This week, NextGear Capital, Westlake Financial Services and Spireon all bolstered their executive teams to enhance their respective finance-oriented operations.

To support future growth in the inventory-financing sector, NextGear Capital announced Lisa Mackie will fill its newly created vice president of sales position, effective immediately. Mackie is responsible for strategic leadership, vision and execution of the company’s sales efforts.

“Lisa’s deep expertise in automotive inventory financing will further position NextGear Capital for continued growth,” said Shane O’Dell, president, Cox Automotive’s Financial Solutions Group. “As we expand our client base, Lisa and her team will often serve as the first introduction to Cox Automotive and to the consultative approach that has made NextGear Capital the market leader.”

Mackie joins NextGear Capital with more than 20 years of auto finance and commercial sales leadership experience. Most recently, she was responsible for driving floor plan sales growth across multiple states as director of commercial dealer services at Capital One. Earlier roles included director of commercial acquisitions for Hyundai Capital and vice president for Chase dealer commercial services.

Exec returns to be Westlake’s new SVP of servicing

Over at Westlake Financial Services, the company recently welcomed back Brian Renfro, now to be its senior vice president of servicing. In this role, Renfro oversees customer service, collections and remarketing for the entire Westlake portfolio.

The company highlighted Renfro looks to leverage his extensive background in servicing technology, and implement strategic and compliance operational efficiencies to drive agent training and development. The end result will be a reduction in losses and improved service to customers of Westlake Financial Services.

“Brian brings over 20 years of experience to this role,” said Ian Anderson, group president at Westlake Financial Services. “His experience will help our Servicing department implement technology and operational improvements to help reduce losses.”

Renfro has decades of direct experience with servicing teams, utilizing various dialer technologies, and applications. He began his auto loan servicing career at Union Acceptance Corp. in 1998 and in 2003, he joined JP Morgan Chase.

In 2005, Renfro was appointed as senior vice president of operations for Westlake Financial. In 2007, he departed Westlake and held the position of director of servicing operations for Navient for 10 years.

Spireon appoints industry veteran to SVP post

And at Spireon, the company announced the promotion of Reggie Ponsford to senior vice president of sales for Spireon’s Automotive Solutions group. Previously, Ponsford was vice president of national accounts, responsible for Spireon’s largest and most complex customers in the automotive space.

In his new role, Spireon indicated Ponsford will oversee sales for the vehicle finance market segment, including buy-here pay-here and franchised dealerships, rental companies and power sports vehicle retailers, as well as direct and indirect lenders and strategic accounts.   

“Reggie was an early pioneer in the GPS-based telematics industry, building an impressive long-term customer list through his genuine dedication to customer service,” Spireon chief executive officer Kevin Weiss said.

“In addition to Reggie’s exceptional sales track record, he has brought strong leadership and a focus on innovation to Spireon, helping us grow our roster of national accounts and extend our position as the largest aftermarket telematics provider in the country,” Weiss continued.

Previously, Ponsford was principle owner of Enfotrace, which was acquired by Spireon in 2011. Before that, he was vice president of sales at CalAmp, vice president of sales and marketing at Aircept, and regional sales manager at Teletrac. Ponsford has more than 18 years of sales and management experience within the wireless asset management and location-based services (LBS) markets. His industry expertise has been a key driver in the growth of GoldStar.

“My goal is to keep customers constantly connected to their mobile assets through Spireon’s reliable hardware and software platform, as well as rich data insights, allowing them to increase profits and mitigate their risk,” Ponsford said.

“I’m thrilled to take on this expanded role, which will allow me to deliver Spireon’s top-notch customer service and the number one product in the market, GoldStar, to even more customers,” he went on to say.