KeyBank Assembles Five-Person Team to Launch Family Office in Overland Park

Posted February 12, 2026

The Cleveland-based KeyBank has added an Overland Park office location with a five-person team in a move to expand its footprint in the middle market.

Ward Nixon will lead the five-person family office and private capital team. Nixon brings experience with family office and private equity sponsor finance. He most recently served as the executive vice president at Busey Bank, following First Busey Corporation’s $917 million acquisition of CrossFirst Bankshares Inc. last year.

Prior to the acquisition deal, Nixon spent over nine years with CrossFirst Bank in Leawood, taking on the role of executive director for the company.

Now at KeyBank, Nixon will be accompanied by his team of four other professionals, two of whom can also trace their professional careers to CrossFirst. Joining Nixion at the Overland Park office are Chris Tallent, Judy Evans, Andrew Hendricks and Adam Hazlett.

Meet the Team

Chris Tallent is now the senior payments advisor at KeyBank. He has nearly 25 years of commercial banking expertise, having most recently served as teh director of treasury services at CrossFirst Bank for over a year. His career history also involves key management and executive roles at Central Bank and Commerce Bank.

Evans joins Key Bank as a senior commercial analyst. Before joining KeyBank, Evens spent over 9 years with CrossFirst Bank, serving in several roles, including portfolio manager, portfolio admisatrator and an enterprise finance loan assistant.

Andrew Hendricks will be the senior relationship manager at the KeyBank office. Hendricks has 13 years of experience serving private equity and family office clients in the greater Chicago area. He has served as the vice president of sponsor finance at First Merchants Corporation, assistant vice president at Twin Brook Capital Partners and as vice president of sponsor finance at Huntington National Bank, formerly TCF Capital Funding.

Adam Hazlett will serve KeyBank as an associate portfolio manager. Hazlett has experience in M&A practice and in middle-market private equity firms such as Great Range Capital and Deloitte within the greater Kansas City metro.

“Family offices are increasingly influential capital providers and owners – they require sophisticated banking relationships that integrate capital markets, commercial banking, and wealth advisory,” President of Key Commercial Bank, Ken Gavrity, said in a release. “We’ve built a destination platform that attracts elite teams like Ward’s because we can deliver that coordination through one relationship team.”

Formed in 1994 through the merger of Society Corporation and KeyCorp, Key is a financial services company with assets of approximately $184 billion as of December 31, 2025. KeyBank operates a network of approximately 950 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs across 15 states.