JM Family Enterprises previously used Corey Benish’s technology talents as a consultant for two of its subsidiaries. This week, the company made Benish its new chief technology officer.
“Technology is at the core of how JM Family offers value to its partners and improves the experience of its associates, and Benish’s addition to the leadership team will help the company aggressively pursue its digital future to the benefit of these stakeholders,” the company said in a news release.
JM Family highlighted that Benish will transition to leading the parent company’s focus on digital product management and supporting existing capabilities in IT strategy, architecture and governance in his new full-time capacity.
“After several months of collaboration, we are eager to officially welcome Corey to JM Family,” JM Family senior vice president and chief information officer Chad Couch said in the news release.
“He has already proven his value, bringing business acumen, technological expertise, leadership skills and strategic vision to our digital strategy projects, and we are excited to further develop our technology roadmap under his guidance,” Couch continued.
An accomplished CTO with 25 years of experience across several industries, including involvement in B2B and franchise operations, JM Family highlighted Benish will bring a wealth of knowledge and valuable understanding to this role. 
Throughout his career, the company said Benish has helped organizations realize enterprise value through digital products and services and held several senior technology roles at companies such as ABC Financial Services, Planet Fitness, National Dentex Corp. and AGA Medical Corp.
Benish currently owns his own consulting company, CGNB Associates, which strives to help businesses understand their technology landscape, defining strategic technology roadmaps and driving execution to achieve new digital capabilities.
Bloom Credit, which offers an API platform designed to simplify the way businesses integrate with the credit bureaus, recently announced Matt Keleshian has joined the firm in the newly created role of senior vice president and head of operations, reporting directly to Bloom Credit chief executive officer Christian Widhalm.
Most recently senior director of operations strategy and enablement at Bread Financial, Bloom Credit highlighted that Keleshian built and led multiple business transformation initiatives to redefine SaaS servicing and the collections technology suite. According to a news release, Keleshian’s role encompassed the contact center technology, workforce management, operational strategy and analytics and operational readiness.
Prior to joining Bread, Keleshian spent nearly a dozen years at Macy’s, holding numerous positions within the credit and customer service organization. He led business intelligence and the data science function within the contact center, and managed operations at one of the company’s largest contact centers, in Clearwater, Fla., where his team led large aspects of the credit customer service, credit granting, collections and big ticket retail functions.
“Bloom Credit continues to grow rapidly and in Matt we have found someone with the perfect blend of experience to streamline the operational complexities that come with responsibly sending and receiving bureau data,” Widhalm said in the news release.
“Matt will oversee furnishment, disputes, client implementation and credentialing, and risk and compliance from an operational perspective to complement our tech and product teams. We are thrilled to welcome him onboard,” Widhalm continued.
Bloom Credit recently announced its client base nearly doubled in the first quarter amid surging demand for its credit data platform, with ALTRO (formerly Perch Credit), Eve Financial, and Upwardli among more than a dozen new clients added in Q1.
According to the company, integration with Bloom Credit can provide these clients with the tools necessary to launch new credit products in “a fraction of the time” it has traditionally taken.
“I’m excited to leverage 15 years of experience across fintech and retail building, scaling, and managing global operations teams,” Keleshian said. “I have been fortunate to work alongside amazing leaders and teams throughout my career, and the Bloom Credit team has inspired me with their passion, rich industry knowledge, and growth mindset for the business.
“I can’t wait to jump in to further scale a robust operation rooted in the consumer credit journey, governance, and client loyalty,” Keleshian went on to say.
Bloom Credit also mentioned that has raised $17 million in total funding, including $13 million in October 2020 led by Allegis NL, along with Resolute Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Commerce Ventures, and $3 million from angel investors that includes:
— Better Tomorrow Ventures’ Sheel Mohnot and Jake Gibson
— Acorns founder Jeff Cruttenden
— Marqeta founder Jason Gardner
— Former vice chair of Personal Capital Mark Goines
— Former president of Prosper Ron Suber
A previous Emerging 8 honoree is expanding its offerings and executive team.
TurboPass, an electronic multi-verification solution for dealers, highlighted that it has experienced “explosive” growth during the past 24 months and is now ready to begin expanding beyond the automotive space.
TurboPass founders, chief executive officer Mike Jarman and chief operating officer Ken Jarman, announced the hiring of Rob McKie to lead the consumer finance channel for the company.
“Rob is an experienced executive with over 30 years of sales and operations experience across multiple areas of consumer finance, from branch networks, to centralized units to internet platforms,” Mike Jarman said in a news release.
“Over the last three decades, Rob dedicated his time and knowledge in guiding organizations as he developed successful solutions to help modernize business processes, expand channels and maximize returns,” Mike Jarman continued.
McKie added: “I am excited to be part of such a dynamic company as TurboPass. The TurboPass solution solves for so many consumer finance obstacles like the verification of income, employment and residence.
“Ultimately this will result in fewer lost loans, more qualified customers and a better and faster customer experience for both branch networks and centralized loan departments. Expansion into this vertical provides another strong FinTech solution into a fast-changing consumer finance industry,” McKie went on to say.
Ken Jarman elaborated about why the Austin, Texas-based company — which focuses on automation, SaaS and Cloud-based solutions for automotive dealerships, banks, and finance companies across North America — made this decision
“TurboPass is thrilled at the over 1,000% growth that we have achieved in the two years,” he said. “It’s allowing us to bring on seasoned executives like Rob to expand the usage of our solution anywhere and everywhere that customer verifications are done manually.”
For more information, go to www.turbopassreport.com.
Along with a new addition to its board of directors, TransUnion also announced the appointment for the newly created role of executive vice president and chief data and analytics officer. Those two actions are both effective on Tuesday.
Joining is the board is Charles Gottdiener, who served as the president and chief executive officer of Neustar since 2018. TransUnion said Gottdiener will serve as an executive advisor to TransUnion president and CEO Chris Cartwright for a two-month period.
“TransUnion’s data and analytics capabilities are core to the innovative solutions we deliver to make trust possible in global commerce,” Cartwright said in a news release. “Charlie’s decades-long record of leading information services and technology companies, driving innovation and scaling operations, together with his experience at Neustar will make him a welcome addition to our board.”
Prior to joining Neustar, which TransUnion acquired last year, Gottdiener served as a managing director with Providence Equity Partners where he was head of portfolio operations beginning in 2010, and chief operating officer from 2014 to 2018.
“As president and CEO of Neustar, Charlie led the impressive transformation of the company and we’re excited to welcome him to TransUnion’s board of directors,” said Pamela Joseph, who is chair of TransUnion’s board.
“In addition to supporting the integration of the Neustar business into TransUnion, Charlie’s expertise and leadership acumen will be instrumental in supporting our mission to make trust possible between consumers and business,” Joseph continued.
Gottdiener also served as an interim CEO or board member of several Providence portfolio companies, including Blackboard, SRA International, Altegrity, Survey Sampling, VRAD and Ascend Learning.
“I’m inspired by TransUnion’s mission of information for good,” Gottdiener said. “As digital commerce continues to grow rapidly around the world, TransUnion’s powerful digital identity assets, enhanced by Neustar’s distinctive data and identity resolution capabilities, will enable safer and more personalized online experiences for consumers and businesses. I’m thrilled to be able to continue to contribute to this work.”
Meanwhile, former Neustar executive vice president and chief data and technology officer Venkat Achanta will step into the new post TransUnion created.
As the leader of TransUnion’s new global data and analytics organization, the company said Achanta will execute a unified data strategy across TransUnion. Achanta will help to integrate Neustar’s proprietary OneID identity resolution platform across TransUnion’s products and services. OneID links people, devices, and locations across both online and offline worlds using advanced machine-learning and technology.
“Venkat’s strong leadership in data science, analytics, and enterprise information management will help accelerate the combination of TransUnion’s powerful digital identity assets and Neustar’s distinctive data and identity resolution capabilities,” Cartwright said.
Achanta has more than 20 years of experience in data science, analytics, and enterprise information management. Prior to joining Neustar in 2016, he was chief data officer and head of data and analytics at Walmart from 2014 to 2016, leading all data and analytics delivery platforms across the company globally.
Achanta has held senior leadership positions in data and analytics at AIG, Capital One, and Experian.
“I’m very excited about the future of data and analytics innovation at TransUnion,” Achanta said. “As we leverage our combined resources and technology, we will enable enhanced consumer experiences and drive more timely and accurate insights for our customers.”
Informed.IQ, a technology company used by financial institutions to verify origination data and documents instantly and accurately, announced the addition of veteran automotive financing executive Jessica Gonzalez.
According to a news release, Gonzalez was most recently senior vice president of digital transformation at Santander Consumer USA and joined as Informed.IQ as director of auto.
Informed.IQ has become one of the fastest growing suppliers of automation software to the auto finance industry and now counts the majority of the country’s top auto providers as customers.
With more than 15 years’ experience in the financial services industry, including tenures at Santander Consumer USA and Visa, the company said Gonzalez will be responsible for expanding Informed.IQ’s automotive market share.
The company added Gonzalez will be instrumental in boosting productivity for auto finance companies through Informed.IQ’s proprietary machine learning and artificial intelligence technology.
“We cannot be more excited for Jessica to join our Informed.IQ team,” Informed.IQ chief executive officer Justin Wickett said in the news release. “As a seasoned professional in the automotive industry, Jessica understands the needs and pain points for auto lenders and dealers. Her most recent success while working on digital transformation for a respected auto lender makes her an ideal complement to our senior team of technologists.”
The company said it processes 100,000 applications every month and works with companies including Ally and Westlake Financial as well as large national retailers and dealership groups.
More recently, Informed.IQ has added unsecured personal lenders, student loan providers and mortgage lenders to its roster of customers.
Informed.IQ explained that its technology is designed to go beyond image recognition and confirmation of information within the document. The software can compare buyer data against a database of 25 million records, which can allow Informed.IQ to check many datapoints.
Some of this data can include comparing paystubs against a database of fraudulent templates, checking that the buyer's income is comparable to others in their profession and geography as well as interpreting 401K withholdings or earned overtime, which are indications that the borrower will be a responsible lender.
The company said all of this analysis and more is done in a matter of seconds. In addition to providing real-time straight through processing capabilities, Informed.IQ can enable finance companies to comply with regulatory requirements and be audit-ready, since all processing is done in a “precise and uniform way” through the AI software.
“I believe Informed.IQ’s technology is answering what automotive finance has needed and been striving for over the past decade: An AI-driven solution to help minimize the amount of time and effort it takes for a car buyer to secure a loan,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many companies in this space, and Informed.IQ brings the ability to truly transform the way auto finance does business.”
On Friday, Digital Align, which looks to use technology to transform business processes at credit unions, appointed Kevin Murphy as its first vice president of sales and business development.
According to a news release, Murphy has worked for more than 20 years in the financial services industry, spending the last few at XCEL Federal Credit Union as its chief lending officer in northern New Jersey.
Prior to that position, Murphy devoted more than eight years to McGraw-Hill Federal Credit Union as a senior relationship manager and business development executive in the financial district of New York City.
“Digital Align is ready for accelerated growth in 2022 and I was looking for a passionate sales and business development leader who understands credit unions and believes in creating value to our customer and their members,” Digital Align chief executive officer Rajesh Patil said in the news release.
“The right solution implemented by the right team at the right time can give amazing results for credit unions and community banks. Kevin’s passion for serving financial institutions aligns with ours, and we will have fun together,” Patil continued.
The company said Murphy will be responsible for promoting Digital Align’s products and services, as well as managing, organizing and maintaining Digital Align’s sales and marketing operations and developing new business opportunities across the country.
“I feel blessed and honored to have been chosen for this role,” Murphy said. “When I met Digital Align’s CEO, Rajesh Patil, I immediately knew this was the right fit for me. His story is so inspirational and the technology so amazing.
“My goal each and every day is to make a positive impact in someone’s life,” Murphy continued. “This role will allow me to work with credit union leaders across the country on their digital transformation strategies and utilizing automation to ultimately allow their staff more time to focus on their members’ financial wellness. We will make a difference,” Murphy went on to say.
Andrew Stuart is back in auto financing.
TD Bank announced this week that Stuart has returned to his former position as president and chief executive officer of TD Auto Finance, once again taking responsibility for the overall leadership and strategic direction of the indirect retail and commercial auto finance business in the U.S.
The Auto Finance Executive of the Year in 2018, Stuart joined TD in 2014 and spent six years serving as president and CEO of TD Auto Finance before accepting a role in corporate operations with TD Bank Group, also serving as the U.S. head of corporate transformation and operations for TD Bank.
Prior to joining TD, Stuart spent most of his 30-year career in automotive leadership roles, including president and CEO of VW Credit and president of Bentley Motors, U.S.
“Andrew’s deep knowledge of the auto finance business, coupled with his proven ability to drive innovation and foster continuous improvement, will be invaluable as we continue to deepen the connectivity between TD Auto Finance and the Consumer Bank. We are thrilled to welcome him back to the auto finance team,” said Ernie Diaz, head of U.S. consumer distribution, wealth and TD Auto Finance.
During his previous tenure with TD Auto Finance, the institution highlighted that Stuart led the development and execution of the indirect auto financing strategy. He grew the portfolio from $16 billion to $24 billion while reimagining the way the business operated and navigating numerous transformation and strategic initiatives.
Stuart has been an active member of the American Financial Services Association (AFSA), serving as past chair of the vehicle finance board and the AFSA board. He currently serves as the U.S. diversity leadership chair for TD Bank.
The announcement also mentioned Stuart will report to Diaz and will rejoin the TD Bank management committee.
The week, Constant, a provider of digitized, self-service technologies for collections and other back-end activities at credit unions and finance companies, announced the appointment of Sunil Panikkath as its new chief technology officer.
Constant said that Panikkath will oversee all innovation and technology activities, as the company continues to expand in the financial institution space.
An accomplished technology executive, Constant highlighted in a news release that Panikkath brings more than 25 years of experience in finance and technology and a proven track record of building high performing teams and differentiated solutions for high-growth companies.
Panikkath joins Constant from Foreside Financial where he was also CTO. In that role, he built a globally diversified software development team that created state-of-the-art proprietary technology to help grow the company significantly during his tenure there.
“Sunil’s experience in building modern, scalable platforms and delivering technical innovations during intense growth periods will be invaluable. We feel very fortunate to have attracted such a talented executive as we enter our own rapid growth phase,” Constant chief executive officer Catherine York Powers said in the news release. “Constant has the opportunity to do something really amazing, and we have only just begun.”
Panikkath explained why he made this professional change.
“I am very excited to join Constant at such a strategic time,” Panikkath said. “I was drawn to Constant because of the alignment of the company’s potential with my own skills in financial analytics, as well as the opportunity to play a key role in a paradigm shift of how financial institutions and their customers interact during debt management and debt servicing.”
Lightico growth trajectory continued on Wednesday.
About a week after landing a relationship with PayNearMe, the next-generation digital completion platform that supports millions of insurance, automotive, telecom and financial services interactions welcomed Jeff Dobo as its senior vice president of sales for North America.
The company highlighted Dobo will lead Lightico’s sales operations on the continent. He is the latest addition in several significant talent acquisitions at the digital company, including Moti Gabay as vice president of global partnerships and alliances.
“This has been a period of explosive growth for Lightico, as we continue to see a strong uptake of our digital completion cloud across many industries from banking to auto finance to insurance and telcos, who urgently need to digitalize their customer-facing processes,” Lightico chief revenue officer Gilad Komorov said in a news release.
“Jeff has an impressive track record of building, leading and scaling enterprise sales organizations, and I’m confident that his experience will allow us to continue driving value at scale to top brands in North America,” Komorov continued.
Dobo previously served as regional vice president of sales at NICE overseeing its new logo acquisition team, responsible for some of NICE’s largest and most prestigious customers.
Prior to that position, Dobo served as a senior director of sales integration at Bluewater Technologies Group where he was responsible for building an enterprise sales team while managing key partnerships with Samsung, Cisco and LG.
Dobo also served as vice president of enterprise sales at Black Box Network services as well as a number of B2B leadership roles at Verizon.
With Lightico’s digital completion cloud, businesses can complete typically high-friction interactions with their customers such as auto financing, insurance claims or the opening of new financial accounts. The no-code, mobile-first platform can unify key elements of customer facing interactions such as eSignature, document collection, identification and verification, payment to create a powerful toolbox for B2C businesses to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.
“Lightico’s digital completion cloud is quite simply the right product at the right time. I’m excited to be joining a winning team that is well-positioned to capitalize on the significant demand for its technology,” Dobo said.
“Lightico’s simplicity and power are impressive, enabling businesses to rapidly implement technology that delivers immediate bottom-line impact. It’s perfectly in-line with what consumers and businesses want and need now,” he went on to say.
Craig Harter is back with Fifth Third Bank, according to a news release.
The institution announced on Monday that Harter has joined the bank as head of auto lending. Fifth Third is one of the largest bank originators of indirect auto financing in the country, with an extensive dealer network across more than 40 states.
Harter returns to Fifth Third Bank with more than 30 years of experience in banking and automotive financing. He previously worked at Fifth Third in business banking and dealer services from 2004 to 2010.
Harter most recently was the head of U.S. indirect lending for a regional bank.
“I am pleased that Craig is returning to Fifth Third to lead our automotive division,” said Howard Hammond, head of consumer banking for Fifth Third Bank. “His extensive background in banking and auto will be a huge asset for us and I look forward to seeing him continue to grow that area of the business.”
Harter will replace Peter Kidd, who is retiring in the spring after serving the Fifth Third Bank for more than 17 years in the indirect auto division.
