As American Recovery Service (ARS) and Digital Recognition Network (DRN) highlighted the fruits of its ongoing partnership, DigitalDog Auto Recovery recently announced Jason Stephens has rejoined the California repossession, locksmithing and transportation firm to further develop their growing footprint in the California repossession market, as well as exploring growth into other states.

Stephens comes with a wealth of experience, having spent more than 20 years in daily management of repossession services companies.

Stephens began his career in 1996 as a field agent. Four years later, while working for DigitalDog Auto Recovery, he doubled the company’s service area to four branch offices.

In 2004, Stephens founded Extreme Auto Recovery. Over the next six years, he built Extreme Auto Recovery to service the entire state of California, as well as offices in Washington, Oregon and Arizona. In 2010, with a growing family, and a changing industry landscape, Stephens successfully sold Extreme Auto Recovery, being one of the largest purchases of a privately held repossession firm of the time period.

Stephens rejoins DigitalDog Auto Recovery as vice president of business development, continuing the expansion of DigitalDog’s success in providing repossession, locksmithing and transportation services to many of the nation’s top automotive finance companies.

“I am excited to rejoin DigitalDog Auto Recovery starting a new challenge and look forward to working with the team to further develop their already existing culture of excellence in a challenging and changing market,” Stephens said.

DigitalDog executive vice president James McNeil noted, “This is the perfect time for Jason Stephens to join DigitalDog as vice president of business development. We’ve selected a very strong leader at a time when DigitalDog is in a very strong position.

“Today’s pace of change is exponential. Every agency, lender and forwarder is becoming digital, navigating a disrupted marketplace with rapidly changing fee structures and clients seeking safe harbor from both oversight and litigation risks. We have been preparing for this moment for well over five years. DigitalDog’s role in this industry wide transformation has never been more important,” McNeil continued.

“Our executive team recognizes the needs to lean in and thrive in a highly dynamic environment with the goal of accelerating what is working very well for DigitalDog, and disrupting what needs to change,” McNeil went on to say. Jason is unique in his ability to translate vision and strategy into world-class execution. DigitalDog plans to enter our next chapter, which I am confident will be even more impactful and exciting than our last with the help of Jason’s leadership.”

DigitalDog Auto Recovery president Michael Eusebio also offered his perspective on what Stephens rejoining the company means.

“Jason’s experience and industry knowledge makes him a key addition to the DigitalDog family. We view his appointment as a sign of our commitment to being a leader in this industry,” Eusebio said.

“In this new compliance era, coupled with the increasing demand from our clients to keep repossession services cost efficient, led us to look for an addition to our team who will complement our ethos of innovation and exceptional service,” he continued. “We are very fortunate to bring Jason back to fulfill this new role.

“I am confident Jason will play key roles in developing new business opportunities for our company, while maintaining our mission statement of providing the highest quality of service to our clients,” Eusebio added.

DRN and ARS deliver record-breaking results

In other industry news, American Recovery Service (ARS) and Digital Recognition Network (DRN) highlighted the partnership between the companies has resulted in nearly 250,000 in recoveries, returning billions in asset value for auto finance customers over the last eight years.

Officials calculated these recoveries — many of which would not have been found through traditional means — contributed to a 7 percent to 10 percent lift over traditional recovery methods when combined with ARS’ 24/7 dispatch center and investigative resources.

The partnership began in 2009 when DRN and ARS joined forces on the recovery solution for a dispatch center pilot program.

“It quickly became apparent that together, we would deliver tremendous value to our auto finance customers, as well as the affiliate agents recovering the vehicles. We attribute much of our LPR growth from a small dispatch operation to a major state-of-the-art center that impacts tens of millions of dollars in asset value, to our synergies with DRN and the value of the vehicle location data they provide,” said Dave Copeland, chief operating officer at ARS.

“Operating 24/7/365 and performing at the highest standards to produce quality results, ARS leads the industry in innovation and commitment to excellence,” continued Copeland, who added that this program has resulted in considerable efficiency gains for auto lenders utilizing the technology with a highly compliance-oriented mindset.

Offering DRN’s perspective on the success was Jeremiah Wheeler, the company’s vice president of financial services.

“ARS has grown to control a substantial amount of the live pick-up market share fueled by our data, the same data that revolutionized the recovery industry and has returned over $5 billion in asset value back to lenders,” Wheeler said. “Working together with the award-winning team at ARS, we look forward to many more years of partnership, innovation and value creation for our customers.”