Our presenters

Dale Sheller is a financial strategist for The
Baker Group, providing regulatory perspective and
insight to our clients. The newest member of the
Financial Strategies Group, Dale spent six years as
a bank examiner with the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance
and a master’s degree in business administration
from Oklahoma State University.

Dana Sparkman, CFA, is a Vice President in the
Financial Strategies Group and runs the firm’s Municipal
Credit Department. She manages a municipal credit
database that covers more than 150,000 municipal
bonds, providing clients with specific credit metrics
essential in assessing municipal credit. Dana earned
a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of
Central Oklahoma.

Darlia Fogarty brings a wealth of knowledge and practical experience to our banks as well as our staff. After 12 years as a commissioned national bank examiner with the OCC, Darlia developed an expertise in compliance while administering examinations in banks of all sizes. She contributed as a member of the Retail Credit Team, with a Compliance Designation. Darlia also holds 10 years of experience as a compliance officer/auditor and 4 years as a compliance/audit consultant.

David L. Battle, CFE has been a security practitioner in the private sector security industry for over 30 years. He has served as Investigator, Security Training Specialist and Security Officer for Boatmens Bancshares, Inc. (now Bank of America) from 1976 to 1994 (18 years).

Battle is a featured lecturer/trainer, specializing in crimes committed against financial institutions and managing the financial institution security & loss prevention functions, serving clients nationwide. Additionally, he currently serves as a white-collar crime/fraud investigator and consultant for financial institutions, other industries, attorneys, law enforcement and media. Battle is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Regent Emeritus of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

David L. Kemp, President of Bankers Management, Inc. (BMI), formerly The Management Group. BMI is a nationally recognized company in financial services training and bank consulting. Prior to forming BMI, he served as Vice President, Director of Credit Services for Cannon Lending Schools, as well as through Banking Association sessions for the individual financial institution. Mr. Kemp has more than Thirty years of management experience in consulting, training credit administration and new business development. Mr. Kemp serves as a visiting professor and guest lecturer to many colleges and universities. He is past chairman of the Downtown Development Authority. Past president of the Atlanta Urban Bankers Association.

David is the founder and managing member of David L. Osburn & Associates LLC, a Las Vegas-based business training and contract CFO firm that provides seminar/keynote speeches for various groups including CPAs, bankers, attorneys, credit union employees, credit managers, trade groups, and business owners. He also serves as a contract CFO for several clients including construction companies, medical practitioners, and real estate developers, co-manages a bank educational program with the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and is a board member of North Star Business Services, a commercial lending company (commercial real estate and equipment financing).

His extensive professional background encompasses over 24 years in banking, finance, and marketing. His bank commercial lending credentials include comprehensive loan underwriting, management, customer development, and loan work-out experience.

In addition, David is an Adjunct Professor for Regis University, an accredited MBA program and the College of Southern Nevada, a community college. He has taught college courses for over 22 years, covering Finance, Accounting, Economics, Marketing, Banking, Business Law, and Management.

He earned an MBA in Finance/Marketing from Utah State University and a BS in Finance from Brigham Young University. He is also a graduate of the University of Oklahoma National Commercial Lending School. 

Dianne Barton is the Founder and President of Performance Solutions, inc., a training and consulting company that specializes in providing solutions to the key challenges facing banks today in attracting and building relationships with their customers. Dianne is a frequent speaker and training facilitator with both banking associations and financial institutions.

• Her expertise in customer service, leadership, retail regulatory and compliance, and performance cultures is recognized as leading edge by both national banks and community banks.
• Her programs are designed to “close the gap” between the bank’s needs and employees’ skills.
• Her philosophy of experiential learning and participant involvement in training led to the development of her energized, interactive training method that is skill based rather than theory based.
• Her training limits lecture discussions to a maximum of 7-9 minutes, relying on an active “real world” approach by the participants.

Before starting Performance Solutions, she held senior positions with Bank South Corporation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the John H. Harland Company, where she introduced the highly acclaimed Officer Call Program.

Drew Simmons has worked in the field of finance
since 2003. He serves as Senior Vice President at The
Baker Group, where he works with community banks
needs pertaining to interest rate risk, asset/liability
management, and fixed income portfolio management.
Simmons created The Baker Group’s municipal credits
database, which provides clients with specific credit
merits essential to the credit analysis process. He also
provides research and data analysis of mortgage-backed
securities and other structured products related to
client positions. He regularly speaks at banking schools
and financial seminars, and consults with banks on a wide array of asset/
liability management issues. Simmons holds a bachelor’s degree in business
administration, and earned his master’s degree in finance from Oklahoma City
University’s Meinders School of Business.