LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. –

Black Book announced today that one of its executives will expand his role to also oversee the company’s lender solutions division to replace Jeff Bunch who left the company earlier this year.

Taking on this challenge is Jared Kalfus, Black Book’s vice president of data licensing. The company insisted the appointment of Kalfus, a leading data executive in the automotive industry, reinforces the importance of providing insightful collateral data and analytics to automotive lenders seeking ways to grow profitable portfolios.

With nearly 20 years of experience in the automotive industry, Kalfus has served in a variety of sales and management roles for leading brands. He joined Black Book in June 2012 where he began his tenure as vice president of automotive licensing.

The company indicated Kalfus will remain responsible for overseeing the national sales team focused on licensing Black Book data to OEMs, auctions, VARs, dealerships, marketing companies and others that serve the automotive industry, while also adding responsibility for the lender solutions team.

The Black Book Lender Solutions team supports automotive lenders, finance customers, banks, credit unions and title lenders.

“Jared is well known and respected throughout the industry, and his broad automotive experience coupled with his knowledge of data analytics makes him the perfect fit for this role,” Black Book president Tom Cross said. “His knowledge in sophisticated data platforms will be of significant benefit to both our automotive and lender customers, who continuously look for profitable portfolio expansion strategies.”

Kalfus will take the place of Bunch, who took the role of chief operating officer of Auction Credit, a dealership floor plan provider based in Dallas, back in January.

Kalfus reiterated how Black Book can help finance companies with its Collateral Insight Engine.

“Collateral data is important to automotive lenders, who work with Black Book Lender Solutions to further expand their loan portfolios,” he said.

“As the industry continues to grow, competitive pressures have made it even more important to build portfolios around the right vehicles,” Kalfus went on to say. “The ability to analyze historical, current and projected vehicle values in real time allows lenders to make quick and accurate decisions that can impact profit potential.

"This data, combined with innovative technologies such as Black Book’s Collateral Insight Engine, helps lenders with portfolio strategies that match today’s speed of business," he added.