As Chief Executive Officer of Pathward®, N.A., and Pathward Financial, Inc., Brett Pharr leads the organization’s mission to power financial inclusion for all. With over three decades of experience, Pharr has built expertise in governance, risk management, and business transformation. Under his guidance, Pathward focuses on expanding financial opportunities through its Banking as a Service and Commercial Finance business lines. Before joining Pathward, Brett served as Senior Risk Director at Citizens Bank in the Consumer Division where he built a best practice enterprise risk organization and culture that enhanced competitive advantage, solidified brand identity, and increased shareholder confidence. Prior to Citizens Bank, Brett worked for 32 years at Bank of America holding roles in the Commercial and Consumer lines of business, Business Transformation, Mergers and Acquisitions and Risk. In addition to coordinating service provision in complex operational roles, Brett has a proven track-record as an active Board Member, including Past Chair and current Trustee Board Member of Freed–Hardeman University and current Board Member and Finance Chair of the Haitian Christian Foundation.

As the Chief Innovation Officer of First National Bankers Bank (FNBB) of Baton Rouge LA, David is a tireless advocate for rethinking the role of innovation in a corporate setting. David’s focus at FNBB is creating an environment where every individual is encouraged to look for innovations that spur growth, regardless of their size. David is the former founder and CEO of Goldleaf Technologies, a leading provider of electronic payments software and a pioneer in the fintech industry. David also served as EVP of Q2 and President of U.S. Dataworks. He currently serves on the boards of PaymentsFirst, the American Cannabis Bankers Association (ACBA), ArgosRisk and softgiving. David is also a serial entrepreneur, having created multiple start-ups in retail and professional services. David is also the author of the best-selling book Grounded: Anchor Management for Strategic Leadership and Effective Decision-Making (Little River Publishing, 2016).

Adam T. Hark is the Founder and Managing Member of Wellesley Hills Financial where he oversees the firm’s operations and strategic initiatives. Adam began his career banking payment assets in the acquiring space in 2006. In
2008, his firm was hired by Heartland Payment Systems to execute a roll-up strategy in the K-12 Point-of-Sale and higher education verticals. The roll-up included multiple acquisitions in the following years, culminating with the $375M acquisition of Touchnet in 2014.

In December of 2020, Adam and his team founded Wellesley Hills Financial and Wellesley Hills Securities, transitioning from a M&A advisory and consulting shop to an end-to-end investment bank. Under Adam’s leadership the firm has doubled the size of its team, opened a west coast office in Los Angeles, another office in Lisbon, and is currently laying the groundwork for London in 2025.

A prolific writer, Adam’s articles appear in widely-circulated industry publications, and he shares his market analysis and industry insights in WHF’s weekly newsletter with a 31K+ audience.