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Our Team

Tom Smith

Chairman of the Board
Senior Director, Development and Strategic Initiatives, MIT

Bio & Info

Tom is Chairman of the Board at PFT. In his role at MIT, he is responsible for providing operational leadership on all development activities in Open Learning. He works with colleagues across MIT to help achieve capital campaign goals of $5 Billion and develops and implements initiatives to align with the mission to further our understanding of teaching and learning. He leads MIT’s i2 Learning Courses, immersive STEM experiences transforming schools at scale, which will be pivotal in introducing MIT’s STEM program in partnership with PFT’s client banks.

Mike Purchia

President & Founder

Bio & Info
As President, Mike’s vision has shaped PFT into the company it is today. Prior to founding PFT, Mike was co-founder and CEO of BancRealty Advisors, and the Commonwealth Financial Technologies Group with its roots originating from a Cambridge-based Financial Services R&D Center. Sponsors included SunTrust, Bank of Montreal, Peoples Connecticut, Ford Motor Credit, and Vanguard. He was an executive at Chase Bank, where he led commercial lending teams in the U.S., Brazil, and the Southwest. Mike and his colleagues have developed innovative analytics and proprietary data sets guided by their banking expertise to help regional and community banks across the country to grow and adapt to changing business conditions. Mike was the CEO and majority shareholder of Fitcorp, a first-mover company in corporate fitness, wellness, and outpatient cardiac and orthopedic rehabilitation services. Mike earned a BA in Economics from Tufts University and an MA in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

Richard Buttermore

Chief Operating Officer

Bio & Info

Richard has over 25 years of banking experience in commercial and community banks in New England. As Chief Operating Officer, his diverse experience is now focused on developing and executing winning retail and business banking client engagements. Prior to PFT, he was Executive Vice President of Needham Bank. Through the mergers of large commercial bank – from Shawmut to Bank of America – he successfully managed systems integration, product management, and customer experience teams. Richard has earned his Six Sigma Project Management Certification and holds a BS from North Adams State College. He currently resides in Attleboro with his wife Nancy.

Peter Galligan

Vice Chairman of the Board
Strategy Advisor, Commercial Banking

Bio & Info

Jon Bruss

Strategy Advisor, Capital Markets

Bio & Info

Richard Pilla

Board Member
Principal, Paramount Partners

Bio & Info

Richard specializes in the retail and banking real estate sectors. He is a member of the Retail Brokers Network’s (RBN) Executive Committee, and Co-Chairman of RBN’s Financial Institutions Specialty Council. He is also an active member of ICSC, and a member of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Bankers Associations. Richard holds a Master of Science Degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Randi Purchia

Strategy Advisor, Financial Industry Technology

Bio & Info

Zaine Venter

Managing Director, Analytics

Bio & Info

Zaine heads the analytics team designing and continuously improving PFT’s products and services by developing solutions to create insight and understanding from data. He is responsible for data processing, management, analysis, modeling, and GIS services for all banking, market intelligence, demographic, and customer data. He has been in the IT field since 1998. Zaine is a native of Durban, South Africa, and earned his MS in Applied Geographic Information Science from Ball State University and BS in Geography with a concentration in GIS from Bridgewater State University.

 

Matthew Goppee

Marketing & Communications Director

Bio & Info

Matthew is responsible for all marketing, content design, and outreach efforts at PFT. He develops and executes multi-faceted marketing initiatives aimed at regional and community banks, and designs all collateral, from product one-sheets and flyers, to website content and client presentations. He also oversees the company’s social media, email campaigns, website, and recruits junior-level staff. Prior to PFT, Matthew worked in the mobile tech industry, helping brands like McDonalds, Starbucks, and Nike better engage with consumers through personalized engagements. He holds a BA in Advertising Communications from Suffolk University. Matt is an avid combat sports fan and cityscape photographer, with his photos being featured by Boston.com, Hawaiian Airlines, NBC Boston, and others.

Charlie Steele

Senior Vice President

Bio & Info

Charlie has specialized banking experience as a former CEO, CFO, and SLO. Prior to joining PFT, he was SVP, Strategic Planning at Needham Bank, and has been involved in starting a successful de novo bank, numerous banking mergers, and has worked as a consultant in the areas of strategic planning, mergers, branching, loan review, and regulatory compliance. Charlie was faculty at Fitchburg State College, New England College of Finance, and CFT Atlantic States. He holds a BS in Business Administration from Boston University and an MBA from Babson College.

Jason Toy

Senior Tech Advisor

Bio & Info

Jason is Senior Tech Advisor at PFT. Currently CTO at CloudApp. San Francisco-based CloudApp has been recognized as one of the Top Software companies in 2018 by G2 Crowd, is a Winter Leader in the G2 Crowd Sales Enablement Category, and is used by tens of thousands of businesses. The former chief technology officer of Boston-based Commonwealth Financial Technologies who worked with PFT’s CEO, Mike Purchia. Jason established and successfully ran an applied machine learning research company where he took state of the art research and fused it with business needs to create new products. Jason has expertise in image processing, generative image models, NLP, voice recognition, and robotics with deep reinforcement learning. Jason has a BS from Northeastern University. He currently resides in northern California.

Tom Smith

Chairman of the Board
Senior Director, Development and Strategic Initiatives, MIT

Bio & Info
Tom is Chairman of the Board at PFT. In his role at MIT, he is responsible for providing operational leadership on all development activities in Open Learning. He works with colleagues across MIT to help achieve capital campaign goals of $5 Billion and develops and implements initiatives to align with the mission to further our understanding of teaching and learning. He leads MIT’s i2 Learning Courses, immersive STEM experiences transforming schools at scale, which will be pivotal in introducing MIT’s STEM program in partnership with PFT’s client banks.

Mike Purchia

President & Founder

Bio & Info

As President, Mike’s vision has shaped PFT into the company it is today. Prior to founding PFT, Mike was co-founder and CEO of BancRealty Advisors, and the Commonwealth Financial Technologies Group. When The Commonwealth Group was acquired by BrandPartners, a national consulting, design-build, and branding company, he ran its strategic market intelligence, marketing, and real estate groups. Prior to The Commonwealth Group, Mike was CEO of Fitcorp, a first-mover company in corporate wellness and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation services. Prior to Fitcorp, he was an executive at Chase Bank, where he led commercial lending groups in the U.S., Brazil, and in the Southwest. Mike earned a BA in Economics from Tufts University and an MA in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a frequent speaker and contributor to banking journals.

Richard Buttermore

Chief Operating Officer

Bio & Info

Richard has over 25 years of banking experience in commercial and community banks in New England. As COO, his diverse experience is now focused on developing and executing a winning retail and business banking planning module and overseeing the rest of the PFT team. Prior to PFT, he was Executive Vice President of Needham Bank. Through the mergers of large commercial bank – from Shawmut to Bank of America – he successfully managed systems integration, product management, and customer experience teams. Richard has earned his Six Sigma Project Management Certification and holds a BS from North Adams State College. He currently resides in Carver with his wife Nancy.

Richard Pilla

Board Member
Managing Principal, Paramount Partners

Bio & Info
Richard specializes in the retail and banking real estate sectors. He is a member of the Retail Brokers Network’s (RBN) Executive Committee, and Co-Chairman of RBN’s Financial Institutions Specialty Council. He is also an active member of ICSC, and a member of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Bankers Associations. Richard holds a Master of Science Degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Zaine Venter

Managing Director, Analytics

Bio & Info
Zaine heads the analytics team designing and continuously improving PFT’s products and services by developing solutions to create insight and understanding from data. He is responsible for data processing, management, analysis, modeling, and GIS services for all banking, market intelligence, demographic, and customer data. He has been in the IT field since 1998. Zaine is a native of Durban, South Africa, and earned his MS in Applied Geographic Information Science from Ball State University and BS in Geography with a concentration in GIS from Bridgewater State University.

Charlie Steele

SVP, Strategic Partnerships

Bio & Info
Charlie has specialized banking experience as a former CEO, CFO, and SLO. Prior to joining PFT, he was SVP, Strategic Planning at Needham Bank, and has been involved in starting a successful de novo bank, numerous banking mergers, and has worked as a consultant in the areas of strategic planning, mergers, branching, loan review, and regulatory compliance. Charlie was faculty at Fitchburg State College, New England College of Finance, and CFT Atlantic States. He holds a BS in Business Administration from Boston University and an MBA from Babson College.

Matthew Goppee

Marketing & Communications Director

Bio & Info

Matthew is responsible for all marketing, content design, and outreach efforts at PFT. He develops and executes multi-faceted marketing initiatives aimed at regional and community banks, and designs all collateral, from product one-sheets and flyers, to website content and client presentations. He also oversees the company’s social media, email campaigns, website, and recruits junior-level staff. Prior to PFT, Matthew worked in the mobile tech industry, helping brands like McDonalds, Starbucks, and Nike better engage with consumers through personalized engagements. He holds a BA in Advertising Communications from Suffolk University.

Lindsey Douglas

Design Assistant

Bio & Info

Lindsey Douglas is responsible for creating graphic maps and aerials that help clients construct a better understanding of prospective sites and properties.

She is currently attending Boston Architectural College and is working her way towards a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree. Her experience with analyzing and representing data with GIS in her education has made her eager to practice her skills in a professional working environment. While Ms. Douglas aspires to work in a design firm, she accredits Paramount Partners for providing her with valuable work experience that she can carry on with her throughout her career. She resides in Bridgewater with her parents and two dogs.

Dan Purchia

Research Associate

Bio & Info

Dan supports the communication team.

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