Gene Katz

Gene Katz is a Managing Director at D.A. Davidson & Co., where in October 2025 he was named Head of Financial Institutions Investment Banking. He joined the firm's Chicago office in 2012 as a Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group (FIG), and over roughly 13 years there became one of the group's most active bankers, advising community banks, regional banks, thrifts, and larger money-center financial institutions on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and divestitures.

Before D.A. Davidson, Katz spent approximately 15 years as a Managing Director at Hovde Financial, a nationally recognized investment bank focused specifically on the financial-institutions sector. This gives him a nearly three-decade career concentrated almost entirely in banking-sector investment banking. He is a registered broker (FINRA CRD #2994755, registered with D.A. Davidson & Co. in Chicago, IL).

Katz holds a B.S. in Finance from Babson College (studied 1994–1997). His stated specialties center on the bank & thrift space — M&A advisory, equity and capital-markets financing, and divestitures for depository and other financial institutions.

• Deep, career-long specialization in the financial-institutions sector: community banks, regional banks, thrifts, and money-center institutions.
• Core services are M&A advisory, capital raising, and divestitures for banks and thrifts — i.e., he operates primarily as a sell-side/buy-side advisor and capital-markets banker, not typically as a startup equity investor.
• As newly appointed Head of FIG Investment Banking at D.A. Davidson, his mandate is to lead the firm's coverage of depository and financial-institution clients nationally.
• Note on the "seed / angel" tag: the known stub and at least one investor-aggregator profile classify him as a seed/angel investor. No primary source (his firm bio, his own writing, or a verified deal record) was found to confirm active angel or seed-stage startup investing. Treat that classification as unverified.