Our founders recognized many forces were taking away from bank core businesses. As senior commercial bankers, we found traditional consulting companies did not have the expertise to help bring these forces under control. The RWC Group was formed to fill the demand for practical, hands-on expertise to help senior management execute plans for risk management, operational, production and customer strategies.
25+
Consecutive years engaged in bank and government initiatives and projects
100%
All associates are RWC accredited
$2T
Delivered results to banks $1 billion to $2 trillion in assets
Our Beliefs
The RWC Group Mission
“Provide Clients with real world consulting and professional services solutions to help solve the challenges facing their business. We produce these results by employing a diverse and highly skilled workforce who are considered experts in their field of specialization.”
We greatly value relationships with our clients and consultants. Our Client Team Managers are designated to cultivating and initiating these relationships to create mutually beneficial ventures
Griffin Gunter
CEO
After initial exposure to the banking industry in internal audit and operations, Griffin spent over 15 years in operations management for a regional bank and then as an executive responsible for all aspects of treasury management sales, product and delivery for First Interstate and Wells Fargo. During the latter, his leadership propelled the Corporate Treasury Management Division to ten years of double-digit growth in customers, volumes and revenues. By excelling at building teams focused on the client, he has a knack for solidifying relationships and identifying meaningful actions that create results and add real value.
Driven by his entrepreneurial spirit he teamed up with the founder of The RWC Group more than 25 years ago with a shared vision to innovate the delivery of interim resources and consulting services to financial institutions and government agencies. When the opportunity presented itself, Griffin acted quickly to buy the company with his business partner Debra Yaley. With a strong financial acumen for quantifying the results of getting specific things done, he has forged many meaningful and lasting relationships with clients over the years. Under his leadership and vision, The RWC Group has maintained profitability and delivered specialists with vital expertise while the banking industry and general economy has experienced periods of significant change and innovation.
Debra Yaley
President
Debra is a former banker with 40 years of experience and in-depth knowledge of bank operations, Treasury Management, and corporate, commercial and retail banking. She began her career in the Midwest community banking market, followed with being selected for a Management Training Program at First National Bank of Omaha and rounding out her banking tenure at Bank of America (legacy NationsBank).
Initially focused on Correspondent Banking, Retail and Branch Banking, she transitioned to Corporate Treasury Management where she led a team that was instrumental in the successful knowledge transfer and professional development of sales, product, client services and client onboarding personnel resulting in significantly improved Greenwich corporate client satisfaction scores during a large merger and site consolidation effort. She excels in understanding the value proposition for all sizes of banks, is rigorous in the pursuit of positive client experiences and satisfaction, and has successfully exceeded annual goals throughout her career.
With a goal of owning her own business, Debra joined The RWC Group in 2004 and teamed up with Griffin Gunter to acquire the company in 2007. As President of the company she is responsible for the day to day operations of the business along with leading new business development, high value partnerships and client experience efforts.
George Wren
President, Government Services Division
Starting as an operations clerk, George progressed to become Executive Vice President of Operations over the course of his career in banking. Now with The RWC Group for more than 25 years, he holds two positions, the first being Client Team Manager for Financial Institutions and the second as President of Government Services. Leveraging his experience with Treasury Management Services and Financial Management Operations, George has helped bank and government clients improve processes, streamline operations and realize efficiencies.
Whether on-site or remote, George has simultaneously overseen complex Treasury Management engagements including working with multiple teams of consultants, from multiple locations and involving multiple systems. On the Government Services front, George is adept at navigating the intricacies of government contract s and maintaining relationships with the various agencies. On one of the largest engagements in The RWC Group history, he managed 85 consultants to consolidate 150 accounting centers across the country to a single site.
Whether dealing with financial institutions or the government, George’s key strength is listening to our clients and our consultants with a focus on delivering the best service to them to add value.
Kurt Liles
Client Team Manager, Executive VP
Upon graduation from college, Kurt hoped he would have a career in the financial services industry. Starting with the Internal Audit function of a bank holding company, he spent almost five years learning all aspects of credit underwriting, loan processing, operations, trust and other areas of banking. He became proficient in all manner of transactions, the general ledger and the myriad of financial and performance metrics that are used by investors and regulators. The next five years was in the Treasury Management division performing in various product and project management, sales and marketing roles. During a time of extreme consolidation within the banking industry he became an integral part of turning the bank’s decisions on product branding and delivery into arming the bank’s sales force with the rationale and collateral to create an effective marketing campaign.
The next 11 years were spent with a FinTech provider of software and consulting services. With rotations through financial planning and analysis, technology, product management, sales, and risk management and control, Kurt honed his skills on assimilating teams, managing clients and profitability, and regulatory reporting. Moving on to become Director of Operational Risk for a small but growing bank, Kurt spent the next 11 years creating the 3 Lines of Defense, governance and Enterprise Risk oversight infrastructure for a bank that grew from $3B to $33B under his tenure. Responsibilities included managing and reporting risks for IT, operations, third parties, business continuity and compliance. Kurt worked extensively with the Board of Directors, federal regulatory agencies and Internal Audit to inform and provide insight into the bank’s risk appetite and response.
In 2019, Kurt opted to join The RWC Group and leverage his experience and provide bank clients with the interim resources and subject matter expertise to achieve their objectives.
Suzanne Rathke
Client Team Manager, Executive VP
Suzanne began her banking career in Retail Operations while in college and has held various positions and leadership roles throughout her 30-year career. Suzanne possesses a broad mix of banking expertise to include branch transformation, branch design, teller and personal banking platform management, business continuity, product management, vendor management, audit and controls, payments, sales, training design and development, procedure enhancements, branch and ATM cash management, business banking, treasury management, back office operations, workforce forecasting and scheduling, and efficiency initiatives.
During her banking career, Suzanne led and managed the operations of all branch personnel for a bank that grew from $2 billion to $36 billion in assets. She was instrumental in branch design, branch openings and closings, business continuity planning and execution, and numerous bank acquisitions and mergers. She increased branch efficiency by consolidating personnel while implementing a universal operating environment. She was also instrumental in optimizing cash handling and courier usage. Since joining The RWC Group, Suzanne has provided industry expertise to financial institutions and financial technology companies in many areas of banking including core and digital banking, remote deposit capture, bank client outreach, payments, technical writing, training, back office operations, and treasury management.
Tino Zepeda
Business Development Executive
Early in his career, Tino demonstrated a keen ability to adapt and excel in a rapidly changing environment. After attending the US Air Force Academy and Texas A&M University, he applied for a position at one of the first data processing centers in the Rio Grande Valley (1982) and his banking career began. Rising to the position of Vice President Banking Operations provided the experience and backbone of knowledge leading to opportunities in the FinTech community starting in 1996.
As a FinTech solutions professional, Tino has driven revenue objectives & large-scale solution engagements with an emphasis on business development, product delivery and strategic account management. Tino has an extensive network into the large financial (US & Canada), insurance & government verticals and identifies industry trends, business opportunities, and account strategies. His areas of expertise include payments processing, data & image capture, remittance, receivables, banking operations back office, print & render, document workflow management & check warranty.
Whether for IT, call center or other services, we can assist with the initial assessment, development of requirements, research, work sample review and verification, RFP and contracting processes to make your plan successful.