The 13th annual Credit and Collection News Conference takes place April 10 – 12, 2018 at The Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, Calif., offering three days educational programming with ample opportunity for discussion and networking. Credit and Collection News is an electronic daily publication with links to events such as the American Fair Credit Council Spring Conference as well as company listings, networks, RFPs/RFIs, ccnews.tv (video news streaming) and upcoming industry workshops.
The CCN Conference is well known for presenting relevant speakers on today’s top issues. Over the years, keynote speakers have included senators, congressman, governors, Federal Reserve Bank presidents, attorneys general and more. This year’s conference features the CEO of ACA International, a program manager from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, an economist from the Federal Reserve Bank, and other illustrious speakers.
Executive VP Sales Todd Volkers and Inside Sales Manager Ray Stawiarski from Optio Solutions will be among the credit and collection professionals attending the event.
Tuesday, April 10
Day one of programming begins late afternoon with a presentation entitled “Working With Your Attorney General” by Wes Duncan, former Nevada first assistant attorney general and candidate for Nevada attorney general.
After graduating from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Duncan served as an active duty Air Force Judge Advocate at Nellis Air Force Base, then deployed to Iraq where he assisting Iraqis with the prosecution of extremist groups and terror suspects at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in Baghdad. After four and a half years, he joined the Air Force reserves, passed the Nevada bar exam, and began working in private practice.
He was elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 2012. After being re-elected with over 61 percent of the vote in 2014, he resigned his Assembly seat to become Nevada’s first assistant attorney general. In that role, he served as the vice chair of the Substance Abuse Working Group as well as the vice chair of the Sexual Assault Rape Kit Working Group where he was instrumental in crafting policies to eradicate the backlog of 8,000-plus rape kits. Not wanting to run for public office as a state employee, he resigned his position at the Attorney General’s office in 2017, and joined the law firm of Hutchison and Steffen as a partner.
The short day ends with a Bank Of America Collection Agency Meeting and a welcome reception for credit and collection professionals.
Wednesday, April 11
Day two begins with breakfast followed by the Discover Card Collection Agency User Meeting.
Next, Gandhi Eswaramoorthy, program manager for Debt Collections at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), will present an organizational update. He has been at the CFPB since February 2017, but involved with consumer finance and collections since 1992.
Eswaramoorthy started his career as the VP Risk Management of American Express where he spent 10 years developing customer-level risk management programs for consumer and small business card platforms. He was also a senior VP at Bank One where he devised collection and recover strategies for consumer, commercial and private-label credit card portfolios. The Customer Support Division of J.P. Morgan was his next stop where his role as group manager entailed directing a collection strategy team with 17 analysts in the design, testing and implementation of payment solutions such as a forbearance program.
Other career stops include three-plus years at Barclays and nearly seven years as the director of Collections Policy & Strategy at Citi Group.
Equally compelling is the “Economic Update from the Federal Reserve” by Elizabeth Laderman, senior outreach economist of the Education and Outreach department at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Laderman provides meaningful learning experiences about economics, the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve to students, educators and the public. The department is dedicated to promoting teacher professional development, supplying relevant classroom materials and application, fostering direct student engagement opportunities, supporting actionable outreach, and engaging in evidence-based research.
Laderman worked in the Economic Research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco before moving to her current position. Her role includes research on household finance, small and new business finance and employment, and other labor market issues. She received a B.A. in mathematics from Grinnell College and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California Berkeley.
The second day of programming continues with:
- “The Latest From Bankruptcy Court” with the Honorable Ronald H. Sargis
- A session on “Collecting and Texting”
- A “TCPA Update” by Ethan Ostroff of Troutman Sanders and Kelly Knepper-Stephens of Stoneleigh Recovery Associates
- “Legal Issues in Collections” by Ashley Taylor of Troutman Sanders
- Evening Reception
Thursday, April 12
The educational programming continues after Thursday breakfast when CEO Mark Neeb of ACA International presents his “State of the Industry” keynote address.
Details about the nature of Mark Neeb’s presentation have not been revealed, but rest assured that it will cover one of ACA International’s varied levels of interest in credit and collections: from leadership certification and educational foundation, to the latest briefings on compliance or advocacy.
Neeb has 40-plus years of corporate strategy experience, 28 of which have been in credit and collections. He was appointed to his current position in February 2018, but has a longstanding relationship with ACA International that includes positions as president from 2011 to 2012, national director from 2002 to 2007, and membership on the Executive Committee and Healthcare Debt Sales & Collection Services Task Force.
Other noteworthy events include the Chase Collection Agency User Meeting, the “Skip the Skip” session by CEO John Lewis of Intellaegis, and finally, “Predictive Modeling for Debt Collection” by a trio of industry experts.
Rare Certification in the Credit and Collection Industry
Optio Solutions is one of only 54 agencies worldwide (less than 2 percent in the USA) to have garnered and maintained Professional Practice Management System certification from ACA International. The agency was first certified in 2013 and renews each January.
It also holds other certifications such as SSAE 16 SOC I Type II (audited financial reporting), PCI DSS 3.2 (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), and Credit and Collection Compliance Officers as well as holding an “A+” rating from the Better Business Bureau.
See our Advantages page for details about our commitment to being a best-in-class agency or contact us to learn how an individualized collection strategies can benefit your organization.
