Steven P. Kent has served on our Board of Directors since June 2019, and serves as the chair of the Risk Committee, and as a member of the Audit, Compensation, and Governance and Nominating Committees. Mr. Kent also serves on the board of directors of Byline Bank and serves as the chair of the Risk and Trust Committees, and as a member of the Audit, Executive Credit, Compensation, Governance and Nominating, and ALCO Committees of Byline Bank. Mr. Kent served as Vice Chairman and a managing director of the Financial Services Group at Piper Sandler Companies (formerly Piper Jaffray Companies) until January 2021, where he focused on merger and acquisition advisory and capital market transactions for financial services companies. Prior to joining Piper Sandler in October 2015, Mr. Kent co-founded and served as President of River Branch Capital from March 2011 through its sale to Piper Jaffray in September 2015. At River Branch, Mr. Kent advised client banking companies on capital management, equity recapitalizations, merger & acquisition transactions and private equity executions where, in select instances, affiliates of River Branch acted as an investing principal. From August 1998 through March 2011, Mr. Kent was a managing director and co-head of the Chicago office of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods ( KBW ), a boutique investment bank and broker-dealer that specializes in the financial services sector. Prior to joining KBW, Mr. Kent was an executive officer with Robert W. Baird and Co. ( Baird ) for 16 years, where he led strategic planning, fixed income capital markets and structured finance, and headed the firm s Financial Services Investment Banking practice. From 1973 to 1982, Mr. Kent was an executive officer at two Midwestern multibank holding companies focusing on strategic planning, bank and trust investment portfolio management, asset and liability management, and commercial and government guaranteed credit origination. From 2012 to 2018, Mr. Kent served as a director and member of the finance and nominating committees of IFF, a Midwest-focused Community Development Financial Institution ( CDFI ) certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which serves as a mission-driven lender, real estate consultant and developer that helps communities thrive by creating opportunities for low-income communities and people with disabilities. In January 2019, Mr. Kent was elected to join the board of the Community Reinvestment Fund, USA ( CRF ), a CDFI with a mission-driven strategy headquartered in Minneapolis. In 2020, Mr. Kent was elected to be a founding director of Ignify Technologies, a Public Benefit Corporation formed by CRF to commercialize its Spark Technology Platform to integrate and digitize the small business lending ecosystem. In July 2023, Mr. Kent was elected to serve as an independent director of Ampersand, Inc., a privately held financial technology company.