Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer
Chesapeake Bank
DJ is Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer of Chesapeake Bank, where he leads long-term strategy, fintech investment, AI strategy, and emerging payments innovation. He has held several leadership roles at the bank, including CIO and President of national payments business.
DJ has a special focus on payments strategy, including the development of real-time payment products, tokenized deposit and stablecoin adoption strategies, and innovative solutions for community banks to meet evolving customer needs. He is a co-founder and board member of Rebolt Financial Technologies, a payments company built by banks to deliver payment solutions for banks and their business customers.
DJ serves on numerous industry boards and advisory groups, including as past chair of the ABA Payments Admin Committee, member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Payments Advisory Council, and the Jack Henry Payments Advisory Board.
DJ is a faculty member of the Virginia Bankers Association Management Development Program, where he teaches on topics including AI, business strategy, and leadership.
On-chain finance promises to address all three structural failures at once: Tokenized receivables to unlock instant liquidity; programmable infrastructure to unify fragmented systems; and real-time data to expand access to capital.
But the promise of on-chain is not the same as widespread adoption by small businesses. This panel examines whether on-chain finance fundamentally changes how small businesses access and manage capital—or simply improves existing models with new rails. The discussion will include: