Executives, Directors and Advisors
J. Bert Watson, Sr. - Chairman/Director
Mr. Watson most recently served as CEO and Director of First Atlantic Financial Assets, and CDO and Director of First Atlantic Bank.
Prior to joining First Atlantic, Mr. Watson served as Chairman, President and CEO of Sunset Financial Resources, Inc. (NYSE:SFO) from its inception in October 2003 through October 2005. Before working at Sunset Financial, Bert served as the President and CEO of Flagship Capital Corporation and Sunset Commercial Group LLC from 2000 to 2003. Flagship was owned by Mr. Watson until he sold his interest to Sunset Mortgage in 2003, and engaged in the business of originating commercial mortgage loans.
From November 1998 to January 2000, Mr. Watson served as Executive Vice President of Paradigm Mortgage Associates Inc., a mortgage banking company, where he managed warehouse lines of credit, secondary marketing, and commercial loans including loans made for venture capital transactions. From January 1998 to November 1998, he served as VP, Southeast Branch, of Tribeca Lending Corporation where he managed the entire Southeast region for the mortgage company. From 1997 to 1998, he was VP of Caleb Financial Services Corporation and Caleb Mortgage Corporation. Mr. Watson was the President and CEO of Purity Financial Services Corporation from 1987 to 1994.
Alan L. Speck - Chief Executive Officer/Director
Mr. Speck was the President and Managing Member of Elite Mortgage Capital from 2009 to 2012. Prior to this he was the Executive Vice President of Aurora Loan Services from 1999 to 2008. Mr. Speck started the wholesale mortgage platform and was responsible for the exponential growth while managing both wholesale and retail sales platforms. He was the primary representative for the wholesale sales platform during weekly parent trading desk calls to discuss profit margin, price/product competitiveness, market strategy and sales performance relative to parent expectation. As a member of the management committee reviewing monthly business line performance relative to budgeted objectives, had responsibility for representing executive management on strategic initiatives such as a proprietary automated underwriting engine, paperless loan file system, loan origination software, customer service software and product development. Responsible for starting First Nationwide Mortgage Corporation’s Inside Sales division with great success surpassing corporate expectations.
Vice President of Capital markets ( 1992-1998) at Harbourton Mortgage, First Nationwide Mortgage Corporation and James Madison Mortgage, had complete responsibility for maintaining appropriate hedge position and gain on sale requirements using software systems to monitor trend analysis, economic, and market conditions. Successfully reduced exposure to interest rate risk by utilizing instruments such as mortgage backed securities, cash trades, treasury options and mandatory/best efforts whole loan sales. Integral member of each company’s Residential Subcommittee which determined credit policy for all products including the banks portfolio product. Managed warehouse lines up to $1 billion to insure problem loans did not exceed 1% of volume on a monthly basis.
Jeffrey S. Betros - President/Director
Mr. Betros is a mortgage executive with over 20 years experience in both retail and wholesale lending. Most recently he served as Vice President reporting directly to the President at W.J.Bradley Mortgage Capital. He developed the retail mortgage footprint in the SE opening up 8 offices in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Mr. Betros was a Vice President for Aurora Loan Services (Lehman Brothers). He opened up the wholesale mortgage platform in Florida, Georgia and Alabama by recruiting hiring and training their sales team. In 2006 their group was delivering over $2B in annual sales.
In October 2003, Mr. Betros joined Mr. Watson at Sunset Financial Resources, Inc. (NYSE:SFO) as an Executive Vice President/CMO. He created the “Whole Loan Process” from product offering to origination platform to exit strategy. He also developed the quality control program for the de novo REIT. Prior to joining Sunset, Mr. Betros worked for mortgage companies where his responsibilities included direct sales, sales management, operations, pricing and product development. He earned his BBA in Finance at Valdosta State University in 1987.
Cynthia J. Delaparte - Chief Financial Officer/Director
Mrs. Delaparte has over 30 years in the financial services industry. She began her banking career over 26 years ago with the Barnett Banks (now Bank of America), where she received her early bank training. After serving several years in a variety of finance positions, Mrs. Delaparte was appointed Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In 1992, Mrs. Delaparte served as Chief Financial Officer for three Barnett Bank affiliates covering four counties in North Florida.
In 1998, Mrs. Delaparte joined a group to help form a new bank in Gainesville, FL. As a founding officer she served as Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for 5 years. Her responsibilities included finance and accounting, branch administration, compliance, technology, operations and human resources.
In January 2004, Mrs. Delaparte was recruited to be the Chief Operations Officer of First Bank of Jacksonville. She was promoted to President and CEO in August 2004 and remained at the bank for nearly four years. The bank grew from $20MM in assets to $109MM under Mrs. Delaparte leadership.
She was an organizing director and President for St. Johns Bank (in organization) in St. Johns County in 2007; however, due to changing economic conditions, no FDIC charters were granted during that period in the state of Florida.
In March 2009, Mrs. Delaparte joined US Financial Assets, Inc. as President and CFO where she has been involved in the due diligence of over 65 banks for acquisition while also offering management consulting and capital raising services.
Mrs. Delaparte received her BS Degree in Accounting from University of Florida. Additionally, she has completed the Omega Lending Series for small, middle and large business lending and many education classes to address the growing need for capital, efficiency, profitability and shareholder returns. A life-long resident of Florida, Mrs. Delaparte has been a leader as a Rotarian, University of North Florida Coggin School of Business mentor and a Junior Achievement and Theatre Jacksonville board member.
Walter L. Williams - Director
Mr. Williams is founder and chairman of the Williams Companies, a network of real estate related businesses. Mr. Williams sold his residential real estate company, Coldwell Banker Walter Williams, Realty to the Illinois based Devonshire Group. Mr. Williams began his career in 1962 focusing primarily on land acquisition and development. In 1981, he founded Walter Williams Realty. In 1994, he was tapped by Coldwell Banker to become an affiliate. Under the Coldwell Banker banner, Mr. Williams acquired several additional real estate brokerages. This added to his growing coverage in the Jacksonville market covering the Duval, Clay and St. Johns areas, and expanded his reach into the St. Augustine and Palm Coast, Florida markets. Mr. Williams has served in many leadership capacities including the local and state-wide builders and realtors associations. Mr. Williams’ career in government included serving on the city council, Jacksonville Electric Authority Board and Jacksonville Transportation Authority and Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Dan C. Vaughn - Legal Counsel
Mr. Vaughn is a senior partner in the law firm of Cairncross & Hempelmann, PS in Seattle Washington. He has advised many local, national and international clients on all stages and aspects of real estate and business transactions including real estate and business acquisitions, construction, conduit and bond financing; real estate syndications and offerings, and other financing transactions. Several of Mr. Vaughn’s career highlights include:
Acted as lead outside counsel to Plum Creek Timber Company in connection with several of its major acquisitions with a transaction value well in excess of $2,500,000,000; Served as chief architect of American Capital Development’s 1031 TIC program which has been instrumental in raising funds in excess of $500,000,000; Since 2001, he has assisted numerous non-profit and for-profit developers in the development, financing and sale of important low income projects throughout the West. Mr. Vaughn is also a member of the board of directors for Core Business Bank in Bellevue Washington where he also is a part of the Loan Committee and Audit Committee. Core Business Bank is an FDIC insured banking institution.
J. F. Watson, Jr. - Advisor
Mr. Watson was formerly a Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank and most recently the Founder and Managing Partner of NorthLake Capital Partners and Timberline Capital. NorthLake is a money management and consulting firm currently engaged in multiple private equity capital raising efforts in the asset management, real estate, and technology sectors. Timberline was formed to trade proprietary capital for RBC Capital Markets. Mr. Watson has spent his entire career in the financial markets and has over 15 years experience in Investment Banking, Risk Management, Proprietary Trading, and Market Making. Prior to founding NorthLake and Timberline, Mr. Watson was a Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank in charge of trading, risk management, and market-making activities in Telecommunications, Networking, Cable and Media sectors. As Managing Director, Mr. Watson managed both senior and junior traders generating profits in excess of $50M dollars annually and was consistently the top performing group in the UBS Cash business. Mr. Watson grew UBS’s trading desk from 10 traders and Autex ranking of 28, to over 50 traders and Autex ranking of 7 in March 2004. UBS ultimately relied on Mr. Watson for responsibility of trading all of UBS’s high profile syndicate deals and risk arbitrage opportunities.
Prior to his role at UBS Investment Bank, Mr. Watson worked for Jeffries Group, a wholesale broker dealer, and Hambrecht & Quist (Now JP Morgan Chase), a boutique investment bank focusing on technology companies. Prior to working with Hambrecht & Quist, Mr. Watson worked for OLDE Corporation (Now H & R Block) a full service brokerage firm. Mr. Watson has been involved with numerous private and public equity deals including the largest de novo REIT ever listed on the NYSE through 2004. Mr. Watson has a BBA in Finance and Computer Information Systems from James Madison University and has held NASD Series 7, 24, 55, and 63.
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