Mr. Sidon is also recognized in the industry for his business continuity tabletop exercises. He has conducted full-day, full-immersion business continuity exercises for many banking associations including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland and Kentucky. Participants have survived hurricanes, ice storms, wide-scale electrical outages, pandemics and cyber attacks. At the individual bank level, tornadoes, fires, chemical spills, electrical outages, cyber breaches and terrorist threats have been played out. The exercises are part consulting; part improv theatre.

Including freelance consulting work from 1998 to 2003, David has provided consulting services to more than 100 different institutions. The key descriptive word in that last sentence is “different”. Banks may all use checks that are rectangular in shape, but, after that, people, cultures, systems, geography, and complexity all contribute to a rich diversity institution to institution.

Personally, his credentials include a Bachelors degree in Business Administration (Merrimack College, as part of their initial co-op class), a CPA license, and a Masters degree in Finance from Bentley. After 13 tax seasons in public accounting and a brief dabble in private industry as a CFO, Mr. Sidon’s banking career commenced in 1985 as a young director at Gloucester Cooperative Bank. After starting out as the mortgage department (small bank - many hats - one man department) he eventually spent the last three years of his ten year tenure as CEO. In 1996, Mr. Sidon joined a larger commercial bank, Gloucester Bank & Trust, as CIO, running a three bank data center. After the BankNorth signs were installed on the GB&T building in 1998, his consulting career was launched; just in time for Y2K.

David managed Y2K readiness and testing projects for numerous New England banks, but also included work as far away as Guam. One of the interesting aspects of Y2K planning was that investment in banking technology was either escalated or delayed around that fateful and, as it turned out, uneventful date. System searches and implementation project management followed in the early years of the new century. 

Mr. Sidon led a team that attempted to form, open and capitalize a de novo bank from late 2001 through June 2003, and although all approvals were attained, capital in the post 9/11 market recession was not adequately available.

On July 1, 2003, The Navis Group was born, soon moving into the newly emerging ERM (risk) disciplines, inclusive of technology and information security (GLBA) risks. He has assisted numerous client banks with risk programs, committee charters, risk appetite statements and risk metrics, regularly serving as a contributing member of client banks’ Risk Committees. 

In addition to working with client institutions, Mr. Sidon has worked with the Massachusetts Bankers Association and Connecticut Bankers Association on various programs. For MBA, he facilitates a series of CFO forums and Risk Manager Forums. For CBA, as a faculty member of the Connecticut School for Financial Management, he instructs a risk class and serves as the driver of the financial simulation model underlying the school’s capstone resident session. For many associations, he has presented and facilitated ERM sessions and provided COSO-related education...