Richard has over thirty years of combined domestic and international banking and consulting experience. His consulting and project management experience encompasses multiple disciplines including internal consultant, business owner and a contractor in the financial services industry to include serving as the Vitex Alliance Manager in 2002 – 2003. Richard has also held executive and senior management positions to include CIO, Director of Technology and Operations and Executive Change Manager. In addition, Richards has project management experience in systems development, mergers, acquisitions, conversions, CRM, call center and business process optimization.

Most recently, as the Vice President of Product Strategy at Fiserv DMS, Richard was responsible for the CRM, Business Process Management, and Business Intelligence product lines. Prior to Fiserv, he was a EVP and CIO of NewBridge Bank, a $2 billion 40 branch regional community bank in NC, which was formed as a result of the merger of Lexington State Bank and FNB Financial. Richard co-led the NewBridge Conversion / Transitions merger project.

Richard was the founder and managing partner of Balentine & Associates, an International customer care and sales management consulting firm specializing in the implementation of CRM systems and call centers for banks, utilities and other industries. Balentine and Associates provided strategic consulting, project management, and design support to clients including: ABN Amro, The Netherland, the largest bank in the Netherlands, EnBW, the third largest electric power company in Germany, AAA Michigan, largest property and causality insurer in Michigan and third largest auto club in the US, and leading national insurance company.

At NationsBank, Richard managed the design, development and implementation of the first NationsBank enterprise banking call center. He also managed Retail Banking Support serving as the primary liaison between information technology and operations support which included application management, project management, branch help desk and acquisition / conversion support.

Previous banking experience includes branch management, marketing, bank operations, item processing, lending, credit review, correspondent banking, cash management, administrative services, training, auditing, branch / product support, application conversions, and operational consolidations.

Richard is a graduate of Clemson University, BAI School of Bank Administration at the University of Wisconsin and South Carolina Bankers School at the University of South Carolina. Richard resides in Charlotte and enjoys, playing golf, watching soccer, music, cooking, travel and spending quality time with his wife, Barbara, their children and granddaughter.