Meet Our Team

James DeFrantz, CRCM, CAMS, J.D., is a consumer and real estate lending compliance specialist with more than 30 years of experience in the financial service regulatory industry. He has served as a senior compliance examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco and has spent time as an analytical manager at the Office of Thrift Supervision as well as a commissioned national bank examiner at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Mr. DeFrantz has a certificate from the Pacific Coast Banking School of Bank Management, a Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco with a concentration in banking and finance, and a BA from Dartmouth College. He is a certified regulatory compliance management and anti-money laundering specialist with experience in fair lending, consumer operations, non-deposit investment products, note department operations, BSAs, CRAs, and the entire credit approval process.

Rick Caldwell has more than 40 years of combined banking, consulting, and outsourcing experience in the financial services industry. He has held executive management positions at both regional and community banks as well as a Big 8 accounting firm, several consulting firms, and two Fortune 500™ outsourcing companies.

Mr. Caldwell has a Computer Science Degree from Greenleaf College and also completed an Executive MIS course at Harvard University.

Mr. DeLo was a co-founder of Southport Financial Corporation, with Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance in 1986, and President of Southport Asset Management Corporation, managing in excess of $5 Billion USD for financial institutions, regulatory authorities and corporate pension accounts. Prior to that he was an investment consultant specializing in corporate finance and investment banking. Mr. DeLo was also President of a NASDAQ Broker/Dealer and Registered Investment that acquired a majority interest in a NYSE member firm. Mr. DeLo also served on the staff of the Executive Office of the President, and was Chairman and/or director of various Banks and financial institutions, Foundations and the National Small Business Alliance.

A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he served three afloat tours in Southeast Asia, the Special Projects (Polaris and Trident) Office, the Deep Submergence Group, American University School of Law in Washington DC, and the Advanced Sea Based Deterrent Group at the US Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, CA.

Larry Echelmeyer, BSG Solutions Group Senior Managing Partner, has over 35 years of experience in the financial services industry, with expertise in lines of business, finance, credit, operations and technologies. This comprehensive experience as a banker, management consultant and project executive has led to the successful delivery of numerous business transformation, merger integration, operations and information technology projects for financial institutions in the United States and abroad.

Prior to his consulting career, Larry held various senior executive positions with multi-state banks headquartered in California. His chief responsibilities in these roles included strategic planning, internal consulting and project management, general business and risk management, business development, credit administration, treasury operations and technology, auto leasing, retail and commercial executive management, pre and post merger integration, systems integration and community involvement.

After more than 25 years in banking, Larry joined IBM as a senior consultant and executive project manager and was engaged nationally and internationally on large, complex and challenged projects ranging from mergers to application development and end-to-end e-commerce solutions. Following IBM, Larry led an improvement initiative project for information services and technology effectiveness, developed and implemented a multi-faceted credit process improvement plan, managed a total of five bank charter collapse and fourteen bank merger integration projects, and led total bank collaborative process and performance improvement engagements.

Larry earned his BA and MBA from California State University in Dominguez Hills. He is also a commercial graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington and has completed coursework in managing information services resources as part of Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program. In addition, he holds a project management professional (PMP) certification and is a certified credit professional (CCP).. He currently resides in Rancho Mirage, CA.

Alan Thompson, BSG Solutions Group Senior Managing Partner, has over 35 years of banking experience, most recently as Director, President and CEO of Butterfield Bank, a $12 billion bank in Bermuda with offices in 10 countries. Previously, Alan was the President and CEO of Riyad Bank, a $20 billion bank in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, he held numerous executive positions during his 23 years with First Interstate Bank. He has extensive line operating experience in consumer and corporate lending, branch operations, wealth management, trust, asset management, and payment systems. Alan has been heavily involved in system and operations projects, including being the lead line manager on three major conversions, including two core systems conversions.

At First Interstate Bank, Alan held a variety of executive positions, including the President of the Arizona Bank with responsibility for consumer and small business lending, commercial lending, wealth management, mortgage, and trust. Previously, he was the Chief Credit Officer for the California bank, and prior to that he was the division manager for the Central Valley Region with responsibility for 65 branches, direct and indirect lending, commercial lending, and agricultural business. Alan held positions internationally in Asia and managed the Midwest US Banking Division.

He has a MBA from the Wharton School of Finance and a BA from Claremont McKenna College. He currently resides in San Diego, CA.