A speaker lineup is only as good as the stories of the people on it. This year at Innovators Retreat in Detroit, we’re bringing you the architects who have spent decades actively shifting the financial and technological paradigms.
If you want to know who you'll be learning from, collaborating with, and challenging at this year's retreat, look no further than the remarkable pedigrees of our featured speakers.
As Chief Administrative Officer, Richard manages the operational and administrative infrastructure of Bedrock Detroit, the real estate powerhouse behind a monumental $7.5 billion investment in the urban core. He brings an unmatched perspective on how forward-thinking corporate culture, physical place, and intentional ecosystem-building create the robust local economies that community banks rely on to thrive.
Richard oversees the administrative and operational machinery behind the massive, historic revitalization of downtown Detroit and Cleveland. From the historic seven-year restoration of the iconic Book Tower to the massive 2025 completion of the City Modern neighborhood, Richard’s work at Bedrock provides a masterclass in how intentional, place-based economic ecosystems drive localized wealth and business density.
Allison has spent more than two decades navigating the intersection of technology, strategy, and brand execution. Before leading her own financial industry marketing practice, her cross-industry expertise found her building strategies for tech and healthcare giants like Nymbus, Dell, Fiserv, NCR Corporation, and Aetna—as well as legacy cultural brands like the Dallas Cowboys and Southwest Airlines.
She is the co-author of the acclaimed book Think Like a Brand, Not a Bank, a definitive text on shifting financial institutions from commoditized feature-pushing to high-conviction customer "pull."
Representing the absolute vanguard of executive bank leadership, Sean Gray (President & COO) and Sumant Pustake (EVP, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer) are currently orchestrating one of the most notable evolutions in modern community banking—the structural transition and rebranding of Berkshire Bank into Beacon Bank.
Sean has been climbing the executive ranks since 2007, having successfully managed retail banking, HR, marketing, and facilities before stepping into operations. Sumant brings a powerhouse background in corporate credit, corporate development, and M&A. Together, they have masterfully synchronized a community institution's operational machinery with data-driven strategy to match the agility of digital-native giants.
An MIT Sloan EMBA alumnus, Jesse is a seasoned technology executive who previously served as Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer at Sterling National Bank. At Customers Bank, he’s found himself as one of the leaders in the industry’s push into sustainable AI adoption.
During his tenure at Cross River, Jesse famously led the development of the bank's proprietary API core platform. He solidified his reputation as a trailblazer by making Cross River the 19th bank—and the only institution with under $100 billion in assets at the time—to fully integrate into the Real-Time Payments (RTP) network.
Tommy is the visionary co-founder and chief executive of Alloy, the industry-standard identity decisioning platform that has fundamentally changed how banks evaluate risk.
Tommy steered Alloy from an early-stage startup into a $1.55 billion fintech unicorn featured on the prestigious Forbes Fintech 50 and CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies. Today, his platform orchestrates automated identity verification, fraud prevention, and credit underwriting for over 700 financial institutions globally.
Erik is a 25-plus-year veteran of the Federal Reserve System. He launched his Fed career back in 1998 as a financial services analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City before transitioning to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2005.
As the Head of National Sales and Customer Relations, Erik sets and executes the relationship strategy for financial institutions across the entire Federal Reserve System. He is an alumnus of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado and sits at the absolute center of America's real-time payments modernization infrastructure (including the rollout and expansion of FedNow).
Ready to hear from the cutting edge in banking? Register for Innovators Retreat in Detroit now!
