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Prosper wins Fintech Breakthrough Award, 2024 Best P2P Lending Platform

PRNewswire — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 17:00:05 +0000

Prosper Marketplace, the first peer-to-peer lending platform in the United States, announced today that it has been honored with the prestigious Fintech Breakthrough Award for Best Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform in the Consumer Lending category. The award recognizes Prosper’s outstanding contribution to revolutionizing the lending industry through its innovative peer-to-peer lending model which has helped over 1.7 million consumers advance their financial well-being with more than $27 billion in loans.

The Fintech Breakthrough Awards program recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global financial services industry. Categories include lending, personal finance, digital banking, RegTech and more.

“We are honored to receive the Fintech Breakthrough Award for Best Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform,” said David Kimball, CEO of Prosper. “This recognition is a testament to our team’s dedication to creating a seamless and efficient marketplace where borrowers can access affordable loans and retail investors can achieve attractive returns.”

Prosper’s platform leverages proprietary machine learning technology to streamline the lending process, offering borrowers personalized loan options and providing investors with diverse investment opportunities.

“We believe in the power of financial technology to democratize access to credit and investment opportunities,” added Kimball. “This award reaffirms our mission to empower individuals to achieve their financial goals through innovative lending solutions.”

With a commitment to transparency, security, and responsible lending practices, Prosper has established itself as a trusted leader in the peer-to-peer lending space. The Fintech Breakthrough Award further solidifies Prosper’s position as a pioneer in the fintech industry.

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TAB Bank promotes Terri Lins to Chief Credit Officer

GlobeNewswire — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 16:30:19 +0000

TAB Bank announced the promotion of Terri Lins as Chief Credit Officer, effective immediately. Lins has been an integral part of the TAB Bank team for more than a decade, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and Senior Credit Officer.

As Chief Credit Officer, Lins will oversee all aspects of the bank’s credit risk, including the special assets, underwriting and credit administration groups. Lins’ leadership will be instrumental in maintaining and enhancing the bank’s credit performance.

In her previous role as Senior Credit Officer, Lins played a pivotal role in the development and execution of TAB Bank’s Credit Program, establishing and adhering to high standards and procedures that contributed to the bank’s excellent credit quality. Her credit analysis and risk management expertise drove strategic initiatives and enhanced the credit portfolio.

“Terri Lins is a mentor to many members of our credit team and has been instrumental in shaping and implementing credit policies, ensuring sound credit decisions,” said Tyler Heap, President at TAB Bank. “She demonstrates exceptional leadership, underwriting expertise, portfolio analysis skills and a commitment to customer service. Terri will continue to deliver outstanding results in supporting the bank’s mission to ‘lift and empower’ our customers.”

Lins brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to her new position. As Director of Corporate Credit at TAB Bank, she led the underwriting department, refining credit strategies and playing a pivotal role in corporate credit decision-making. As a Senior Underwriter for TAB, she honed her skills in evaluating creditworthiness, conducting risk assessments and structuring financial deals. Before joining TAB Bank, Lins was Director of Syndicated Asset-Based Lending at Washington Mutual.

“I feel fortunate to be a part of the TAB Bank team, where I have helped shape our ABL group alongside some very talented colleagues,” Lins said. “I look forward to continuing to build on TAB’s culture of excellent credit quality to move the bank forward.”

Outside of her corporate duties, Lins serves on the Finance Committee of the YWCA Utah. She started and coached the first chapter of Girls on the Run at her children’s school—a fun, evidence-based program that inspires all girls to build their confidence, kindness and decision-making skills. Lins has also volunteered in various capacities at a local elementary and middle school, including volunteering for multiple years as the head coach for the girls’ basketball teams.

Lins holds an active CPA License and received her B.A. from Austin Collage and her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

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Scienaptic AI integrates with Loan Director from Fiserv

BusinessWire — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:00:21 +0000

Scienaptic AI, a leading global AI-powered credit underwriting platform provider, announced its integration with Loan Director from Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial technology solutions. With this integration, users of Loan Director, a full-function consumer and business loan origination system, can seamlessly access Scienaptic’s advanced AI-powered signals for underwriting.

Loan Director is an open-architecture loan origination system that allows financial institutions to serve borrowers who increasingly expect on-demand, real-time digital services. The partnership will increase the adoption of AI for lending and give more members access to fair, inclusive credit.

Scienaptic recently successfully deployed its AI credit decisioning platform at SECU, Maryland’s largest credit union. As part of the deployment, Scienaptic’s AI platform has been seamlessly integrated with SECU’s Loan Origination System (LOS), Loan Director.

Kevin Kesecker, EVP and Chief Administrative Officer of SECU said, “Our vision remains to drive greater financial inclusion and provide a better experience for the community we serve. Scienaptic’s AI underwriting platform, in combination with Loan Director, is helping us actualize this vision. It enables us to approve more applicants at the margins, support financial inclusiveness, allows underwriters to spend more of their time on personalizing offers, improves our portfolio risk profile, and automates our loan decisioning process, leading to a significant reduction in application turnaround times.”

“AI is transforming the lending landscape, and our collaboration with Scienaptic enables our clients to integrate AI seamlessly into their lending processes, promoting intelligent, automated decision-making. Beyond improving efficiency, AI will assist our clients in enhancing customer experience, increasing approval rates, and broadening the scope of credit accessibility,” said Jeffrey Vander Linden, vice president of Digital Deposit and Lending at Fiserv.

Pankaj Jain, Co-Founder & President of Scienaptic AI, said, “Our partnership with Fiserv removes the integration hurdles that have prevented lenders from implementing AI. This partnership will increase the adoption of AI and allow more consumers to access credit. By working together, we will be able to drive faster and smarter loan signals for financial institutions and empower them to say “yes” more often to their members and customers.”

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Sound Capital announces Robb Kenyon as New President

PRNewswire — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 14:00:59 +0000

Sound Capital, a leader in private real estate lending, is thrilled to announce the promotion of Robb Kenyon to President. With an impressive career spanning over 30 years in finance, especially in mortgage and construction financing, Kenyon is poised to lead Sound Capital toward unprecedented growth, with a special focus on the evolving needs of home builders.

Kenyon has a storied career with notable positions at Seattle Mortgage, Countrywide, and Bank of America. His leadership has been crucial in guiding companies through acquisitions and expanding into home building. Since joining Sound Capital in 2018, his passion for construction and innovative financing solutions has significantly contributed to the company’s growth and leadership in new construction lending.

Under Kenyon’s guidance, Sound Capital is set to expand its services and further establish itself as the preferred financial ally for midsize home builders in rapidly expanding U.S. markets. Targeting builders facing challenges with traditional bank lending, Sound Capital offers adaptable, profitable financing options to speed construction timelines and boost client profitability.

“I’m deeply honored to assume the President role at Sound Capital,” Kenyon remarked. “It’s a chance to leverage our team’s capabilities and creativity to better meet our clients’ needs, always prioritizing their requirements in our operations.”

Kenyon will spearhead Sound Capital deepening its commitment to exceptional service and broadening its support to more home builders. His dedication to home building and understanding of builders’ entrepreneurial spirit uniquely equip him to lead Sound Capital into a future as a vital contributor to the construction industry.

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Mortgage Loan Buybacks Continuing to Impact Mortgage Industry

Tyler Brown — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 12:30:42 +0000

The spike in loan buybacks and repurchase requests is a heated topic in the mortgage industry today. Lenders claim the GSEs (government-sponsored enterprises) are becoming more aggressive in their loan assessments. Other industry players suggest that the recent wave of loan buybacks is due to economic factors rather than changes to GSE underwriting processes.

No matter the reason for the increase in defective loans, one thing is sure: the volume of loan repurchase requests is creating a significant challenge for lenders of all sizes already contending with high inflation, high interest rates, and low origination.

In the last year alone, mortgage rates have nearly doubled while originations hit record lows. These economic adversities burden lenders struggling to add repurchased loans back to their balance sheets. Buybacks can be particularly adverse for smaller lenders not financially equipped to handle loan repurchases.

Why the sudden increase?

The uptick in loan repurchase requests may be partially attributed to increased focus on review and enforcement of defects during a period of lower loan volume in 2023. From 2020 to 2021, mortgage rates were extremelylow, with high volumes, and the mortgage market favored refinance loans. Fast forward to today, and the housing landscape has shifted from a refinance to a purchase market.

With the high volume of recent originations came an increase in underwriting errors. Some of the most common errors that trigger loan buybacks include undisclosed debt, issues with income verification, missing documentation, and incorrect employment verifications. GSEs are allowed to request buybacks for mortgages for up to three years after the loan is originated.

According to Freddie Mac, defects in mortgages of home purchases were found at a higher rate than in refinances. Defects found in purchase mortgages rose late in 2022, with repurchase requests reaching a high in 2023. According to Freddie Mac, purchase mortgages have nearly 35% more defects than refinances.

In 2024, focusing on loan quality needs to be on every mortgage lender’s radar.

Using Verifications of Income and Employment (VOIE) early in the lending process

From now on, lenders must utilize tools like third-party verifications of income and employment (VOIE) to reduce risk and potentially avoid defective loans. Although automation can help streamline the mortgage lending process, lenders may wait until too late in the mortgage lending cycle to pull VOIE.

To get the most out of instant and automated VOIE, mortgage lenders ideally would pull a VOI at the start of an application, a VOE during the underwriting and decision-making process, and then another VOE when the mortgage loan is being closed.

Solutions like instant employment and income verifications can assist lenders in securely obtaining accurate and up-to-date information. Lenders who want to ensure the quality of their loans must take a holistic approach that leverages relevant data at every stage of the lending process. This, coupled with automated income and employment verifications, helps improve the borrower and lender experience.

Limiting Manual Processes

Relying on manual processes to verify income and employment can increase the chance of loans having defects. Successful lenders would be wise to adopt a standardized loan decision framework where income and employment data come from a single source.

When and how automated income and employment verifications are utilized can significantly impact the mortgage application process. An absence of speed and consistency can cause fissures between borrowers and lenders and, more importantly, lead to loan repurchase requests.

Mortgage lenders that let go of their reliance on paper-based income and employment verifications in favor of a data-backed automated process can expect to be more confident in lending and potentially reduce loan default rates. Moreover, effectively utilizing automated VOIE may alleviate the uncertainties of relying solely on paper-based processes.

Automated VOIE can also help mitigate errors when determining applicants’ loan repayment propensity, minimizing the risk of triggering a loan repayment. Lenders that utilize built-in decisioning criteria with every loan backed by data can reduce costs, labor, errors, and other oversights. As an approved data provider of the GSE data validation programs, verifications from The Work Number® by Equifax may help credentialed lenders mitigate the risk of repurchase threats.

The issue of loan buybacks will continue to impact the mortgage industry. Now more than ever, it’s essential that mortgage lenders look for solutions that can provide a reliable and accurate way to verify income and employment while ensuring that originated loans are of good quality.

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Tyler Brown, Alliance Manager, Equifax Workforce Solutions

Tyler Brown serves as alliance manager for Equifax Workforce Solutions. He has more than 13 years of experience in the mortgage industry. He works closely with mortgage lenders, regulators and other industry stakeholders to bring forth mutually beneficial data-driven solutions, fueling the opportunity for American consumers to better their financial lives. His efforts have helped to broaden homeownership opportunities by showing lenders the value of income and employment verifications, even in a volatile market.

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FinTech Interview with Shelby Austin- Co- founder and CEO and Abrar Huq, Co- founder and CRO at Arteria AI

FTB News Desk — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 13:30:19 +0000

Discover the consequences of neglecting meticulous record-keeping and understand why it’s crucial for sustained success in the financial industry.

Shelby Austin, Co-founder and CEO, Arteria Al

Abrar Huq, Co-founder and CRO, Arteria AI

Shelby and Abrar, could you kindly share your professional journey and involvement in developing Arteria AI, emphasizing the significance of data and documentation in the banking industry?

Shelby: I was first inspired by the documentation opportunity while I was a partner (many years ago) at one of the “Seven Sister” Canadian law firms. I specialized in M&A and litigation and saw thousands of documents be printed and put into folders for due diligence and document reviews. Large teams of lawyers would then sift through everything, pencils in hand, without the use of technology. This was so crazy to me – so I left the partnership and solo founded my first startup, with Abrar as one of my first employees, that combined early principles of data and technology with innovative organizational design to run large-scale due diligence processes.

The growth was meteoric and we were acquired by Deloitte. I always joke that if I wasn’t pregnant with my first child then I may have done something more with it, but the acquisition kicked off an amazing ride at Deloitte. With Abrar’s help, I ran several portfolios for Deloitte including data, analytics, growth, innovation and AI, and it was during that time where we met our other co-founder, Jonathan Wong.

At some stage we realized we weren’t quite finished with documentation, and there was a burning need on the industry side for an enterprise-grade solution. There were a few players in the market that were largely focused on making corporate legal and procurement functions more efficient, but nothing that supported the documentation pain points of the business. This was particularly relevant in financial services.

So, we started building something inside of Deloitte, incubated it for a couple of years, and then spun it out into a now wholly independent startup (Arteria). Financial services has always been our core area of focus, and we’re super proud to work with some of the largest institutions in the world.

Considering the pivotal role of documentation in the banking industry, could you elaborate on why it’s so imperative for banks to prioritize data and documentation? What consequences might arise from neglecting this vital aspect?

Nearly every critical process in a financial institution is underpinned by a series of documents (i.e., booking a trade, originating a loan, onboarding a new client, etc.). It’s estimated that approximately 90% of data inside an enterprise is unstructured, and less than 1% of data is used in decision-making. Typically, the most relevant medium for unstructured data is in the document.

Information becomes static as soon as it moves into the document, which forces the overall process to become very manually intensive (think: email-driven workflows, CTRL+F for previous language, manual data entry, etc.). As a result, core business processes are hamstrung – very limited data is used in decision-making and end-to-end automation is not possible.

Could you provide insights into how challenges with unstructured data impact financial institutions? Why is it crucial for them to address these challenges, especially in the current regulatory environment?

It’s probably helpful to first understand how documentation infrastructure addresses the unstructured data problem. Arteria’s north star is to be data-first, meaning we digitize the document (i.e., structure its data) at the onset. A data model is applied automatically if we are generating a document, and if the document already exists, we use to append one – in either case, the data model continues to update as the document evolves, meaning we understand what’s inside the document at all times. As a result, we can serve up insights to augment decision-making, drive intelligent automation, and enable real-time transparency into the documentation portfolio.

In terms of regulatory, the combination of new requirements and the ever-growing complexity of products and business processes creates a significant pain point in reporting. Almost always, the document is the golden source of information, and its data must be structured in order for it to be useful to core systems and processes (such as reporting). This is currently done by manual data entry processes which are expensive, inefficient, and limited in scope.

With documentation infrastructure, data seamlessly flows out of the document and reporting is available in real time, ensuring the institution can respond quickly to regulatory requests and monitor obligations.

Moreover, if there is a regulatory event that triggers repapering, the process is completely streamlined as the data already exists in the documentation portfolio.

Of course, the regulatory angle extends beyond reporting and repapering alone, and specific compliance initiatives can often be augmented by documentation. For example, the industry’s move to T+1 requires end-to-end efficiency in the post-trade lifecycle. This is a hot use case for us, as automating the documentation in post-trade adds significant gains to process-level efficiency.

In your opinion, how can banks effectively leverage AI to address the prevalent issue of unstructured data? What specific benefits might an AI-driven approach bring to modernizing documentation infrastructure in the banking sector?

Historically, there have been different vendors for digitizing documentation (i.e., using AI models to structure document data) and managing the generation and workflow around documentation. To the end user, the distinction is minimal – whether or not a document already exists, the capability set that drives automation and intelligence should be the same. The capability to ingest an existing document, stack a data model, and drive digitization in the documentation layer is where our clients are getting the most value with AI. In particular, models must be able to work with longer form documents that have complexity in order to be widely applicable across an institution.

There is also the element of configuring the platform. Arteria has a no-code module that enables functional business users with the tools to effectively self-implement without requiring technical expertise. We are using AI to further drive down time to value by automating Arteria’s configuration.

How does the implementation of AI in documentation processes contribute to revenue enhancement, improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness, enhanced risk management, and informed decision-making for financial institutions?

AI-enabled documentation infrastructure is effectively a layer to connect documentation, a core part of nearly every process, to the automation lifecycle at an institution.

This drives automation and intelligence to all involved stakeholders to increase efficiency at a process level.

The business value varies by use case, but typically falls into speed, capital efficiency, risk controls and client experience. In trading onboarding, for example, documentation infrastructure automates document generation, accelerated negotiation from intelligent workflow tools, and the seamless flow of data between documents and core systems. The result is reduced time to trade (i.e., faster time to revenue), decreased operational cost, standardized risk controls and full visibility into the document portfolio. It’s also one of the first and most important touchpoints between the institution and the client, so speed adds significant value from a client service perspective.

In commercial lending, the origination process requires several documents to be created at different points of the workflow, each building on the previous document. The ability to automatically generate the next document using the data from the last significantly increases efficiency, which is particularly important as this is a front-office activity.

On a personal level, could you kindly share some strategies you employ to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving field of AI and data management?

Staying on top of the latest technology and techniques is critical, especially because the rate of change in AI is so fast. We are fortunate to have an incredible Head of Data Science, Dr. Amir Hajian, who is a PhD from Princeton and ran science at Thomson Reuters. He and his team monitor the latest developments in AI on a daily basis, and he makes sure we are approaching AI with the latest techniques and thinking. We also invest in research that is relevant to financial services documentation. As an example, we are thrilled that a research paper that we wrote at Arteria has recently been accepted into a leading AI conference. Our clients trust us to be strong thought leadership partners in the space. We have a real responsibility not just to be up to speed on the latest trends, but also to work on solutions to problems the scientific community hasn’t quite figured out yet.

For professionals entering AI or data management, what personal advice would you offer to help them navigate challenges and contribute meaningfully to the industry?

The AI ecosystem looks much different now than it did when we entered the space. One strategic approach that has stood the test of time is the importance of a tangible value proposition. We strongly believe that AI-focused businesses need to be anchored in business value. It’s easy to get sucked into research for research’s sake – AI must be deployed to solve specific problems that drive tangible business value for clients. All businesses will eventually fail if there isn’t a market for the solution.

As pioneers in AI-driven documentation, what future trends do you foresee in how banks manage their data and documentation, and how can they prepare for these evolving dynamics?

Documentation infrastructure will follow a similar cycle as previous significant enterprise technologies in that it will soon become table stakes. The problem set is ubiquitous to every part of the institution. In terms of preparation, it’s critical that institutions evaluate vendors for applicability across the enterprise. Having unique widgets cover specific documentation use cases may work in the short-term, but in time, tech stacks will consolidate and the players who chose enterprise-grade software from the onset will be ahead of the pack. It’s also critical to have the right people at the table when evaluating potential solutions. In almost every case, documentation infrastructure has a front-office value proposition, so business users should have a strong say when it comes to evaluation.

In conclusion, could you both share any final thoughts or key takeaways regarding the transformative impact of AI on documentation infrastructure in the banking sector and its broader implications for the industry?

The only thing I’ll add on top of what we’ve already covered is the size of the opportunity. Financial institutions have gone through several waves of digital transformations, and nearly every one has focused on systems and processes with structured data. New capabilities that extend the transformation to unstructured parts of the institution have created a vast opportunity of untapped value. McKinsey estimates that there is a $20 trillion tech-enabled value creation opportunity in banking alone, and we strongly believe that unstructured data will be a critical factor in the next iteration of change.

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Sagent appoints Chris Marshall Executive Chairman

BusinessWire — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:30:57 +0000

Sagent, a Warburg Pincus-backed fintech software company modernizing mortgage servicing for banks and lenders, appointed Chris Marshall as Executive Chairman, effective immediately. In this role, Marshall will work closely with Sagent’s executive team to deliver the $13 trillion mortgage servicing industry’s first and only cloud-native software platform in 2024.

Marshall first joined Sagent’s Board of Directors in 2022 as part of a multi-year agreement with Mr. Cooper Group (“Mr. Cooper”). As Executive Chairman, Marshall will oversee strategy to deliver on Sagent’s vision for the future of mortgage servicing.

“Mortgage servicing is the last and toughest mile of mortgage industry modernization, and Sagent’s technology, team, and industry expertise make it the best software partner for America’s servicers,” said Chris Marshall. “Sagent’s new platform will streamline processes and dramatically lower operating costs for servicers, while significantly improving customer experience.”

Chris has been Vice Chairman and President of Mr. Cooper, announced his intent to retire last year, and will transition out of his role leading Mr. Cooper’s businesses at the end of January. He will continue to lead efforts to raise capital for Mr. Cooper’s first MSR fund while shifting his focus to Sagent and the success of its customers. During his time with Mr. Cooper, Marshall led several initiatives to strengthen the company’s balance sheet, accelerate growth, and improve efficiencies across the company.

“With his extensive experience and proven track record of success, Chris will keep Sagent in the lead on innovating the lending and homeownership experience for America’s top mortgage players,” said Sagent CEO Dan Sogorka. “With Chris’ leadership, Sagent will enable servicers to realize their vision of a single data and user experience across their entire operations.”

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Finfra and CareNow to enhance healthcare accessibility in Indonesia

Finfra — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 12:04:41 +0000

Finfra, the lending infrastructure provider that operates in Indonesia (together with its licensed peer-to-peer lending affiliate Danabijak), has announced a new partnership with the Indonesia branch of health tech platform CareNow. This country-wide partnership enabled the full integration of Finfra’s Payment Solutions product into CareNow’s Indonesian platform. In expanding medical financing options for users, this integration directly bolsters CareNow’s overarching commitment to make healthcare more affordable and accessible to patients throughout Indonesia.

This partnership is already working to the benefit of CareNow’s Indonesian customer base, who use the platform to connect with clinics, dentists, and healthcare providers. Lack of financial and payment flexibility, however, has proven to be a serious roadblock for many people when seeking the medical care they need to live their healthiest lives. Many patients in more precarious economic situations have been forced to avoid getting the care they need due to their financial constraints, which is exactly the problem this instalment integration and partnership aims to help solve.

Rather than try to build a new payment infrastructure from scratch – a process that would require several years, additional developers, and cost upwards of $5 million based on current market dynamics – CareNow reached out to Finfra to partner on the integration of Finfra’s sophisticated Payment Solutions product. Working together, Finfra adjusted its highly customisable and white-labelled product to meet CareNow’s specific needs. Instead of embarking on a years-long process, CareNow was able to roll out this essential new benefit to customers in a matter of weeks. Now CareNow users can access the medical treatment and healthcare services they need whenever they need them, and pay for those treatments in installments over an extended time period.

Finfra’s recognized expertise specific to credit scoring and risk management in the highly regulated Indonesia financial services sector was crucial to the success of this partnership. In addition, CareNow chose to partner with Finfra not only because of its state-of-the-art technology and experienced team, but also because Finfra’s affiliate Danabijak is licensed by Indonesia’s financial services authorities (OJK). This means that CareNow’s new Payment Solutions product is fully compliant with federal financial regulations, shoring up overall company stability and investor confidence.

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JG Wentworth appoints Jason Tepperman as President & Head of Lending

PRNewswire — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:30:58 +0000

Industry leading consumer financial services company JG Wentworth announced it has appointed Jason Tepperman as its President and Head of Lending effective September 11^th, 2023. Mr. Tepperman will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Randi Sellari.

Mr. Tepperman is a proven financial services leader, with two decades of experience in lending and specialty finance. In this role, he will oversee all aspects of JG Wentworth’s consumer lending business, including product development, origination, servicing, credit and risk, and capital markets.

Mr. Tepperman brings to the company deep expertise in credit management, with a strong track record of building multiple lending businesses from the ground up. Prior to joining JG Wentworth, Mr. Tepperman was the first Chief Lending Officer of Caribou Financial, a leading consumer lending fintech. Earlier, he served as Managing Partner of specialty lender IntraFi Local Credit and worked in the U.S. Department of the Treasury as part of its 2008 financial crisis response.

Mr. Tepperman is a graduate of Yale University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

“JG Wentworth has an iconic brand with a rich legacy and longstanding commitment to innovation,” said Mr. Tepperman. “I look forward to working with this world class team to build a next-generation lending business that delivers responsible, high quality financial products to consumers in a truly differentiated way.”

Randi Sellari, Chief Executive Officer of The JG Wentworth Company, shared her thoughts on this strategic addition, stating, “With the addition of consumer lending, JG Wentworth expands its addressable audience of customers significantly, while giving more Americans the ability to positively impact their finances. Jason’s addition is a great catalyst in that process. He has built and led extraordinarily successful lending operations in the past, and we are pleased to welcome him to our team.”

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Tiger Group announced first four members of Board of Advisors

PRNewswire — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 17:30:22 +0000

Tiger Group, which provides asset-valuation, advisory, disposition, financial and lending services to a wide array of companies, announced the first four members of its newly launched Board of Advisors.

The board members, who provide advice and counsel but are not involved in Tiger’s day-to-day operations, held their inaugural meeting on August 29. They are Elaine Hughes, Irene Marks, Michael P. Muldowney and Daniel R. Schwarzwalder.

“Elaine, Irene, Michael and Daniel are respected subject matter experts with an impressive breadth of experience in areas such as banking, retail, talent acquisition, corporate strategy and supply-chain logistics,” said Dan Kane, cofounder and Managing Member of Tiger Group. “As we seize new opportunities in a time of rapid change, their counsel is already proving to be an invaluable resource.”

In addition to providing fresh, deeply informed perspectives on emerging issues and trends, board members leverage their extensive industry relationships to support Tiger’s growth and evolution, added Michael McGrail, Chief Operating Officer.

“Relationships are the heart of our business and company,” he said. “A great many of Tiger Group’s most creative and productive initiatives have started with a simple conversation. Exposing our team to the Advisory Board members and their business contacts is just a tremendous opportunity for Tiger.”

The Tiger Group Advisory Board:

Elaine Hughes, who founded E.A. Hughes & Company in 1991, brings decades of experience as a strategy and executive recruiting consultant for top retailers and consumer products companies. Earlier in her career, she gained extensive experience in the textile industry, through positions at Springs Industries, Malden Mills and Blue Ridge Winkler. A frequent source for national business media, Hughes serves on the board of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business of Fairfield University and is a three-term board member of Women in Management, where she initiated The WIM Scholarship Fund and the WIM Mentorship Program. Hughes serves on the advisory Board for Broadcrest Asset Management and Spring Creative (the former Springs Mills) and is on the Board of Directors for The Wilson College of Textiles (part of NC State), Runway of Dreams in NYC and Turning Point, the largest facility in Union County housing women escaping domestic violence. She also served on the advisory board of the Global Fashion Management program at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s School of Graduate Studies and was a founding member of the New York Textile Group, formerly known as the New York Textile Board of Trade. A long-term member of Fashion Group, she also belonged to the American Apparel & Footwear Association.

Irene Rosen Marks brings over 35 years of banking experience, including 25 years working with retail and consumer products companies in roles in sales, underwriting, credit and relationship management. She recently retired as a Managing Director and head of Consumer and Retail Corporate Banking at Wells Fargo. Additionally, her past positions include leading retail finance originations for Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Over the course of her career, Marks has led diverse teams and managed a broad portfolio of clients—from healthy to distressed, and from startup to large cap and investment grade. She has been heavily involved in multiple M&A transactions, as well as management issues related to strategy-setting, compliance and regulatory reporting, recruiting and retention, and DE&I.

Michael P. Muldowney is founder and managing member of advisory firm Foxford Capital LLC and managing member of Waterville Investment Partners. As senior managing director and CFO of Gordon Brothers Group from 2014 to 2018, he served on the four-person executive and investments committee, oversaw the appraisal division, and worked with all business units on initiatives related to finance, corporate strategy, human capital, IT, and facilities. Muldowney led the successful investment in the company by Stone Point Capital in April 2018. He serves on the board of Veritiv Corporation and is a board advisor to Botho Emerging Markets Group. Muldowney was EVP/CFO and interim CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (formerly Houghton Mifflin), where he led the company’s $4 billion acquisition of Harcourt as well as a successful $7.4 billion out-of-court restructuring. He ran and helped found Nextera Enterprises, and, earlier in his career, filled partner and/or executive roles at Oliver Wyman and Marsh & McLennan Companies.

Daniel R. Schwarzwalder is a retired senior managing director and senior partner, having spent over twenty years at Buckingham Capital Management. Mr. Schwarzwalder was responsible for the consumer hedge fund specializing in the retail, apparel and footwear industry.

He also brings to Tiger more than 26 years of retail industry experience. He was a senior merchant and member of management at Abraham & Straus, a division of Federated Department Stores. In addition, he served as President and CEO of Mothercare Stores Inc. and Chernin’s Shoes. Schwarzwalder earned a B.A. in mathematics from Queens College of the City University of New York as well as an M.B.A. in marketing from The Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania.

He serves on the boards of the Retail Marketing Society and Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retailing Center. In addition, he is a member of the executive board of The Weill Cornell Council of New York Presbyterian Hospital and on the national board of American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA).

Moving forward, McGrail noted, Tiger will continue to grow its Advisory Board by tapping experienced, successful veterans from the worlds of law, banking/ABL, retail, wholesale, PE/hedge funds and turnaround/restructuring.

“We’re looking for diversity of thought and experience based on board members’ varied careers and lifelong network relationships,” the COO said. “For Tiger, this powerful brain trust is just another way for us to maximize our performance and pursue new opportunities in everything we do.”

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