Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

At the age of 12, Harry Strausser III got his first taste of the industry – licking envelopes at his parents’ collection agency in central Pennsylvania. Strausser remained an active participant in his family’s firm, filling a variety of positions from basic office and clerical duties during high school to eventually becoming executive vice president. After managing his family’s business for 10 years, in 1992 Strausser formed the Remit Corporation, which specializes in medical, financial, and commercial recoveries as well as debt purchase.Strausser has been actively involved in ACA at both the local and national level for almost 20 years. He serves on the board of directors for the MidAtlantic Collectors Association and currently holds the position of Vice President. He has served on ACA’s ACPAC Steering Committee, the Public Relations Committee and the Education Council. An active trainer and educator, Strausser is also an ACA Certified Instructor, teaching hundreds of seminars on various industry issues. He served as ACA President in 2004-2005.He is the 1993 recipient of the Charles Lindemann Instructor of the Year Award and is also a member of the International Fellowship of Certified Collection Executives. He has earned both the Fellow and Scholar Degrees from ACA and is certified as a Master Credit Executive by the Society of Certified Credit Executives, the certifying branch of Creditors International.Strausser holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in communication from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. He is often a full-time adjunct professor for the Department of Communication Studies at Bloomsburg University, where he teaches interpersonal communication, public speaking and corporate communications.In addition to his involvement with ACA, Strausser travels extensively across the United States conducting educational and motivational programs for associations, enterprises, conferences and public seminar events.

David Medine is a Partner with the law firm WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. His practice focuses on consumer financial services regulatory matters including debt collection, privacy, electronic commerce, and consumer protection. Previously, Mr. Medine served as a Senior Advisor with the National Economic Council at The White House, where he advised both the President and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, coordinated Administration policies on such issues as privacy, financial institutions, and expanding capital investment in under-served areas. Before working at the White House, Mr. Medine was the Associate Director for Financial Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection for the Federal Trade Commission, where he was responsible for debt collection enforcement.

Jacob “Jake” vanBrandwijk, Vice President, Retail Collections and Recovery for U.S. Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio is responsible for the collection of the Bank’s portfolio of indirectly originated loans. These include title goods as well as private student loans. In addition, he is responsible for loss recovery on charge-off receivables for the Consumer Lending division. This includes internal recoveries, outsourced agency and attorney recoveries, litigation and debt sales. Mr. vanBrandwijk has been with U.S. Bank for eight years. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. vanBrandwijk was Vice President and site manager for Metris Companies and Citicards. During his tenure at Citicards, Jake was responsible for the collection and recovery of multiple products including credit cards. He served on Risk Review teams both domestically and internationally. Jake holds a bachelor’s degree from Humboldt State University and has over 35 years experience in the credit and collection industry.

Bob is currently the CO-Chairman of Precision Recovery Analytics a mid-size debt buying company located in Austin TX and prior was the Company President and CEO for three years. Bob has 28 years of experience as a seasoned Senior Executive in the Consumer Finance and Services Industry. He was a pioneered of global outsourcing in the Accounts Receivables Management (ARM) Industry, Black Belt Six Sigma certified, specialization in process improvement and widely considered as ARM and financial industry authority frequently solicited for keynote/investor presentations and as advisory board consultant. He has served as a Director of numerous Boards for Private Equity Companies and Advisory Boards for Large Banking institutions where he’s provided expertise in building and refining process efficiencies, organizational restructuring, business plans and corporate strategy development for small, mid-size and fortune 100 companies. Besides his positions held at Precision Recovery Analysis, Bob was EVP/COO at Arise- a leading home base agent model specializing in Customer Service and cross selling solutions. Senior Vice President of Collections and Recovery at GE Money-America’s where he implemented risk based strategies through dialer automation, web collections, modeling, analytics and Six Sigma improvement to optimize expenses, delinquency and credit losses across 16 countries and 6,000 associates.

Laura Udis is First Assistant Attorney General of the Consumer Credit Unit in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. In 1988, she was appointed Administrator of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code and the Collection Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and enforces Colorado laws on consumer credit, predatory mortgage lending, payday lending, fair debt collection, debt management services, credit repair, and rent-to-own. Ms. Udis has served as president of the National Association of Consumer Credit Administrators and the North American Collection Agency Regulatory Association. Ms. Udis has spent her entire legal career in public service. She joined the Colorado Attorney General’s Office in 1980. From 1980 to 1984, she defended the state in criminal appeals. From 1984 to 1988, she represented the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and Department of Labor and Employment. Ms. Udis received her J.D. degree from Boston University School of Law and a B.A. with honors in Economics from the University of Colorado.

Fred is the managing partner of the law firm of Gordon & Weinberg, P.C. in Conshohocken, PA and has been a member of the firm since 1990. He is a graduate of the National Law Center at the George Washington University, class of 1984 and practices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mr. Weinberg specializes in the fields of creditors’ rights and commercial litigation. He has advised and defended various agencies and debt buyers in FDCPA and other consumer claims on both the state and federal levels, including class action matters. Fred has been an active leader in the creditors’ rights field. He is currently on the Board of Governors of the Commercial Law League of America and is the immediate past chairman of Eastern Region of the CLLA. He is a former education chair to the Eastern Region and a past member of the Executive Council of the Creditors’ Rights section of the CLLA. Fred also currently serves on the education committee and government affairs committee of NARCA.Fred has previously been a speaker for the CLLA, the IACC and the Global Debt Collection Summit.

Will Lund is Superintendent of Maine’s Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection. A graduate of Bowdoin College and the University of Maine Law School, he worked in private practice and for the Maine Attorney General’s Office prior to first being appointed to his current position in 1987. Mr. Lund has served as Chair of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council in Washington, DC and is a current member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s New England Consumer Advisory Group. He is a past president of several state regulatory groups, including North American Collection Agency Regulatory Association (NACARA) and National Association of Consumer Credit Administrators (NACCA).

Cheryl Miller is an experienced financial services executive with both domestic and international contact center management experience. She has had a distinguished 20 year management career leading successful high-growth multifaceted organizations. She has a history of bringing detailed technical knowledge to dramatically growing businesses, while maintaining corporate and customer service goals. Cheryl is a Client Services Partner with FICO, providing her expertise and knowledge for FICO�s collections and recovery solutions. Prior to FICO, Cheryl served as Sixth Gear�s Chief Servicing Officer. Her dedicated customer service leadership shaped Sixth Gear's approach to supporting Driver services, collections, and asset management. Cheryl has extensive experience developing new approaches to serving Drivers including retention programs for Dealers and Drivers. Prior to Sixth Gear, she held leadership positions with Americredit and Ford Motor Corporation where she had responsibility for five contact centers; four US and one Canadian. Cheryl had servicing responsibility for the consumer auto portfolio of AmeriCredit. From 2001 to 2003, she served as President of Consumer Services for AmeriCredit Financial Services where she was responsible for a $16B portfolio serviced by five call centers, including one in Canada. Cheryl was also recognized in 2001 by the YWCA as Honoree for Women in Business. Cheryl graduated from Texas A&M University and currently resides in Arizona.

Christopher P. Meier was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2005. He is also admitted to the United States District Courts for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida. Mr. Meier earned his Bachelor of Science from Kennesaw State University, majoring in Political Science. While earning his undergraduate degree, he was employed in the finance industry with a local Atlanta full-service bank. He went on to earn his Juris Doctorate from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, clerking for a prominent West Palm Beach insurance defense law firm while completing his studies. Mr. Meier�s practice has included the representation of creditors, physicians, hospital groups, and entrepreneurs in the debt settlement, credit counseling, and collections industries. His practice has allowed him to become well versed in many regulatory facets and litigation facets including pre-suit investigation, court procedure, trial practice, post judgment enforcement and appellate techniques. Mr. Meier is currently a member of the Young Lawyer�s Section of the Florida Bar, a member of the Palm Beach County Bar Association and a member of the Broward County Bar Association.