Meet Our Leadership | CFNA (2024)

Don Maier is Interim President in addition to Director of Operations and a member of the Board of Directors of CFNA, a Bridgestone company delivering trusted and powerful payment solutions for its customers.

As Director of Operations, Don leads all credit operational aspects of the private label credit card program for CFNA. He's focused on evolving CFNA's digital journey across credit operations to continue to deliver a best-in-class customer and teammate experience while ensuring sound lending practices.

Don was named Director of Operations in 2019 after serving as CFNA's Director of Finance for three years. As Director of Finance, Don was responsible for the finance, accounting, and audit functions of the private label credit card program for CFNA and Bridgestone Credit, in addition to overseeing new merchant enrollment and merchant support services.

Since 2008, Don has held various roles of increasing responsibility within Bridgestone Retail Operations, Bridgestone Shared Services, and CFNA. He brings more than 25 years of combined experience in retail and consumer credit.

Don earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Cleveland State University with a minor in finance.

Kathy Ault serves as Compliance Officer for CFNA, a Bridgestone company delivering trusted and powerful payment solutions for its customers.

As Compliance Officer, Kathy is CFNA's trusted advisor for new credit card products and services and leads second line activities to mitigate compliance risks. Kathy's strong background in risk management enables her to proactively identify compliance risks, recommend mitigation strategies that protect the consumers and the Bank, provide efficiencies for risk management activities, and influence risk mitigation activities across the Bank. Kathy's focus is evolving the compliance risk activities to the next level of maturity to protect consumers, customers, and the Bank while providing a positive experience for all. Kathy will continue to be a trusted advisor as CFNA expands its products and services.

She brings more than 30 years of risk management experience that includes audit and compliance disciplines as well as implementing data analytic solutions that drive efficiencies in risk management activities. Kathy has a strong track record of successfully implementing or recommending value added solutions to mitigate risks. Her risk management experience includes consumer and commercial lending, financial services operations, auto finance, mortgage lending, and consumer compliance.

Before joining CFNA in 2018, Kathy served as Director of Corporate Audit and Security Services for Capital One where she was instrumental in incorporating the use of data analytics in audit programs and was accountable for retail and commercial banking, auto finance, mortgage, and consumer compliance.

She is a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Information Systems Auditor, and Certified Enterprise Risk Professional. She also holds a designation of Certification in Risk Management Assurance. She is currently a member of the Technology Steering Committee for the Board of Directors of CFNA.

She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Northwestern State University.

Nate Dobson is Director of Finance for CFNA, a Bridgestone company delivering trusted and powerful payment solutions for its customers.

As Director of Finance, Nate leads the finance and accounting functions for CFNA. He is responsible for budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, management reporting, financial accounting, accounts payable, cashiering, and merchant finance and enrollment support.

Nate brings extensive finance and accounting experience across a variety of disciplines within financial services, including Line of Business Finance Management (Technology/Operations, Middle Market Lending, Wealth Management, Consumer Mortgage, Consumer Credit Card), FP&A, and Accounting.

Before joining CFNA in 2020, Nate, served as Finance Manager for KeyBank's Technology and Operations team, where he served as primary finance support and strategic partner for Loan Services, Enterprise Security Services, Business Optimization, and Lending Transformation & Digital Business Automation.

Nate earned a bachelor's degree in science business administration, finance and economics from John Carroll University.

Mike Emery is Director of Analytics for CFNA, a Bridgestone company delivering trusted and powerful payment solutions for its customers.

As Director of Analytics, Mike leads a team of highly skilled data scientists and business insights analysts that focus on increasing enterprise value and profitability for CFNA and Bridgestone by partnering with all areas of the organization to improve enterprise decisions through the translation of data. You'll find Mike and his team's work highlighted across many areas of CFNA, such as underwriting and credit risk, cardholder acquisition, lifecycle management strategy, customer service, collections, field sales and marketing, IT, and compliance.

Before joining CFNA in 2010, Mike was responsible for forecasting and supply chain management across more than 30 different products at American Greetings. Mike's experience ranges across multiple analytical disciplines with applications across credit risk and portfolio management, customer service, supply chain, collections, sales, and marketing.

During his time with CFNA, Mike has served as a member of the Board of Directors of CFNA.

He earned a bachelor's degree in statistics and an MBA from Cleveland State University.

Art Garanich is Director of IT for CFNA, a Bridgestone company delivering trusted and powerful payment solutions for its customers.

As Director of IT, Art serves as a key advisor to the CEO and CISO while leading the daily IT operations, continuously identifying opportunities for improvement and capability enhancement to ensure the IT services align with business needs in a highly regulated industry. In this role, Art champions the development and deployment of enterprise solutions from idea to deployment while also keeping a focus on maintaining overall compliance.

Art established the Technology Steering Committee for the Board of Directors of CFNA to provide additional executive support for IT services and oversight as required by regulations.

Before joining CFNA in 2003, Art led a team of over 100 cross-functional IT professionals providing infrastructure services across the U.S. for Hewlett Packard/EDS. He also led the transformation and implementation of agile methodologies and advanced technologies in addition to coordinating the transition from legacy systems and utilized best practices to standardize IT operations. He brings more than 20 years of experience leading middleware support, application development and infrastructure services, as well as holding various client delivery executive roles in multiple industries.

He earned a bachelor's degree in computer and information science and an MBA from Cleveland State University.

Jennifer Norris is Director of HR for CFNA, a Bridgestone company delivering trusted and powerful payment solutions for its customers.

As Director of HR, Jennifer is responsible, along with her team, for delivering on the business and HR strategy within CFNA and Bridgestone. She is focused on driving talent development, teammate engagement, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, and workforce optimization within the organization.

Before joining CFNA in 2022, Jennifer had HR leadership oversight for the Central Division within Bridgestone Retail Operations. This included over 600 automotive service center stores across five regions spanning from Minnesota to Texas.

Jennifer started her more than 20-year HR career at Rolls-Royce Corporation in Indianapolis, IN where she held many HR roles that involved her with HR business partner support, change management activities, cultural change projects, and process and business improvement changes.

Jennifer earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and communication from Purdue University and a master's degree in human resources management from University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC).

Adam Pizzurro is National Director of Sales & Marketing for CFNA, a Bridgestone company delivering trusted and powerful payment solutions for its customers.

In this role, Adam is responsible for driving growth and new partnerships for CFNA. Adam champions all sales and marketing channels of the organization's products and services suite and drives profitable growth of CFNA through the development of integrated business plans with various Bridgestone Americas lines of business.

He is focused on delivering innovative consumer and merchant payment solutions that create loyalty and seamless user experiences.

Adam joined Bridgestone Americas in 2008 and has held numerous sales and marketing leadership roles of increasing responsibility at CFNA and Bridgestone. Adam was instrumental in the expansion of CFNA's automotive platform where he led efforts to develop new program partnerships, enhance merchant and cardholder service offerings, and expand digital solutions.

He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and marketing from John Carroll University, and an MBA from Baldwin Wallace University.

Jose serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of CFNA. He is also Senior Vice President, Corporate Treasurer of Bridgestone Americas where he has served since 2014. In this role, he is responsible for funding, capital planning, liquidity, cash management, risk management, insurance, and pension investments. He is also responsible for Bridgestone Americas Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) transformation program. During his tenure at Bridgestone, he has also been responsible for financial planning and analysis.

Jose previously spent 14 years at General Electric Company, where he held several treasury roles within both GE and GE Capital, most recently as Managing Director, Global Industrial Treasury. Prior to this position, he held leadership roles as Managing Director of GE Capital Americas Center of Excellence, Managing Director of Global Business Services, and Global Treasurer of GE Infrastructure Business.

Jose began his career with Texaco, where he spent 10 years in the finance, treasury, and credit divisions.

He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration majoring in finance from Iona College. He is also a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP).

Nick joined Bridgestone in 2018. As Senior Counsel to CFNA, Nick provides legal support to the Bank including providing advice related to strategy, regulatory compliance, marketing, product development, and commercial transactions. In his role at Bridgestone, Nick also provides legal support to Bridgestone's retail operations which includes a company-owned network of ~2,200 automotive service centers and a growing mobile repair business.

Prior to joining Bridgestone, Nick was an associate at prominent Nashville law firm Waller. He is currently a Commissioner on the Franklin Municipal Planning Commission and a Board Member for Mental Health America of the Mid-South.

Nick earned a J.D. from the University of Dayton School of Law and a bachelor's degree in business management from Indiana University Bloomington.

Katie is the founder and managing principal of CustomStrat Advisory, which counsels financial service companies on how to adapt and grow, anchored in a customer perspective. She has wide-ranging experience driving transformation, strategy, and customer-facing improvements in banks as well as insurance and investment firms.

Prior to her current role, Katie served as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Customer Experience Officer for Fifth Third Bank. Before Fifth Third, she served as Managing Director and Head of Strategy in Consumer Banking for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Katie spent six years at Nationwide Insurance serving as Chief Strategy Officer and SVP of Property & Casualty Transformation. She served as a management member of the Finance Committee on Nationwide's Board of Directors. Prior to Nationwide, she held executive positions at National City Bank (now PNC) as well as Genworth Financial. Katie began her career at McKinsey & Company, serving large banking clients globally in the firm's Financial Services practice.

She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. She also earned a bachelor's degree in systems engineering with highest distinction from the University of Virginia.

Amy is the founder and CEO of Amy Hanson Advisory Services, LLC, providing advice and counsel on strategy involving retail, real estate, consumer insight and technology, and credit. Prior to her current role, Amy had a 33 year career with Macy's, Inc., culminating in her role as Executive Vice President and Corporate Officer for Credit, Customer and Financial Services. She also served as Vice Chair for Macy's North and President of Macy's Financial and Credit Services, and led functions including Credit, Omnichannel Customer Services, Real Estate, Store Planning, Design and Construction, and Procurement.

Amy currently serves on the Board of Directors for Messer, Inc. (Nominating and Governance Committee chair), LSI Industries, Inc., (Audit Committee chair), Charge Enterprises, Inc. (Audit Committee chair) and Strivve, Inc. She is active in the Cincinnati community, where she chairs the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Art Museum, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Christ Hospital Health Network, where she chairs the Finance Committee.

She has completed an Advanced Executive Management Program through The Kellogg School, Northwestern University, is a graduate of Lima Technical College, and is a CPA in the state of Ohio.

Eileen joined Bridgestone in 2021, where she currently serves as Vice President, IT Strategy and Operations, responsible for creating a holistic IT Strategy and provide insight from strategy to execution of IT services and operations. She has wide-ranging experience in IT strategy, transformation and leveraging data and analytics to improve customer experience to drive revenue growth in card services, banking and insurance.

Prior to her current role, Eileen served as Vice President, Infrastructure, McLane Company. Prior to McLane, she served as Vice President, Information Technology for Alliance Data Card Services (now known as Bread Financial) and Associate Vice President, Data Warehouse, Business Intelligence and Analytics in Property & Casualty division of Nationwide Insurance.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Ohio University.

Alan Yarcusko is Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel for Diversified Businesses at Bridgestone Americas. In the vice president role, he leads an integrated advocacy function bringing together professionals in government affairs, technical standards, and regulatory affairs. In the general counsel role, he provides legal support for Bridgestone Aircraft Tire, Bridgestone Golf, Bridgestone HosePower, Bridgestone Industrial Products, Bridgestone Metalpha, Firestone Polymers, and iTrack North America.

Yarcusko is an engineer who began his career in the automotive electronics industry in Detroit, MI. He joined Bridgestone Americas in 2001 when he joined the Law Department and served as General Counsel of Litigation. In 2012, he became Director of Technical Standards and Regulations. Alan returned to the Law Department in 2017 to launch a new role as General Counsel for Diversified Businesses, and he continues to serve in that role. In 2020, Yarcusko became chair of Bridgestone's global standards and regulations function. As of January 2022, he is leading the integrated advocacy function for Bridgestone Americas.

Yarcusko currently serves on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association. He also has served on the boards of the Tire & Rim Association and several nonprofit organizations in Northeast Ohio and is part of the leadership team at the Bridgestone Americas Technology Center in Akron.

Alan earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.