Meet The 2019 CreditCon Las Vegas Speakers
Cristian deRitis, PHD
Senior Director – Moody’s Analytics
Cristian deRitis, PHD
Senior Director – Moody’s Analytics
Cristian deRitis is a senior director at Moody’s Analytics, where he leads a team of economic analysts and develops econometric models for a wide variety of clients. Cristian has a PhD in economics from Johns Hopkins University and is named on two US patents for credit modeling techniques. His regular analysis and commentary on consumer credit appear on Economy.com and in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has over 20 years of experiencing building consumer credit performance models and systems. Before joining the Moody’s Cristian worked for Fannie Mae.
Julie Wooding
FICO
Julie Wooding
Senior Director – FICO
Ms. Julie Wooding, FICO Director, works with clients, consumer advocates and regulators to help them better understand the power of credit scoring technology and its benefits to the financial industry. As a key subject matter expert in the FICO Scores group, Julie works with top-tier lenders in the U.S. to help them evaluate and implement FICO scoring solutions. She delivers in-depth credit scoring training to regulators and lenders, most recently in the U.S., Canada, Russia, Mexico, Romania, the Philippines, and Qatar. Julie has experience in behavior, bankruptcy, revenue and risk score development, implementation and validation, and previously worked on the development of FICO® Scores for U.S. and Canada. Julie holds a B.S. in Finance, and an M.B.A.
John Ulzheimer
Credit Expert
John Ulzheimer
Credit Expert
John Ulzheimer is a nationally recognized expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft, and has worked in the credit industry since 1991. Formerly of FICO, Equifax, Credit.com, and a contractor for VantageScore Solutions for 8 years, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. He has served as an expert witness in more than 650 credit related lawsuits, has provided sworn testimony over 110 times, and has been qualified to testify in both Federal and State courts on the topic of consumer credit. John is the author of four books and thousands of articles about credit, and has been quoted thousands of times by national and regional media on credit related topics. John has presented at every CreditCon since the inception of the event
Jesse Leimgruber
Co-founder Bloom
Jesse Leimgruber
Co-founder Bloom
Jesse is the co-founder of the credit and identity platform, Bloom. Bloom is a new credit scoring algorithm to compete with FICO and Vantage Score based on Blockchain technology. Jesse studied computer science at Stanford University. Jesse is an advisor to The Alchemist Accelerator, a Thiel Fellow, and a mentor at the European Innovation Academy. He’s served as a guest lecturer at Stanford University, The University of Southern California, DePaul, among others. Prior to Bloom, Jesse founded predictive analytics company, NeoReach.
John McNamara
Assistant Director, CFPB
John McNamara
Assistant Director, CFPB
John McNamara is the Assistant Director of Consumer Lending, Reporting, and Collections Markets in the Research, Markets and Regulations division of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. He manages a team of subject matter experts and analysts covering the student, auto, small dollar, marketplace, and installment lending markets, as well as credit reporting and debt collection.
Prior to joining the BCFP, John was Chief Marketing Officer for LiveVox, a leading provider of cloud contact center solutions, and director/co-founder of Fidelis Recovery Solutions, Inc., a debt collector. He has over 30 years of experience in the accounts receivable management (ARM) and call/contact center industries, in addition to all phases of collections, recovery and call center operations with deep focus on technology, process improvement and compliance management systems and four years of experience as a federal consumer financial protection regulator.
John also served as COO for Asset Management Outsourcing, Inc., SVP of Banking and Retail Operations for First Data Corporation’s ARM unit, Nationwide Credit/ACB, and VP of Operations for United Recovery Systems, LP.
Robby Birnbaum
Greenspoon Marder
Robby Birnbaum
Partner – Greenspoon Marder Law Firm
Attorney Robby H. Birnbaum was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was admitted to the Florida and Wisconsin Bars in 1999. He is also admitted to the United States District Courts for the Southern District of Florida and Western District of Wisconsin. Mr. Birnbaum is a member of the Broward County, Palm Beach County, Florida, Wisconsin, and American Bar Associations. He is also a member of the Telemarketing, Internet and Privacy Subcommittee that serves the American Resort Development Association. Mr. Birnbaum was a Finalist, selected for the 2006 Up & Comers Award, by The South Florida Business Journal. He focuses extensively on regulatory practices for credit counseling and debt settlement agencies, marketing and advertising regulation, and regulatory compliance. 
Ryan Christiansen
Vice President of FI Data Solutions
Ryan Christiansen
Vice President of FI Data Solutions
Ryan has been with Finicity since July of 2016. Finicity is leading financial data access and insights provider, recently partnering with FICO and Experian on their next gen scoring solutions, UltraFICO and Experian Boost. Ryan leads the acquisition and management of consumer-permissioned financial data for Finicity, which includes the industry leading efforts to move to tokenized data acquisition methods. His work and leadership has lead to data access agreements with many of the largest financial institutions in country. Ryan also represents Finicity in industry efforts around consumer financial data access, consumer consent, privacy, and data handling practices, including membership in the Financial Data Exchange (FDX).
With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Ryan has developed a deep understanding of the value and insights consumers derive from the secure and reliable access to their financial data. Before coming to Finicity, Ryan was the Senior Vice President at Zions Bank.
Ryan holds a post-graduate degree in Banking and Financial Support Services from the University of Washington.
Rusty Breese
CEO of ScoreNavigator
Rusty Breese
CEO of ScoreNavigator
Chairman of the Board of CreditDNA Inc., and CEO of CreditLogix Inc. Rusty has been active in the Credit Industry for 36 years. From 2003 – 2006, after analyzing over 1,000,000 credit files, Mr. Bresse introduced Point Deduction Technology® Software into the Credit Industry and this software is now utilized in the United States and Canada. In 2010, ScoreNavigator Inc began selling credit reports to both consumers and businesses. ScoreNavigator products include, Target Score, Manual, and Money simulators along with financial analysis and budgeting programs. Mr. Bresse has teamed up with credit reporting agencies, credit companies, debt management companies, bankruptcy attorneys, auto lenders, and subprime lenders in both the United States and Canada offering a scientific approach to predictive scoring models.
TERESA DODSON
Founder Greenbacks Consulting
TERESA DODSON
Founder Greenbacks Consulting
Teresa Dodson has over 20 years of executive management experience. Her background includes 11 years of corporate leadership experience in running Advertising agencies who specialize in technology, medical and health industries. The last 16 years, she’s focused on the financial services industry ranging from operations management, industry compliance, software development and creating new business opportunities to help grow and scale existing businesses.
Currently she is the Founder and CEO of Greenbacks Consulting. Greenbacks Consulting has been providing consulting services to the financial services industry since 2008. Teresa has been focused on the debt settlement industry since 2003. During her time in the industry she served as COO of two large debt settlement companies and has built two more from the ground up.
She is currently and has been for the last 13 years an Executive Board Member of the American Fair Credit Council (AFCC).
Derrick A. Harper
Point Boosters
Derrick A. Harper
Point Boosters
Mr. Derrick Harper Sr. A native of Swainsboro, GA, is an entrepreneur that has been able to successfully launch quite a few business models. With his flagship being Harper’s Trucking Co, he is also responsible for Founding The Credit Repair University, YULA (Young Urban Leaders of America), and the highly successful Point Boosters Co.(c).
His passion for systems and compliance is why lots of peers respect him. His success with this has led to him becoming one of most respected Credit Repair Experts in the industry. Now, he mentors and teaches business owners how to become successful credit experts in their fields, grow their business, while maintaining compliance. With holding multiple degrees from technology to law, he’s always had a thirst for knowledge without being restricted to one particular field of work. The only permanent title Mr. Harper accepts proudly is the term “Veteran”, because he is a Proud Air Force Veteran that has an insurmountable amount of love for this great country.
Donna Perkins
NACSO
Donna Perkins
NACSO
Donna is Vice President of The National Association of Credit Service Organizations (NACSO). Donna has been in the Credit Industry for over 20 years and has been a recognized credit education expert. Donna also has served on the Congressional Committee Small Busienss Advisory Board.
Damon DeCrescenzo
Co-founder and CEO of The Credit Pros
Damon DeCrescenzo
Co-founder and CEO of The Credit Pros
A lifelong entrepreneur, Damon graduated from St. John’s University in New York with a B.S. in marketing and has founded a number of successful companies, including a mortgage lender, a real estate development company, an online pharmacy, a successful affiliate marketing network, and a pioneering e-commerce brand. As co-founder and CEO of The Credit Pros he leads one of the nation’s largest and most successful credit repair companies, serving tens of thousands of clients across the United States. The Credit Pros has been named to the Inc. 5000 list five consecutive times, Inc.’s first ever 50 best places to work list, SmartCEO magazine’s Future 50 list and SmartCEO’s New Jersey Corporate Culture awards, the Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2016 Entrepreneur 360™ list, and named one of the Best Places to Work in NJ for 2017. He is a progressive leader in credit technology and a vocal advocate of the credit repair industry.
Mark Sher
Your Family Bank
Mark Sher is a Registered Financial Consultant; he graduated with a degree in business from the University of Miami. Mr. Sher has over 15 years of experience helping clients with the creation, preservation and the distribution of wealth utilizing specific financial, insurance, and tax-efficiency strategies.
Mark is a highly regarded speaker on the subject of Financial Literacy; his last engagement in Las Vegas was at the Money Show this past May.
Mr X.
Credit Convict
From a Credit Convict to a Credit Guru, Mr X was convicted of Aggravated Identity Theft, Bank Fraud and Money Laundering which landed him in federal prison. But this story goes a little deeper than your regular Identity theft. Prosecutors were amazed that Mr. X stole the identities of only people with sub 600 credit scores! Mr. X actually improved the credit scores of his victims first! Come hear about Credit fraud from the fraudsters perspective from this convict turned credit guru! You don’t want to miss this never heard before story.
Chad Kusner
President Credit Repair Resources
Chad Kusner is the President of Credit Repair Resources. He serves as a Board Member on the National Association of Credit Service Organizations (NACSO) and an accredited Credit Instructor. Mr. Kusner actively meets with government officials and regulators on Capitol Hill regarding NACSO issues. Mr. Kusner co-presents the annual Credit Expert Summit Event. Mr. Kusner has written publications for the National Mortgage Professional, Scotsman Guide, the Simple Dollar and Originationpro.com and has been quoted in Mortgage Professional America.
Deric M. Dandridge
Dandridge Seminars Training Group
Deric Dandridge is the former CEO of Credit Resurrectors LLC and the retired President of Auto Dreams LLC. He spent 20 years enjoying his passion of helping people with credit issues and 23 years in the automotive industry as an auto broker. Deric is the author of the #1 booklet of its kind The Dark Side, “Secrets The Used Car Dealer Doesn’t Want You To Know.” In the booklet Deric shares secrets that can help consumers save thousands of dollars and how to avoid the pitfalls of buying a clunker, and why having good credit is vital. You can catch him on his 2019 seminar tour.
Lisa Warner
CEO Credit Supply
Lisa is the CEO of Credit Supply and has helped over 100 Credit Related business owners. Lisa is a prior Business Development & Brand Vice President who built businesses from conception to million-dollar companies. Lisa is an expert in social media marketing and has spent more than 10 years creating marketing content, managing professional graphic artists, and creating brand concepts. Lisa is well versed in creative tools and can quickly brand, conceptualize a marketing trend and or idea and bring it to life. Lisa is also a content writer and motivational speaker.
Ron Howard
SoTellUs Executive
SoTellUs’s revolutionary review system allows you to get 1,000’s of powerful video, audio, and written reviews instantly and in seconds. Reviews are crucial to your business. With everyone saying their services or products are the best and so much competition out there, you need to stand out. This review system turns your clients and speaking audiences into sales reps for you. When people watch these powerful, in-the-moment video reviews, they will believe you are the right match for them! The proven results: an increased conversion of 84% on website! Your 4 and 5-Star reviews will automatically show up on your website, and then be pushed through to social networks. SoTellUs also SEOs your top reviews for Google and other search engines.
Matt Listro
Credit Admiral Software
Matt Liistro
Credit Admiral Software
Matt Liistro is Co-Founder of Credit Admiral Software and a 28 year veteran of the Credit Repair Industry. Matt is the organizer of the annual CreditCon Event. Matt is a published author appearing in numerous publications including The New York Times, Yahoo Finance, Dow Jones Marketplace, and The Washington Business Journal. Matt has served with NACSO (National Association of Credit Service Organizations) and is currently a Director with AACCP (American Association of Consumer Credit Professionals. Matt has been active in credit repair legislative efforts in both Georgia and Illinois. Matt currently has authored a petition with the Federal Trade Commission to change the Telephone Sales Rule. Matt currently has a petition pending with the CFPB to modify the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Matt’s expertise lies in the credit disputing process. Matt is passionate about uniting credit industry professionals and the sharing of credit knowledge.
Dan Sater
CEO Credit Scoring Advisor
Daniel Sater is an Author, Speaker, Educator, and Nationally Recognized Credit Expert. He is a Certified FICO® Professional, a Credit Expert Witness, and founder of Credit Scoring Advisor. Dan has over two decades of experience has been an advisor and coach to numerous Credit Repair companies across the country. In an audit of client results in 2017 & 2018, Dan achieved an 87.64% and an 85.21% average deletion rates! Come learn how he does it!
Dan is the Chairman of the Education Committee for NACSO – the National Association of Credit Service Organizations. Dan has developed the Certification Exams for the organization, including the Certification Exam in Credit Scoring and the CROA licensing Exam. In 1997 he got involved studying the FICO scoring risk model. After many years of study and analyzing thousands of credit reports, he developed an extensive knowledge of how the FICO model works as well as the Consumer Reporting Agencies and their e-Oscar system.
Andre Coakley
CEO Credit360
Andre Coakley is the CEO and founder of Credit360 and the 7-Figure Start up Academy. Andre’ Coakley has spent over 20 years helping clients obtain and rebuild excellent personal and business credit profiles. Over the years, he has analyzed over 500,000 credit reports giving him extensive knowledge on credit trends. However, what Andre’ found out is… That it costs five times as much to attract a new customer, than it is to keep an existing one. The first rule of any business is to retain customers and build a loyal relationship with them, and thereby avoid customer acquisition costs.
Through the 7 Figure Start Up Academy, Andre has personally worked with more than 400 organizations in multiple countries. Andre knows how to engage and inspire leaders and team members through his keynotes, workshops, books, and online courses. Andre’ equips companies with the tools necessary to retain customers which result in higher employee engagement and platinum customer service experiences. He challenges businesses to dig deep to find and release their inner brilliance personally and professionally to reduce customer churn and increase revenue.
Jimarcus Blandin
FYI Business and Financial
Jimarcus Blandin is the founder of Wealthy Mindset University, best-selling author of Good Credit is Cool Great Credit is Sexy, and a serial entrepreneur since the age 8 with over 16 years’ experience as a consultant. His brand includes multiple companies and JV partnerships including the FYI Financial Brands, Conversion REI, and more. As a well sought after global business & mindset coach, recently stamped as a top mega business coach and speaker by the world’s #1 wealth & business coach JT Foxx, he has coached over 250+ credit related business owners to help them brand, scale, and grow their businesses. Jimarcus holds degrees in Int’l Business, Finance, and a MS in Software Engineering Mgt while still acts as a Gov’t Executive Consultant and former Financial Disposition Analyst in the healthcare industry. He has an extensive knowledge of all things medical as it relates to finance & credit. Jimarcus is a philanthropist with a keen focus on giving back as much knowledge as possible and helping the community by creating programs that have helped (to date) over 45+ girls achieve over $2 million in scholarships. He serves a board member of several non-profits associated with expressing financial literacy and empowerment our youth.
Ty Crandall
CEO Credit Suites
Ty Crandall
CEO Credit Suites
Ty serves as the CEO and Founder of Credit Suite. Ty Crandall is an internationally known speaker, author, and business credit expert. With over 16 years of financial experience Ty has become the authority in business credit, business credit building, business credit scoring, and business credit repair. Ty has been booked for speaking engagements in many states across the United States and as far away as Singapore.
Ty is the author of one of the most popular books on business and personal credit building named Perfect Credit. Ty has also written one of the best-selling business credit books Business Credit Decoded. In addition, Ty has written hundreds of published articles relating to business credit improvement, business credit scoring, business credit law, and numerous topics relating to business credit building. Ty and his business credit knowledge have also been featured on countless radio and TV programs.
Aaron Christopher (“AC”) Evans
CEO and Founder of Drips
Drips is a thought leader in drip marketing, conversational messaging, and marketing automation. AC is a pioneer of conversational messaging through SMS. AC is a perpetual entrepreneur and has spent nearly 20 years on the cutting-edge marketing strategy development.
AC has leveraged his expertise to build Drips, the AI-driven performance marketing platform providing lead conversion automation through voice, email, and SMS. Drips technology improves lead-to-call conversions and reduces overall lead generation costs by turning leads into high-intent inbound calls. In just two years, Drips has held over 250 million conversations for brands across the nation. Drips helps clients increase lead conversions by communicating with their customers in the same ways that people communicate with each other.
Tareka Coney M.Ed
Founder Coney Business Enterprises
From educator to small business credit expert, Tareka Coney is known as the small business credit expert. She is the owner of Coney Business Enterprise and Women Entrepreneur Factory. From the classroom to the boardroom Tareka has found the importance of credit. When life began to happen. Instead of being another statistic, Tareka invested in herself by spending over 40k in one year to make sure she was an expert in her field.
Tareka currently has mentored over hundreds of small business credit repair owners to help build strategies that will impact their business in a way that they will operate in compliances and being a beacon of hope to get started in their business.
Tareka is constantly impacting her community daily by serving on many boards publicly and privately to meet the needs of her community. She has partnered with major corporations like BB&T bank to bring financial literacy and business education to small business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Tareka also spends her time in her community collaborating with other professionals, creating partnerships and securing sponsorships.
Tareka believes in “The power of collaboration” when we work together we succeed together. A win for you is a win for me. We must be willing to learn from other people in the same industry to help grow our network and knowledge base.
Elle Williams
Founder EduSolutions
Elle A. Williams, known by her tribe as The Credit Educator, is the owner and founder of EduCredit Solutions, Nationwide College Solutions, and LA Credit, Capital and Consulting. A Certified Credit Professional, Small Business Funding Specialist, and Business Mentor; she is based in the heart of Southern Louisiana and for over a decade has gained in-depth experience in the education, finance real estate and business space. Elle obtained her BA in Education from Southern University A&M and a Master’s Certification from the University of California Los Angeles. She started her career as a classroom teacher, but eventually left the k-12 environment to start her first company, an Independent Educational Consulting Firm. Shortly after, she ventured into insurance, property management, and real estate development becoming the on-site and team credit specialist and financial consultant assisting individuals and families interested in rent-to-own and the home buying process.
Today, along with overseeing her companies, Elle focuses on business building. She mentors aspiring and existing business owners and entrepreneurs across the nation in the areas of accountability, profitability, and scalability. She assists her clients with developing systematic processes, content creation, product development, online and offline engagement, and networking and collaboration for better business and relationships.
Brandy Thorpe
Founder Legacy Credit
Brandy Thorpe is the founder and owner of CP&T Investments (a real estate investment company), CP&T Trucking, Legacy Credit, and owner/operator at Point Boosters! She works with the Kansas City Housing Authority to help improve section 8 tenants credit scores and position them from Section 8 to homeownership. Bad credit decisions in her earlier life can be contributed simply to the lack of information and education. It was only after much studying, training, and education that she was able to repair and restore both her and her husband’s credit. She then leveraged their credit by creating a real estate portfolio compiled of both residential and commercial real estate properties, a Trucking business that improves the infrastructure of Kansas City, a credit repair business that repairs and education families on improving their credit, and business funding to assist small business owners with access to the capital needed to scale their business. Brandy also mentor’s other business owners and other than her family, her inspirations are her desire to see others in her community thrive by learning not only how to improve their credit, but how to use their credit to building wealth, and legacies for their selves and families.
Steve Reger
Senior VP SmartCredit
Steve Reger
Senior VP | Consumer Direct and SmartCredit
After 26 years with TransUnion, Steve retired as Trans Union’s Senior Director for Consumer Services and Fraud Victim Assistance in 2015, overseeing 200+ agents and support staff. Steve is a leading authority on credit reporting, financial crimes, identity theft, synthetic identities and credit repair. He is regularly called upon by law enforcement and bank investigators to assist with investigations. In 2012 he was recognized by the Director of the FBI for his invaluable contributions to a multi-year investigation of complex synthetic identity fraud. Steve is a P.O.S.T. certified trainer for the State of California and has led hundreds of presentations to consumers, banks, law enforcement and other government agencies on the subject of credit reporting, credit monitoring & financial crimes. At TransUnion Steve was responsible for the oversight of consumer initiated FCRA litigation brought against TransUnion and most expert witness testimony. Steve has testified or been deposed in more than 600 court cases throughout the United States. Steve has been interviewed by numerous leading newspaper, magazine and electronic print media including MSNBC, Reader’s Digest, Money Magazine, Kiplinger, New York Times, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune. He has appeared in both television and radio segments.
Doug Minor
Founder Easy Credit Relief
Doug has spent over 30 years reviewing and analyzing personal credit reports. Doug has been involved in over 100 credit related court cases for credit reporting, credit scoring, and credit damages. Doug is a member of the Forensic Expert Witness Association. Doug has published numerous books on the subject of credit and has been quoted in Zillow.com, Yahoo Finance, FoxBusiness.com, CreditCardForum.com, CardRatings.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Entrepreneur magazine, and many more.
Mark Clayborne
Author | Lead Generation and Marketing Expert
Mark Clayborne
Founder of Client Dispute Manager
Mark Clayborne is the founder of Client Dispute Manager, a Credit Repair Business software. He is the author of the one-time best-selling book, “Hidden Credit Repair Secrets,” and “How to Start a Credit Repair Business.” To further educate consumers, he has designed several platforms, Lead Generation academy, Credit Repair Marketing Event, Credit Repair Mastery Class, Credit Repair Business Mastery Class, and seven Facebook Groups. A widely-respected professional, his expertise has also been highly sought-after as a speaker for many Credit-related events such as Credit Repair Marketing Event, Credit Repair University, Credit Con, and Credit Fest. Mark is dedicated to finding solutions for his clients and continues to keep abreast of the latest industry trends and tech to personalize his services further. Mark is a proven industry leader, and he makes assisting clients an utmost priority.
Kelly Wells
Founder Credit Resources of Washington
Kelly is the Founder of Credit Resources of Washington. Kelly has 13 years of experience in the credit repair space as well as years of experience in the mortgage and tax preparation industries.
For the past 4 years Kelly has found a passion of assisting consumers with their finances through Financial Fitness and Act 4 Financial Freedom. Using her extensive credit knowledge, combines with her banking and tax experience, Kelly is a prolific instructor on all things credit and finance. Kelly is a certified continuing education instructor in the state of Washington.
MORE SPEAKERS COMING SOON
Speakers Schedule
