Mary Leigh Phillips is in a nearly constant state of learning. From colleagues. From customers. From family.

And as a result, the chief executive officer of Bridgecrest has built a successful career for which she is being honored as Cherokee Media Group’s 2025 Auto Finance Executive of the Year, presented by Black Book. Phillips will receive her award during Used Car Week, which begins on Monday at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.

“Mary Leigh Phillips exemplifies visionary leadership in auto finance, and under her guidance Bridgecrest has grown into a powerhouse in the industry, servicing a $25+ billion portfolio across more than 1.4 million customers,” Black Book president Jared Kalfus said. “Her ability to scale complex businesses while driving innovation across the DriveTime family of companies makes her exceptionally worthy of Auto Finance Executive of the Year.”

Through its related dealership group, DriveTime, Bridgecrest provides more than $3 billion in auto loan financing annually. Along with the servicing Kalfus mentioned, Bridgecrest, through its subsidiary SilverRock, offers ancillary products, including vehicle service contracts and guaranteed auto protection, and provides first- and third-party claims administration.

Phillips joined the DriveTime family of companies as chief financial officer in August 2018, managing its financial organization including finance, accounting, capital markets, treasury, tax, risk analytics and lending.

Before joining DriveTime, Phillips spent more than 10 years in banking and capital markets with Wells Fargo Securities.

Earlier this fall, Phillips reflected on her career, reiterating the importance of constant learning in an auto-finance market that’s changing significantly. Here are the highlights of a conversation with Cherokee Media Group.

Nick Zulovich: What have been some of the most notable changes within auto financing, originating and servicing during your career? Which ones have helped you most and/or impacted your job responsibilities?

Mary Leigh Phillips: When I think about the notable changes that have happened during my career, I think what stands out to me the most is the level of sophistication that has advanced over the last 15 to 20 years. When I think about that, I’m thinking about improvements in data availability, technology and modeling techniques.

When you look at auto finance, when you look at it today versus 15 or 20 years ago, there’s way more precision and underwriting. Most people have full automation, and I think that has been enabled by the advances in technology, which is really a neat thing. People don’t always associate technology and auto finance as the same, and so that’s been really impressive to see.

I think it coincides well with change in customer preferences, which is probably driven just by that same evolution happening in so many industries. So think about it. You order something on Amazon, it’s so easy, it’s so streamlined relative to how you would have gotten something 15 or 20 years ago. And now you’re seeing that same thing in auto finance. For us, when you come online, we can use just a few pieces of the information you provide to instantly provide you financing terms on every car in our inventory, like in eight seconds. And that was, if you told me 15 years ago that that was possible, I wouldn’t have believed you, because I don’t know that it was possible 15 years ago.

As consumer preferences have changed, everything starts online. Auto finance has kept up really well. What that has meant during my career is that to be an effective executive, you have to be way more well-rounded than you used to be. When you think about the job responsibilities that we have and the role that we play, for me or any of my leaders, it’s no longer enough to just be an expert in your area. To really be effective, you have to understand how that expertise interplays with all the other areas of the business, like analytics, technology, operations, data science, the customer experience, risk, which means you have to be really curious, and you have to be kind of willing to go outside your box.

It’s really been exciting when I think back on that question, and I think back on that time to see how far we’ve come.

NZ: Who have been the people who have influenced you most during your career? (co-workers, mentors, people outside the industry?) And how have they helped you?

MLP: I’ve been really fortunate to benefit from the influence of a lot of talented people in my career. I thought of this as both the official mentors I’ve had many different types of programs and unofficial mentors. As I think about unofficial mentors, like former colleagues and clients, I’ve had several.

When I initially got into consumer finance as part of my career at Wells Fargo, I joined a group that at the time was led by Leah Miller, who ran the asset-backed finance team at Wells Fargo. She set such a great example for me of what it looked like to be a working mom in a male-dominated field. She was tough when you needed it. She was supportive when you needed it. That made a huge difference for me, and really was an inflection point of how I found myself in consumer finance.

I also had another mentor at the bank, a woman named Danielle, who really brought the concept of balance to life for me. And she used a metaphor that I use all the time with my team here and it goes something like this. Like in life, you’re constantly juggling a million different balls all the time. And some of them are rubber and some of them are glass. And the key is that you have to figure out which ones are which, because the rubber ones, you’re going to have to let bounce sometimes. And you have to know which ones are the glass ones, because you can’t drop those. That’s been such a great metaphor for me as I became a working mom and having the confidence to sort of do a little bit of all the things.

And then the team here, I’ve got a wonderful team here at the DriveTime family of companies. We have really caring team members that take care of our customers, so I learn from them every day. And then even more specifically, our senior team, we’re a really tight-knit group. A lot of folks that have worked here for a long time, and some folks who are newer that we’ve been able to recruit from other companies. When I think about the team here, that really inspires me and teaches me every day.

Dan Gaudreau, our CFO, Clay Scheitzach, our general counsel, Robyn Jordan, our head of people. There are several others. I could probably spend the rest of the day saying names of people here that have inspired me, but that’s been really critical for me. They model the behaviors that I like to see in leaders, and that pushes me to be better. They also are willing to give me candid feedback when they think that I could be doing something different. That’s the push-pull that we have, supporting each other, being tough on each other when necessary.

The guys around here know I have a big sweet tooth, so they’ll show up with an unexpected cookie if I’m having a particularly tough day. It’s really, it’s been kind of like a family for me.

NZ: At this juncture of your career, what elements of your position do enjoy? And how much do you have the opportunity to groom up-and-coming executives?

MLP: One of the things I like the most about my role is the ability to have strategic influence over our roadmaps and the ultimate quest for how do you win the game. One of the great things about auto and auto finance is that everything is changing so quickly. There’s always something changing around us. There’s always something new to work on or to learn about. Really, nothing has been stagnant, and so I think that’s been one of the most exciting things.

We talk a lot on our team about our desire to solve complex problems, and that’s something that we stay really focused on, whether that’s serving customers or employees. And then I think our mission really has had a big influence on me as well. We talk about creating opportunities and improving lives in the context of both our customers and our employees, so the customer side is sort of more self-evident.

You know, we serve a credit-challenged customer on the DriveTime side, providing opportunities for access to reliable transportation. But on the employee side, I think that has resonated with me as much or even more, where we have a lot of folks in the field interacting with our customers every day or in any number of these other roles, and our ability to provide career development for them and training to allow them to continue to advance has been critical.

Influencing the development of our senior execs is a real passion area of mine, so I am often involved in both formal and mentorship programs, like the AFSA Mentorship Program, and then also informal mentoring relationships around here, which I find really valuable. Often I learn just as much or more than my mentee, which has been a fun way to stay connected with everybody. The dynamic balance of being caring and empathetic, but also knowing when to be candid, knowing when to be tough, that’s been a big influence in my career and one that I hope I can share with others.

NZ: What does it mean to you to be chosen as the 2025 Auto Finance Executive of the Year?

MLP: It’s kind of astounding actually hearing you say it back to me, so thank you, I’m super grateful. I think first and foremost for our team, it’s great recognition. You know, we’ve got a really good team of talented people that are working really hard on interesting things every day. For our team, it’s great recognition that we collectively were chosen.

I think for me, it’s a great responsibility to be able to lead them every day and they teach me every day. And then for me personally, I’m super honored. I think the difficult balance of being a working mom and an executive is one that all of us in that role tread kind of lightly every day. It’s really rewarding to have a tangible piece of success to be able to share with my family.

Past recipients of the Auto Finance Executive of the Year Award, presented by Black Book, include:

  • Doug Timmerman, Ally Financial
  • Kevin Cullum, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp.
  • Marc Womack, Santander Consumer USA
  • Kyle Birch, GM Financial
  • Tanya Sanders, Wells Fargo Auto
  • Bill Jones, Regional Acceptance Corp. & BB&T Dealer Retail Services
  • Andrew Stuart, TD Auto Finance
  • Tommy Moore Jr., First Investors Financial Services
  • Ozzie Ramos, National Auto Lenders
  • Dan Ulatowski, Credit Acceptance
  • Bill Jensen, Chase Auto Finance
  • Ian Anderson, Westlake Financial Services