Our Leadership Team

OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

Live Oak Bank leadership continues to drive a company and brand associated with trust, expertise across our industries, and the highest level of customer service. If you have questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us.

• 

  James S. (Chip) Mahan III
  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

  

  James S. (Chip) Mahan III

  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

  Chip Mahan has built his career revolutionizing the banking industry. He founded and currently serves as CEO and Chairman of Live Oak Bancshares, headquartered in Wilmington, NC. Its commercial banking subsidiary, Live Oak Bank, specializes in providing lending and deposit services to small businesses nationwide and is the nation’s leading SBA lender.
  
  Chip is also a managing partner and co-founder of Canapi Ventures, a series of funds focused on providing venture capital to new and emerging financial technology companies. He currently serves on several fintech and financial services boards including Apiture, a joint venture between Live Oak and Fiserv, which focuses on creating next-gen technology for financial institutions; cloud-based cyber security firm DefenseStorm; and the American Bankers Association. He is also a co-founder of nCino, a cloud-based banking software built on the Salesforce platform; Finxact, the cloud-native core-as-a-service platform founded in part by Mahan and other industry pioneers; and Payrailz, a digital payment company.
  
  Prior to Live Oak, Chip was the CEO and chairman of S1 Corporation and founder of Security First Network Bank, the world’s first internet bank. Under his leadership, S1 Corporation grew to become a $234 million software and services provider in only six years, averaging more than 200 percent growth year over year. At its peak, S1 had a market capitalization of over $6 billion. During his term as CEO, Chip was ranked as one of the 10 Most Influential Personalities in Financial Services by FutureBanker magazine.
  
  Prior to founding Security First Network Bank and S1 Corporation, Chip launched Cardinal Bancshares, where he served as Chairman and CEO. He built Cardinal into an institution with approximately $675 million in total assets and took the company public in 1992. Before launching Cardinal, Chip spent several years with Citizens Union National Bank & Trust Co., serving as President, Chief Operating Officer and Vice Chairman and becoming Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1984. In 1986, he formed an investment group that purchased Citizens Union and subsequently sold it to BankOne Corp. of Columbus, Ohio.
  
  Chip began his career in 1973 at Wachovia Bank & Trust Co. in Winston-Salem, NC, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
  
  

• 

  William C. (BJ) Losch III
  President

  

  William C. (BJ) Losch III

  President

  BJ Losch serves as president of Live Oak Bancshares and Live Oak Bank. He was named president in August 2023, after serving as Chief Financial Officer of Live Oak Bancshares.
  
  Losch joined Live Oak in 2021 as CFO and in addition to this role was named Chief Banking Officer in 2022 to lead customer facing sales, support and operational groups across all lending and deposits functions at the bank.
  
  Losch brings a wealth of experience and knowledge as Live Oak continues to expand its lending franchise, while launching new products and solutions to support its growing customer base.
  
  Prior to joining Live Oak, Losch spent 12 years at First Horizon Corporation as senior executive vice president and CFO leading all financial activities, as well as strategic planning, investor relations, corporate development/M&A, fintech ventures, corporate properties and procurement.
  
  Prior to his role at First Horizon, Losch held progressively senior roles at First Union and Wachovia and served as senior vice president and chief financial officer for the general bank at Wachovia, the largest of the corporation’s four major business lines.
  
  Losch holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Richmond and a Master of Business Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

• 

  Lee Williams III
  Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors

  

  Lee Williams III

  Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors

  Lee Williams is the vice chairman of the company and one of the original founders of the bank. Prior to starting Live Oak Bank, Lee spent 19 years in corporate banking at Wachovia and worked for 14 years at Vine Street Financial doing SBA lending. Lee began his banking career in 1973 at Wachovia, where he worked with Wachovia Services, Inc, then Wachovia Regional Corporate Lending, calling on and lending to mid-market regional companies. In 1987, he relocated to Wilmington, NC, where he managed the Wachovia Corporate Lending group for the three-county area of southeastern North Carolina.
  
  In 1992, he re-joined Chip Mahan at Cardinal Bancshares as they began Vine Street Financial, a niche SBA lending division, of Vine Street Trust Company. Lee held several positions within this group including president and senior SBA lender. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Vine Street Financial became a division of BB&T, where Lee served as a senior SBA lender, resigning in May of 2007 to found Live Oak Bank.
  
  Lee graduated in 1973 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He currently serves on the Elon University Board of Trustees and the New Hanover County Airport Authority board, as well as several private company boards, as managing member. In addition, he has served in the capacity of president and treasurer on numerous charitable and nonprofit organizations in Wilmington and elsewhere in North Carolina.

• 

  Michael J. Cairns
  Chief Credit Officer

  

  Michael J. Cairns

  Chief Credit Officer

  Michael Cairns was named Chief Credit Officer in 2024 and previously served as Head of Credit. He has been with Live Oak since 2015 and brings deep experience in banking with a career focused on commercial banking roles including credit, lending, and underwriting across small- and middle-market commercial and industrial (C&I), commercial real estate (CRE), and asset-based lending (ABL).
  
  Prior to joining Live Oak, Cairns spent a decade in lending and credit roles at TCF National Bank and Talmer Bank & Trust in his native Michigan. Cairns holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance with a specialty in banking and financial services, in addition to a Master of Science degree in finance, from Walsh College in Troy, MI.

• 

  Gareth Davies
  Head of Enterprise Risk Management

  

  Gareth Davies

  Head of Enterprise Risk Management

  Gareth Davies serves as Head of Enterprise Risk Management at Live Oak Bank where he oversees risk management and regulatory relations. Gareth brings more than 30 years of financial and risk management experience to Live Oak. He previously served as chief operational risk officer for USAA Bank where he provided risk oversight and was a subject matter expert on risk governance, technical methodology, risk assessments and issue resolution. Prior to that his principal stops have been at Citibank and Barclays Bank in a variety of global first line of defense control roles and second line risk oversight responsibilities.
  
  He began his career in risk management at GE Capital and spent 20 years developing, executing, sustaining, and aligning all aspects relating to providing an effective risk management approach to its global business with the final role as Chief Risk Officer for GE Asset Management. Gareth currently serves as chair of the American Bankers Association Exam Board. He graduated from Loughborough University, England, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Banking and Finance with Honors.

• 

  Micah Davis
  Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

  

  Micah Davis

  Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

  Micah Davis is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Live Oak Bank, where he leads marketing and communications strategies for the bank and its subsidiaries. Since joining Live Oak in 2012, Micah has built an internal marketing team and in-house creative agency supporting the bank’s multi-channel marketing efforts. Prior to joining Live Oak, he spent eight years working in various design and marketing roles within Bank of America. This included roles in social media marketing, brand marketing, and the sponsorship marketing group, where he focused on partnerships with the NFL, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, Washington Redskins, and New England Patriots.
  
  Before his time at BofA, Micah was an entrepreneur, founding three companies, and a freelance marketing and design consultant, supporting client-marketing initiatives across print, digital, and traditional media. Micah is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in visual design and communications. He was also a two-time NCAA All-American, and two-time Pac-10 Champion for Oregon in track and field.

• 

  Renato Derraik
  Chief Information and Digital Officer

  

  Renato Derraik

  Chief Information and Digital Officer

  Renato Derraik is chief information and digital officer, leading the bank’s digital transformation efforts.
  
  As head of information technology and digital applications, infrastructure, and architecture, Derraik is responsible for driving the strategy and execution of Live Oak’s technology and digital initiatives in full alignment with corporate business strategy. He will manage and lead a flexible, innovative, high-performance, cloud-first IT organization, playing a key role in enabling Live Oak’s competitiveness and growth.
  
  He joins Live Oak after serving as chief digital officer at Ally Financial Inc., overseeing Ally’s digital innovation and transformation activities. His 25-year career includes driving large-scale digital, agile, and operating model transformations for Fortune 500 companies including Ally and Sprint, as well as being an expert partner at McKinsey where he served clients across the globe on technology and digital transformations for 15 years.
  
  Derraik has an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University, a master’s degree in computer sciences from Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

• 

  Mike McGinley
  EVP – Small Business Banking

  

  Mike McGinley

  EVP – Small Business Banking

  Mike McGinley is the head of Live Oak’s small business lending division. Since 2008, Live Oak has been financing business growth nationwide and is one of the top originators of small business loans in the country.
  
  Prior to his role, Mike lead the investment advisory and hotel lending teams and was a senior loan officer on the bank’s investment advisory lending team. He also brings commercial lending experience from his time with PNC Bank. He has an undergraduate degree from Penn State University and an MBA from Drexel University.

• 

  Mark Moroz
  Chief Banking Officer

  

  Mark Moroz

  Chief Banking Officer

  Mark Moroz serves as Chief Banking Officer for Live Oak Bank. He provides oversight across all deposit functions, in addition to leading marketing and customer experience. Previously, Mark served in key leadership roles at Live Oak, including head of deposits, head of operations and head of product, where he led operational priorities for the organization as well as next-gen banking initiatives.
  
    Prior to joining Live Oak, Mark was vice president of retail deposits for Barclaycard US, senior director of retail banking for Sallie Mae, vice president of marketing at JP Morgan, and senior manager of product and marketing at ING Direct US.
  
  

Over the course of his 25-year career, Mark has become an expert in the online banking arena where he has helped to secure billions of deposits for his companies’ funding needs. Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in political science/criminal justice from the University of Delaware.

• 

  Walt J. Phifer
  Chief Financial Officer

  

  Walt J. Phifer

  Chief Financial Officer

  Walt Phifer serves as Chief Financial Officer of Live Oak Bancshares and Live Oak Bank. He was named CFO in November 2023 after serving as Treasurer and Head of Finance, Planning and Analysis.
  
  Phifer joined the bank in 2015 and brings 19 years of experience in the financial industry, including various finance, treasury, accounting, audit, and deposit analytic roles. Prior to joining Live Oak, Phifer served as the Deposits Finance Manager at Barclays US where he managed the finances and data analytics of a $10 billion deposit portfolio.
  
  He began his career in external audit at Deloitte, based out of the Boston and Philadelphia offices, and earned his Certified Public Accountant certification in 2006. Phifer received a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

• 

  Greg Seward
  Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel

  

  Greg Seward

  Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel

  Greg Seward joined the company in 2015 and serves as Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel. In addition to his duties as General Counsel, he is responsible for enterprise-wide risk management including Compliance, Fraud, BSA/AML and Vendor Management. Greg has more than 20 years of experience as an attorney advising on a broad range of corporate matters, with a focus on financial institutions and other financial service providers.
  
  Prior to joining Live Oak, Greg spent the majority of his career as an attorney in the legal department of Capital One Financial Corporation, most recently leading a team of attorneys advising on securities disclosure and financial reporting, capital markets and corporate finance, executive compensation, equity administration, and general corporate and transactional matters. He began his career as an associate at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP where his practice focused on securities offerings, M&A, and corporate governance.
  
  Greg holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in english literature from the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar, and a JD from Duke University School of Law.

• 

  Courtney Spencer
  Chief Experience Officer

  

  Courtney Spencer

  Chief Experience Officer

  Courtney Spencer serves as Chief Experience Officer at Live Oak Bank. In this capacity, she leads strategic oversight of the employee experience and shared services including recruitment, onboarding, compensation and career development, benefits, education and training, wellness, community and philanthropic involvement, corporate flight operations, facilities, and on-site dining.
  
  She joined in 2016 and brings 25 years of financial services and HR experience to Live Oak. Previously, Courtney was human resources strategic business partner and vice president of budget and management reporting at Square 1 Bank. Prior to her role at Square 1, Courtney served in a variety of finance and control positions at Wachovia and Wells Fargo.
  
  Courtney received her MBA from the College of William & Mary, and a Bachelor of Science degree in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

• 

  Steve Smits
  Head of Commercial Banking

  

  Steve Smits

  Head of Commercial Banking

  Smits, who joined Live Oak in 2012, leads Live Oak’s commercial banking division, which includes both the Specialty and Energy and Infrastructure teams. Smits previously served as Chief Credit Officer for Live Oak Bank.
  
  He is the former associate administrator for the Office of Capital Access at the U.S. Small Business Administration. While at the SBA, he was responsible for managing and overseeing the agency’s programs and operations designed to expand access to capital for America’s small businesses. This included managing the agency’s $100 billion small business loan portfolio.
  
  He also played a critical role in implementing many of the provisions in the Small Business Jobs Act that was signed into law by the President in September 2010.

• 

  Dawn Thompson
  SVP – Government Relations

  

  Dawn Thompson

  SVP – Government Relations

  Dawn Thompson serves as SVP of government relations for Live Oak Bank. Dawn leads advocacy efforts in Washington D.C. with Congress, federal agencies, and local and state government agencies.
  
  Previously, Dawn was senior vice president, director of federal affairs, and associate counsel at the North Carolina Bankers Association where she led federal grassroots and advocacy efforts, answered bank regulatory and compliance questions, maintained corporate governance, and was the staff liaison for the North Carolina Young Bankers and Bank Security Committee.
  
  Prior to her role at the North Carolina Bankers Association, Dawn practiced law at Stewart & Schmidlin, PLLC in Smithfield, NC. Dawn is a graduate of Campbell School of Law in Raleigh, NC, and Stetson University in DeLand, FL.