Martin Less joined Nationwide Acceptance in 1995, and was its President and Chief Operating Officer from 1999 through 2012. In January, 2013 Martin led a buyout of the company with Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: PSEC) and he is now CEO and part-owner of the company. During his tenure he has profitably expanded Nationwide from 3 to 26 states by offering sub-prime auto financing programs to independent and franchised dealers. Prior to Nationwide, Martin was the General Manager and CFO of a couple of family holding companies which afforded him the opportunity to manage and operate several different types of businesses. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois. Nationwide Acceptance is based in Rosemont, IL and has been serving automobile dealers for over 60 years. It has additional offices in Elgin, IL, Las Vegas, NV and Duluth, GA. It concentrates its efforts in subprime automobile sales finance, and has a small portfolio of direct loans.

Jack W. Brown III is the second-generation owner of Gulf Coast Collection Bureau, Inc. in Sarasota, Florida. Jack has been involved in the healthcare receivables management industry for more than 15 years. Jack is active in trade associations on both the State and Federal level. Jack is the President-Elect and a member of the Board of Directors for ACA International. He has served as the chairman of multiple committees including the Interstate Committee that assists state units in lobbying at the state level. Jack is also a Past President of the Florida Collectors Association and has been a long serving Legislative Director, lobbying the State of Florida and its regulatory bodies for improvements to the body of laws governing healthcare debt collection. Jack was the recipient of the 2013 Unit Leader of the Year award from ACA International. Most recently, Jack served as an industry representative in the SBREFA (Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness ACT) Panel working with the CFPB on their proposed rules governing the debt collection industry.

Brian has been with Moody’s since 2002. During that time, he has been involved in a broad variety of financial institutions, including non-bank finance, government-sponsored enterprises, banking, and real estate finance. Brian is currently the Team Leader for U.S. Finance Companies. In addition, he is the lead analyst for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Brian came to Moody’s from Philip Morris Companies Inc. where he was the Director of Financial Research. There he was responsible for reviewing and identifying the impact of Financial Accounting Standards and SEC guidelines. Prior to joining Philip Morris, Brian worked for Fannie Mae as a Senior Business Analyst and at Coopers & Lybrand in the audit practice.Brian is a CPA and holds a MBA from George Washington University and a BBA from The College of William and Mary.

Mike is the SVP of Global Data Strategy for TransUnion. Mike is leading the organization’s efforts to accelerate the adoption of alternative data sources and streamline the delivery of client focused alternative data products across our verticals and international regions. Mike was most recently the SVP of Alternative Data Strategy & Business Development for TransUnion’s $500 million+ Financial Services Division. In this role Mike focused on market strategy as well as business and product development for Financial Service clients leveraging incremental data to TransUnion’s traditional consumer credit file. Mike previously served as the CEO of L2C, Inc., which he co-founded in 2000. He led the Business and Product Development strategic functions for L2C, Inc. from the founding of the Company until its acquisition by TransUnion in 2014. L2C led the consumer credit industry by creating consumer credit scoring algorithms leveraging alternative credit bureau data. Alternative credit bureau data are defined as data incremental to the industry’s traditional three credit bureau files that can be compliantly used for consumer credit scoring. L2C was the first Credit Reporting Agency (CRA) to convert its database infrastructure to an open source Hadoop framework housing data for over 260 million US consumers. Mike and his team achieved broad adoption of L2C’s service offerings by 60% of the top US banks and Mike led the development of innovative Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliant Reseller Agreements with TransUnion & Equifax for distribution of L2C solutions to all connected lenders. Before co-founding L2C in March 2000, Mike worked for seven years in the securities business with Morgan Keegan Company as a First Vice President where he was advisor to several burgeoning technology companies. Mike graduated from The University of the South with a BA in Economics and received his MBA in Finance from Georgia State University. He enjoys spending time with his family, cycling and traveling.

Mike Armstrong is President of ZestFinance, a financial technology company that uses machine learning and data science to help companies make more accurate financial decisions. Previously, he served as Chief Marketing Officer for the company. For more than 16 years, Mike has led business strategy, customer acquisition, credit risk, and operations for financial services companies. Mike began his career as a U.S. Army Ranger. After the military, he spent eight years at Capital One, where he held various roles, including General Manager of Customer Segments. Mike graduated from Duke University with a degree in economics.

Eric Gebhard is Treasurer of World Omni Financial Corp. (World Omni), a diversified financial services company that provides financing to retail customers of Toyota automotive dealers located in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina. World Omni also provides commercial financing to some of the Toyota dealers located in its region. Eric has been with World Omni and its parent company, JM Family Enterprises, Inc., since 1997 and has served as Treasurer since 2009. Prior to joining World Omni, Eric was a corporate lending officer for Bank of America.

Dr. Shawn DuBravac is author of the New York Times Best Seller Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Communicate (Regnery, 2015), which explores how the world’s mass adoption of digital technologies portends the beginning of a new era for humanity in the realms of business, healthcare, finance, transportation and culture. DuBravac is a well-regarded futurist and trendcaster who writes frequently on disruptive technological shifts. He advises companies and C-level executives on market opportunities and industry strategy. He is president and founder of Astra Insights which provides consulting, research and advisory services to CxOs on a myriad of topics including digital transformation strategies, business model disruptions, the pace of technological change and overcoming myopic thinking. For over a dozen years DuBravac served as chief economist for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,000 consumer tech companies and owner and producer of CES. DuBravac has been widely published on the topics of technology, finance and economics. His keen insights regarding the economic drivers of the global tech industry and future trends have made him a highly sought-after keynote speaker and commentator. DuBravac travels both internationally and domestically to meet with tech industry leaders and present on technology trends and the economy. In addition, his analysis has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Wired, Los Angeles Times, Barron’s and on-air with CNBC, Bloomberg, CBS and other media outlets. He was the primary driver of smartphone and cyber-security equity indexes, developed in partnership with NASDAQ, and the CTA consumer confidence index. In 2012, DuBravac was named to Dealerscope’s “40 under 40” list of people to watch in the consumer technology industry. He is a member of the National Association of Business Economists and currently serves as the president of the Conference of Business Economists. DuBravac has taught in George Washington University’s MBA program, George Mason University’s MBA program, at the University of Mary Washington and currently teaches at Marymount University. He holds economic degrees from Brigham Young University and George Mason University. DuBravac resides in Virginia with his three sons. When not helping executive teams unlock innovative thinking, he can be found climbing 14ers, running marathons and coaching youth sports.

Philip joined AFSA in 2017 as Vice President, Compliance Education. Philip is responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership for the Association’s compliance activities, including AFSA University. Philip is the staff liaison to the Operations and Regulatory Compliance Committee and Technology Task Forces that are launching in 2018.Philip brings significant consumer finance legal and compliance experience to AFSA, having served as in-house counsel at Toyota Motor Credit Corporation and Fannie Mae. At those companies, Philip worked closely with compliance staff supporting technology projects, legislative tracking, and vendor management. Philip’s private practice included work on manufactured housing, residential mortgage compliance, and consumer finance matters at McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC and Lotstein Buckman, LLP.

Eric also counsels clients on traditional employment law issues, including discrimination and retaliation claims under both state and federal laws, enforcement of restrictive covenants such as non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, and compliance with corporate progressive discipline policies. He regularly appears before the EEOC and state and local EEO agencies to advocate for clients in response to charges or complaints of discrimination and litigates such employment disputes, as well. His employment law experience also includes counseling clients with respect to: Careful communication training to reduce potential legal exposure; Strategies for reductions in force; Severance and separation agreements; Litigation avoidance; and Performance improvement plans.

Andrew Rodman is a Shareholder in the Firm's Labor & Employment Law Department and a member of the Firm's Board of Directors. Andrew's labor & employment law practice encompasses both counseling and litigation on behalf of employers. On the counseling side, Andrew takes pride in developing working partnerships with his clients to analyze problems and implement practical solutions to the broad range of issues that executives and Human Resource professionals regularly encounter. On the litigation side, Andrew defends clients before administrative agencies and arbitration panels against claims of employment and housing discrimination, harassment, retaliation and whistleblower retaliation, unpaid wages (including overtime, minimum wage, and commissions), OSHA compliance, defamation, and family, medical and military leave. Andrew also represents clients in non-compete, trade secret, and employment contract litigation.

Danielle is in charge of the American Financial Services Association’s State Government Affairs Department, which manages state legislative and regulatory issues for members across a broad spectrum of the consumer credit industry, including payment cards, vehicle finance, traditional installment loans and mortgage lending / servicing. State Government Affairs is in constant development of talking points, briefing materials, white papers, a multitude of 50-state surveys, municipal tracking and other issues management materials. The Department also provides Activist Watch, a monthly snapshot of financial services-related activities of prominent activist groups. AFSA engages in direct advocacy at the state level, as directed by its membership. AFSA State Government Affairs provides its members with regular ongoing reporting on new and moving legislation through direct intelligence and AFSA*track, the Association’s legislative tracking system. She also assisted Fortune 500 corporations in various industries with government ethics compliance. Danielle holds a B.A. in Politics and Government from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., and earned a J.D cum laude from American University in Washington, D.C. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland (inactive), Washington, D.C. and Minnesota. She is based in Minneapolis.