Panel features CEOs of Local Community and Regional Banks

MODERATOR: JEFF BLUMENTHAL
Jeff Blumenthal joined the Philadelphia Business Journal in September 2005 as a reporter covering the legal and financial services industries. He
regularly writes articles for its weekly print and daily web editions and now has a blog that covers both industries.

Prior to joining the PBJ, Jeff worked at The Legal Intelligencer, where he covered the business of law for more than seven years. Jeff won two Keystone Press Awards from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association during his tenure there. Prior to his time with The Legal, Jeff was a reporter at the Chester County Daily Local News, where he wrote more than 100 stories about the events surrounding the murder trial of millionaire John du Pont.

For his efforts at the Daily Local, Jeff was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists. Jeff is a graduate of Drew University and a lifelong Montgomery County resident.

SPEAKER: MICHAEL CARBONE
Michael Carbone is Senior Vice President, TD Bank Financial Group and Regional President for TD Bank’s Metro Philadelphia Market, which comprises Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, Coastal New Jersey and Delaware. He oversees all retail and commercial bank services and profit centers, consumer and commercial lending and government banking within the market.

Prior to taking the helm of TD Bank’s Metro Philadelphia Market, Michael was Senior Vice President and Market Manager for the South Jersey and Delaware Market. He led that region’s outstanding growth and was instrumental in building the largest market share for any bank operating in South Jersey. 

Michael has been a banker for twenty-three years. Michael started his career with First Fidelity Bank in 1986. He then moved on to work for United Jersey Bank South as their Assistant Vice President, where he held a variety of community lending positions.

Michael is active in community organizations, including the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (was their 2006 honorary) and Volunteers of America (was presented leadership award for 2007).   He is also an RMA member. Michael recently was named to be the Walter Rand Institute honoree of the year for South Jersey. 

Michael is a current Board Member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Chamber’s CEO Council for Growth, as well as the CEO Access Network of Greater Philadelphia. Michael serves on the Finance Committee of Select Greater Philadelphia. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Home Port Alliance for the Battleship New Jersey and the Board of Committee of Seventy. He recently joined the Executive Board for Penn Cardiovascular Institute and the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Greater Camden Partnership, former Vice Chairman Board member of the Camden County College Foundation, the United Way of Camden County, American Cancer Society, Southern New Jersey Development Council Banking Committee and Cooperative Business Assistance Corp. Banking Committee.
Michael is a graduate of Rowan University (formally Glassboro State College), where he earned a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Economics and has Accreditation in Advanced Financial Analysis from Michigan University in 1987. He is married and has one son. His hobbies include golf and reading.

SPEAKER: KENT C. LUFKIN
Kent C. Lufkin joined 3rd Federal Bank in 2000 serving as senior vice president and retail banking officer. He was appointed president and chief executive officer in June of 2003 and became a director of the TF Financial Company board in 2006. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Rutgers University and an Associate of Business Administration degree from the Stonier Banking School at the University of Delaware.

Lufkin began his banking career as a part-time teller while studying at Rutgers University and his prior experience includes four years as president and chief executive officer at Roebling Bank in Roebling, New Jersey.

He serves as a Board member and treasurer of the Newtown Business Commons Association; a Board member of the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce, the Insured Financial Institutions of Delaware Valley, the Bucks County Council, Boy Scouts of America, the South Jersey Bankers Association and the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

SPEAKER: JAY S. SIDHU
Jay S. Sidhu is the Chairman and CEO of New Century Bank with headquarters in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He is also Chairman and CEO of Sidhu Advisors, LLC, a private equity and financial services consulting company based in Palm Coast, Florida and Reading, Pennsylvania. He was the Chairman and CEO of Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. and Sovereign Bank, a $90 billion financial institution, until his retirement on December 31, 2006. During his 20 year career at Sovereign, Mr. Sidhu was responsible for growing Sovereign from a small $450 million banking institution with an IPO value of about $12 million to the 17th largest banking institution in the United States with a market capitalization of almost $12 billion at year end 2006. Mr. Sidhu’s growth strategy resulted in an internal rate of return of over 24% for Sovereign shareholders over the last 17 years, and provided Sovereign shareholders, over the last 5, 10 and 20 year periods, with returns which significantly outperformed all relevant benchmarks, including the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and major banking indices.

Mr. Sidhu has been recognized as Financial World’s CEO of the year, Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year, the Chamber of Commerce’s Large Business Leader of the Year, the Caron Foundation’s Citizen of the Year, and has also been the recipient of many awards and other honors, including the National Liberty Museum’s Hero of Liberty Award. He has served on numerous business and not for profit boards of directors, including the Board of Banco Santander in Madrid and presently serves as the Chairman of Board of Trustees of Wilkes University. He has a MBA from Wilkes University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s CEO Leadership Course. Mr. Sidhu has also been a speaker on Leadership and Emotional Intelligence at several conferences in the United States, Europe (London, Munich), Asia (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai). He has also been a featured speaker on “Leadership and Building Companies to last” at Wharton School Active in community affairs and supporting education, he has helped his Alma Mater, Wilkes University, establish the Jay Sidhu School of Business and Leadership with a goal of becoming one of the prominent business and leadership development schools in Northeastern United States.

SPEAKER: WALTER L. TILLMAN, JR.
Vantage Point Bank Chairman and CEO Walt Tillman possesses three decades of experience in the financial services industry. A native Philadelphian, Mr. Tillman’s banking background in the Delaware Valley region is substantial:

Early in his career, Mr. Tillman served as the Controller at Cheltenham Bank, and then undertook the position of Asset/Liability Manager at Independence Bancorp. He subsequently became the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Prime Bank, helping it to transform from a small thrift institution into a large community bank prior to its eventual sale to Summit Bank. Most recently, he served as the President and CEO of Earthstar Bank, a successful start-up bank.

While at the helm of Earthstar, Mr. Tillman solidified his reputation as a financial visionary by boldly moving banking into a new and untried frontier. As one of the first institutions to embrace advances in technology, Earthstar achieved a clear competitive advantage and unprecedented success by blending traditional branch banking with the then-revolutionary concept of Internet banking.

At Vantage Point Bank, Mr. Tillman is again leading banking in a new direction, with a business model unique to the industry. His vision is twofold: to combine traditional banking functions with financial services and wealth management; and to make these services available to a wide spectrum of customers, including individuals and businesses at all levels. According to Mr. Tillman, this is the means by which Vantage Point intends to deliver on its promise of banking from “a new perspective.”

Mr. Tillman is a 1973 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, where he earned a degree in Economics, and received an ROTC commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He received an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1975.