National Automotive Finance Association board member Joel Kennedy leveraged his experience and expertise into a position with a consulting firm broadening its scope into consumer finance.

Spinnaker Consulting Group, a national boutique professional services consultancy based in Richmond, Va., will expand its services into the consumer lending industry with the addition of Kennedy to the Spinnaker team of experts.

Specifically, Kennedy will lead Spinnaker’s expansion of consulting offerings into automotive and retail consumer finance. Spinnaker currently offers professional consulting services focused on service delivery, capability delivery, and risk and compliance management for clients in the financial services and healthcare industries.

“The Spinnaker team is made up of industry experts with deep experience delivering real results in their areas of expertise, and we’re thrilled to welcome Joel to our high-performing team,” said Shawn Sweeney, managing director of Spinnaker Consulting Group.

“Joel’s knowledge, background and experience will be key to expanding Spinnaker’s footprint and helping drive real results for clients in the automotive and retail consumer finance spaces,” Sweeney continued.

Spinnaker highlighted that Kennedy is a trusted consumer finance executive with decades of hands-on experience leading and executing for Fortune 100 companies and early-stage consumer finance start-ups. Most recently, he founded and served as chief operating officer of Pelican Auto Finance where he ran servicing and collections, compliance, IT, process and improvement.

Kennedy’s background also includes leadership roles in small- to large-scale Fortune 100 financial services companies running lending operations and a $50 million bank direct marketing team, directing analytical teams at Capital One, and leading quality at General Electric.

Along with being part of the leadership of the NAF Association, Kennedy also is certified as a Consumer Credit Compliance Executive by that organization, which is hosting its 22nd annual Non-Prime Automotive Finance Conference beginning on May 30.