Mike Thomas

J. Mikesell Thomas was born January 19, 1951, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was an A.B. Duke Scholar and class valedictorian at Duke University (A.B., 1973) and earned an MBA, *summa cum laude*, from the University of Chicago (1976). He brought roughly 45 years of banking-industry experience to his investing career.

He spent the first 21 years of his career at The First National Bank of Chicago (FNBC), rising through a range of senior roles including Treasurer, Chief Financial Officer, co-head of merchant banking, and co-head (EVP) of corporate and institutional banking. He then served about six years as a partner / Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group at Lazard Frères & Co., advising the top management and boards of banks, brokerages, and insurers on major strategic and M&A transactions.

Thomas subsequently became President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, where he led the strategic restructuring of the roughly $80+ billion-asset wholesale bank. In July 2008 he joined Castle Creek Capital as a Managing Principal, applying decades of financial-institutions expertise to the firm's community-bank private equity strategy.

Beyond his investing and operating career, Thomas served on numerous boards over several decades — including Evanston Hospital / NorthShore University HealthSystem (~30 years, chairing its Audit and Finance committees), Junior Achievement, Leadership Greater Chicago, UBS mutual funds, HCC Insurance, and Duke's Fuqua and Trinity Boards of Visitors. He was also a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago, an avid sailor and celestial navigator, and a lead guitarist in two bands.

• Invested through Castle Creek Capital, a sector-specialist private equity firm founded in 1990 that provides long-term capital to high-quality community banks pursuing growth, acquisitions, recapitalization, or refinancing.
• Strategy centers on control and significant minority equity investments in U.S. community banking institutions, generally those with less than $10 billion in assets — a very different profile from venture/seed angel investing.
• Castle Creek's edge is deep banking-sector specialization (the firm reports ~$1.9 billion AUM and a long track record as community-bank investors); Thomas personally added FNBC operating leadership, Lazard FIG advisory experience, and FHLB-Chicago turnaround credentials.
• The firm looks for well-managed banks where additional capital and strategic guidance can fund organic growth, M&A roll-ups, or balance-sheet repair.