Our Team
Align blends the best skills of strategic advisers and seasoned financial services executives.
Our professionals are well-equipped with the analytical discipline, managerial skills and experience to deliver fully integrated market-based solutions.
We recognize that clients don't hire consulting firms. They hire the people who comprise the firm.
That's why we ensure that our teams are staffed with people you'll find a pleasure to work with; people who have experience both as financial services industry practitioners and consultants.
On average, Align professionals have 20 years experience working in the financial services industry.
Chuck Bruney is responsible for overseeing all Align fsc consulting engagements. His focus is on helping financial services executives accelerate profitable growth by developing and executing integrated business strategies, building organizational competencies and aligning their organizations to their strategies.
Mr. Bruney has over 30 years of combined banking and consulting experience in the development and implementation of strategic initiatives for financial services organizations throughout North America, Europe and Latin America.
These assignments have encompassed all aspects of the strategic planning process including database marketing; market research; product development and product management; strategic marketing planning & market segmentation; and the optimization of "brick & mortar" and electronic delivery systems. Mr. Bruney has extensive experience helping financial institutions develop segment-based businesses focused on the Mass Affluent, High Net Worth, Underbanked & Underserved, Hispanic, Asian, and Business Banking segments.
He is a frequent contributor to industry trade publications and considered an expert speaker on the application of marketing sciences in the evolving financial services arena.
Denise Lewis, CEO of Anchor Rode Consulting LLC in Naples, Florida, has accumulated extensive consulting experience over the last 25+ years.
She specializes in performance-based organizational development with emphasis on executive leadership development and the development of high performing, cross-functional leadership teams.
Read Denise Lewis's full biography.
Peter B. Davidson
Strategic Partner
Pete Davidson brings significant experience and insights to Align fsc clients with more than thirty years of consulting, retail banking, and payments experience in the development and implementation of business and marketing strategies throughout North America, South America, and Europe.
Read Peter Davidson's full biography.
Calvin Johnson
Strategic Partner
Calvin Johnson is a highly respected bank technology and delivery systems
consultant, author and industry speaker. As a senior member of the Align fsc team, he brings more than thirty years of executive leadership experience in
commercial banks, thrift institutions and consulting firms to client
projects.
Read Calvin Johnson's full biography.
Peter K. Thomsen
Strategic Partner
Peter Thomsen has over 30 years of management and leadership experience with diverse financial institutions; American Express, Citibank, Michigan National Bank, California Federal Bank and Golden 1 Credit Union. During his Citibank career he had management responsibilities for correspondent banking, credit cards in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and branch management in Chicago.
His management experience has included developing strategic plans; for credit cards, branching, internet banking, call centers, loss prevention, investment and insurance services and marketing and sales. He has also been responsible for leading and planning major programs; organizational and operational efficiency, branch merger integration and expansion, quality improvement and sales development. His search for quality improvement in banking has involved the development of specific programs patterned on Deming and Crosby and has led to successful improvement and achievement of goals.
Read Peter Thomsen's full biography.
Jim Olson
Jim Olson is a results-oriented banker with over 30 years community and large bank financial services management experience. He has a unique ability to identify, analyze, and understand all types of strategic issues, and to tailor effective people, process, and technology solutions.
Jim has successfully led industry business units delivering corporate / middle market / entrepreneurial relationship banking, and executive level risk management, regulator interface, strategic planning and financial modeling, and merger and acquisition analysis.
Read Jim Olson's full biography.
Russell Boyd
Strategic Partner
Prior to joining Align fsc, Russell Boyd was the President of Dynamic Marketing Systems where he pioneered the development of automated marketing platforms for several multinational clients including Barclays bank. He was also responsible for the develpment of the company's Micro Merchant product line designed exclusively for the unique needs of community banks and credit unions.
His financial experience includes marketing research and strategic planning assignments for over 100 different financial service providers including both qualitative and quantitative studies in areas such as perceptual mapping, attitude/ attitude awareness/ usage, positioning, new product development, communications testing, name evaluation, and market segmentation.
Read Russell Boyd's full biography.
Vijay Balakrishnan
Strategic Partner
Vijay Balakrishnan has over 30 years experience in technology and payment systems. He has held executive positions at both large and small technology companies in general management, sales and marketing, engineering and product development.
He has a successful track record in the marketing and deployment of payment systems technology at Global Top 50 banks, mid-size banks, credit unions and community banks, including debit, credit, ACH and check processing. Vijay has extensive global experience, having conducted business in over 45 countries.
Read Vijay Balakrishnan's full biography.
Karl Nelson
Strategic Partner
Karl Nelson is the President and CEO of KPN Consulting, an organization engaged in the ALCO, Funding, and Liquidity arena.
His career has included positions as Director of Industry and Governmental Relations with Silverton Bank, President and Chief Marketing Officer of Institutional Deposits Corp (SR), and National Market Development Director for Promontory Interfinancial Network where he worked on national marketing strategies for the CDARS program.
Read Karl Nelson's full biography.
Sandra Blair
Senior Vice President
Sandra Blair brings significant project management and planning skills that enable Align fsc clients to realize corporate goals through a pragmatic approach. She works collaboratively with clients to create a single view of all current, planned and potential development projects. This disciplined process enables clients to align their corporate goals with budget, resources and marketplace realities.
Read Sandra Blair's full biography.
Robert W. Owen
Senior Vice President
Bob Owen is a senior marketing executive recognized for his ability to define strategic marketing direction and develop and execute creative marketing solutions to deliver superior results and bottom-line profit. He is known for his unique talent to understand and identify broad marketing trends with the ability to translate those opportunities into executable marketing initiatives, which sets him apart. This skill is supported by his broad experience in brand development and management, marketing planning and marketing communication, including advertising, direct marketing and online. He is recognized as someone who can distill the complexity of strategic objectives into actionable marketing solutions. He does this through a practical and creative analytical ability.
Read Bob Owen's full biography.
Lucy Skelton
Senior Vice President
Lucy Skelton is a finance executive with extensive experience and progressive responsibilities in building and leading the finance and accounting functions within the financial services and financial technology industries. She has demonstrated success in high growth, dynamic business environments with proven ability to establish and transform business processes to maximize financial transparency and value-added financial evaluations for strategic management decisions and performance monitoring.
A CPA with an MBA in Finance, Ms. Skelton has over 25 years of experience in the financial services and financial technology arena. Her financial experience and expertise include strategic planning, financial modeling, financial management, SEC and regulatory reporting, mergers and acquisitions, business line and customer profitability analysis, functional cost benchmark analysis, system selection and implementation, budgeting and forecasting.
Read Lucy Skelton's full biography.
Shelley Singleton
Senior Consultant
Shelley Singleton is a high energy, innovative marketing leader who brings Align fsc clients broad strategic and tactical marketing experience on both the “client side” and the “agency side.” In her 20+ year career in banking and advertising/public relations, Shelley has worked across a wide variety of financial institutions including banks, credit unions, payment companies and insurance providers.
Read Shelley Singleton's full biography.
Laurie Cochran
Senior Consultant
Laurie Cochran brings Align fsc clients the benefits of a broad background in financial services with 20+ years marketing experience at Fortune 500 global leaders including Citibank, Fidelity Investments, Bank of Boston and Sovereign Bank. Laurie has extensive experience working with companies on business and product strategy and innovation.
Read Laurie Cochran's full biography.
Dave Maaske
Senior Consultant
Read Dave Maaske's full biography.
Greg Gray
Senior Consultant
Greg Gray has an accomplished career in brand building, design and merchandising with a consistent record of results. His perspective comes from a background that spans a wide range of industries including retail, healthcare and financial services.
Read Greg Gray's full biography.
Lenore Decovsky
Senior Consultant
Lenore is a dynamic, articulate, and energetic results oriented professional with twenty five years of experience in banking and financial services. She has solid experience in back office operations, vendor management, information security, electronic commerce, product launches, and project management. She has a hands-on management approach to problem solving, specializing in the turnaround of troubled operations, process re-engineering, client implementations, and service delivery.
Read Lenore Decovsky's full biography.
John Groesbeck
Senior Consultant
John comes to Align fsc as a distinguished financial services marketing executive with over 20 years of experience in the banking, credit card, insurance, investments and mortgage industries. Under his management, organizations such as Chase Manhattan Bank and Merrill Lynch have achieved growth in revenue, profitability and market share through successful product development, marketing and brand management.
Read John Groesbeck's full biography.
Peggy Olson
Senior Consultant
Peggy Bekavac Olson is an industry veteran with over 15 years experience in the financial services industry. She specializes in helping companies build their brands, enhance communications, and improve promotion and lead generation capabilities, with the goal of growing revenues.
Read Peggy Olson's full biography.
Chris Tonkovic
Senior Consultant
Chris Tonkovic brings Align fsc extensive experience in the areas of location/site selection, economic development, real estate, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Read Chris Tonkovic's full biography.
Linda Bishop
Senior Consultant
Linda Bishop helps financial services organizations and other companies achieve top-line growth through a combination of tools, training and tactics.
During the past two decades of her career, she has been engaged in a wide variety of customer-facing interactions. Her expertise includes all aspects of account acquisition, customer service, account retention, loyalty building, solution and top-down selling, and aligning sales processes with marketing strategies.
Ms. Bishop speaks nationally on sales and customer service topics, and her book, Selling in Tough Times, has been called “timely” by Richard Cosier, Dean of the Krannert School of Business at Purdue University.
Read Linda Bishop's full biography.
Ron Remillard
Senior Consultant
Ron Remillard has nearly 30 years of experience in all aspects of training including needs assessment, curriculum design and development, training delivery, on-the-job reinforcement & coaching, performance support tools and measurement and evaluation strategies.
On the development side, Ron is experienced in organization development, change management, process improvement and talent management.
Read Ron Remillard's full biography.