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Mr. Stephens has spent over 15 years working with independent community and regional banks primarily in the southwestern region of the United States. Since the summer of 2020, he has been the Chief Executive Officer of Iconic Financial Holdings, LLC which was set up primarily to conduct organizational activities for Iconic Banc Group, Inc. to find and acquire a target bank. Previous to this, Mr. Stephens was a Director in the investment banking group at Performance Trust Capital Partners, LLC. While at the firm’s Houston office, he worked with community and regional banks on various M&A and capital raise assignments framed around helping them achieve quality, sustainable earnings within the context of regulatory good-standing. Before joining Performance Trust, Mr. Stephens was a Senior Vice President at FBR & Co. (now B. Riley FBR) in Houston from 2010 to 2016 in the investment bank’s Financial Institutions Group. He began his career at Carson Medlin Co. Investment Bankers’ Houston office as both an Analyst and Associate from 2006 to 2010 where he first started working with banks going into the “Great Recession.” Mr. Stephens graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance.
This individual brings more than 20 years of financial services and management experience. He graduated from the United States Military Academy with a Bachelor of Science Degree and from Harvard Business School with an MBA.
An investment banker for over 30 years, Mr. Robertson advised senior management teams and boards on many different strategic, corporate finance, and capital raising initiatives. He led teams on a wide variety of M&A and corporate financing transactions including domestic and cross-border, multi-billion and small-sized, and with many different, customized structures. Mr. Robertson focused on Power, Utility, and Infrastructure clients, and he also had clients in other industry sectors including banking, energy, and telecommunications. His career spanned several years each at Salomon Brothers, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and UBS Investment Bank. At Merrill Lynch and UBS Investment Bank, he served as a group head in addition to his senior banker and various committee responsibilities. Mr. Robertson is currently an advisory director/investor in two early-stage companies and a recent financial advisor to an infrastructure project development company. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology and from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College with an MBA.
Mr. Manley has over 30 years of experience as a finance and banking executive. He currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Armadillo Litigation Funding, which provides non-bank financing to law firms participating in mass tort, consumer, and commercial litigation, and litigation funding organizations participating in administrative consumer and commercial claims. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer for Armadillo Financial Partners from 2014 to 2020. Mr. Manley’s banking experience includes 20 years with BBVA/Compass Bank in various roles with increasing responsibility and 3 years with Cadence Bank, where he created the bank’s specialized law services lending practice. Mr. Manley began his career with Allied/First Interstate Bank. Mr. Manley has remained active in community service organizations, including serving as a Guardian Ad Litem for Child Advocates, Inc., previous Member and Chairman of the Board for the Regis School of the Sacred Heart, as well as a director/advisor for several charitable and community organizations. He recently served as an Advisory Director for Cadence Bank. Mr. Manley graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree and earned a Certified Financial Planning certificate from the University of Houston.
Mr. Russell has nearly 30 years of banking, diversified financial services, capital markets, and fintech experience. He currently serves as the Managing Partner of Pitted Ventures, a venture capital firm that makes revenue-based and minority equity investments in emerging consumer product companies. In 2017, he founded Finlyte, a provider of ERP technology consulting, enterprise-level implementation services, and tech-enabled core accounting and financial reporting services to the small and medium-business market. Mr. Russell has held senior management roles in several banking and related businesses, including as President of HomeNow, a division of Stonegate Mortgage, as Chief Strategy Officer of HTLF (formerly Heartland Financial USA, Inc.), and as Managing Partner of National Residential Mortgage. Mr. Russell’s other financial services experience includes roles with Hudson Advisors, Credit Suisse, Wachovia and NationsBank. Mr. Russell graduated from Baylor University with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance and a Master of Science in Finance from LSU.