By Larissa Padden lpadden@royalmedia.com
Diana Asatryan dasatryan@royalmedia.com
Innovation matters. The people of innovation matter most. Buzzwords like “enterprise mobility,” “alternative data,” and “increased competition” are so common in the evolving landscape of the auto finance industry, they could lose their meaning. Then there’s the Auto Finance News list of 10 Executives to Watch. We think they actually put those trends into practice, push the envelope, and work to drive the industry’s future.
Some of these innovators will be presenting at the Auto Finance Summit in October. To find out who, visit the summit website.
Jeffrey “J.B.” Brown
Ally Financial Inc.
Chief Executive, 2015 – Present
Jeffrey “J.B.” Brown has been CEO for less than a year, but he was a key player in the team that ultimately repaid a taxpayer bailout and completed Ally’s IPO in 2014.
The IPO symbolized “crossing a huge milestone in terms of strength and optimism,” he told AFN. Brown joined Ally in 2009. Stepping in as CEO in February, Brown said that cultural change was underway for the company.
“Ally is working on a number of projects to build upon our strengths in auto finance and evolve digital financial services,” he said. “There were not many financial institutions that were focused on delivering a customer-centric experience back in 2009. I saw a lot of opportunity to help transform a company with a lot of history and heritage – it has been exciting to be a part of the company’s transformation.”
Luvleen Sidhu
BankMobile
Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, 2014 – Present
Luvleen Sidhu has her own vision for the new bank, a digital-only and Millennial-focused division of Customers Bank. “The plan is really not to just sell the products or services, but create a ‘wow’ experience to help resolve customers’ financial issues,” she told AFN.
BankMobile is in the process of integrating a one-of-a-kind car-buying solution – to be completed by March 2016– which will allow customers to search for cars through photos and videos, then go through a pre-approved financing session, and have the car delivered to them tied up, literally, with a big red bow.
“My mission here was to create a new standard for banking. We had to really change the model upside down,” she said. When people actually want wear the company “swag,” she’ll know it’s a brand to be proud of, Sidhu said.
Ernie Garcia, Jr.
Carvana
Founder and Chief Executive, 2011 – Present
The founder of the used-car marketplace Carvana said his main mission is to provide consumers with the opportunity to “spend money only where they want to spend money.” After spending six years at DriveTime, Ernie Garcia Jr. founded Carvana in 2011.
The company now focuses on integrating the latest trends in the used-car business. Instead of just providing a marketplace for car-trading, Carvana buys pre-owned vehicles from consumers or auctions, prepares them for reselling, retails them and finances them.
Also, customers can go to Carvana’s website and be approved for a car loan in a claimed 30 seconds. “We offer them 10,000 options through a several click process. We are trying to make the customer experience as simple and quick and easy as possible,” Garcia said. “The complexity of that problem is really interesting to me.”
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