2018 Emerging Leaders in New Englands Banking Industry Speakers 2018 Emerging Leaders in New Englands Banking Industry Speakers

Paul Brassil

Paul Brassil is the vice president of information technology at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is responsible for all central IT functions at the Boston Fed, including application development and support, project and relationship management and local desktop, AV and network services. In addition to these duties, Paul is also responsible for the Bank's central IT innovation strategy, which includes setting the direction for the Boston Fed's distributed ledger technology (DLT) technical roadmap.

Jim Cunha

As Senior Vice President of Treasury and Financial Services at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Jim Cunha leads the Bank's work on behalf the Bank's cash operation, wholesale payments, mobile and digital payments. Cunha is spearheading the Boston Fed's efforts to study, explore, and engage with distributed ledger technology to determine applicability, potential benefits, and risks for internal and external uses. He is focused on the evolution of the technology and its potential impact on the financial services sector.

Jeff Fuhrer

Jeff Fuhrer is an Executive Vice President & Senior Policy Advisor at the Boston Fed. He has been an associate economist at the Federal Open Market Committee and regularly attends FOMC meetings with the Boston Fed president. He has been active in economic research for more than three decades – and began his career at the Fed's Board of Governors in DC before joining the Boston Fed in 1992.

Alexis Leahy

Alexis Leahy is a portfolio manager who oversees the regulation of community banks to ensure the safety and soundness of financial institutions. Alexis enjoys that this work is essential to the economic stability of the U.S. and global financial system and has been in this industry for 15 years. Alexis is a commissioned examiner who is also a certified anti money laundering specialist. Alexis holds a master's degree in public policy from the University of Massachusetts and a bachelor's degree in economics and international relations from Syracuse University, as well as NCAA and NBA championships.

Kenneth Montgomery

Ken Montgomery is the first vice president and chief operating officer at the Boston Fed. He is responsible for the Bank's financial and U.S. Treasury services, information technology, regional outreach and community development, strategic planning, corporate support. Among other national responsibilities, leads the Federal Reserve's efforts to make the U.S. payments system more secure.

Michael Rodehorst

Mike Rodehorst is the Information Security Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston where he has responsibilities for the incident response, risk and compliance, security operations, and security consulting functions. He also serves as the Bank's Data Privacy Officer with responsibility for the oversight and implementation of the Bank's data privacy program. In earlier roles, Rodehorst was responsible for the Federal Reserve System's architecture, design, and roadmap of network security services.

Bo Zhao

Bo Zhao is a senior economist in the Boston Fed's New England Public Policy Center. He specializes in public finance and urban and regional economics. Zhao earned a Ph.D. in economics and an M.S. in applied statistics from Syracuse University.

Stephanie Zierten

Stephanie Zierten is Counsel with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In this position, she concentrates on cybersecurity, information technology, contract, and intellectual property matters. Prior to joining the Boston Fed in 2014, she was the Deputy General Counsel at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Information Technology Division (now known as Executive Office of Technology Services and Security), where she advised state agencies on technology law issues. Before entering public service, Stephanie was an associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Testa, Hurwitz, and Thibeault. Upon graduating from law school, Stephanie clerked at the Massachusetts Appeals Court for the Honorable Susan Beck.

Stephanie graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law. She is a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.