Business Alliance
Financial Services

Richard (Ricky) Guillot has been active in the small business lending market for over 30 years. He began his career in commercial banking and served as a commercial lender, charged with commercial credit analysis and loan review. He formed a regional consulting firm with specific services related to small businesses. Here, Ricky continued his focus on helping businesses by providing services such as business valuations, business planning, and conventional, SBA, and USDA loan procurement. In September 2009, seven financial institutions from Louisiana formed Business Alliance Financial Services (BAFS) and asked Ricky to serve as President/CEO.  Since that time, the company has grown to over 100 employees and serves over 100 financial institutions with an aggregate portfolio surpassing $1.7 billion.

Ricky is a graduate from Louisiana Tech University with a Bachelor of Science holding a Major in Finance and a Minor in Accounting. He has a CFP designation from the College of Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado. He obtained certifications from the Bankers School of Supervisory Training from Louisiana State University and has met all academic requirements within the discipline of Business Valuation with American Society of Appraisers.  Ricky serves on multiple local and state economic development boards.

Shannon White started his financial career in 1991 and has worked for both community and regional banks.  Most of his career has been spent in commercial lending, business development, and bank management.  As a commercial loan officer, he has managed loan portfolio types including large corporate, high net worth individuals, middle market companies, agriculture, small business, commercial real estate, and non-profit organizations.  Shannon’s prior responsibilities included service as bank division president where he was responsible for building ten de novo branches managing over 150 associates.  He has also served as a CFT instructor for both commercial lending and commercial bank management courses.  Shannon is responsible for all lending operations including Credit Administration, Sales, and Client Experience.

Shannon earned a BBA in Finance and Accounting from University of Arkansas at Little Rock, an MBA from Henderson State University, and a Graduate School of Banking diploma from the University of Colorado Boulder.

During his 30 years in the banking and finance industry, Steve has acquired the unrivaled knowledge and experience needed to oversee BAFS’ Loan Audit & Review departments.  In this capacity, he oversees portfolio asset quality, assures acceptable credit and compliance standards are practiced, and confirms that relevant state and federal laws and regulations are maintained.  Steve’s primary contribution is to oversee and perform regular loan and portfolio reviews based on risk, size, and complexity of all credit types.

Steve holds an undergraduate degree in finance and has over 30 years of experience in the banking and financial industries including 9 years as a bank market president.

Jason brings over 20 years of information technology industry experience and over 10 years of service in technology management roles within the Financial Services industry.  Jason’s progressive career began in desktop support, migrated to network engineering, and eventually landed in technology leadership.  He has also been an entrepreneur, owning and managing a private IT consulting firm.  It was out of his consulting relationship that he had the vision to build the BLAST^® commercial lending and administration platform.  Jason now serves as owner of all IT and engineering functions for the company, driving future technology development and growth.  He serves as a member of our Information Technology Committee and is integral in the roadmap of our platforms.

Jason attended St. Petersburg College as well as Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, LA and holds several industry certifications.

Kyle joined BAFS bringing over 20 years of client care management experience from an S&P 500 technology company, specializing in driving exceptional client encounters, process alignment/improvement, client interaction management, root cause analysis, and customer impact reporting.  As owner of the BAFS Client Experience, he is responsible for two main areas within the company: resolving current client issues/questions and proactively engaging our clients to ensure BAFS services and products are meeting their needs.  His specialized skills allow BAFS to design and manage an experience that is exceptional for our clients.

Kyle holds an undergraduate degree in business from the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Steve joined BAFS in May of 2019 and is responsible for the company’s financial planning, accounting, tax, payroll, and financial performance and reporting.  Steve brings almost 4 decades of corporate accounting and finance experience to BAFS, including 5 years with a publicly traded staffing firm, and over 20 years with a privately owned Professional Employer Organization. He began his career in public accounting and has over eight years of experience in the mortgage banking industry.

Steve graduated from Abilene Christian University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and is a licensed CPA in the states of Texas and Louisiana.