Jerry Halbrook - Black Knight Financial Services

Jerry Halbrook
Jerry Halbrook is President of the Black Knight Origination Technologies division. His
responsibilities include overseeing the strategic direction and business operations of the
Empower,® LendingSpace® and SalesEdge™ product suites. He brings over 27 years of
experience focusing on financial management, technology and operational management.
Prior to his position at Black Knight, Halbrook served as a senior managing director at
NexSpring Group, LLC, which advises private equity firms, financial institutions, mortgage
lenders and service providers on all aspects of strategic and operational issues in the
residential mortgage and consumer lending markets. Before joining NexSpring, he served as
Jerry Halbrook
President,
Black Knight Origination Technologies
the CIO for Bank of America’s Consumer Real Estate and Insurance Services division. Bank of
America acquired Nexstar Financial, a BPO company co-founded by Halbrook. Nexstar was a
start-up venture founded by KKR, specializing in end-to-end residential lending, technology
and operations management. Halbrook served as both COO and CIO of Nexstar. In addition,
he served as managing director of capital markets with Citicorp Mortgage, CFO of Prudential
Home Mortgage and in senior management at Deloitte.
Halbrook graduated from Washington University with a Masters of Business Administration
and a B.S. in business administration. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com
Lynn Armbrust
As Managing Director of Client Services for the Black Knight Origination Technologies division,
Lynn Armbrust is responsible for the development and delivery of services designed to help
clients leverage the Origination Technologies product suite, including platform optimization,
testing and training services, business reviews, and staff augmentation.
Armbrust served as an eCommerce executive and senior vice president at Bank of America
prior to joining Black Knight. In that position, she was accountable for designing and delivering
richer and deeper customer relationships needed to protect existing revenue and create new
Lynn Armbrust
Managing Director,
revenue streams in online and mobile channels. She also served as a business operations
executive, senior vice president of Home Loans and Insurance Services where she was
Client Services,
responsible for strategic initiative governance, customer experience and transition activities;
Black Knight Origination Technologies
and senior vice president of technology and operations at National City, overseeing
consolidation services, which included acquisitions, due diligence planning, integrations,
and consolidation of data centers, call centers and international operations.
Armbrust received a B.A. in business administration and marketing from Baldwin Wallace
College. She also completed Masters coursework at the Ohio State University.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com
Al Bartello
Alfred Bartello is Managing Director of Sales for the Black Knight Origination Technologies
division. He oversees a team that is dedicated to providing consistent and coordinated
relationship management and responsible for new sales and business development.
Prior to the acquisition of Empower® (formerly Eastern Software Corporation) in October 2002,
Bartello was one of three managing principals of the acquired company. Bartello started his
career with Eastern Software, and successfully pioneered sales of the Eastern product line
through four platform changes over a 25-year period. Prior to Eastern Software, Bartello
achieved leading sales recognition in accounting system products with Monroe Systems
Al Bartello
Managing Director, Sales,
Black Knight Origination Technologies
for Business. Bartello also served as eastern region manager for accounting system sales.
His region was recognized as the company’s top performing area.
Bartello earned a B.A. in business administration from William Paterson University.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com
Ken Benkeser
As Managing Director of Correspondent Solutions for the Black Knight Origination Technologies
division, Ken Benkeser is responsible for all aspects of LendingSpace® base product
implementation, product management, technology development and delivery, quality
assurance/testing and regulatory compliance. He has over 29 years of experience in financial
services, developing and implementing integrated software solutions for clients.
Prior to joining the Black Knight Origination Technologies Professional Services Group in 2013
as Senior Service Delivery Executive, Benkeser was a Senior Vice President and Mortgage
Servicing Business Controls/Support Executive at Bank of America. In that position, he
Ken Benkeser
Managing Director,
Correspondent Solutions,
Black Knight Origination Technologies
was accountable for the consumer mortgage servicing line of business operational risk
management, state and federal regulatory compliance, quality controls, initiative governance
and transition activities. Ken has also held a variety of senior systems engineering, software
development, sales and sales management roles with RR Donnelley, Keane and NCR serving
clients in the mortgage and financial services industries.
Benkeser received a bachelor’s degree in industrial management and computer science from
Purdue University. He also completed postgraduate coursework at Wake Forest University.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com
Richard Gagliano
Rich Gagliano serves as the Managing Director of Origination Solutions for the Black Knight
Origination Technologies division. In this position, he is responsible for overseeing the product
strategy, implementation, product management, development, delivery, quality assurance,
testing and regulatory compliance for the Empower®, SalesEdge™ and Driver™ technologies.
With more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, he brings a wide
range of lending product experience to this division.
Before joining Black Knight, Gagliano was senior vice president of direct lending and chief
administrative officer at Aurora Bank. In that role, he was responsible for management of
Richard Gagliano
Managing Director,
Origination Solutions,
Black Knight Origination Technologies
the direct-to-consumer lending platform (sales\operations) and established Aurora Bank’s
Internet lending channel. Prior to working at Aurora Bank, Gagliano was senior vice president,
business engineering and implementation at Bank of America, where he was responsible
for the development and communication of business requirements for several business
technology categories. In addition, he served as a senior vice president of Nexstar Financial,
overseeing various product and loan origination platform initiatives. Gagliano also served as a
portfolio manager and senior financial analyst for Citicorp Mortgage and a mortgage banking
officer at Mercantile Bank of St. Louis.
Gagliano received a B.S. in business administration from Southeast Missouri State University
and a Masters of Business Administration – Finance from Saint Louis University.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com
Renee Galitis
Renee Galitis serves as the Chief Technology Officer of the Black Knight Origination
Technologies division. In this role, she is responsible for managing the Strategic Technology
& Operations team. Having held a variety of positions in the financial services industry, she
brings significant software development and technology management experience to this
division.
Most recently, Galitis was a senior technology advisor for NexSpring, LLC and was focused on
technology delivery strategies and optimization of in-f light projects. Prior to her advisory role,
she was a senior vice president, service delivery executive for the mortgage division of Bank
Renee Galitis
Chief Technology Officer,
Strategic Technology & Operations,
Black Knight Origination Technologies
of America, where she was responsible for implementing a state-of-the-art technology platform
for mortgage loan sales and originations. In addition, she served in a variety of technology and
process-related positions with Bank of Boston, Prudential Home Mortgage, eoTek and Nexstar.
Renee earned a B.A. in economics from Tufts University. She has also taken several graduate
classes in economics and accounting.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com
Heather Rhoades
Heather Rhoades serves as the business operations executive for the Black Knight Origination
Technologies division. In this role, she is responsible for managing all internal operations,
including financial planning and reporting, capacity planning, project governance and audit.
Her team is also responsible for developing and maintaining internal systems to support
operational excellence and help meet divisional goals.
Prior to joining Black Knight, Rhoades served as the senior change manager and senior vice
president for Bank of America’s eCommerce, Mobile Banking and ATM programs, leading the
execution teams focused on new and emerging technologies. She also served as a senior
Heather Rhoades
Business Operations Executive,
Black Knight Origination Technologies
vice president and senior service delivery manger, leading the eCommerce deployment
and conversion for the Bank of America and Countrywide merger. Prior to Bank of America,
Rhoades was with Nexstar Financial where she led client implementations and the build-out
of a Consumer Real Estate Post Closing, Imaging and Correspondent delivery system.
Rhoades earned a B.A. in linguistics at the University of Missouri and also holds a Six Sigma
Green Belt certification.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com
Ravi Varma
As managing director of Black Knight India Solutions, Ravi Varma oversees all aspects of the
LendingSpace® day-to-day product delivery and operations team, located in Secunderabad,
India. In this role, Varma is responsible for product management, development and support.
Prior to Black Knight’s acquisition of LendingSpace, Varma served as chief executive officer
of LendingSpace, which he co-founded. He focused primarily on the design and evolution
of the product, as well as company strategy. Varma brings more than 18 years of entrepreneurial
experience, building and managing successful information technology solutions companies
and focusing on technology services. He spent the last 14 years building comprehensive and
successful solutions for the mortgage and lending industry .
Ravi Varma
Managing Director,
Black Knight India Solutions
Prior to co-founding LendingSpace, Varma was the CEO of Compulearn and helped found
Computech Corporation and ePlanets Consulting, a consulting services company for Fortune
500 companies.
Varma attended Osmania University, the University of New Orleans and the New York Institute
of Technology. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance and master’s degrees
in accounting and marketing.
844.474.2537
www.BKFS.com