The early part of his professional life, René spent with UBS Securities, first in London and later in New York, where he was responsible for the firm’s proprietary non-Dollar Fixed-Income trading in the Western Hemisphere.

The next 15 years, René spent with ING as a career-expatriate and held various senior management positions. Originally hired as Global Head of Capital Markets, his later responsibilities included Vice Chairman of ING’s International Private Bank, a global private bank with 29 offices in 24 countries, and CEO and President of ING’s banking business in the U.S. During his career René was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to live in places as diverse as London, New York, San Francisco, The Netherlands Antilles, Geneva, and Singapore.

Following his career with ING, René worked at the crossroads of insurance and capital markets. He was a co-founder of a highly successful boutique investment bank that rapidly became the premier financier for structured insurance products.

René obtained his Masters in Macro-Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Luther began his career in the property/casualty premium finance industry in the early 1990’s. Luther had roles in outside sales and internal business development over the years, but his primary focus has been on the operations side of the business.

Luther was involved in two de novo businesses within the industry. In 2005, as one of the founders of BankDirect Capital Finance, LLC, he was deeply involved in the formation of the business.

Luther is passionate about establishing and growing client relationships and is committed to ensuring that their experience is unparalleled. He settles for nothing less than excellence in business execution and operational efficiency.

While Luther is newer to the life premium finance space, he is excited about learning its nuances and looking to incorporate his operational best practices into this segment of the business.

Luther participates in various insurance related associations and has been an active member of the National Premium Finance Association.

Luther earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Aurora University and has an M.B.A. from Keller Graduate School of Management.

Debra began her career working in commercial premium finance in 1999.

Debra started in portfolio management, working on payment solutions with insureds and on preventing policy cancellations with agencies. After 6 years, Debra moved into the business development group as an account executive. She worked closely with sales, servicing agent relationships in New York and establishing significant growth in the territory. Her work ethic and passion for helping clients elevated her to a senior leadership position, managing a team of account executives based in Garden City, NY. Debra has also been instrumental in identifying and building business process improvements that achieve greater accuracy as well as system development enhancements that produce greater efficiency.

Debra transitioned to BankDirect Premium Funding in 2023 in a senior leadership role.  If you need something done, Debra is your person.

Derek started his career in accounting and finance in 1999 gaining a wide area of expertise through managing the monthly close process for several businesses across different industries. Additionally, he gained experience in all areas related to finance including tax, audit, treasury, acquisitions & legal compliance.

He began working in the life premium finance industry in 2010 at First Insurance Funding, a division of Wintrust Financial Corporation. The life premium division was a new acquisition with Derek and his team responsible for managing the accounting & finance processes for this portfolio. His capacity grew to overseeing the entire accounting department for all premium finance, including property/casualty and the Canada (Canadian?) division.

Derek started at BankDirect Premium Funding in May 2023 providing key business stakeholders with financial planning and analysis support as well as guidance with the management of the life loan portfolio. This includes forecasting, budgeting, management reporting and support in the day-to-day operation of the business. Derek is excited for the opportunity to help grow the BankDirect Premium Funding team into a leader in the life premium funding industry.

Derek holds a B.S. degree in Finance from Northern Illinois University.

David began his career in the premium finance industry in 2007 at Standard Funding, where he focused on relationship building and learning all aspects of the business.

Since 2014, David has transitioned his focus into life premium finance and has worked for several banks in the industry and a private insurance agency. This experience allowed David to become proficient in multiple aspects of the business.  He currently manages a team that oversees a portfolio of loans.  David is a key “go to” guy in our business. 

David holds a degree in Management Information Systems from SUNY Old Westbury and an MBA from Molloy College.

Anne began her career in insurance finance with BankDirect Capital Finance in 2015. Initially focused on commercial premium finance, she transitioned to a role within the life insurance lending division in 2018.

As an Account Executive, she is responsible for underwriting and analyzing individual transaction risk, while maintaining strong, positive client relationships. With the experience gained in the front end of the business, Anne has worked her way up through the company, and now oversees the Account Executive team as an AVP of Business Development. She utilizes her communication and problem-solving skills to both mentor her team and advocate for her clients at every stage.

Anne holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

Mary began her career in finance at AIG, working in commercial premium finance.

Starting in the front end of the business, Mary learned the importance of cultivating relationships to achieve production goals. As an internal auditor, she enjoyed traveling and working with colleagues to foster an environment of collaboration, while maintaining and improving the policies and procedures of the organization. New regulatory requirements and demands to expand volume and efficiency, led to roles in process enhancement, program management and business analysis.

Following AIG, Mary consulted for various industries including healthcare and logistics where she leveraged her critical thinking and problem-solving skills. With the increased flexibility that consulting affords, Mary honed her abilities as a gourmet cook and avid traveler.

Mary returned to commercial premium finance at BankDirect Capital Finance to lead a risk management team responsible for vetting new relationship prospects and the safeguarding of the current loan portfolio. Mary joined BankDirect Premium Funding as the Head of Operations, responsible for all operational aspects of the business.

Mary holds a B.S. in applied economics from Cornell University.

Irina began her career in commercial insurance premium finance over 20 years ago at one of the largest organizations in the industry. Starting in customer service and portfolio management she quickly transitioned into leadership positions with a focus on team training and development. She has built proficiency in preparing and analyzing department productivity, evaluating portfolios, and creating action plans to reach targets, documentation of policies and procedures to drive performance and efficiencies leading to reduction in past due balances and overall improvement in the outstanding portfolio, and working with collection vendors and attorneys to maximize recoveries on bad debt or delinquent accounts.

Seeking a new challenge, Irina accepted a position within the mortgage industry. In this role, Irina led a team in preparing and finalizing foreclosure documentation to increase the velocity and recovery of outstanding balances for multiple lending institutions.

Irina returned to the insurance premium finance industry and BankDirect Capital Finance in 2019 to help wind down an acquired portfolio of premium financed loans. Now with BankDirect Premium Funding, Irina oversees the Portfolio Management team ensuring loans are fully collateralized and reducing the overall risk within the portfolio.

Irina holds a B.S. from DePaul University.

Ron Grazian began his finance career at BankDirect in 2022 working in both the commercial premium finance and life insurance premium finance sectors. Ron currently works as an Account Executive, helping to build relationships with BankDirect’s clients, mitigate potential issues and to facilitate premium fundings. His adept problem-solving and critical thinking skills have earned him recognition in navigating complex challenges.

Ron holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Carthage College.

Danny has worked in Finance his entire professional career, starting as an Account Executive Assistant at JD Factors, where he focused primarily on client relationship management and general accounting. From there, he has held roles in investment operations analysis, and worked in mortgage loan operations at JP Morgan Chase, honing his abilities on the operations side of finance.

Danny joined Bank Direct Premium Funding in 2022 and works as an Account Executive and Accounting Analyst. His role focuses on communicating with clients and agents to facilitate premium funding and ensure compliance on existing loans.

Danny holds a B.S. in Economics from Northern Illinois University.

Alissa began her career in premium finance with BankDirect Premium Funding in January 2023. As an Analyst, she is responsible for managing new business opportunities from initial contact through the underwriting process. Her proficiency with excel has also added value in our forecasting efforts and the development of key loan management reports.  Alissa is eager to learn more about the life business, completing a life insurance course with plans to take the test and achieve a life insurance license.

Alissa holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics, and an M.S. in Applied Statistics from Illinois State University.

Shantal began her finance journey as a portfolio manager for the McCoy College of Business endowment overseeing the consumer staples and international sectors. She then joined Texas Capital Bank as a Bank Analyst where she completed a rotational program covering projects in the private wealth and investment banking departments.

After completing her analyst program, Shantal transitioned to BankDirect as an Analyst, where she evaluated the procedures across all commercial and life premium financing roles with the intention to implement faster solutions. Shantal currently oversees the company’s pricing and profitability and facilitates the company’s business reporting.

Shantal holds a BBA in Finance from Texas State University.

Beth joined the life premium group in 2024 as a Legal Support Specialist. In her role, she works closely with the team to prepare loan packages and other documents as well as acts as a legal liaison on a variety of topics.

Prior to joining our team, Beth gained a wealth of expertise working for several lending organizations in a variety of servicing roles. Additionally, she was a practicing attorney for nineteen years.

Beth is an avid traveler and to date has visited 44 countries and all 7 continents.

Beth holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctorate from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University.