Logo -Independents Section
Independents Conference and Exposition
Logo - American Financial Services Association
Open Dealer Exchange

Speakers

Danielle Fagre Arlowe
Michael Benoit
Nathan Benson
Christopher Bosch
Charles Boyle
Mary D. Carolan
Marty Chapman
Adam Curtin
William C. Dunkelberg
Robert E. Eash
Jeff Galle
Ronald D. Gorsline
Bill Himpler
Terry M. Keating
Morris R. Marshburn
A. Alexander (Sandy) Mclean III
Bruce Miller
Dick Morris
Gary Phillips
Ken Venturi
Komnieve Singh
Christopher Stinebert
Marguerite Watanabe


Danielle Fagre Arlowe

Danielle Fagre Arlowe is Senior Vice President of State Government Affairs for the American Financial Services Association (AFSA), the national trade association for the consumer credit and finance industry. Founded in 1916, AFSA's nearly 400 active member companies, which account for approximately $350 billion in outstanding consumer receivables, include auto finance companies, credit card issuers, mortgage lenders, and large and small consumer finance companies.

Prior to joining AFSA in late 2003, Ms. Fagre was Director of Government Affairs and Legislative Counsel for credit card issuer Metris Companies in Minnesota, where she developed and executed the company's legislative and regulatory strategy, its new law compliance program and oversaw its Political Action Committee.

Prior to joining Metris, she was an associate with two Washington, DC law firms, Venable LLP and O'Connor & Hannan, LLP. As counsel under senior partners Thomas H. Quinn and Timothy Jenkins, she represented banks and major U.S. financial institutions, lobbying on their behalf in Congress on consumer privacy, bankruptcy, telemarketing, Internet and emerging technology policy, antitrust, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and other legislative initiatives related to banking and financial institutions. She also worked with Fortune 500 corporations in various industries on government ethics, corporate federal gift rules, campaign finance and election law, lobbyist registration and disclosure compliance.

Ms. Fagre was born and raised in Minneapolis. She holds a B.A. in Politics and Government from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and she earned her J.D, cum laude, from American University in Washington, DC. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland (inactive), Washington DC and Minnesota.

She lives near Minneapolis with her husband, Steve Arlowe and their daughters, Ruby and Josephine.

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Michael Benoit

Partner
Hudson Cook, LLP

Michael A. Benoit is a partner in the Washington DC office of Hudson Cook, LLP. He advises banks, sales finance companies, auto leasing companies, mortgage lenders, auto dealers, and other creditors and technology providers on a wide range of consumer financial services law, including the Truth In Lending Act and Regulation Z, the Consumer Leasing Act and Regulation M, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and the USA Patriot Act. In addition, his practice covers matters involving federal and state laws relating to electronic commerce and online lending, privacy, fair lending, telemarketing, personal and real property financing, and leasing and collection practices

Mavent Inc., Irvine, California, 2005 - 2006. Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary.
Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, LLP, Cleveland, Ohio, 1993-1997.
Professional Musician, 1978 - 1990.

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Nathan Benson

Chief Executive Officer
Tidewater Finance Company
& Independents Section Chairman (2005-06)

Nathan D. Benson is the chief executive officer for Tidewater Finance Company, Inc. in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He also serves as chief financial officer of Tidewater’s parent company, the Sandler group, which provide funds to various Sandler entities doing business in the following fields: Residential Land Development, Commercial Land Development, Home Building, Consumer Finance Credit, Seafood Trading. Nathan joined the Sandler group and Tidewater Finance in 1979 and previous to that, he practiced as a CPA in Virginia Beach and Cape Town, South Africa. Nathan graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1977.

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Christopher Bosch

Manager
McGladrey & Pullen

Summary of Experience
Chris, a manager in the Raleigh office, has been an employee of McGladrey & Pullen since 2005. Chris has more than 10 years of public accounting experience. His client focus has been solely within the financial services industries since joining McGladrey & Pullen.

Chris is responsible for overseeing various finance service company engagements and supervising multiple staff throughout the year. His expertise includes performing financial statement audits and reviews, as well as collateral reviews on behalf of the various lenders within the industry.

Professional Affiliations
    American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
    North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants
                Young CPA Cabinet, alumnus
    American Financial Services Association
                Assist with annual compilation of financial statements

Education
    Bachelor of Science, accounting - University of Maryland

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Charles Boyle

Analytic Science Principal Consultant
FICO

Charles currently serves as Director of Analytic Science within FICO's Global Business Consulting Group within Professional Services. He joined Fair Isaac in February 2008 and serves in a Global Engagement Manager role. Charles is responsible for the management and delivery of analytic engagements for strategic clients. He has served on a variety of predictive science, decision management optimization and analytics roadmap assessment projects covering the marketing analytics, originations, account management and collection & recovery decisions areas. His engagements have included specific analytic solutions such as predictive scorecard modelling for originations and behaviour scoring, analytic assessments and segmentation modelling for retail clients, strategy optimization for credit line management, deployment and execution of enhanced analytics for marketing, originations and account management, and collection and recovery. www.fico.com

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Mary D. Carolan

Senior Vice President
Universal Training

Mary Carolan is a Senior Consultant and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Universal Training, a provider of made-to-order learning solutions for companies in financial services, healthcare, and many other industries. Mary has been an active participant in the American Financial Services Association (AFSA) since joining Universal Training in 1985. Over the years, she has been a member of the Associate Members Advisory Committee, the Human Resources Committee, the Independents Section Advisory Board, and the AFSA Education Foundation Board.

Mary has been a frequent presenter at AFSA-sponsored meetings and conferences and also a frequent speaker at credit and collections conferences across the country. She has written or been quoted in a variety of management and human resource trade publications. She co-authored "Call Monitoring: The Key to Call Center Success," an essay outlining the steps to achieving call center success through call monitoring and coaching. She also wrote a comprehensive historical and current profile of training in the call center industry.

Mary was born in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated cum laude from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Mary studied and worked in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain for two years where she taught English as a second language. She received an M.A. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Illinois in 2006 and is a member of the Faculty of the College of Lake County, Illinois. Mary resides in Lake Forest, Illinois with her husband, John Doyle.

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Marty Chapman

Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
American Lending Solutions


With 30 plus years in management of both collection agencies and automotive financing companies, Marty is well known as a troubleshooter and turn-around specialist. He has spent his career taking firms from start-up phase to industry leaders, and taking companies with problems and returning them to health. His background includes a stint as the CEO of a 300 seat collection agency, and taking an established sub-prime finance company with over $150MM in lending from 30-day delinquencies of 15% to 2% in just six months. Today, he is the COO of American Lending Solutions, providing repo management, location and repossession of deep skips (dusty files), skip tracing, management consulting, and many other services to the collections and financing industry.

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Adam Curtin

Adam Curtin is a Vice President for Milestone Partners, a middle market private equity firm which he joined in 2003. Mr. Curtin's responsibilities at Milestone include: sourcing and screening investment opportunities, conducting due diligence, negotiating acquisitions and working with portfolio companies post-acquisition. Mr. Curtin has primary oversight responsibility for portfolio companies Dydacomp, Good Health Natural Products and Mariner Finance. Mr. Curtin's present board directorships include: Mariner Finance, Global Connection, Safemark Systems, Dydacomp and Good Health Natural Products. Prior to joining Milestone Partners, Mr. Curtin worked in the Investment Banking Division of Merrill Lynch in New York, where he worked as a financial analyst in both the Consumer Products and High Yield groups. Mr. Curtin graduated Summa Cum Laude from The Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Minor in Economics.

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William C. Dunkelberg

515 Sabine Circle
Wynnewood, PA. 19096
[215] 204-6686 or [610] 642-6473

Currently Professor of Economics in the College of Literature and Arts , Temple University, where he served as Dean of the School of Business and Management from 1987 through 1994 and as Director of the Center for the Advancement and Study of Entrepreneurship. He currently serves as Chief Economist for the National Federation of Independent Business (400,000 member firms; since 1971) and as Economic Strategist, Boenning & Scattergood. His prior appointments were at the Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. He has a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Dunkelberg is a nationally known authority on small business, entrepreneurship, consumer behavior and consumer credit and government policy. He was reported by the New York Times to be one of four final candidates for Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1981, served as an advisor to the Secretary of Commerce, and was appointed to the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve System in 1989 [2 year term]. He is a past president and a Fellow of the National Association for Business Economics [NABE] and was awarded the Abramson Award for the best paper in 2009. He was appointed to the Census Advisory Committee representing the American Economic Association in 1992 and again in 1995 (serving as chair) and served on the board of The National Bureau of Economic Research from 1996 to 1999. He is an elected member of the Conference of Business Economists (and chairman in 2003) and the National Business Economic Issues Council and the first recipient of the Small Business Administration's Research Advocate of the Year award. In 2008, the Haas School of Business (Center for Executive Education) at the University of California Berkeley honored him with their Leading Through Innovation Executive Award.

Dr. Dunkelberg has presented expert testimony before the U.S. House and Senate on consumer credit, inflation, tax reform, the minimum wage, small business, electronic funds transfer systems, energy efficiency standards, health care and monetary and fiscal policy. He has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, MSNBC, the ABC, CBS and NBC Evening News programs, Good Morning America, and numerous local news and business TV and radio shows. He is frequently quoted in major news publications including the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, USA Today, Time, and Newsweek and serves on the economic forecasting panels for USA Today, Business Week and Bloomberg and as an economic consultant to ABC News. He has authored and co-authored numerous books and articles and writes a monthly small business economic report for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB.com/research). He had his own radio show on WPHT 1210 AM Philadelphia every Sunday for 2 years and his editorials were carried by KYW NEWS RADIO for over 15 years until 2007.

His board service includes NCO Group (1999-2006,private equity deal), Liberty Bell Bank (Founder, 2002, Chairman of the Board, 2005-), Advanta Corp.(1989-2001), Active-e Solutions (sold to Neoware 12/01), Penn Fishing Tackle Mfg. (sold 12/02), Made4me.com (a founder, dba Intellifit.com), Ensoniq Corporation (sold to Creative Labs), the Global Interdependence Center (Chair), the Credit Research Center (George Washington University), the Commonwealth Foundation, the International Visitors Council, The Ben Franklin Innovation Investment Advisory Committee, the National Economist Club (2001), the Javie Foundation for Charity, the Laboratory for Student Success, Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Delaware Valley, and the Pennsylvania Council on Economic Education. Dr. Dunkelberg served as a regional judge for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program for 14 years, a national judge in 2001 and 2003, and as a member of the board of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. He served as a member of the Quality of Markets Committee for the Philadelphia Stock Exchange until its sale to NASDQ in 2008.

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Robert E. Eash

Managing Director, Audit Partner
O 919.645.6828
F 919.781.9270
bob.eash@rsmi.com

Summary of Experience
Bob is responsible for managing audit engagement teams, resolving audit and accounting issues, maintaining client relations and resolving financial reporting matters including SEC matters. He serves clients in the manufacturing, distribution and financial services industry.

Bob advises clients with mergers and acquisitions, asset based lending due diligence, internal control structure design and modification. Bob has been involved with several first-time client transitions. He has met with predecessor auditors and with management to gain an understanding of the complex areas to properly plan the audit engagement and to minimize client disruption during these transitions.

He joined McGladrey & Pullen, LLP in July 1987 and transferred to the Raleigh office of McGladrey & Pullen, LLP in December 2000.

Professional Affiliations
Bob is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants, and is licensed in the states of Indiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas. Bob is also participating in The McGladrey CFO Program developed and presented by the Executive Development Center of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

Bob has been an instructor of the firm's continuing professional education programs for the past four years providing training to our associates throughout the country. Bob has spoken at the Independents Division of the American Financial Services Association and at the North Carolina Resident Lenders conference to present results of benchmarking information for the finance company industry. Bob has also presented new accounting pronouncements for clients and friends of McGladrey.

Community Involvement
Bob is a graduate of Leadership Raleigh 17, a member of a CFO Roundtable group sponsored by The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, and an inaugural member of the Young CPA cabinet with the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants.

Education
Manchester College, North Manchester, Indiana in 1987 with a B.S. in Accounting.

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Jeff Galle

Director of Business Development
CapitalSource

Mr. Galle is the Director of Business Development for CapitalSource's Lender Finance Business. Mr. Galle joined CapitalSource in October 2000 and has participated in over $2.2 billion structured finance transactions. He began managing business development for the Lender Finance Group in November 2003.

Prior to joining CapitalSource, Mr. Galle was an Accounting and Audit Manager at McGladrey & Pullen and also taught financial and managerial accounting as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Buffalo. He later traveled the United States as a management trainer providing two-day seminars educating financial controllers. Mr. Galle obtained his license as a Certified Public Accountant in 1994.

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Ronald D. Gorsline

Ron Gorsline is the Senior Partner of the firm's Consumer Finance Group, focusing his practice in the area of corporate business planning, consumer financial services and regulatory compliance, bankruptcy law, tax-exempt organizations and taxation law. He has taught several legal seminars on collection laws in Tennessee and bankruptcy laws. He also regularly advises loan companies, financial institutions and banks regarding open-end and closed-end credit, pre-paid cards, electronic payments (ACH transactions) under the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), federal consumer protection and privacy law and regulations, including the Federal Arbitration Act, Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B), Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E), Truth-in-Lending Act (Regulation M and Z), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Regulation P), Fair Credit Reporting Act (Regulation V), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, USA Patriot Act and Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Mr. Gorsline is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, Georgia Bar Association, Chattanooga Bar Association, and Christian Legal Society. In civic matters, Mr. Gorsline has served on the Board of STARS (Students Taking a Right Stand), his church, and he currently serves on the Salvation Army Advisory Board, Tennessee Temple University President's Forum and Bob Jones University President's Advisory Council.

Ron Gorsline was born in Lancaster, Wisconsin, on November 16, 1960. He received this undergraduate degree from Bob Jones University, and he received his law degree, cum laude, from Indiana University in 1988. While in law school, he was the Associate Editor of the Indiana Law Review and published an article in the Tax Law Journal, Summer 1987 entitled "Section 170(j) of the Internal Revenue Code: A conflict in Analysis Regarding the Deductibility of Gifts to an Individual for the use of a Charity." Mr. Gorsline recently co-authored the BNA Tax Management Portfolio's "Estates, Gifts and Trusts, Tax Issues of Educational Organizations." He also co-authored "When Is a Cheque not a Cheque?" that was published in the Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems.

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Bill Himpler

Bill Himpler is the American Financial Services Association's (AFSA) Executive Vice President for Federal Affairs. Bill and his team have enhanced AFSA's presence in the political debate affecting a number of issues that impact member companies' ability to offer affordable credit options to American consumers.

Bill came to AFSA from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development where he headed the congressional relations office. Prior to joining HUD in 2002, Himpler was director of legislative affairs for Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Inc. and was tax counsel/legislative director for Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL). He has also served as a senior legislative assistant with Rep. Charles Canady (R-FL) and was a policy analyst and press secretary for the House Republican Study Committee.

Himpler holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Steubenville, a master's degree from Dominican House of Studies and a law degree from the Catholic University of America.

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Terry M. Keating

Managing Director, Chicago

Mr. Keating focuses on providing mid-size financial services companies with strategic and financial advisory services, including valuations, merger and acquisition assistance, strategic growth strategies and turnaround/restructuring support. Specific industry expertise includes consumer and commercial finance, leasing and financial technology companies.

Prior to joining Amherst Partners, Mr. Keating spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry working with middle market clients. In addition to 18 years at LaSalle Bank in Chicago, Mr. Keating has worked with other commercial banks, investment banks and his own consulting practice. As a senior executive at LaSalle Bank, Mr. Keating established a new business unit focused on financial services companies, including consumer finance, commercial finance, leasing and mortgage banking.

With his significant career experience, Mr. Keating understands the policies, procedures, practices and technology used by successful financial services companies. Having worked with and performed due diligence on over 400 companies, Mr. Keating has a strong operational knowledge base and understands the "best practices" necessary for success. Mr. Keating has spoken at many industry conferences and seminars, testified as an expert witness in criminal and civil matters, and written articles on the financial services industry.

Mr. Keating serves on the Board of Directors for Kaleidoscope, Inc., a child social services agency in Chicago that helps troubled, abandoned and neglected children. He has served as Treasurer from 1995 through 1998, and Chairman from 1998 through 2006.

Mr. Keating received a BSBA in Economics from Valparaiso University and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management

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Morris R. Marshburn

Managing Director, Audit Partner
O 919.645.6858
F 919.781.9270
morris.marshburn@rsmi.com

Summary of Experience
Morris has over twenty-one years experience in providing audit and accounting services, along with general business advice. Morris works full time with finance companies across the United States serving as client services coordinator and audit service partner. He assists other professionals across the Firm for finance company clients served in other markets. He focuses in the audit and accounting functional area and provides consultations to finance companies based on his concentration in this industry.

Morris has a broad base of experience in serving finance companies, giving him an ability to view client businesses in strategic framework that brings a "value added" dimension to the consultations in which he is involved. He has a comprehensive knowledge of many facets of finance company operations, which is unique due to his very active role in the industry.

He actively speaks to national and state industry associations. He has authored numerous articles for industry publications and initiated the industry surveys currently being performed annually by The American Financial Services Association. Morris has also been qualified as an expert witness in sub-prime finance company cases. Morris serves as practice leader for financial services for the Carolinas.

Professional Affiliations
Morris is a member of the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He served as past-Chairman of the American Financial Services Association Member Advisory Board and remains a member of this Advisory Board. Morris is also a member of the American Financial Services Association Independents Advisory Board.

Education
Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Morris completed the RSM McGladrey, Inc. Business Advisor Program that The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 2005.

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A. Alexander (Sandy) Mclean III

AFSA Chairman of the Board and Chairman & CEO, World Acceptance Corporation

Sandy McLean is Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of World Acceptance Corporation, a publicly held consumer finance company headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. World Acceptance Corporation was founded in 1962 and has grown to 944 office locations in eleven states and Mexico as of the end of its most recent fiscal year. Sandy joined the Company in June 1989 as its Chief Financial Officer and became CEO in March 2006.

Sandy earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Davidson College and a masters of accountancy from the University of South Carolina. He has previous experience in public accounting and as a financial officer of two separate federal savings banks.

Sandy is on the Board of Independence National Bank, a local bank in Greenville, South Carolina and serves on the Board of several non-profit organizations. He is also very active with the American Financial Services Association.

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Bruce Miller

Bruce Miller is a Managing Director at Stephens Inc. and heads the firm’s Consumer Finance investment banking group. Mr. Miller advises numerous public and private companies in the alternative financial services sector, which encompasses companies that serve unbanked and underbanked consumers, such as payday lending, check cashing, pawn, small installment lending, title lending, and buy-here pay-here auto sales. Through a successful track record in advisory services and capital raising, as well as strong equity research, Stephens is widely recognized as the leading investment bank to the alternative financial services industry. Prior to his career in investment banking, Mr. Miller was a corporate attorney with Alston & Bird LLP, an international law firm based in Atlanta, where

he focused on mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance matters. Bruce holds a B.A. with a concentration in Finance from N.C. State University and received his J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law where he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Wake Forest University Law Review.

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Dick Morris

Political Consultant and Fox News Analyst

Probably the most prominent American political consultant, Dick Morris is almost universally credited with piloting Bill Clinton to a stunning comeback re-election victory in 1996 after the President lost Congress to the Republicans two years before. Called "the most influential private citizen in America" by Time magazine, Morris helped steer Clinton to the center and away from the liberal policies he had pursued in his first two years in office. Morris is also credited with advising Clinton to sign the welfare reform bill of 1996 and getting him to back a balanced budget, both key centrist positions

Morris began his relationship with Clinton in 1977 when he handled the Arkansas Attorney General's successful campaign to become the youngest Governor in the nation. Morris did not work on Clinton's defeat for re-election in 1980 but did oversee his comeback victory in 1982 as well as his Arkansas re-election victories in 1984, 86 and 1990.

In addition to Clinton, Morris has handled the winning campaigns for more than 30 Senators or Governors including Republican Senate Majority leader Trent Lott and former Governors Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Pete Wilson of California.

In recent years, Morris has turned to foreign campaigns and served as chief strategist for Mexico's reformer Vicente Fox in his upset victory in July 2000 over the PRI after the party had ruled the nation for 71 years. He also was the chief strategist for the winning campaigns of Fernando de la Rua (Argentina), Jorge Battle (Uruguay), Chen (Taiwan) and, most recently, for Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian presidential candidate who was poisoned during his campaign. He also handled the winning campaign for the new President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon.

In the United States, Morris has become a familiar figure as a commentator for the FOX News Channel. He is well known for hard hitting, nonpartisan, objective commentary about the U.S. political scene. He writes a weekly column for the New York Post and the Hill Magazine in the U.S. and the National Post in Canada.

He has written nine books including five New York Times best sellers. The best sellers are: Behind the Oval Office, his memoiir about the Clinton years; Off With Their Heads, about the war of terror; Rewriting History, a biography of Hillary Clinton he wrote with his wife, Eileen McGann; Because He Could, about Bill Clinton, also with Eileen; and Condi vs. Hillary, promoting Condoleezza Rice for president, written with Eileen. His other books are Power Plays, Vote.com, The New Prince and Bum Rap on American Cities, which he wrote in the 70s.

In November of 1999, Morris founded a website in the U.S. called Vote.com where people may log on to vote on the major issues of the day. Their opinions are then e-mailed to their Senator, Congressman and other significant decision makers. Over three million people have used this site to express their views.

As park of his work with Vote.com, Dick, along with his wife, lawyer Eileen McGann, founded Legalvote.com, an online jury focus group service. They have conducted online focus groups in over 100 cases and their clients include two of the top insurance companies in the U.S. as well as many of the major plaintiff lawyers in the nation.

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Gary Phillips

Gary Phillips grew up in Baton Rouge, LA. After two years with Arthur Andersen and five years at Conoco, he returned to Baton Rouge and joined Republic Finance in 1985. Gary is a graduate of Emory University and Harvard Business School. Gary has been happily married to Claudia for 22 years. They have three kids (Andrew, Robert, and Elizabeth; 20, 18, and 15). Gary is on the board of the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, Wind River Ranch, and the First Presbyterian Church Foundation. Gary is also on the boards of AFSA, NILA, the Louisiana Finance Association, and the Mississippi Consumer Finance Association, and is a former chairman of the AFSA Independents' Section.

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Komnieve Singh

President
Callfire

Komnieve Singh co-founded CallFire in 2004 and now serves as the company's President and lead systems architect. As President, Komnieve manages CallFire's sales & support call center, handles relationships with a myriad of different carriers and plays a crucial role in administering CallFire's network. Mr. Singh is also a Cloud Call Center and Open-Source software expert, and as such he is responsible for architecting, developing and maintaining CallFire's physical infrastructure which supports over 18,000 businesses. Komnieve's passion is ensuring 360 degree customer care through all phases of the sales cycle. www.callfire.com

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Christopher Stinebert

Chris Stinebert is president and chief executive officer of the American Financial Services Association (AFSA), a national, Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing 350 financial services firms and their 10,000 branch offices. These member companies provide over $360 billion in credit to consumers and small businesses each year. Founded in 1916, AFSA has a broad membership, including mortgage & home equity lenders, vehicle finance, credit card issuers, and consumer finance providers. Although diverse, AFSA's membership is united by its goal of serving the credit needs of consumers and businesses.

The financial services industry is highly regulated at both the federal and state levels. Therefore, government affairs and advocacy—legislative, regulatory and judicial—are major association activities. AFSA also focuses on professional development through conferences & expositions, investor forums, and management development programs at the University of North Carolina and Marquette University.

Mr. Stinebert joined AFSA on November 1, 2006. Previously he served as president and chief executive officer of the Arlington, VA-based Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), which represents the interests of manufacturers, lenders, and communities that produce, sell, finance and purchase factory built homes. Prior to joining MHI in 1998, he was president and chief executive officer of the National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA) based in Herndon, VA.

Mr. Stinebert has 30 years of knowledge and experience in managing national trade associations with key highlights in government affairs and advocacy; strategic planning and implementation; technical standards and regulations; and economic and statistical data collection.

A graduate of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA, Mr. Stinebert currently serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Committee of 100 which is comprised of 100 CEOs of leading trade associations.

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Ken Venturi

Inspired by Byron Nelson at the age of 13, Ken Venturi realized that he was destined to become a competitive golfer. As a young man, Venturi practiced for up to eight hours a day. Spending most of his time alone on the golf course, Venturi was able to overcome his childhood stuttering problem. In the solace of golf, a young Ken dreamed of one day winning the U.S. Open.

Ken had a successful amateur career, winning the California State Amateur in 1951 and again in 1956. Later that year Venturi turned professional and began competing on the PGA Tour. Ken's success as a competitive golfer was undeniable; he claimed 14 PGA Tour victories between 1957 and 1966.

Of all his victories, Ken Venturi is best known for his dramatic win of the 1964 U.S. Open. On the grueling 36-hole final day, temperatures soared above the 100ºF mark and threatened players with heat exhaustion. Ken refused to give in to the brutal heat and humidity. His determination and talent pulled him through the day, allowing him to achieve his childhood dream of winning the U.S. Open. Later that year, Venturi was named PGA Player of the Year and Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. In 1965, Ken was also selected as a member of the United States Ryder Cup Team.

Throughout his remarkable career, Ken Venturi battled various physical ailments to remain on the Tour. At age 33, severe carpal tunnel syndrome finally forced him to retire. Having overcome his childhood stuttering problem, Venturi found a new career as a golf analyst for CBS Sports. Ken spent the next 35 years with the network, and retired from CBS Sports in 2002. With his dedicated service to CBS, Ken established a new record as the longest running lead analyst in the history of televised sports. The PGA of America recognized his outstanding career with CBS in 1999 by presenting him with the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award.

On May 12, 1999 Ken Venturi was highly honored by his appointment as Captain of the 2000 U.S. President's Cup Team. After the competition, Ken described the overwhelming American victory and recovery of the coveted President's Cup trophy as "a great way to cap it all off and wind down a career." However, Venturi continues to express his lifelong loyalty and respect for the tradition of golf by speaking at corporate outings and charity events throughout the country.

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Marguerite Watanabe

President  
Connections Insights

Marguerite has spent her career cultivating relationships within the auto finance arena and now works to share her experiences and connections to benefit clients and the industry. Marguerite's experience as an auto industry professional spans over twenty years. In 2006, she formed Connections Insights to focus on strategic partnering between auto finance sources and their business partners. She is also the Director of International Programs for the Automotive Dealership Institute.

Prior to forming Connections Insights, Marguerite managed the Auto Finance Practice at BenchMark Consulting International and the sales efforts at Equifax as SVP for the Automotive Division. At BarNone, a dealer marketing and non-prime financing company, Marguerite focused on building strategic partners for the company. Additionally, she spent ten years with Nissan North America and Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation in the U.S. and Japan.

Marguerite earned her BA from the University of California, Berkeley and her MBA from Pepperdine University. She serves on the American Financial Services Association (AFSA) Vehicle Finance Board and the Associate Member Advisory Board, serving as Chair from 2006-2009.Marguerite also sits on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the National Auto Finance (NAF) Association.



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