Bradley Myles is the new Senior Vice President of Content Analysis at MountainView Risk and Analytics leading focused on validating statistical and quantitative models. Bradley is a highly-skilled financial professional with more than ten years of experience in the banking and credit union space, with a focus on financial and statistical modeling, portfolio valuation, risk analysis and hedging optimization, capital forecasting and optimal capital allocation, asset and liability management, capital stress testing (NCUA and OCC), and model risk management and validation.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself?
A: Hi, I’m Bradley Myles, Senior Vice President of Quantitative Analysis, joining the MountainView Risk and Analytics Validation team. I’m leading the team focused on validating statistical and quantitative models and helping financial institutions understand and address their modeling challenges for credit risk, capital at risk, regulatory capital, and CECL. It’s an appropriate role for me. I have been doing quantitative analytics for most of my entire banking career.
This is the first time I’m stepping into the consulting side of things and that’s a little exciting for me. I’ve actually had my eye on this particular industry for probably seven or eight years. It’s really after I joined the commercial banking world that I knew I wanted to be in consulting. So it’s wonderful to have this opportunity. Actually, this opportunity came to my attention from another MVRA employee who used to be my boss. He gave me my first gig in banking and I can’t believe he remembered where I wanted to take my career. Raymond Wong, he’s a cool dude and always has been. I’m glad he took a liking to me early on and gave me a shot. I’m so excited about this opportunity because it comes highly recommended by Ray, too. Also because the team is just extremely friendly, accommodating, helpful, and fairly intelligent. Haha. I am just excited to be part of the team.
Q: Tell us about your corporate banking background?
A: I’ve worked for two commercial banks. One in Jacksonville, Florida, and the other in Miami Gardens, Florida. However, my last employer was a credit union for four years and that’s how I started in Jacksonville. It was in the top 20, by asset size. The credit union basis is much smaller than the banking space. So, what qualifies as a large credit union may be fairly small in banking but it does bring some interesting regulatory challenges. Regulators are different from commercial banks
Q: Do you expect your day-to-day to involve both commercial banks and credit unions?
A: It sounds like that could be possible. I was looking at some of our clients and it looks like we do have relationships with both commercial banks and credit unions, as well as other financial service companies. I’m hoping that I can be beneficial in that way, coming from a credit union for the last four years I kind of speak credit union lingo. It’s always fun getting a new hire from the banking world and listening to them refer to our members as “customers.” That’s a no-no in the credit union! They are members. The lingo is very specific so it’s always fun when you run into that.
Q: Were you working with external parties or were you more internally focused in your previous roles?
A: Before this year, I worked with third parties like MVRA and I was a model developer. I was developing the models and you need guys/gals to come in and validate and make sure we are handling these models properly. So, I’ve had the pleasure of working with both sides. I have actually held a role at a commercial bank as a model validator. So actually, I’ve had experience being able to spend some time doing validation work as well as being that effective challenge for that third party set of eyeballs to make sure things are safe and sound.
Q: Do you feel like your experience with model development prepared you for this role?
A: Yes, definitely. I would say that switching over from model development to validation requires a different train of thought. The same skills apply but I think about those skills a little bit differently. On the development side, you’re definitely focused and geared toward getting a project done within a certain time frame. You’re asking yourself, “What’s the return on investment of that project?” To do that you try not to, but you’ll always end up cutting small corners. It’s the nature of the business, therefore presenting the company with some types of model risk. You need someone who is independent, separate from the development side, and who can come behind and check that the model doesn’t expose the firm to any major risk. So, it’s the same skill set but the thinking has to be different.
Q: Is this your first remote role?
A: Yes. We were at headquarters in my previous role but when COVID hit we all kind of went remote. Being remote was a very attractive setup and we realized how efficient we could actually be. Being credit-union based, there is a high value placed on the member relationships and being available to each other. That kind of pushed us back to the office about three months ago. It wasn’t bad, but remote is nicer. I did pick up some shared office space so that if I’m in the way on the busy days around the house, I can get out of the way and go somewhere else to work.
Q: What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
A: Outside of work most of my interest and time is going to growing a family. My wife and I have two kids, a three-year-old and a one-year-old, one boy and one girl. We are in the early stages of parenthood and it is consuming our lives right now. Our youngest one is mobile so she is into everything.
Q: What are you looking forward to most about working with the team at MVRA?
A: Honestly, it’s the learning aspect. Even when I was going through my different rounds of interviews and meeting the different members of the team, I was impressed by how bright everybody was. I’m looking forward to learning as much as possible from every different team member. They all seem to be experts in their respective areas. I’m excited to continue building a knowledge base that is broad and deep. Apart from that, any way that I can contribute to team productivity and expanding business, and intermingling with clients in any way, I’m looking forward to that as well.
Connect with Bradley on LinkedIn
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