Currently serving as President of Merchants Commercial Bank (MCB), Valdamier (“Val”) Collens most recently served as Senior Vice President, U.S. Virgin Islands Region Director, of FirstBank providing leadership, strategic direction, and management of commercial, mortgage and consumer lending and loan portfolios; retail branch operations; and electronic banking operations. He offers more than 30 years of providing leadership and sustainable changes in processes, systems, fiscal management, auditing, compliance monitoring, and information technology in the private and public sectors. In the public sector, Mr. Collens served as the Commissioner of Finance for the Government of the Virgin Islands, Executive Director of the V.I. Public Finance Authority, Chief Financial Officer of the V.I. Port Authority, and Executive Assistant Commissioner of Finance between April 2008 – December 2018. In addition, after the devastating back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes of September 2017, Mr. Collens served as the Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR) for the U.S. Virgin Islands, which required significant interaction with the Office of the President of the United States, U.S. Congress, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Economic Development Administration (USEDA). Mr. Collens earned his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1998 and has been a New York State Certified Public Accountant for more than 25 years. Mr. Collens is a native of the Virgin Islands and has resided in St. Thomas for the past 18 years.