Mellinger, Ryan P.

Mr. McPherson is a business, banking and securities lawyer with thirty years experience: eighteen years in private practice; eleven years as Corporate Counsel; and one year of government service. He has worked for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and has successfully completed the BAI Graduate School of Bank Financial Management at Vanderbilt University.

In private practice, Mr. McPherson has handled business torts and lender liability litigation, securities broker-dealer claims, and disputes concerning business ownership and non-competition agreements. He has also completed the purchase and sale of various businesses, securities private placements, and the sale of mortgages and other loans on secondary markets. Mr. McPherson has assisted banks and bank holding companies with their capital planning needs including the placement of trust preferred securities ("TPS"), and has worked on bank mergers and acquisitions and many other facets of banking law.

From August 2006 through March of 2010, in conjunction with StoneCastle Partners LLC, Mr. McPherson worked with bank holding companies, community banks, broker-dealers, investment advisors and others to provide tier 1 and tier 2 capital to bank holding companies and banks; traveled extensively within the U.S. to monitor local banking markets; worked on a team that researched and drafted a business plan and regulatory application for a special purpose wholesale bank to provide capital and loans to banks, holding companies and other financial institutions; and worked on a team that researched and implemented a cash management solution to provide pass-through deposit insurance for custodial accounts and low cost deposits for community banks.

From January 1996 through November 2004, Mr. McPherson was Executive Vice-President – Managing Director Investment Banking, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer of NBC Capital Markets Group, Inc., Memphis, TN. NBCCMG was a broker-dealer member of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., with assets of approximately $600 million and capital of approximately $65 million. For the last five of those years, Mr. McPherson led his company's participation in 18 syndicated transactions, including underwriting issuers, managing a $350 million warehouse line for TPS, coordinating syndicate matters as lead book-running manager, and placing CDO securities.

At NBCCMG, Mr. McPherson obtained regulatory approvals for the firm to become the first bank dealer in America authorized to underwrite and deal in corporate securities, such as TPS, and also obtained regulatory approvals for NBCCMG to become the second bank dealer in the nation authorized to underwrite and deal in municipal revenue bonds. Mr. McPherson has held the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. Series 4 (Options Principal), Series 7 (General Securities Representative), Series 24 (General Securities Principal), and Series 55 (Equity Trader) designations, and the NASAA Series 63 (State Blue Sky Laws) registration.

Mr. McPherson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama, and received his law degree and M.B.A. from the University of Memphis. He was the Founding Chairman of the Corporate Counsel Section of the Memphis Bar Association, and is a former Chairman of the Securities Law Section.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY QUALIFICATIONS

NASD Series 7 (General Securities Representative), 24 (General Securities Principal), 4 (Options Principal), 55 (Equity Trader), and 63 (State Blue Sky Laws).