Team

  • Robert J. (Bob) Banks, CCIM

    Prior to founding The Seminole Companies (Seminole) in December 2008, Bob was the CEO and majority owner of The Midland Companies (Midland) which was sold to a public company in 1999. He was with Midland since 1973 and remained employed by the purchaser (MuniMae) as vice chairman until he retired in December 2003. Bob is a licensed real estate broker in Florida and Michigan and holds the CCIM designation awarded by the National Realtors Association in Chicago. He is an emeritus member of the Board of Visitors at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University, and Director/Member for the Penn State Institute for Real Estate Studies. He is the past general chairman of Copperhead Charities, Inc., a Tampa Bay charity that acts as the host organization for PGA Tour Golf Tournament, then known as the Transitions Championship. Bob is a graduate of the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University and served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps for four years.

  • Chris Diaz

    Chris is co-CEO of Seminole Financial Services, LLC (SFS). In addition to his role as co-CEO, Mr. Diaz oversees the Business Development team as well as Capital and Investor Relations. He is also a corporate shareholder. Since joining SFS in 2010, he has been responsible for the identification, evaluation, and negotiation of renewable energy finance transactions focusing on solar and wind projects between $2 million and $50 million in need of construction/interim financing and permanent debt financing. To date, Chris has closed over $2 billion in construction and permanent financing, totaling more than 800 MW for renewable energy projects.

    Prior to SFS, Chris was employed by Credit Suisse, MMA Financial and the Midland Companies where he gained over 15 years of experience with tax credits and financial services. He has had multiple articles published about renewable energy finance and continues to be a frequent speaker on renewable energy finance and energy credits at national industry conferences. Chris is an elected member of the Board of Directors for the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), is a board member for the Solar Energy Trade Show (“SETS”) Board of Managers, is a member of SETS Board of Managers Finance Committee, and was Vice-President of the Board of Directors for the Distributed Wind Energy Association (DWEA). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science with an emphasis in urban and regional planning from Florida State University, as well as an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.

  • Rod Eckhardt

    Rod joined The Seminole Companies full time as Managing Director, Renewable Energy in 2021, after having led Seminole Equity Partners (2014-2021). Over a 20-year span, Rod has worked extensively with tax incented investments including renewable energy and real estate from both an equity and debt perspective. His experience includes legal, underwriting, structuring, asset management, fund management, origination and syndication of investments representing more than $2 billion. He is a speaker at finance conferences across the country and has been featured on C-Span. He has worked on behalf of tax credit syndicators, lenders, investors, developers and the United States Department of Energy. Rod previously served as Vice President for Capmark Finance Inc. and as Investment Counsel for a division of GMAC. He earned his B.A. from Colorado State University and his J.D. from Gonzaga School of Law.

  • Tim Fetter

    Tim is the former Executive Vice President-Credit and Risk Management at SFS and will maintain those responsibilities in addition to his role as co-CEO. He is also a corporate shareholder. Tim joined SFS at its formation as a senior portfolio manager and oversaw the underwriting, loan servicing and asset management functions at the firm. Prior to that, he was employed by MMA Financial, LLC as a debt portfolio manager analyzing and managing construction, permanent and supplemental loan portfolios. Prior to joining MMA Financial, LLC, Tim was with Raymond James Financial and Raymond James Bank, where he worked as a senior corporate projects analyst and commercial loan underwriter. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and an MBA from the University of South Florida in Tampa.

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