Speakers
Stay tuned and check back to see who will be our guest star speaker!
For more than 25 years, Deveron M. Gibbons has served as a strategic and tactical business leader, an advisor, and a counselor to Governors, legislators, and congressional representatives, and as a passionate community advocate for the city of St. Petersburg. In his professional capacity, Deveron leads the day-to-day operations of Amscot Financial’s Public Affairs Department, representing the company before local, state, and national elected officials. His role as a trusted advisor to elected officials has allowed Deveron to help shape the laws and the regulations that govern the financial services industry, creating an environment that both protects consumers and establishes a level playing field in which competitors can operate fairly. Additionally, this role makes Deveron an indispensable advisor to the national trade associations for the financial services industry. Deveron joined Amscot in 2004 after working as a lobbyist for Holland & Knight’s Tallahassee office and soon took over responsibility for growing Amscot’s bill-pay business. Amscot serves more than 3 million unique customers a month, and many of them utilize Amscot as their connection to pay their monthly water, electric, and cable television bills. Over the years, Deveron has developed direct relationships between Amscot and hundreds of utilities across the state of Florida, and today, Amscot’s bill-pay category generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Deveron’s track record and connections to both business leaders and community leaders in Florida make him a go-to source for advice and counsel from elected officials across the state and throughout the country. Deveron understands the challenges and opportunities facing elected officials and political candidates, having made a strong bid in the 2009 mayoral race in St. Petersburg. Deveron’s devotion to St. Petersburg is rooted in his upbringing. He was reared in St. Petersburg’s Midtown community as the son of a teacher and a church pastor. A football standout in high school, Deveron played football while attending the University of Florida. Friends told Deveron, as he was preparing to leave for Gainesville, “Goodbye Deveron. We’ll never see you again.” Deveron promised them then that he would one day return to Midtown and make it his home. Deveron made good on his promise and today lives just a few blocks from the home where he was reared. He continues to live up to his promise to make St. Petersburg his home. In 2006, Deveron received a gubernatorial appointment to the St. Petersburg College Board of Trustees. He has been subsequently reappointed twice by Gov. Rick Scott and by Gov. Ron DeSantis. In 2016, Deveron earned a juris doctorate degree from the Florida A&M College of Law in Orlando. In 2018, he was awarded a master’s of business administration degree from Florida A&M University and he also holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Florida. Deveron lives in St. Petersburg with his family.
Bill Gallagher has been the President of CFGMS since its inception in 2015. Prior to that, Bill was the Chief Credit Officer of CapFlow Funding, CFGMS’s factoring sister company, since 2009. Bill has held various senior-level Capital Markets and Investment Banking positions in the Institutional Fixed Income divisions of Lehman Brothers, and Barclays Capital.
CFGMS was launched as a direct funder in 2015 to focus on providing efficient capital access to small businesses across the United States that have been historically underserved by traditional financing sources. Since inception, CFGMS and CapFlow Funding have provided over $1 billion in growth capital to small and medium-sized American businesses, while doing so at the very highest standards of industry best practices.
Bill holds a BA in economics degree from Villanova University and currently resides in Northern New Jersey with his wife and four children.
Scott Crockett is the founder and CEO of Everest Business Funding. He is a seasoned professional with 20 years of experience in the finance industry. Mr. Crockett’s track record includes raising more than $500 million in capital and creating thousands of jobs. Scott has founded, built, and managed several finance companies in the consumer and commercial finance sectors.
Dan Gans is the founder and managing principal of Polaris Consulting, LLC. Prior to establishing Polaris, Dan managed the Telecommunications, Technology and Energy practice at a top 20 lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. for three years. Under Dan’s stewardship, Polaris Government Relations has quickly become one of the most in demand boutique lobbying firms in Washington. Dan in an expert in fintech policy and works closely with the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.
Dan is an eleven-year veteran of Capitol Hill. Most recently, Dan served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Bob Riley (R-AL). In addition to serving as Riley’s Chief of Staff, Gans was also a Senior Advisor (in a volunteer capacity) to Riley’s successful gubernatorial campaign in 2002. Dan worked with the campaign General Consultant to develop and implement a successful media, grass roots, and fundraising plan.
As Chief of Staff, Dan served as Congressman Riley’s principal strategist and advisor on all legislative and political matters including the Congressman’s work on the Financial Services, Armed Services and Agriculture Committees. Dan’s responsibilities included oversight and management of the Washington, D.C. and Alabama offices. Dan also served as the Congressman’s liaison to House leadership and the Republican Study Committee.
During his tenure as Chief of Staff, Gans was recognized by The Wall Street Journal for designing a state-of-the-art interactive Congressional website that implemented an e-video communication platform. Bob Riley was the first Member of Congress to communicate with his constituents using video email technology. It was no surprise that Campaigns and Elections magazine cited Bob Riley’s campaign website as one of the best in the country and critical to his election success in 2002. Dan has been a regular speaker on internet communication and e-strategy for the House Republican Conference. Dan also held a Department of Defense security clearance, which he was required to have in order to handle Riley’s work on the House Armed Services Committee.
Kate is a partner in Hudson Cook, LLP’s Maryland office and co-chair of the firm’s Business Funding practice group. Her practice focuses on the areas of Consumer Financial Services and Small Business Financing. Kate represents banks, finance companies, private equity and investment bank investors, revenue based finance companies, and small business lenders establishing new programs and products, and conducts due diligence and compliance reviews of consumer lending and business financing portfolios.
Joshua is a partner at SBL Strategies and focuses on financial services lobbying amongst other areas. He has worked as an advisor for multiple U.S. Senators and Governors on both the political and official side for over 10 years. Joshua served as a senior advisor for former U.S. Senator and Ranking Member of the Banking Committee Pat Toomey.
Joshua has been in the government relations industry for close to 10 years and focuses his lobbying on FinTech, alternative consumer and commercial lending, debt collection, credit reporting, international finance issues as well as some transportation, health care and immigration issues.
Mr. Novotney stays very politically active as well working on super PAC’s and informally advising campaigns.
Rachael Schreiber helps lead CATALYST’s multistate government affairs practice nationally and leads the firm’s Texas office.
After two decades navigating government from the municipal to the federal level, Rachael has a unique blend of private and public sector experience making her an effective advocate and strategist. She previously served as vice president of government relations for one of the largest consumer specialty finance companies in the United States and led its professional teams across the country. Prior to more than a decade of lobbying on financial services issues, Rachael served at some of the highest level positions in the Texas State Capitol.
Mary Donohue is the Executive Director for the Revenue Based Finance Coalition (RBFC). Before joining RBFC, Mary worked as a government relations specialist for CATALYST Government Affairs. At CATALYST, Mary managed various client portfolios in areas ranging from a variety of financial services issues to foster care policy in many states across the country as well as in Washington, DC. Her prior work also consists of developing and managing the federal and state public policy strategies for the small business lending brands within Enova International (NYSE: ENVA) (OnDeck, Headway Capital, The Business Backer), including coordination with Enova SMB’s P&Ls, corporate support groups, third party consultants, and industry organizations. Mary also developed and led public policy promotion campaigns and built networks of trade associations, industry partners, and non-profit groups to support policies that help create and maintain access to credit over the internet for America’s small businesses.
A well-seasoned government affairs professional, Mary lived and worked in Washington, DC for over ten years with a significant amount of time spent at one of DC’s top federal lobbying firms, Polaris Consulting. At Polaris, Mary specialized in financial services and labor client portfolios and implemented various strategic objectives through Congressional outreach and research.
Mary holds a Masters in Public Administration and Policy from American University and graduated magna cum laude from St. Lawrence University with a double major in Government and Psychology. In her free time, Mary enjoys hanging out with her husband, Parker, who is a U.S. Naval Officer and former Fighter Pilot, and their two dogs Cosmo, a Dalmatian, and Comet, an English Setter as well as her off the track Thoroughbred, Mucho.
