Our Leadership
Entrepreneurial vision. Disciplined execution.
Our leaders guide an adaptive, well-governed platform that converts opportunity into durable value for clients, teammates, and shareholders.
A. Haag Sherman
Director & Chief Executive Officer
Chief Executive Officer — T Bank, NA
Haag Sherman is the Founder, principal stockholder, and Chief Executive Officer of Tectonic Financial, Inc., a diversified bank holding company that owns (directly or indirectly): T Bank, NA (a nationally chartered bank), Tectonic Advisors, LLC (a registered investment advisor), Sanders Morris LLC (a dual broker-dealer and registered investment advisor), T Bank’s trust department (with $2 billion in fiduciary assets), The Nolan Company (a third-party administrator), Integra Funding (a factoring company), and a record-keeping platform. Tectonic Financial has clients in all 50 states, nearly $9 billion in client assets, and loans in several different verticals. Tectonic is supported by a proprietary, internally developed software platform that has helped make it one of the most profitable (in terms of return on tangible equity) bank holding companies in the United States.
Prior to founding Tectonic, Mr. Sherman co-founded and served in various executive positions (including Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer) of Salient Partners, a Houston-based investment firm. Under his leadership, the firm’s assets grew to $17.5 billion. He developed the vast majority of Salient’s investment products and co-developed patented software that provided scale to the distribution of Salient’s investment products.
Before co-founding Salient, Mr. Sherman was an executive officer and partner at The Redstone Companies, where, among other things, he managed a private equity portfolio with a concentration in financial services. Prior to that, he practiced corporate law at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and worked as an auditor at Price Waterhouse, a public accounting firm. A certified public accountant and attorney, he has served as an adjunct professor at The University of Texas School of Law. He also serves on the board of CBIZ (NYSE: CBZ), the nation’s largest publicly traded accounting firm, and previously served on the board of Hilltop Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HTH) and other public companies. Mr. Sherman has also served as the Executive Chairman of Episcopal High School’s board in Bellaire, Texas. He is currently a trustee of the Episcopal Health Foundation, a member of the Investment Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, and a member of the Governing Council of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
Mr. Sherman has commented and written extensively on public policy and financial matters, including authoring articles for Barron’s, Marketwatch, and other publications and writing Shattering Orthodoxies: An Economic and Foreign Policy Blueprint for America (Easton Press, 2008), which reached No. 6 on Amazon’s top Social and Economic Policy Books after publication. Mr. Sherman holds a BBA degree, cum laude, with majors in Accounting and Economics from Baylor University and a Juris Doctor (with honors) from the University of Texas. Mr. Sherman is a certified public accountant and a member of the State Bar of Texas.
David Clifford
President & Chief Operating Officer
David Clifford is President and Chief Operating Officer of Tectonic Financial. Since joining the company in 2018 as Chief Strategy Officer—rising to Chief Operating Officer in 2023 and President in 2025—he has been the engine behind Tectonic’s product-platform expansion. David keeps the client experience front and center while driving firm-wide gains in analytics, processes, and systems, turning big-picture strategy into measurable growth.
Earlier, David led marketing, intermediary services, and ultimately the sales and distribution platform at Salient Partners, where his initiatives helped lift client assets beyond $17.5 billion and brought alternative-investment programs to market.
He began his career with McKinsey & Company in Helsinki, advising Nordic high-tech and telecommunications clients. David earned an M.B.A. in Finance and Information Technology from the Helsinki School of Economics—graduating salutatorian—and holds a B.B.A. in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin, where he was a National Merit Scholar.
Michelle Baird
Chief Financial Officer
Michelle Baird is Chief Financial Officer of Tectonic Financial—a role she earned after joining the firm at inception as Executive Vice President of Accounting and Tax Compliance. Today she shapes financial strategy, directs capital planning, oversees reporting and audit coordination, and still manages the accounting and tax programs for Tectonic and its affiliates. Her sharp analysis and eye for detail help steer the company’s growth.
Before Tectonic, Michelle provided tax and accounting services to Cain Watters & Associates, a comprehensive financial services firm for dental practices. Having started in the Cain Watters tax department, she later founded her own management, tax, and accounting firm that continued supporting Cain Watters and its affiliates—including the newly formed Tectonic.
Earlier in her career, she served as a tax associate at a large regional public-accounting firm. Michelle holds a B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Arlington, is a Certified Public Accountant, and volunteers her expertise to the 3to1 Foundation, which teaches financial literacy to young adults.
Derek Schulz
Chief Innovation Officer
Derek Schulz is Director of Innovation at Tectonic Financial, where he sets the firm’s technology vision and oversees everything from infrastructure to new-product development. Working side-by-side with business leaders, he deploys solutions that sharpen efficiency, fortify security, and keep Tectonic positioned for the next wave of growth.
Previously, Derek spent five years as Vice President of IT & Innovation at Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union, rolling out enterprise-wide initiatives that modernized operations and member services. Earlier, he served as Chief Technology Officer at Salient Partners, charting the firm’s technology roadmap and guiding its execution.
He began his career as a web developer at Indata, building client-server applications across multiple platforms, and later held senior engineering and infrastructure roles at Sanders Morris and HealthHelp. Derek earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering Technology from the University of Houston.
Thad Hutcheson
Chief Information Officer
Thad Hutcheson is Chief Information Officer for both Tectonic Financial and T Bank. A founding force behind the holding company in 2003, he steered T Bank through its de novo launch and IPO the following year and has aligned people, process, and technology ever since.
Today Thad leads the firm’s digital roadmap—applications, data, cybersecurity, and infrastructure—supporting every client touchpoint and keeping Tectonic a step ahead of market demands.
Earlier in his career he consulted on technology projects across a range of industries. Thad studied computer science at Texas A&M University and earned a B.S. in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Dallas. He also holds several technical certifications.
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