SPOTLIGHT
Meet CBA’s ATDC/FinTech Committee Chair:
Chris Stanley
Chris Stanley Senior Vice President Atlantic Capital Bank, Atlanta CBA ATDC FinTech Committee Chair
With 11 standing committees, CBA offers member community banks a way to strengthen their association first-hand. The Committee Chair, along with committee members provide valuable feedback and guidance on the needs, challenges and opportunities of Georgia’s community banks. In this issue, we are pleased to feature the chair of the CBA’s ATDC FinTech Committee Chris Stanley, Senior Vice President, Atlantic Capital Bank, Atlanta. CBA invited Chris to participate in a Q&A so you can learn about his bank, how his role on the committee helps other CBA members, and more. How long have you been in banking? I started in finance 17 years ago and a couple of years later transitioned into banking. In that role, I worked exclusively with technology companies throughout the southeast, primarily providing growth capital solutions tailored for business model and company stage. Having built a strong network and curiosity, I then took a 5 year hiatus from banking and went to the company side, working with early and growth stage companies in a variety of finance and operations roles. I was introduced to Atlantic Capital in 2017 and based on each of our recent respective experiences, we quickly determined there was a real opportunity to leverage our existing payments expertise and build a line of business that works exclusively with FinTech companies to support their unique banking needs.
What makes your bank different? At Atlantic Capital our mission is to fuel the prosperity of our clients, and that mission is especially critical now. We are a team of industry experts that prioritize high-touch client service, reliability and creativity. Our founders set out to build an institution with “big bank” capabilities while preserving the quality service and relationships more typical of community banks. The result is that we have the operational horsepower to work with companies of all sizes and do so in tech hubs such as Atlanta, San Francisco, L.A., Denver, Austin and NYC. How does the Member Services Committee help CBA members? ATDC is one of the country’s premier technology accelerators borne of one of the country’s leading engineering schools, Georgia Tech. ATDC has worked with hundreds of tech companies across all market segments, to help increase their odds of success. ATDC companies, in aggregate, have raised over $1B since its founding, with many resulting in wellknown success stories. ATDC also has a specialty in working with FinTech companies, particularly given that Atlanta is a payments hub, known as “transaction alley”. With this type of expertise and the multitude of quality FinTech companies in Atlanta, it is only logical that we bring these two communities together in order to grow our ecosystem and demonstrate Georgia’s ability to support this fast-growing market. Tell us about your hobbies or interests outside of work: When you are doing something you truly enjoy, work/life harmony often blend, so I do spend a lot of social time with many friends here in the tech community. But outside of that, pretty much every other moment is spent with our four children in our Sandy Springs home. And once in a while I’m able to sneak away on a hunting, fishing or hiking trip. While this current pandemic has been challenging in so many ways, and for so many folks around the country, I try to enjoy this unique time we all have together. If you are interested in serving on CBA’s ATDC/FinTech Committee, please contact Lindsay Greene.
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