Steven D. Hovde is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Hovde Group, LLC, an investment banking and advisory firm that serves bank and thrift clients across the United States, where he is responsible for managing its investment banking activities, the strategic development of mergers and acquisitions of bank and thrift institutions, and its private equity activities. He serves as a director of H Bancorp and as a trustee of several charitable foundations. Before co-founding Hovde Group in 1987, Mr. Hovde was Regional General Counsel and Vice President of a national commercial real estate development firm. Previous to that, Mr. Hovde served as an attorney with, Rudnick & Wolfe, which is today DLA Piper, specializing in real estate law. Prior to that, Mr. Hovde practiced accounting in Chicago as a Certified Public Accountant with Touche Ross LLP, which is today Deloitte & Touche LLP. Mr. Hovde graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in Accounting, from the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He also earned his law degree, cum laude, at Northwestern University. Mr. Hovde provides the board of directors with important experience and insight into the financial services industry. Mr. Hovde has been a member of our board of directors since 2011.