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James Gutierrez, CEO

James is a leading social entrepreneur and innovator in financial services serving the unbanked and lower-income. In 2005, James co-founded Progreso Financiero to bring micro-lending to the US Hispanic community and help millions of underbanked families build credit, move up the financial ladder, and achieve their lifelong aspirations.

Since 2006, Progreso has made over 35,000 loans, grown to over 120 employees and 25 locations in California and Texas, been certified by the US Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution, and secured over $40 million in venture capital funding. By 2012, Progreso aims to help over 1 million families enter the financial mainstream while bringing fair and responsible lending practices back to the forefront of America’s banking industry.

James has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the American Banker, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Business Week, and Bloomberg and is a frequent speaker on topics of financial empowerment for America’s poor. In 2009, James was a featured speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative, Microfinance USA, SOCAP, and the FDIC’s Advisory Board Meeting. He has also pioneered new policies on banking reform, helped co-found the Coalition of New Credit Models, and serves on the Pew Trust/New America Foundation’s Working Group on Small Dollar Lending.

James also serves on the boards of organizations dedicated to strengthening the American middle class from the bottom up, including the Latino Community Foundation, PERC, and Core Innovation Capital. As a young Latino entrepreneur, he enjoys helping other entrepreneurs succeed and has invested in over 15 start-ups. In 2009, James was invited to the White House as a leading young entrepreneur and received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Hispanic-Net.

James received his MBA from Stanford and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.

Dave Tomlinson, COO

Dave Tomlinson is a seasoned general manager with over 20 years of experience working for leading financial services companies. Most recently, Dave was Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Providian Financial/Washington Mutual Card Services where he was responsible for over $6 billion in revenue production on a $28 billion credit card portfolio. Dave was a key member of the team which turned around the Providian card business by significantly improving credit quality, expanding the product line, diversifying marketing channel capabilities, and building out a world class analytic team.

Prior to Providian, Dave had a series of CMO and general management positions at well known financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase and PNC Bank. Dave spent the first nine years of his career at American Express.

Dave holds a BA from Dartmouth College.

Jonathan Coblentz, CFO

Jonathan brings over 16 years of experience in the consumer finance industry, having been a public-company CFO, an investor, and an investment banker.

Prior to joining Progress Financial, Jonathan served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for MRU Holdings, a publicly-traded student loan finance company. At MRU, Jonathan established the company's securitization program and expanded and renewed the company's credit lines during the credit crisis. Prior to joining MRU, Jonathan was a Vice President at Fortress Investment Group. During his two-years at the hedge fund, Jonathan sourced and analyzed structured finance investments in the consumer and commercial finance industries. Before coming to Fortress, Jonathan spent over seven-years at Goldman Sachs, in both advisory and principal roles. While a Vice President at Goldman, he led the firm's student loan securitization effort, co-headed development of the auto whole loan business, and managed client relationships as an asset-backed banker. Prior to Goldman, Jonathan began his career at First Boston, where he spent nearly five-years in asset finance, structuring and executing asset-backed securities underwritings.

Jonathan graduated from Yale University in 1992, earning a B.S. in Applied Mathematics (Economics), summa cum laude.

James Caviness, Vice President, Product and Technology

James brings over 12 years of technology experience. He is responsible for leveraging technology across all aspects of the business – new products, sales, operations, finance, accounting, and risk management – to help drive the business and increase operational efficiencies.

Prior to Progress Financial, James was the Director of Product and Risk Management at Xoom Corporation, a global money transfer company, where he was responsible for the development of the core financial and risk systems, the e-commerce website, the worldwide partner integration system and all back office applications (CRM, accounting, and operations). Prior to Xoom, James led a product team in PayPal's Risk Management Group where he covered all aspects of risk management including authentications, compliance, merchant vetting, risk modeling, risk operations, and new venture risk. James spent the first six years of his career in VLSI chip design mainly at Hewlett-Packard.

James received an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Patrick Kirscht, Vice President, Risk Management

Patrick Kirscht is responsible for all aspects of risk management utilizing non-traditional means to manage risk for the underbanked Hispanic community. Prior to joining Progress Financial, Patrick was Senior Vice President of Risk Management for HSBC Card Services where he was responsible for credit policy and underwriting of a $8B credit card portfolio with two million new accounts per year, primarily in the near prime and subprime space (including a sizable program that catered to the Hispanic community). In this role, Patrick implemented several strategy improvements which incorporated non-traditional data into credit scoring models. Patrick’s role also recently included credit policy for 4-5 million new accounts per year for several major partnerships, including Best Buy, Sears and Discover.

Patrick joined HSBC in 2005 as part of HSBC’s acquisition of Metris Companies, a start-up mono-line credit card company, for $1.6B. Patrick was one of the first 20 employees hired at Metris in 1995. As the VP of Planning and Analysis, Patrick facilitated the rapid growth of Metris from a start-up to a top ten card issuer by building the planning and analysis function, supporting the initial public offering, and valuing and closing on several portfolio acquisitions totaling over $3B. In his finance role he also evaluated and supported a partnership to issue bankcards with La Curacao, a large Hispanic Retailer based in Los Angeles. Patrick moved from finance to risk management in 2004 where he directed a team of credit risk professionals that managed credit lines, re-issue and authorizations for a $6 billion portfolio.

Patrick holds a BS in Economics with a Minor in Statistics, BS in Business, and an MBA from the University of Minnesota

Todd Rice, Vice President, Channels, Products and Business Development

Todd is an accomplished leader with more than 15 years of experience in consumer financial services, direct marketing and product development. Prior to joining Progreso Financiero, Todd was Senior Vice President and Head of New Account Acquisitions at Providian Financial / Washington Mutual Card Services. In this role, Todd was responsible for originating 3 million new accounts per year, managing a marketing budget of $300 million. He successfully implemented innovative techniques to optimize direct mail, outbound telemarketing, retail, online and email marketing programs.

Previously, Todd worked for Citigroup, where he performed a number of functions in the CitiCards N.A. business unit and the Global Consumer Group. Before that he was also Senior Analyst at First USA/Bank One.

Todd holds an MBA from New York University, as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Texas A&M University

Gustavo Lasala, Director of Retail Operations

Gustavo is a successful microfinance practitioner and innovator with 15 years of experience in economic development, strategic planning and operations. Prior to joining Progreso Financiero , Gustavo was Chief Financial Officer of ACCION Texas the largest non-profit microfinance institution in the US. Gustavo was instrumental for the growth of ACCION’s portfolio from $7 to $26 million between 2004 and 2010. At ACCION Gustavo led the Finance & Accounting, Underwriting, Collections, and Information Technology departments. He conceived and developed the first credit scoring tool and service center tailored to microfinance in the US, growing this center to 15 client organizations in 4 time zones. He also designed the financial aspects and implementation of a $30 million asset purchase agreement between ACCION and Citibank, a first in microfinance in the US. Prior to ACCION, Gustavo led a management consulting startup and worked in Latin America for the Inter-American Development Bank, Hydro Agri (then a Fortune 300 Global), the Republic's University and the Ministry of Agriculture in Uruguay.

Gustavo holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Kevin Kang, Senior Director of Risk Modeling

Kevin Kang is responsible for leading the Company’s risk modeling and analytics, and brings over 18 years of credit scoring experience in financial services.

Prior to joining Progress Financial, Kevin was Vice President of Credit Policy and Director of Modeling for HSBC Card and Retail Services where he was responsible for managing a modeling and analytics team of statisticians and risk managers who supported $19B of credit card portfolios, HSBC Bank, General Motors, Union Privilege, Best Buy and other cobranded and affinity programs. Prior to HSBC, Kevin was an Officer and Chief Statistician for First National Bank of Omaha responsible for managing modeling and TRIAD teams who provided analytical support and improved account management strategies. Prior to FNBO, he worked at Experian for 8 years as a unit manager of Analytical Services where he managed a team that used credit bureau information to provide analytical support for major clients.

Kevin was a PhD candidate and received a M.S. in Statistics from Iowa State University and a B.B.A. from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan.

Sarah Livnat, Director, New Products and Consumer Experience

Sarah is responsible for ensuring that Progress Financial meets its customer’s needs and exceeds their expectations. Progress recognizes the importance of providing customers with relevant, high-value products and services in a consistently friendly and efficient manner. Sarah brings over 10 years of experience in customer-focused product management.

Prior to Progress Financial, Sarah spent five years at PayPal where she managed a diverse group of risk products, ranging from core risk management applications to seller trust and safety programs. In her latest role at PayPal she was responsible for tracking and improving the customer experience in the risk domain. Prior to PayPal, Sarah managed the marketplace platform at Chemdex/Ventro, a business-to-business internet company.

Sarah received her B.A. and M.A. in International Policy from Stanford University.

Jim McGinley, Director, Enterprise Analytics

Jim is responsible for developing direct marketing strategies as well as managing the credit risk of our loan portfolio through decisioning and line policy strategies.

Prior to joining Progress Financial, Jim was a Sr. Business Manager at Capital One where he was responsible for product strategy and credit policy for a $900MM credit card acquisitions portfolio. In this role, Jim led teams that built a multivariate test design process, created a prospect level valuation platform utilizing various risk and profitability models, and rebuilt the US Card Prime market direct mail segmentation responsible for $3B in annual bookings. Most recently, Jim managed a team responsible for product strategy and credit policy for internet credit card acquisitions via search engine marketing, banner ads, affiliates websites, and unsolicited internet applications.

Prior to Capital One, Jim was a Sr. Staff Engineer at Mechanical Solutions, Inc. where he was responsible for managing all aspects of client relationships including gathering and analyzing data, formulating actionable solutions, and communicating recommendations to clients.

Jim received a Masters in Engineering Management from Duke University and a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University.

Sam Ulloa, Senior Director, Sales & Servicing

Sam brings 10 years of Operations Management experience. He is responsible for building, developing and leading a high performing Sales & Servicing Operations organization that is customer centric and committed to delivering exceptional results in a dynamic and challenging environment.Prior to Progress Financial, he was a SD Manager for World Wide Operations at Apple Corporation. There, he played a primary role in leading a global team that was responsible for the operations efforts in bringing to market the Intel-based MacBook Pro product line. He was a Technology and Business Planning Analyst for Ford Motor Company, Operations Manager-Leadership Development Program at AT&T (Formerly SBC) and IT Consultant for IBM Global Services, where he helped implement ecommerce functionality for large clients and intelligent POS systems for two large grocery retailers.

Sam is committed to helping the underserved communities. He migrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 7 years old and later became a US citizen. He co-founded and serves as COO and board member of the Rising Farmworker Dream Fund, a nonprofit organization that aims to leverage the power and resources of the business sector to enable positive social change within the American migrant farm working community.

Sam is a Stanford Bonini Fellow. He received an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Martin Dudley, Director of Merchant Sales

Martin brings 25 years of sales management experience. He is responsible for the hiring, training, and management of Progress’s geographically distributed sales team and charged with rapidly growing new account originations.

Martin began his career at Levi Strauss & Co. where he rose through the ranks to become Director of Sales & Marketing. Martin spent 16 years at Levi’s and led a team of 55 with over 300MM in sales, and was responsible for strategic customers such as Macy’s, Federated, May co. and JC Penney. Martin received many sales awards including Account Executive of the year and the 501 award for excellence.

Martin then went on to various start-up’s as VP of Sales, including C-Tribe, which was sold to Net-centives. Over the last five years, Martin was the VP of Sales for a Hong Kong based company, Lawman Sportswear International. At Lawman, he was responsible for launching two young contemporary brands, Petro Jeans and Petrol, and for building the sales organization for each division. Martin holds a B.A. from Chico State University.