Outsell, which offers an artificial intelligence-driven marketing automation platform for the automotive industry, announced Monday that Tricia Turk has been promoted to vice president of customer success, overseeing the company’s dealer success and account management teams.
A three-year veteran of Outsell, the company mentioned Turk previously was director of customer success.
“Tricia has been a great collaborator with others throughout the organization to do the right thing for Outsell’s customers,” Outsell founder and chief executive officer Mike Wethington said. “Her skills in hiring, staffing and developing her team have resulted in multiple associates being promoted within the organization. Her ability to assess and rapidly implement process improvements has had a direct impact on our high customer retention rates.”
After joining Outsell in 2017, Turk was quickly promoted to director of the customer success team, which supports Outsell’s rapidly growing customer base. She implemented new processes and lead a hiring campaign that helped scale the team’s size and capabilities to support the company’s growth while maintaining strong support for, and relationships with, its customers.
In addition to managing the customer success and account management teams, Turk also leads Outsell’s customer advisory board, a steering committee comprised of Outsell customers that helps ensure Outsell is listening to the voice of the customer and taking actions to continuously improve its solutions.
Prior to joining Outsell, Turk was supervisor of direct accounts for UnityWorks and director of business development for Saxton-Ferris-Global.
“I joined Outsell because of its customer-centric values — I knew customer success was an important function here and felt I could make a difference,” Turk said. “Together, we have built a fantastic team. I’m proud to represent Outsell to our customer community, and thrilled to keep working side-by-side with our customers to help drive marketing innovation for them.”
Turk is the second addition to Outsell’s senior leadership team so far this year. The other is new chief financial officer Jon Ochetti, who joined Outsell from the Star Tribune Media Co., in March.
RouteOne said on Thursday that one of its longest-tenured executives — chief operating officer Brad Rogers — announced his resignation to take leadership of an organization in an adjacent industry.
And it appears it’s going to take five other RouteOne executives to handle the chores overseen by Rogers, who had been with the company since its inception back in 2002.
As a result of Rogers’ departure, the company indicated his work portfolio will be assumed by expanding the responsibilities of RouteOne’s current leadership team as follows:
— Chris Irving, chief technology officer, will add oversight of the business intelligence team, and continue to lead IT operations, application delivery, architecture, and internal IT systems.
— Jeff Belanger, senior vice president of business development, will add the OEM and strategic alliance teams to his current responsibilities of dealer and finance source relationships, giving him responsibility over all of RouteOne’s business development activities.
— Amanda George will assume responsibility for RouteOne’s marketing team and be elevated to senior vice president, product, customer solutions, integrations, and marketing.
— Jason Bolduc will add the business operations team to his current portfolio of customer success and strategic planning teams and assume the title of vice president, strategy and operations.
— Anthony Goulbourne will be elevated to president of Canadian operations.
All of those five executives will report directly to chief executive officer Justin Oesterle, according to a news release sent by the company.
“Brad Rogers has done a remarkable job with and for RouteOne since its inception in 2002. His leadership has helped form and enable our strategy. We thank him for his contributions and wish him the very best as he pursues his new venture,” Oesterle said.
“We are equally enthusiastic for the growth opportunity this change presents for our leadership team,” Oesterle continued. “RouteOne is fortunate to have an incredibly talented team and we are excited for this next chapter in our journey.”
Separately, RouteOne noted the IT team will be making the following moves:
Rotating their assignments, Maureen Foley will now be director of IT operations and Suren Edara will now be director of application development in an effort to benefit the overall continuity at RouteOne.
3 platform enhancements
Ahead of Thursday's executive announcement, RouteOne highlighted improvements to its eContracting platform that’s supported by more than 7,900 dealers and 60 finance sources.
Coming this year, RouteOne indicated dealers will have access to an expanded digital library of universal deal forms, including odometer statements and title application, along with the ability to create custom forms that are unique to a dealer’s business.
The company explained that deal forms can streamline the vehicle finance transaction by dynamically returning forms that are available for the state in which a dealership conducts business. Form validation can ensure all required fields are complete prior to contract generation and then packages the forms within the electronic signing ceremony.
Meanwhile, RouteOne’s Aftermarket Rating and Contracting Service is a complimentary feature that can allow aftermarket forms to be included within the eContract and the eSigning ceremony.
Currently utilized by 1,700 dealers, RouteOne indicated electronic access to aftermarket providers will greatly expand with the upcoming integration to Open Dealer Exchange’s Provider Exchange Network (PEN) scheduled for 2019. The rating workflow was recently enhanced to enable dealers to electronically begin the aftermarket product registration process on the contract worksheet. This new functionality allows aftermarket products to be rated and specific product(s) selected prior to the finalization and generation the eContract.
RouteOne also mentioned improvements to help vehicle buyers digitally sign the contract package.
RouteOne’s in-dealership electronic signing ceremony no longer requires the purchase of any additional equipment. Following acceptance of an ESIGN Consent and the adoption of a typed or drawn signature, customers can now apply their signature, within the context of the contract, by simply clicking to apply their signature.
The company noted that not only does this new signing experience offer ease of use for the customer, it also can provide the transparency they desire by allowing them to see exactly where they are applying their signature on the contract.
Additionally, RouteOne’s Remote eSigning experience can provide an optimal consumer and dealer experience and robust process flexibility by enabling remote delivery to the consumer of a secure and compliant “signable” financing or lease eContract package, including ancillary documents.
RouteOne’s Remote eSigning is now supported by seven major finance sources.
Furthermore, RouteOne now offers a complimentary, flexible feature to dealers in Arizona, California and Nevada that can allow them to change the original finance source on an eContract, commonly known as Spot, with a simple click of a button even after the customer has reviewed and signed the contract.
This feature’s benefits include the ability to submit such “spot buys” to eligible finance sources electronically and more efficiently with no need for customer re-contracting or papering out.
Cognomotiv, a provider of real-time data services that certify the safety, security and proper functioning of modern vehicles at runtime, recently introduced its board of advisers; a group that includes former high-ranking executives at General Motors and Enterprise Holdings.
The company highlighted this team of entrepreneurs and industry luminaries will bring deep automotive, cybersecurity, technology and legal expertise and will play a key role in helping to guide Cognomotiv’s strategy and technical direction.
The board now includes:
• Amr Awadallah is the founder and CTO of Cloudera. Previously, he served as vice president of product intelligence engineering at Yahoo and ran one of the very first organizations to use Hadoop for data analysis and business intelligence. Awadallah joined Yahoo following the acquisition of his first startup, VivaSmart, in July 2000.
• Robin Campbell is the global co-chair of the data privacy and cybersecurity practice group at Squire Patton Boggs, a top 10 global law firm where she specializes in complex, cutting-edge legal advice, including expertise in autonomous vehicle technology, connected cars, IoT, data monetization and online tracking technologies.
• Lou Hughes has held senior leadership positions throughout his career. He was president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin. Prior to Lockheed, he was executive vice president at General Motors, where he held progressively more responsible positions for more than 25 years, including president of GM International Operations, president of GM Europe, chairman of Adam Opel AG and chairman of Saab Automobile.
• Lee Kaplan built his career at Enterprise Holdings, starting in 1985. Now retired, he most recently served as senior vice president and chief administration officer and was responsible for overseeing legal, risk, mergers and acquisitions, corporate venture and strategic planning.
• Sasha Ostojic was senior vice president engineering at Cruise Automation, an autonomous vehicle technology company owned by General Motors and Softbank. He is also a fellow and adviser at venture fund Playground Global, and serves on the advisory boards of other companies including Zoox (autonomous driving) and Deepen AI (intelligent data tools for autonomous systems).
“Cognomotiv is a fast-growing startup focused on bringing real-time data technologies to automotive and transportation companies to ensure the safety and security of the next wave of new transportation services, from today’s connected cars to the fully autonomous vehicles of the future,” said Hadi Nahari, founder and chief executive officer of Cognomotiv.
“We are truly honored to have such a distinguished advisory board, composed of global business leaders who have a unique mix of technical and regulatory knowledge across automotive, data and cybersecurity industries,” Nahari continued.
“We could not have found a better blend of talent or a more collaborative group of advisors to help us chart the best direction for Cognomotiv,” Nahari went on to say.
Significant changes are in motion within the American Financial Services Association (AFSA).
On Wednesday, AFSA announced that its board of directors has elected a new chairman, chair-elect and vice chairman-treasurer for the next 12 months.
Additionally, the board approved a succession plan for executive leadership of the 102-year-old trade association representing the consumer credit industry.
Josh Johnson, chief executive officer of Mariner Finance Co., based in Baltimore, was elected the new chairman of the AFSA board. He takes the gavel from outgoing board chair Ginger Herring, president and CEO of 1st Franklin Finance Corp., of Toccoa, Ga., who completed her one-year term.
Dale Jones, executive vice president of Ford Motor Credit of Dearborn, Mich., was elected chair-elect of the AFSA board and will succeed Johnson in 12 months.
Tom Hudgins, president and chief operating officer of Western Shamrock Corp., of San Angelo Texas, was elected vice chair and treasurer.
The AFSA board approved an executive leadership transition plan that promotes Bill Himpler, currently the association’s executive vice president, to president-elect of the association, effective Nov. 1 until April 1, at which time Himpler becomes president and chief executive officer of AFSA.
Chris Stinebert, president and CEO of AFSA since 2006, will assume a transitional role of assistant to the president, starting April 1 until Dec. 31 of next year.
“These are exciting times for the consumer credit industry, our customers and our communities,” Johnson said. “Chris Stinebert has provided excellent leadership of the association since 2006 while navigating the association through the recession, recovery, and creation of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP).
“During that same timeframe, Bill Himpler has worked tirelessly to provide our industry with a clear voice and message on Capitol Hill and with regulators on the need for safe, affordable consumer credit,” Johnson continued.
Johnson said AFSA’s Board, comprised of leaders in the consumer credit industry, believes that this executive leadership transition plan will ensure that the association’s mission to provide access to safe, affordable credit, continues to support a robust U.S. economy.
Johnson co-founded Mariner Finance in 2002. Under his leadership, Mariner Finance has grown from a single branch in Maryland to more than 500 branches in 22 states. This growth has been fueled by strategic, organic growth and the acquisition of several regional consumer finance companies, including Pioneer Credit, Personal Finance Company and Regency Finance.
Johnson has more than 25 years of executive level experience in the consumer finance business, including a previous CEO role with Rose Shanis Financial Services.
In addition to his new responsibilities as Chair of the AFSA Board, Johnson has served in numerous leadership roles over the past decade, including treasurer of the AFSA board, chair of AFSA’s independents section board and various roles in the AFSA Education Foundation.
Johnson and his siblings cofounded Jeffie’s Choice, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to serving the needs of food banks across the footprint of Mariner Finance. Jeffie’s Choice is operated 100 percent by volunteers and generously funded by Mariner Finance employees.
Jones serves as Ford Motor Credit’s executive vice president of the Americas, with responsibility for the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela businesses. His responsibility also includes global operations and global quality.
He previously was vice president of business center operations and, before that, vice president of strategic planning and business operations. Jones joined Ford Credit in 1989 and subsequently held a variety of increasingly responsible positions throughout North America.
Jones is chairman of Ford Credit Canada and a board member of FCE Bank, Ford Credit’s European subsidiary, in addition to serving as chair-elect of the AFSA board. He also is a member of the board of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit.
Hudgins has served as president and COO of Western-Shamrock since 2011. He joined the company in 2007 as vice president of operations. Western-Shamrock is a privately owned traditional installment lender with more than 300 branch offices in nine states and more than 900 employees
Hudgins currently serves as the president of the Independent Finance Institute of Oklahoma and the Missouri Installment Lenders Association and serves on the boards of the Georgia Installment Lenders Association; the New Mexico Independent Finance Association; the Tennessee Independent Loan Association; and the South Carolina Independent Consumer Finance Association.
Himpler joined AFSA in 2004 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he headed the congressional relations office. Prior to joining HUD, he was director of legislative affairs for BGR Holding where he worked as a lobbyist. He has also worked on Capitol Hill, serving as tax counsel and legislative director for two members of Congress.
One of the lead sponsors of Used Car Week 2018 is placing even more emphasis on its fintech operations.
On Monday, Digital Recognition Network (DRN), an AI and data analytics company that provides vehicle location data and analytics to finance companies, insurance carriers and other commercial verticals, announced the creation of its new client services unit — as part of its fintech division — to help its clients to be more strategic.
The client services unit can provide its clients with consulting services, on-site training and monthly reporting, so they can gain greater insight into DRN's vehicle location data (also known as automated license plate recognition, or ALPR data) and leverage the data to drive results.
Using the monthly reporting capabilities, the client services unit conducted a review of its clients’ usage and performance from January to August and found that DRN’s auto-finance clients receive a 193-percent average return on their investment from the suite of products in DRNsights.
DRN’s fintech division can help financing providers, ranging from local credit unions to top 100 auto finance companies, mitigate risk via DRNsights, its suite of products that combines DRN’s exclusive vehicle location data with analytics to provide new locations for targeting assets.
“The fintech division has expanded in the past year, as the demand for our ALPR technology has increased,” said Todd Hodnett, executive chairman and founder of DRN. “We created the client services unit to make sure that we continued to provide the best customer service possible, which includes ensuring our clients are taking optimal advantage of our solutions to achieve strong results for their businesses.”
The client services unit’s team works with clients to help them use DRN data to better understand vehicle location behavior analytics, so they can predict risk earlier and implement new collection strategies to reduce losses.
Additionally, to accommodate the needs of the growing fintech division, DRN has promoted the following team members:
• Jeremiah Wheeler has been promoted to executive vice president and general manager for DRN’s fintech division. In this role, Wheeler heads up the fintech business unit including sales, support and product management. He is responsible for developing DRN’s fintech strategy to ensure alignment with market needs and trends, as well as to anticipate new fintech market opportunities.
• Stephen Nethery has been promoted to senior vice president of client services for DRN’s fintech division. In this capacity, Nethery manages DRN’s new client services unit that provides reporting, training and consulting services to DRN’s fintech clients.
• Andy Cameron has been promoted to senior vice president of fintech and manages DRN’s recovery agent and provider relationships, as well as ALPR camera sales and support.
In addition, DRN has recently hired the following fintech team members:
• Nick Haaf has joined DRN as senior executive director of national enterprise accounts. In this role, Haaf partners with the DRN team on business development for all segments of indirect auto and other key industry segments. He is primarily focused on the top 100 national auto lenders and integrating the use of our data for optimal financial ROI and other key performance results. Prior to DRN, Haaf served in executive leadership roles with CU Direct Connect, California Republic Bank, Exeter Finance and Experian.
• Oscar Nunez has joined DRN to serve as director of product for the fintech division. Nunez is responsible for overseeing the technical development of new and existing solutions for the fintech market. He previously served in senior leadership roles with Uber, Capital One Auto Finance and Bank of America.
Since 2009, DRN has helped the auto finance industry recover nearly $8 billion in asset value delivered back on finance companies’ books, representing a significant risk reduction on delinquent portfolios. DRN maintains more than 7 billion nationwide vehicle sightings with more than 161 million captured monthly using ALPR technology.
DRN, along with Allied Solutions, Equifax, Millennium Capital and Recovery Corp. and SmartAuction, are the presenting sponsors of Used Car Week 2018, which begins Nov. 12 at the Westin Keirland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz. Registration discounts as much as $600 are available through Oct. 16.
Complete details can be found at www.usedcarweek.biz.
TruDecision reinforced its advisory board on Monday with a blockchain expert who hails from both the academic and business worlds.
The fintech company focused on driving efficiencies in the auto finance and dealership spaces announced the advisory board appointment of John Medellin, a former partner at IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and now a research professor at Southern Methodist University.
“We are thrilled to have someone of John’s stature join our advisory board and look forward to his contributions as we scale our technology for auto lenders and dealerships,” said Daniel Parry, co-founder and chief executive officer of TruDecision.
“Dr. Medellin is not only breaking new ground in blockchain research, but brings decades of experience helping some of the largest companies in the world navigate the challenges of competing in a high-tech marketplace,” Parry continued. “His guidance will be critical in our efforts to take cutting edge science and make it practical and accessible to our customers.”
TruDecision was formed and capitalized in early 2017. The company immediately acquired Texas-based Integrated Fintech, an analytic consulting firm serving auto finance companies in the United States.
Since inception, the company has expanded to dealership and lender clients in both the United States and Canada. The company launched two flagship products: the Expert Auto Credit Score for lenders, and Dealer Edge, which can augment dealer leads with predictive models and data that improve closure rates while reducing expense.
Medellin is presently research associate professor at Southern Methodist University, and CEO/CTO of Medellin Applied Research Concepts. His current research focus is on blockchain consensus algorithms and the implications for workload performance.
Previously, Medellin spent 11 years as a GBS partner with IBM and 13 years as a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“I am truly excited to partner with the team at TruDecision. Their passion for innovation and willingness to embrace the new frontiers of research will allow them to deliver powerful solutions to their clients,” Medellin said.
Carleton bolstered its compliance and research team this week as the provider of compliant loan calculation and digital document software solutions added Brian Kelly.
With the expansion of state-driven regulatory changes, along with the uncertainty of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau positions on a wide range of federal rules, Carleton explained that is reinforcing its compliance and research department to continue to meet and exceed partner expectations.
Attorney Brian Kelly has joined the Carleton and highlighted that Kelley is bringing with him a diverse legal background and expertise which includes business law, regulatory and compliance review, contract review, business documentation and other litigation disciplines.
“The opportunity to join Carleton has been exciting and professionally satisfying because of Carleton’s unique niche in the lending industry and their positive workplace culture” Kelly said. “Once I came aboard, I discovered an innovative, fresh and dynamic team that is developing next-generation software to tackle market inefficiencies and to ensure Carleton remains a leader in the financial lending sector.”
The comprehensive solution suite of CarletonCalcs, CarletonDocs, CarletonAudit and Carleton Access can help finance companies mitigate legal and regulatory compliance risk in consumer loan calculations. These technologies include federal and state-specific loan/lease calculations, digital document generation, electronic-audit reporting and other compliance tools to support various lending compliance mandates.
“Brian’s addition further strengthens the Carleton compliance and research team, which already features an unsurpassed level of expertise not found within any other organization in our industry,” Carleton president and chief executive officer Pat Ruszkowski said.
“The addition of Brian Kelly demonstrates Carleton’s strong commitment to provide lenders with expert solutions and support to successfully adapt to the constant changes in the compliance landscape,” Ruszkowski went on to say.
Ally Financial is diversifying the industry backgrounds of its board members.
Ally announced that Brian Sharples and Trynka Shineman have been appointed to its board of directors, effective last Friday. The company highlighted the two executives have deep experience with global digital companies and will bring well-established expertise in technology and innovation to Ally’s board.
Sharples is co-founder and chairman of Twyla, a privately held company that provides a new way to discover and buy art. Before co-founding Twyla, he was co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of HomeAway, a global online marketplace for the vacation rental industry.
Shineman is chief executive officer of Vistaprint, a company that provides printing and digital marketing services for more than 17 million micro businesses globally. Vistaprint is a subsidiary of Cimpress N.V., where Shineman sits on the management board.
“As we look to further enhance Ally’s position as a leading digital financial services company, adding directors who have deep knowledge and expertise growing digital companies is extremely valuable,” said Jeffrey Brown, chief executive officer at Ally. “I am pleased to welcome Brian and Trynka to the Ally board of directors and look forward to their perspectives and contributions.”
Before co-founding Twyla and HomeAway, Sharples served as president and chief executive officer of IntelliQuest Information Group Inc., a supplier of marketing data and research to technology companies. He began his career as a consultant at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, and has engaged in a number of entrepreneurial and investment activities since that time.
Sharples currently serves on the board of directors for GoDaddy, Twyla, Fexy Media and RVshare.
Prior to being named CEO of Vistaprint, Shineman served in a number of roles at the company, including chief customer officer, executive vice president for global marketing and president. She serves on the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC), a leading regional technology association that drives growth and innovation by connecting tech leaders, investors, academics and policymakers.
“Ally is committed to building and sustaining an engaged Board of Directors with a diverse array of backgrounds and skills that will continue to support management in creating long-term value for our shareholders,” said Fritz Hobbs, chairman of the board of Ally. “We are delighted to welcome Brian and Trynka.”
Toyota Financial Services didn’t look far for a replacement when one of the captive’s top leaders revealed his plan for retirement.
This week, TFS announced that Mike Groff, the company’s president and chief executive officer, member of the company’s board of directors, and chief executive officer of the Americas Region of Toyota Financial Services International Corp. (TFSIC), the direct parent of the company, will retire from these positions effective Aug. 31.
Officials added that Groff will serve as executive adviser to Toyota Financial Services until Nov. 16.
Appointed to replace Groff is Mark Templin.
Templin first joined Toyota in 1990 and has served as chairman of the board of directors of Toyota Motor Credit Corp. (TMCC) since May 2016. He also currently serves and is expected to continue to serve as director, president and chief operating officer of TFSIC and director and group chief operating officer of Toyota Financial Services Corp., From April 2013 to December 2017, Templin also served as managing officer of Toyota Motor Corp.
“Mark brings a global depth of knowledge and experience in both the finance and automotive sides of the business,” Groff said. “He understands how to meet the needs of our dealer partners and our distributor affiliates. His Lexus background means he knows how to deliver best-in-class customer experiences. I know the company will be in good hands with Mark at the helm.”
Groff joined the fledgling Toyota Motor Credit Corp. in 1983 as the company’s seventh employee. His job as an operations administrator entailed a wide range of responsibilities as the company started operations and began to grow.
Groff then transferred to Toyota Motor Insurance Services (TMIS) in 1991, and held positions in product development and management. After three years with TMIS, Groff transferred back to TMCC and held a series of progressive leadership positions in the areas of sales, marketing, strategic planning, information technology and customer service. He was instrumental in the rebranding of TMCC and TMIS as Toyota Financial Services.
In 2013, Groff was named the company’s president and CEO. Under his leadership, Toyota Financial Services joined Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) in a successful relocation of its headquarters to a modern campus in Plano, Texas.
Groff has led continued growth at TFS, and the company now ranks as one of the nation’s largest auto finance providers. TFS has more than 4 million active customer accounts, more than 8 million insurance agreements in force, total assets of more than $120 billion, and employs approximately 3,300 team members across the country.
In addition, he was responsible for Toyota Financial Services operations in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.
Under Groff’s leadership, TFS expanded its already strong commitment to corporate social responsibility. The company introduced a series of programs to support underserved youth, provide scholarships and promote financial education among young people. TFS is a major sponsor of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA where the company introduced the “Driving My Financial Future” campaign.
Groff, a national trustee for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, coupled the company’s philanthropic donations with opportunities for team member involvement. Under his leadership, Toyota Financial Services received the prestigious Points of Light Foundation Civic 50 award four times. The Civic 50 recognizes the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation.
The company highlighted Templin will bring a depth of experience to his new role as president and CEO of TFS.
Since joining Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) in 1990, he has held a number of positions. Templin previously served as group vice president and general manager of the Lexus Division for TMS, overseeing all aspects of Lexus’ U.S. automotive operations, including sales and marketing, retail development, customer satisfaction and product planning. His responsibilities included coordinating sales activities, dealer relations, parts and service operations, and marketing operations of four regional offices around the country.
He concurrently served as general manager of the Lexus Planning Division, TMC, working closely with international Lexus affiliates to enhance and bring more awareness of the Lexus brand worldwide.
Templin also previously served as general manager for the Lexus Southern Area, assistant general manager for both the Southern and Western Area Lexus offices, sales administration manager, retail operations manager at Lexus’ national headquarters in Torrance, Calif., and vice president of parts, service, customer satisfaction and training for the Lexus division.
Templin also served as VP of Lexus Marketing and VP of Scion, where he was responsible for all Scion activities.
“I am honored to lead Toyota Financial Services operations in the U.S. and the Americas Region,” Templin said. “Mike has positioned the company for continued success, and I look forward to building on our strong heritage of delivering the best products and services to meet the needs of our customers and dealer partners.
I know that we can be a great partner to the automotive side of the business in achieving Akio Toyoda’s vision of mobility for all,” Templin went on to say.
Autotech Ventures — a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that manages a fund of more than $120 million focused on startups — recently added to its human capital again.
Autotech Ventures announced that early-stage venture capital investor and former entrepreneur, Daniel Hoffer, has joined the firm as a managing director. Autotech Ventures is a specialist firm focused on investing in revolutionary transportation technologies and business models targeting the $3 trillion ground transportation market.
According to a news release, Hoffer’s experience will expand the firm’s mobility marketplace, software and consumer services expertise.
Prior to joining Autotech Ventures, Hoffer’s investment-related experience included roles as a partner at seed firm Tandem Capital, as a member of the corporate venture capital team at Concur (acquired by SAP) and as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital.
Hoffer joining the investment team follows the addition of former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and Automotive Intelligence Council member Maryann Keller to the advisory board earlier this year.
As an entrepreneur, Hoffer co-founded and served as chief executive officer of global travel pioneer CouchSurfing International, which raised more than $25 million from Benchmark Capital, General Catalyst, Menlo Ventures and Point Nine Capital, among others. He also held executive roles managing multiple product lines at Concur and Symantec, and he continues to serve as the founder and lead organizer of the annual Marketplace Conference in San Francisco.
“Autotech Ventures has established itself as the leader in their industry with a compelling, clear and differentiated value proposition,” Hoffer said. “Having worked closely with them on several deals over the last few years, I’ve been impressed by their approach to investing and by the value they deliver to their portfolio. I’m thrilled to join the team.”
Hoffer was a seed or pre-seed stage investor in several companies in the mobility sector including SpotHero, which subsequently became an Autotech portfolio company during their Series C, as well as Firefly and XStream Trucking.
“Even before he joined our team, we had the pleasure of working with Dan on more than one deal,” Autotech Ventures managing director Quin Garcia said. “His portfolio company CEOs consistently said glowing things about him as a value-add investor they trust and respect.
“Dan’s expertise in marketplaces and consumer-oriented startups complements our existing focus areas, and we’re excited to have someone of his caliber focusing on the transportation sector with us here at Autotech,” Garcia continued.
Autotech Ventures managing director Alexei Andreev added, “We’ve not only been impressed by Dan’s investment judgment, but also by the rich perspective he brings from his experience as a former founder, public company executive, and investor. We are delighted to welcome him to our team.”
