Speakers at the First Party Summit
Bryan Albertson
Bryan Albertson is the Chief Information Officer at TECH LOCK where he leads the Managed Services division. He possesses nearly 15 years of IT experience, primarily focused on the Accounts Receivables Management space. Today he assists many leading ARM organizations effectively build their IT infrastructure to increase security and efficiency while reducing risk and overall costs.
Bryan is a graduate of the University of Iowa, with a BBA in Management Information Systems.
Rozanne Andersen
Rozanne Andersen currently serves as Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Ontario Systems. Her 14 plus years of experience as general counsel, chief lobbyist, executive vice president and CEO of ACA International and her 14 plus years as a practicing attorney specializing in banking and financial services, have made Rozanne one of the most respected experts in the industry.
Known as frequent presenter and consultant on all CFPB related compliance topics, Rozanne brings both a legal and a technology perspective to the ARM and healthcare industries’ most serious compliance challenges.
Rozanne is responsible identifying and developing state of the art compliance enhancements into the Ontario Systems’ suite of compliance products and services. She received her J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law.
Tim Bauer
Tim Bauer is President of insideARM and The iA Institute. He is a former ARM executive with a wide range of experience in M&A, Operations, Compliance, Sales & Marketing, and Portfolio Acquisitions. He is Co-Executive Director of the Consumer Relations Consortium (www.crconsortium.org).
Prior to joining insideARM Tim was CEO of Integrity Solution Services, Inc.
He is a frequent speaker at Credit and Collections conferences on issues ranging from “Current Trends in the Collection Business” to “CFPB/FDCPA Compliance”.
Tim obtained his B.A. from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and his J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago, School of Law.
John Bedard
John H. Bedard, Jr. is the managing attorney of Bedard Law Group, P.C. located in Atlanta, Georgia. John represents creditors, asset buyers, and debt collectors helping them stay in compliance with state and federal law. He also manages the nationwide litigation for several collection agencies and focuses his litigation practice on FDCPA, TCPA, and FCRA defense. John’s practice also focuses on defending regulatory actions including CFPB investigations and travels the country performing CFPB readiness assessments for the collection industry.
John is also the creator of BLGinsight, the industry’s first completely outsourced speech analytics legal service for the collection industry. John received his J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law
Mike Bevel
Mike Bevel is the Director of Education for the Compliance Professionals Forum. He facilitates monthly compliance conference calls across a variety of industries, and is key in producing materials that help guide those working in the debt industry through the confusing sea of laws and regulations. He has worked for insideARM LLC for over 10 years. Mike is a graduate of Southern Oregon University, with a B.A. in English.
Bill Bowden
Bill Bowden is Head of Collections for Kabbage, Inc. Originally from Detroit, MI, he studied Political Science at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, GA. Bill has over 20 years in the collections industry. He has a vast arrange of experience. He managed a 1200 seat dialer at Equifax Risk Management. He was AVP of Operations at Wachovia Bankcard Services and Operations Manager at Compucredit Inc. He also managed Finance and Collections at JD Byrider, Inc,
He has been with Kabbage since August 2014. Bill has been married for 24 years. He has one 15 year old son. His hobbies included basketball, traveling and, most recently Vlogging!
Tim Casey
Tim Casey is the CEO of Teleperformance Accounts Receivable Managements (Alliance One, Inc.) and has held this position since 2007. Tim’s prior position was Chief Operating Officer for Teleperformance USA, where he directed operations for the U.S. and Canadian markets with delivery locations around the globe.
Over his 30+ years career in the call center industry, Tim has focused on driving high quality customer interactions whether those touch points were a result of collections, customer care, technical support or product acquisition lines of business. Tim holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Western Illinois University and an MBA degree from Northwestern University’s Communication Systems program.
David Cherner
David Cherner is an attorney with the law firm of Moss & Barnett in Minneapolis, MN, which provides defense, compliance and risk management services to the ARM industry. Dave is actively involved in the credit and collection industry, including serving on the Steering Committee for the Consumer Relations Consortium (CRC) and the Federal Legislative & Regulatory Committee for RMA International. Prior to joining Moss & Barnett, Dave was the chief compliance officer for a large market financial services accounts receivable management company and served as corporate counsel for ACA International.
David received his J.D. from Marquette University Law School.
Tim Collins
Tim Collins is General Counsel and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer at Convergent Outsourcing, Inc. where he is tasked with leading the Audit, Compliance, Legal, and Training Departments. His previous position was Director of Compliance for Hyundai Capital America in charge of designing and implementing HCAs corporate governance and compliance programs.
Prior to HCA he was VP of Risk Management and General Counsel for ARS National Services, Inc., where he managed three departments that reduced legal and business exposure in a highly regulated and litigious industry. Before joining ARS National Services, Inc., Tim was Legal Counsel with Midland Credit Management Corporation where he helped establish their litigation outsourcing program.
He has over twenty years of experience in the accounts receivable managment industry including firsthand experience in litigating cases. He is currently serving on the ACA International Federal Affairs Committee, a past Chair of the ACA International MAP Committee, past president of the Association of Corporate Counsel-San Diego Chapter, and teaches a seminar on In-House Corporate Practice at the University of San Diego Law School.
Tim received his J.D. from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
John Craven
John Craven is Enterprise Center of Excellence Call Center Director at Cox Communications. His role at Cox is to 1) strengthen relationships with Strategic Partners by designing and recommending strategies that increase performance reduce operational risk and reduce losses, 2) reduce sale cycle timeline by assisting sales directors articulating/demonstrating our Company's performance, operations, and technological prowess; and through producing best in class business solutions for partners, and 3) manage client relationships to ensure product and service expectations are being achieved consistently.
John received his Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University and his MBA from Franklin University.
Paul DeSaulniers
Paul DeSaulniers is is Senior Director of Risk Scoring, Trended Data Solutions & Collections at Experian. Paul is responsible for leading all of the Risk Scoring businesses, Experian’s Trended Data solutions as well as Collections products. He focuses on utilizing data assets to solve clients’ challenges and developing specific strategies to effectively integrate scoring and data into clients’ decisioning systems.
Before joining Experian in 2011, DeSaulniers served as Director of Credit Risk Decisioning at LexisNexis. He has 17 years of experience working in the financial service industry where he has successfully led several business units at Ascend One and Think Finance.
DeSaulniers has a duel degree with a Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in finance from Goldey-Beacom College. He obtained his B.A. in economics from Towson University.
Prior to his business career Paul served 4 years in the Army’s 1st Ranger Battalion where he served multiple deployments in Central America and the Middle East obtaining the rank of Sergeant.
Sulejman Dizdaveric
Sulejman Dizdaveric is the Director and Senior Counsel at Discover Financial Services. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. Prior to his time at Discover, Sulejman focused on financial services litigation at two Chicago-based law firms, Pilgrim Christakis LLP and Belongia, Shapiro & Hynes, LLP.
Tracy Dudek
Tracy Dudek is the Vice President of Operations for State Collection Service, responsible for overseeing all areas of production including Early Out, Bad Debt, Business Analytics, and Dialer Management.
Tracy has been involved in the receivables industry for over 20 years. Tracy’s accomplishments include the implementation of advanced speech analytics for all of the company’s call center operations, leading to State Collection Service being awarded the 2014 Speech Technology Implementation Award. She was instrumental in the acquisition and integration of State Collection Service’s Chicago office. Under her leadership, the company has grown tremendously, regularly breaking revenue records.
Tracy is regularly asked to speak at conferences around the country. She has been a judge and member of the Steering Committee for the Wisconsin BBB Torch Awards since 2009. She is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and has served on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Collectors Association in various capacities. Tracy earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Marquette University and holds Fellow and Scholar degrees from ACA International.
Gary Eidelman
Gary B. Eidelman is Chair of Saul Ewing LLP’s Labor and Employment Practice Group, resident in Baltimore, Maryland.
His nationwide practice involves the representation of management in all aspects of labor and employment law and litigation before between federal, state and local courts, tribunals and agencies involving substantive areas such as restrictive covenant and trade secrets, employment discrimination, harassment, disability and leave, wrongful discharge, wage and hour compliance and litigation, occupational safety and health, affirmative action compliance, traditional labor matters and general employment and business counseling. He currently is the Administrative Co-Chair of the Employment Rights and Responsibilities Committee of the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association.
Gary is a fellow of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, has been named one of “America’s Leading Lawyers in Employment Law” by Chambers USA, 2005 to the present, included in Best Lawyers in America, 2013 to the present, listed as a “Maryland Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics magazine, 2007 to the present; and listed in the International Who’s Who of Management Labor & Employment Lawyers, 2012 to the present. He serves a Director of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.
Stephanie Eidelman
Stephanie Eidelman is CEO of insideARM and The iA Institute, a media company that specializes in providing context, insight, and practical information to the complex debt industry. A visionary and constant innovator, she has grown the company from its beginning as publisher of a daily newsletter (insideARM) to one that influences the industry at the highest level.
She is Co-Executive Director of the Consumer Relations Consortium (www.crconsortium.org).
Stephanie received her B.S. from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA
Jeff Ellis
Jeff Ellis is the Director of Customer Operations Support Services for TXU Energy, a market-leading competitive retail electricity provider, powering the lives of more Texans than any other retailer. In addition to serving more than 1.7 million customers, TXU Energy is a top innovator in the market.
In his role within Customer Experience Services, Jeff is responsible for enabling the successful delivery of best-in-class experiences to TXU Energy’s customers by planning and managing TXUE’s internal and outsourced Customer Care resources. Jeff’s team provides a suite of ancillary services in support of customer experience execution, spanning Vendor Management, Quality Insights and Analytics, Process Optimization, Controls & Compliance, Change Management, Workforce Management, Learning & Development and IVR/Chat Self-Service delivery.
Jeff is a 1999 graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelors in Management Information Services and Business Management.
Rob Fite
Rob Fite is a Credit & Collections Industry veteran who has compiled over twenty five years of deep domain knowledge in technology and data driven solutions for improving workflow processes, increasing automation, and enhancing credit & collections decisions. Rob has held product and market leadership positions with the industry’s leading solutions providers; Experian, FICO, and Lexis Nexis. He is currently a part of the executive team at Telrock Systems, an emerging leader in digital channel customer engagement capabilities, and serves on the advisory board for several technology start-ups.
Rob holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Old Dominion University.
Kia D. Floyd
Kia Floyd is a respected government affairs strategist and attorney specializing in issue advocacy that facilitates growth and profitability for technology businesses and industry coalitions. In her current role at RELX Group, Inc., Floyd leads government affairs strategy for the world's leading provider of professional information solutions in the science, medical, legal, risk management and business sectors.
Prior to her tenure with RELX Group, Inc., Floyd served as Associate Counsel for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, where she represented public policy interests for more than 10,000 member companies comprising the state’s largest business trade association.
Floyd began her career as a law clerk with the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas and later became the Managing Attorney of the Tax Administration Division within the City of Philadelphia Law Department. As a result of her litigation work, she was ultimately appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia to serve as the Deputy Secretary of External Affairs, responsible for overseeing and implementing the local public policy agenda.
Floyd brings extensive experience in media relations and industry affairs, and has served as a public policy spokesperson for national and local media outlets including Today.com, WNPR and the Hartford Business Journal.
She is involved in a variety of industry organizations including: CompTIA / TechAmerica; Women in Government Relations; the Organization for International Investment; the State Privacy & Security Coalition; the Consumer Data Industry Association; and the Coalition for Sensible Public Records Access. In 2013, Floyd represented the U.S. State Department and the American Council of Young Political Leaders as an international relations delegate to Hungary and Croatia. In 2011, she was selected as one of 40 Under Forty Rising Stars by Connecticut Magazine.
Kia holds a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Virginia, and is admitted to the Pennsylvania and Connecticut Bars.
Jacqueline Hair
Jacqueline (“Jacquie”) Hair services as Senior Managing Counsel for Conifer Health Solutions, LLC. She leads the Legal Department’s Regulatory and Litigation group which is responsible for all consumer protection and government payer regulatory and compliance issues and related litigation. Prior to joining Conifer, Jacquie served as Vice President, Managing Associate General Counsel for Cash America International, Inc., a publicly traded provider of secured non-recourse loans and short-term cash advances, and Jacquie began her career at The Williams Companies, Inc. as in-house counsel for its telecommunications subsidiary, Williams Communications Group, Inc.
Jacquie has over 20 years of in-house legal department experience including the areas of regulatory and ethical compliance, consumer finance, employment law, transactions, and dispute resolution. Jacquie received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oklahoma State University and a J.D. from the University of Tulsa College of Law where she also served as an Adjunct Professor.
Kevin Harrison
Kevin Harrison is Director of Client Engagement for Infutor, a data-driven customer identity management expert that enables brands to instantly gain access to the most complete and accurate information about consumers, exactly when they need it, to make informed marketing and risk mitigation decisions. Over the past decade, Kevin has worked closely with financial services organizations to better identify and verify consumers so they can minimize losses due to fraud and non-payment.
Kevin received his B.S. (Management) from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Lee Hawkins
Lee Hawkins is Senior Vendor Relations Liaison, Central Operations at Trinity Health with Corporate offices in Livonia, Michigan. Trinity Health is a not-for profit organization with 93 hospitals in 22 states, 120 Continuing Care locations and $15.9 Billion in yearly revenue.
Lee manages Revenue Cycle Vendor relationships which includes RFP's, contracting, implementation, operations, and performance management. The Department focus is on PA/PFS vendor services, ensuring they are properly vetted, installed and operational and conforming to all contractual requirements and all SLAs as defined in the Master Service Agreement. Lee and his team also monitor all vendor performance to ensure that each vendor is providing maximum value to our Ministries and following all Federal and State regulations.
Lee has worked in the Healthcare Industry for 13+ years. He has worked in various departments at Trinity, which include Laboratory and Information Systems. For the last 3+ years working within Revenue Excellence at Trinity Health. Lee is a member of the Southeast Michigan Chapter of HFMA, where he is involved in the development of a HFMA enrollment program that would bring college students, interested in pursuing a career in Healthcare Finance into HFMA while still in school or shortly after graduation.
Lee graduated with a Bachelors and Master's degree in Healthcare Administration from Eastern Michigan University
Stefanie Jackman
Stefanie Jackman is a partner with the law firm of Ballard Spahr LLC. Stefanie devotes her practice to assisting financial services institutions facing government investigations and enforcement actions, as well as defending them in individual and class action lawsuits. Ms. Jackman regularly handles matters arising under an array of federal and state consumer financial laws, including UDAP/UDAAP statutes, FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA, EFTA, SCRA, and TILA. Ms. Jackman represents clients across the financial services industry, including banks and nonbanks, mortgage banking lenders and servicers, debt collectors and buyers, third-party service providers, credit and prepaid card companies, and auto lenders.
In addition to her litigation and government investigations work, Ms. Jackman also devotes a significant portion of her practice to providing compliance-related advice to her clients. She regularly counsels clients on conducting compliance assessments relating to their debt collection, fair lending and underwriting, credit reporting, and vendor management processes, as well as the functionality of their overall compliance management system. Ms. Jackman also advises clients in connection with preparing for regulatory examinations.
Ms. Jackman is a member of Ballard Spahr's Fair Lending Task Force and Marketplace Lending Task Force. She speaks regularly on the subject of consumer financial services law and CFPB compliance around the country. She received her J.D. from Emory University School of Law.
Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson has served as the Director of Risk Management for Cornerstone Support for the past ten years . He specializes in providing insurance solutions for collection agencies, debt buyers and collection attorneys.
Cornerstone Support is the premier provider of insurance and state licensing services for the ARM industry. Since 1998, the company has assisted thousands of collection agencies, debt buyers and collection law firms with their risk management needs. Cornerstone’s clients are located in all 50 states and around the globe. The company is based in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, Ga.
He resides in Woodstock, Ga., with his wife and twin daughters.
Sonia Kalra-Ali
Sonia Kalra is the Director of Receivables Management at CIBC, with responsibility to evolve the business with a focus on improving Client Experience, reducing losses and improving operational flexibility. Sonia is responsible for researching new ideas and pitching the concept to executives for buy in. She follows approved ideas through to execution and measurement of success.
Sonia is a versatile individual with over 17 years’ experience working in Business Development, Sales, Audit, Marketing and Fulfillment.
Sonia graduated from the University of Toronto with Major in Economics and minors in Math and Philosophy.
Pam Kirchner
Pam Kirchner is Chairman of the Board and CEO of BCA Financial Services, Inc. Under Ms. Kirchner’s leadership, BCA has become a well-known industry leader in accounts receivable management solutions. In her dual roles, she provides leadership and direction toward the achievement of the organization’s philosophy, mission, strategy, and its annual goals and objectives.
Ms. Kirchner has been employed in the accounts receivable management industry for over thirty-five years, has extensive knowledge and experience in healthcare receivables and has provided consulting services to numerous healthcare organizations throughout her career. Ms. Kirchner was a member of a task force assembled by HFMA and ACA International to develop consensus practices to bring clarity, fairness, and consistency to medical account resolution.
She is currently a member of ACA International’s Board of Directors and serves on the Education and Membership committees. She volunteers her time to the board of her local unit, the Florida Collectors Association, and has served a term as unit president.
Kirchner was recognized for five consecutive years as one of the top 50 female executives in Florida by the Commonwealth Institute of South Florida. She is a founder of Mount Sinai Medical Center and an active member of the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management and the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Jonathan Klein
Jonathan D. Klein is an associate attorney with the law firm of Clark Hill PLC. He has extensive experience representing clients on a wide range of complex commercial litigation in both federal and state courts and before institutional and ad hoc arbitral tribunals. Jonathan’s experience ranges across all stages of litigation and arbitration, including factual investigation, discovery and strategy, briefing and motion practice, appellate filings, and the evaluation, development, and preparation of fact and expert witnesses for trial or arbitral proceedings. Jonathan’s diverse practice includes, but is not limited to:
Cyber Security and Data Protection - Understanding the growing risks that even the most savvy companies face as a result of cyber-thieves and disgruntled or careless employees, Jonathan advises companies across a broad range of industries on data protection and privacy laws. He has experience protecting companies both before a data breach has occurred by developing a thorough, yet efficient, cyber security incident response plan narrowly tailored to the client’s industry and after a data breach (or potential breach) investigating incidents, determining notification procedures, and coordinating with law enforcement.
Jonathan received his J.D. from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Camden. During law school, Jonathan was selected as one of 8 graduate students in the entire Rutgers University system to be a Henry J. Raimondo Fellow at the Eagleton Institute of Politics and Government, an institute focused on state and national politics through education and public service.
Kelly Knepper-Stephens
Kelly Knepper-Stephens is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Stoneleigh Recovery Associates, LLC, a debt recovery solutions company. Her work focuses on government regulation, compliance, and civil litigation; she advises her employer and its clients on the FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA, GLBA, HIPAA, and other federal and state regulations.
She is a DBA International Certified Receivables Compliance Professional and has earned the Credit & Collection Compliance Officer designation from ACA International. Kelly received her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, where she returned as a Visiting Professor of Clinical Law and Freidman Fellow from 2008-2011 arguing before the highest court in Maryland on three occasions for the GW Federal and Appellate Clinic.
Kathleen Kuri
Kathleen Kuri is the Director of Customer Service and Revenue Cycle Operations Integrity at Ascension WI | Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare
As Director of Customer Service and Revenue Cycle Operations Integrity, Kathleen works with both internal and external associates to help create a departmental culture focused on ensuring an exceptional experience for the patient from the point of care, through the complete resolution of the patient’s financial obligations. Kathleen is also responsible for coordinating staff training for all Revenue Cycle activities related to patient scheduling, authorization, and registration for all Ascension WI hospitals and medical group offices in SE Wisconsin.
Kathleen has been in health care for 25+ years, managing Payer Services and Customer Service departments within the Revenue Cycle. She was influential in the redesign of Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare’s customer service department. She graduated from Ottawa University, Magna Cum Laude, in May 2012 with a double major in Business Management and Healthcare Administration. Kathleen is service orientated and receptive to the challenges and requirements of an ever changing healthcare environment.
Eric Laundree
Eric Laundree is the Collections Manager at Elevate Credit, a Fort Worth based company that is reinventing the non-prime lending industry by giving consumers access to responsible and transparent credit options. Eric joined Elevate in 2013 as the Collections Manager, where he is responsible for Vendor Management, and Collection Strategy.
He began his journey in the contact center environment in 2001 at Capital One, where he spent 13 years working various roles. His first assignment was within the Credit Card division, handling prime and sub-prime servicing. In 2003 he transferred to the Auto Finance division, where he rotated in managing various pre-charge off collections teams.
In 2006, as Capital One integrated their newly acquired Banking segment, Eric was asked to help stand up the servicing center. Over the 5 year tenure at Capital One Bank’s Service Center, he managed many functions including customer service, online banking technical support, and the quality assurance team.
In 2011, Eric relocated to McLean, VA as a Product Manager, on Capital One Bank’s online banking platform. In this role, he was responsible for driving online adoption and providing high quality online products, including an overhaul of the online bill payment interface. After 1 year, Eric moved back to TX and into collections once again. He was responsible for managing a vendor in first party collections, as well as leading the Repossession and Recovery departments internally.
Eric received his B.S. in Business Administration from Florida Institute of Technology.
Mark Mallah
Mark Mallah is General Counsel for LiveVox. Mr. Mallah joined LiveVox in 2010 with more than 20 years of wide-ranging legal experience spanning commercial transactions, compliance, litigation, and law enforcement.
He works directly with numerous legal and business leaders across the industry on a regular basis to navigate the changing regulatory environment, closely monitoring FCC rulings, court decisions, and regulatory developments, and then gauging their impact on in-house and outsourced contact center operations.
In addition to helping leaders shape risk mitigation strategies, Mallah has also been a key speaker at numerous financial services and ARM industry events alongside industry legal and operations executives.
Mark received his J.D. from American University Washington, College of Law.
John McNamara
John McNamara is the Assistant Director, Consumer Lending, Reporting, and Collections Markets, Division of Research, Markets & Regulations at the CFPB.
He serves as a subject matter expert on debt collection practices and as a liaison between the CFPB and both the collection industry and consumer advocates.
Prior to joining the CFPB, John was Chief Marketing Officer for LiveVox and director/co-founder of Fidelis Recovery Solutions, Inc. He is a 32-year accounts receivable management (ARM) and call/contact center veteran, experienced in all phases of collections, recovery and call center operations with deep focus on technology, process improvement and compliance management systems.
Before joining LiveVox, John was COO for Asset Management Outsourcing, Inc., SVP of Banking and Retail Operations for First Data Corporation’s ARM unit, Nationwide Credit/ACB, and VP of Operations for United Recovery Systems, LP.
John is a frequent speaker/panelist/consultant and author, addressing key issues and trends in the collection industry. In 2012, John chaired both the National Collections and Credit Risk conference and the Financial Services Collections and Credit Risk symposium. In 2011 John was named an ACA International Scholar and Fellow. He also is the 2009 winner of the ACA Kurt Swersky award for leadership. In 2007, John was appointed Vice President and Board Member of the Georgia Collectors Association. John was named to Collection Advisor magazine's list of the Top 50 Most Influential Collection Professionals for 2006.
John has served as Chairman of the ACA Affiliate Committee, and member of the Debt Buyers Association Education Committee. John also served on both the Technology and Compliance Committees for TRMA.
John is a summa cum laude graduate of Kennesaw State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance. In 2014, John received his MBA from Kennesaw State University, where he was named a University Scholar.
Chris Meier
Chris Meier serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer to The CMI Group and is responsible for managing all legal aspects of the company's operations, as well as ensuring compliance with all relevant laws and regulations. He joined the company in 2008 after working for an insurance defense firm in Dallas, TX, that specialized in defending collection agencies against FDCPA and FCRA lawsuits.
Chris is an active member of ACA International and ACA-Texas and has served as a guest presenter at several conferences covering topics such as Legislative Reform, In-House Litigation Strategies, and Collections Law Compliance.
He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arkansas and received his J.D. from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Michael Meyer
Michael Meyer, CISSP, CIPP/US, CIPM, FIP, CISM, CRVPM II, CRISC, CISA, is the Chief Risk and Chief Security Officer of MRS BPO LLC. He is responsible for overseeing the company’s governance and strategy for risk management, security and compliance. Michael’s team provides independent oversight, guidance for managing risk, ensuring security and compliance, including the development and implementation of risk management strategies for many clients.
As Chief Security Officer, Michael also has the complex challenge of ensuring that MRS meets the evolving information security requirements of clients and privacy laws. He is intimately familiar with PCI, ISO-27001, SSAE-16, NIST, HIPAA and other security standards. Michael has been with MRS for over 18 years and served in the CIO and CSO roles. He has spoken at numerous conferences and has many articles published. Prior to MRS, he owned an IT consulting company, taught large secure government systems globally and was in the US. ARMY.
Michael holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University; is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), Information Systems Audit Control Association (ISACA), the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2) and Philadelphia chapter of InfraGard.
Joann Needleman
Joann Needleman is a Partner and the leader of the Clark Hill PLC Consumer Financial Services Regulatory & Compliance group. Joann has extensive litigation experience in state and federal courts, successfully defending creditors against claims brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act as well as state statutes.
She provides counsel, consultation and litigation services to financial institutions, law firms and debt buyers throughout the country. Joann is the immediate past President of the Board of Directors of NARCA - the National Creditors Bar Assocation. She also serves on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Advisory Board.
Joann received her B.A. from Temple University and her J.D. from Widener University, School of Law.
Katie Grzechnik Neill
Katie Grzechnik Neill is the lead in-house counsel at ARS National Services Inc., a national collection agency providing a wide range of services for global financial institutions and other creditors. Ms. Neill’s practice focuses on risk management and compliance-focused projects as well as litigation management.
Prior to joining ARS, Ms. Neill handled civil litigation matters in a North Carolina-based law firm. Ms. Neill resides in San Diego with her husband and is involved in community service projects such as being an active participant in the Military Spouse J.D. Network, grading practice essays for California and North Carolina bar candidates, and grading appellate briefs for local law school Moot Court competitions.
Katie received her J.D. from Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
Tom Pahl
Thomas B. Pahl is Acting Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission. Prior to joining the FTC, Tom was a partner at the law firm of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP in Washington, D.C., where his practice focuses on representing debt collectors, debt buyers, creditors, credit reporting agencies, and other consumer financial services companies.
Prior to joining Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, Tom was a Managing Counsel in the Office of Regulations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for three and a half years, having responsibility for rulemaking, guidance, and policy development activities at the agency relating to debt collection, credit reporting, and financial privacy. Before coming to the CFPB, he spent over two decades in a number of positions at the Federal Trade Commission, including serving for six years as an Assistant Director in the Division of Financial Practices, where he was responsible for managing the agency’s debt collection enforcement and policy work.
Tom received his J.D, cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois, and his B.A., summa cum laude, in economics from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Riley Pentecost
Riley Pentecost is Global Vice President of Operations for Global Receivables Solutions First Party, Third Party, and Government business units. Mr. Pentecost has proven his ability to consistently deliver positive results. Riley defines the strategic direction and ensures that all operational expectations are exceeded.
Riley has more than 23 years of recovery experience within the financial services industry. Riley has communicated directly with clients, built effective staffing models, monitored portfolio performance and created customized dialer and treatment strategies. Additionally, he was actively involved in designing Global Receivables Solutions proprietary recovery system.
Riley began his career at Global Receivables Solutions as a collector in 1992 and has progressively moved to roles in training, collection management and operations management. Currently he applies his knowledge to assist our collectors in achieving our client’s goals.
Riley is a certified Associate Credit Executive and a certified collector with the American Collectors Association.
Nicole Pirone
Nicole Pirone is Director of Call Center Technologies - Speech Analyticsat Cox Communications.Nicole began her contact center career in 1997 holding positions in Sales, Marketing, Compliance and Operations. She joined Cox in 2015 as an expert on successful deployment and operationalization of OmniChannel Analytics programs.
As part of Call Center Operations Support, Nicole oversees the dynamic call recording, live monitoring and interaction analytics product suite, enabling a 360⁰ view of customers, agents and the business. Her team delivers actionable insights enterprise-wide, uncovering significant opportunities to improve processes and performance. With a background in Business Intelligence and Consulting, Nicole has spent the last 6 years specializing in linguistics and acoustics studies across a broad range of industries including MSO, Telco, Finance and Collections.
Prior roles include leading the professional services group at CallMiner, quantitative research for Curves International and project management for the legal division of Marsh & McLennan.
She currently resides in Atlanta, holds both a Master of Science in Leadership and a Master of Business Administration from NSU, and is published on the topics of Speech Technology, Situational Leadership and Diversity Management.
Chris Repholz
Chris Repholz is Chief Growth Officer for MRS BPO LLC, a New Jersey based, nationally recognized accounts receivable management firm specializing in first party servicing and third party recoveries in a variety of verticals.
He first started working in the contact center industry in 1994 and co-founded TPG TeleManagement, Inc., a contact center consulting firm, in 1996. In 2004, he joined Zenta, an international BPO. As Zenta’s SVP / General Manager of the Contact Center Division, he played an instrumental role in their expansion in first and third party collections and customer service, working with a variety of Fortune 100 companies. In 2008, he extended Zenta’s footprint to Manila, PI and Charlotte, NC, growing the division to over 1,800 collection and customer service agents in three countries. In 2011, after Accenture acquired Zenta, Chris joined IntelliSource as SVP of their call center outsourcing division, managing operations in customer service, collections, fraud management and commercial sales.
Chris joined MRS as Chief Operating Officer in 2014 and transitioned to his current role as CGO in 2016, where he is responsible for Client Services, Sales & Marketing, Corporate Development and Acquisitions.
He is a 1988 graduate of the University of Dayton.
John Rossman
In his national practice dedicated to the debt industry and creditors’ remedies, John Rossman shaped debt collection law in numerous landmark cases that preserved and expanded the rights of collection agencies, debt buyers, mortgage lenders, creditors, and fellow attorneys.
Additionally, John helps creditors navigate the Bankruptcy Code and courts, and represents them to secure payments and collateral, make determinations for future services, and minimize preference liability. He is chairperson of Moss & Barnett’s creditors’ remedies and bankruptcy team.
Licensed to practice in 15 courts and jurisdictions across the country, John regularly serves as counsel nationwide, both as a lead attorney and as a learned strategist for local counsel. He advises and counsels debt buyers and collection agency clients on regulatory compliance, defends them in claims and litigation, and advises them on best practices to prevent legal action.
John is a prominent commentator and thought leader on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and state regulatory laws.
In his counsel to many of the nation’s leading collection agencies and debt buyers, John works collaboratively with clients on developing an efficient and cohesive national legal strategy. He offers proprietary knowledge of proven litigation tactics and opposing counsels’ strategies, a competitive advantage he has built during his more than two decades of counsel in the collection and debt industry.
John is on the steering committee of the Consumer Relations Consortium (CRC), a national organization of larger market participant collection agencies formed by industry executives who believe that a reasonable and knowledgeable voice is needed to address both issues and solutions. In his role with the CRC, John meets quarterly in Washington, D.C., with key federal regulators and consumer groups to effect positive change for all parties.
John offers analysis and insights to credit collection groups, including DBA International and ACA International, and is a frequent speaker at annual conferences, retreats, and programs. John serves as the ACA International Members’ Attorney Program (MAP) Compliance Chair for the State of Minnesota for 2013-2015.
John received his J.D. from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
Matthew Shiflett
Matthew Shiflett is Senior Attorney for TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) and Division General Counsel for Transunion Specialized Risk Group (SRG). TransUnion is a global information solutions company that serves people, businesses and organizations around the world. SRG, a Division of Transunion, specializes in custom, scalable investigative and risk management tools, including TLOxp®, for due diligence, threat assessment, identity verification, fraud prevention and debt recovery.
Matthew advises TransUnion and SRG senior executives in legal strategy, enterprise risk management, information security, litigation management, commercial contracting, intellectual property, human resources, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to TransUnion, Matthew served as general counsel and chief compliance officer for several financial services companies in the banking, mortgage origination, mortgage securitization and mortgage servicing markets. Matthew is an experienced general counsel and compliance executive with demonstrated success in developing scalable legal and compliance departments to meet the needs of aggressive businesses that operate in highly regulated environments.
Matthew received his J.D. and M.A (Public Policy) from Regent University.
Tamara Simone
Tamara Simone is Director, Credit & Collectons for AT&T/DirecTV. Ms. Simone has 25 years broad-based experience in vendor management, call center operations, relationship management, employee administration, operational management, and client relations.
Tamara joined DIRECTV in 2000. She is currently responsible for 1st Party collections both outsourced and owned and operated. Her previous experience at DIRECTV includes customer retention and upgrade sales. Ms. Simone had prior experience in call center management for The Walt Disney Company.
Aaron Steinberg
Aaron Steinberg is the Publisher with insideARM, where he oversees marketing strategy, advertising and sponsorship sales as well as new product development. In addition, he manages the Compliance Professionals Forum, insideARM’s membership group for industry compliance officers.
insideARM serves the industry with several conferences yearly, membership groups for industry top executives as well as chief compliance officers, and daily news/analysis on industry relevant legal and regulatory developments. Prior to his time at insideARM, Aaron worked as a financial services/retail lending reporter, executive editor and conference chair.
Aaron received his B.A. in Comparative Literature and Germanic Studies from Indiana University.
Erin Stewart
Erin Stewart, Interactions Credit and Collections Practice Lead, has spent the past year leveraging her years of experience in Financial Services, Communications, and Call Center Management, to deliver innovate forward thinking ideas and solutions to assist recovery organizations with meeting compliance readiness, associate satisfaction, consumer experiences, and decreasing in delinquencies.
Erin’s high energy and passion for solving major challenges keeps her on the front line of conversations. Erin is looking forward to continuing to work with organizations to create innovate solutions across the Financial Services industry.
Erin, her husband and two children enjoy traveling, spending time at the baseball diamond, and shopping (well at least the girls do) in the Indianapolis area.
Nathan Swensen
Nathan Swensen currently serves as the Director of Loan Servicing with SoFi (Social Finance). He has been involved in both the Servicing and Collections industry for the last 16 years.
Prior to joining SoFi, he has been involved in 3rd party collections, sub-prime lending and student loan servicing. While involved with student loan servicing, Nathan oversaw internal servicing portfolios as well as the relationship with FSA, Department of Education.
Nathan received a B.A. from the University of Utah and is currently completing an MBA from Brigham Young University.
Don Taylor
Don Taylor is a recognized subject matter expert in the collection industry with 39 years of experience. He has broad experience in operations, sales and regulatory compliance with major national collection agencies. His experience in multiple markets includes student, healthcare, government, retail and financial services. Mr. Taylor has history demonstrating high performance in competitive environments, developing strategies, policies and procedures to maximize recovery. Currently, he is focused on promoting the use of electronic communications with consumers and is an industry leader in promoting the use of Virtual Agent Avatars (animated humans).in debt recovery. Mr. Taylor is a consultant to the collection industry residing in the Nashville area.
Prior to 2017, Mr. Taylor was President of Automated Collection Services, Inc. (ACSI) from 2012 – 2016 located in Nashville, TN. Prior to joining ACSI, he was worked with Array Services Group, Inc. as a Sr. VP of Sales 2011-2012, Education Assistance Services, Inc. as President 2010 to 2011, and Account Control Technology, Inc. as President from 2000 – 2009. His career started with Diversified Collection Services, Inc. (now Performant) from 1978-1999 holding multiple positions including VP/General Manager and VP Sales.
While in the U.S. Navy, Don attended Chabot College.
Adam Toporek
Adam Toporek helps organizations think differently about customer service. Adam is an internationally-recognized customer service expert, keynote speaker, and frontline trainer. He has been recognized in the call center industry as a Top Customer Experience Influencer for 2017 by Call Center Week and a Top 50 Thought Leader to Follow on Twitter by ICMI.
Adam is the author of Be Your Customer's Hero, the founder of the popular Customers That Stick® blog, and co-host of the category-leading podcast, Crack the Customer Code. Adam’s thought leadership has appeared in over 175 media outlets, and he is regularly sought out as a top customer experience expert.
Whether it be customer communication, internal communication, or frontline customer service training, Adam combines a depth of real-world experience with cutting-edge psychological principles to give organizations the insights and frontline teams the tools they need to deliver memorable customer experiences.
Adam has an MBA, is a graduate of ASU’s Center for Service Leadership Customer Experience program, and is a Net Promoter® Certified Associate. In addition to his customer experience work, Adam is an angel investor with an interest in entrepreneurs who disrupt the status quo through innovation.
Dorothea Westin
Dorothea Westin is the President of Capitol Special Risks, Inc., a mid-size Professional Liability niche professional and management liability insurance brokerage firm, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dorothea is a nationally recognized speaker, known for her ability to bring Management and Professional Liability coverages into perspective. She bridges the language gap between Insureds, Agents, Claim Adjusters and Underwriters by helping them to understand each other’s point of view. Her unique position and skill sets have allowed her the opportunity to speak to various professional organizations all across the country.
She earned a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Oglethorpe University and was licensed as a Georgia P & C agent in 1992. Since then, she’s earned several designations including Certified Insurance Counselors, Certified Risk Management, Certified Professional Insurance Woman and the Professional Liability Underwriting Society designation RPLU.
Jerry Williams
Jerry Williams currently serves as Sr. Director of Performance Improvement in Customer Management. In his current role, which he has held since March 2012, Jerry is responsible for managing the partner relationships and overall performance of our domestic and global Care contact centers.
Jerry joined Sprint in 1990. Since that time, he has held various positions of increasing responsibility, including Network Engineer, Area Technical Support Manager, Area Product Manager, Sales Account Manager, Director of Engineering and Executive Assistant to the CEO. Over the 25 years at Sprint, Jerry, his wife, Debbie, and two boys, Jeremy and Jordan, have relocated from Houston to Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta and Kansas City.
Jerry was the recipient of the Sprint Leadership Excellence Award in 2007, 2010 and 2014, which is the highest recognition available for executives at Sprint. He was a Director Leadership Series participant in 2007 at Georgetown University and also completed the 2011 – 2012 Executive Leadership Program with Duke University. Jerry also received the Career Focus Magazine Eagle Award for outstanding executive leadership in 2006, and the SCLC Black Achievers in Industry Award in 2014.
Jerry has been an Executive Sponsor for the Sprint Diamond Network (African American Employee Resource Group) since 2004. In 2003, Jerry served on the Central Contra Costa Advisory Board for the San Francisco Junior Achievement, which supports and encourages young people in business and economics from a real world perspective. In Atlanta, Jerry was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Buckhead Christian Ministries and is an ordained deacon at Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church.
Jerry holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rice University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Texas Southern University.
Grace Yeh
Grace Yeh is the Director of Business Development & Client Relations, with responsibility for brand management, sales, global strategy and corporate sponsorships. Grace is a versatile executive and client advocate with over 18+ years’ experience in established, startup contact centers.
Prior to joining Gatestone, Grace worked in strategic business development and call center operations with several Telecommunications and Outsourcing BPO companies, serving in Executive positions in Vendor Management and Customer Care Programs.
Grace’s primary focus is to build awareness about Gatestone’s capabilities among prospective clients, and to develop and maintain client relationships.