founder of bankstocks.com, one of the most unconventional, authoritative and heavily visited banking-related sites on the Internet.

Institutional Investor magazine ranked Brown as an all-star analyst in each of his last twenty years on the sell-side, and he was the number one ranked regional bank analyst in eight of the last nine years. Tom is respected by his peers not only for his obvious accomplishments, but for his high ethics, frankness and unbridled enthusiasm.

Bill Taylor, author of Mavericks at Work:
Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
William C. Taylor is an agenda-setting writer, speaker, and entrepreneur who has shaped the global conversation about the best ways to compete, innovate, and succeed. Mavericks at Work changed how companies and their leaders navigate and succeed in a rapidly changing world and it is an inspiring and effective collection of next practices that amounts to a business plan for the 21st century. Within weeks of its release it became a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best-seller, attracting world-wide attentions and acclaim.

The book generated big attention of the small screen including two segments on ABC’s Good Morning America, an in-depth segment on NBC’s Weekend Today, and a one-hour segment on the PBS series CEO Exchange.

Lisa Heft, Founder - Opening Space
Lisa Heft is an internationally renowned facilitator specializing in Open Space Technology and other dialogic and interactive methods for engaging deeper reflection, learning and interchange. Whether consulting on conflict resolution processes for teams working in Northern Iraq and East Timor, engaging interdisciplinary thinking between housekeepers, hospitality managers and CEOs for the future of a luxury resort facility, or facilitating learning and dialogue with prison inmates — Ms. Heft is known for her thoughtful design, clarity of communication and ability to bring diverse people together in dialogue and co-creation.

Ms. Heft is author of the Open Space Idea Book and chapter author, ‘Beyond Bullets and Bombs: Grassroots Peace Building between Israelis and Palestinians’. Facilitator, Educator and Vice President, US Open Space Institute; Fellow, Columbia University.

Paul McAdam, Senior Managing Director, BAI Research
Paul McAdam is Senior Managing Director of Research and Product Development at BAI. For twelve years he has been instrumental in shaping the development of BAI’s educational content and research programs that concentrate on the drivers of organic revenue growth in retail financial services. BAI’s research addresses revenue growth opportunities from both strategic and tactical standpoints, with particular focus on customer and product management, delivery channels and human capital management. The majority of the top-50 U.S. banks and several Fortune 500 technology solutions providers are currently BAI research clients.