Michael Cahill graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BBA in Accounting. He joined Ernst & Young in Toledo, Ohio, right out of college where he earned his CPA designation while specializing in construction and manufacturing companies’ audits and corporate tax returns.

Cahill left Ernst & Young for Fort Wayne, Indiana, to be the controller of a regional real estate development firm where he rose to be chief operating officer of this company with $1 billion in commercial real estate in five states. He held senior financial positions in another real estate company that specialized in consulting with health systems on the acquisition and consolidation of physician practices and went on to be CFO and then CEO of a regional health insurer.

Cahill went on to a career in banking in 2004 after being a ‘professional borrower’ of over $10 billion in real estate and corporate loans, a CFO of a publicly traded bank, Tower Financial Corporation. Due to issues at this bank, Mike was appointed CEO of the main bank subsidiary in 2006 and the holding company in 2008 (45 days before Lehman Brothers fell and the Great Recession began. The bank was operating in the 10th percentile of ROA, ROE and NPAs when he first became CEO and, within five years, it was operating at the 85th percentile). The company, which was trading at below $4/share when he took over, sold to Old National Bank for $24/share. The bank had a Wealth Management subsidiary that was the second largest in the region and developed a Health Savings Account business (The HSA Authority) that became the 18th largest provider of HSA accounts in the continental U.S.

Cahill then became the executive vice chairman of Centier Bank in 2014, a $6 billion privately owned bank headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana. He was on the executive, wealth management, loan, investment and audit committees. He was instrumental in the development of the Fort Wayne market for the bank and the hiring of key individuals in the wealth management, retail and marketing arms of the bank.

Cahill was then recruited by Ruoff Mortgage to acquire a bank and convert the mortgage company to a bank. While this had not been allowed in the U.S. since the Great Recession, approval was gained for this $7 billion/year in mortgage originations company to acquire a bank in the summer of 2019.

Mike was on the board of the Indiana Bankers Association for many years while at Tower Financial Corporation and when he retired in 2020, he was contacted by the University of Saint Francis to head its finance department in the school of business beginning in 2021.

Cahill has been the chair of Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana (2nd largest in the country covering 29 counties and 110 school systems), The Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, The Dupont Hospital, The St. Joseph Health Foundation and Benchmark Human Services (3,200 employees in 15 states). He is currently on the board of two community development organizations in Fort Wayne as well.

Mike has four children, four grandchildren, three lovely daughters in law, a dog and a wife of 39 years.