Connected by People and Purpose

Daniel J. Pillemer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CardWorks Inc., the parent company of Merrick Bank, CardWorks Servicing, and Carson Smithfield.  He serves on the boards of directors of each of the four entities.

Dan was named CEO in 2021, after serving as President for six years.  Dan joined CardWorks in 2015, after 14 years of partnership with Don Berman and CardWorks in a variety of transactions.

Prior to CardWorks, Dan was Founder, Chairman and CEO of Kilowatt Financial, one of the earliest clean energy consumer finance companies, delivering solar PPAs, solar leases, solar loans, energy efficiency loans and PACE financing through contractors across the US.

Prior to Kilowatt, Dan founded and ran FG Companies, a consumer finance merchant banking firm that advised on $1.5 billion in completed buyside transactions, raised over $1.2 billion in capital for consumer finance companies, sold over $10 billion face value of assets, and was involved in the creation of multiple successful consumer finance businesses.

Prior to FG, Dan was a principal investor at Goldman Sachs, where he served as a member of the investment committee of the US Special Situations Group, and was responsible for asset, credit and private equity investments in consumer finance assets, originators and other illiquid asset classes.

Dan holds a BSc(Hons) in Pure Mathematics from the University of New South Wales, Australia.  Dan lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Louis Mrachek is Executive Vice President and Head of Lending at Merrick Bank and one of the nine Organizational Area Leaders who comprise the executive team at CardWorks.

As Head of Lending, Louis’ primary mission is to drive strong, responsible growth while managing risk and ensuring compliance. He oversees Merrick Bank’s core Lending business lines with a focus on providing exceptional value to Merrick Bank’s customers through execution and innovation. Louis and his team are responsible for the full range of Lending activity including Credit Cards, Recreation Lending, and other products.  Prior to leading Lending, Louis oversaw the Bank’s Analytics and Data Science efforts.

Louis’ career has been mainly in financial services, where he has had roles in risk, operations, product, marketing, analytics, and business development. He served as Chief Credit Officer at Community Investment Management, a social impact focused private credit fund, where he was responsible for new investment evaluation, portfolio risk management, and credit monitoring. Prior to that, Louis held leadership roles at Aura Financial (a Community Development Financial Institution), HSBC, and Capital One.

 Louis holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from Duke University.

Greg Linakis is Executive Vice President and Head of Merrick Bank’s Merchant Acquiring Business and CardWorks Servicing, LLC’s Servicing Business, two of the three lines of business at CardWorks, Inc. He is also a member of the Executive Council. 

 In this role, Greg is responsible for developing and executing strategic priorities for the Merchant and Servicing business lines, which includes expanding into new markets, creating new partnership opportunities, and providing flexible, customized, solutions for our clients and their customers. Greg and his teams are focused on building long-term trusted relationships with the businesses they serve. They have made Merrick Bank’s Merchant Acquiring business a top-15 merchant acquirer in the U.S., and advanced the Servicing Business into the recognized leader in providing end-to-end servicing for credit card and personal loan portfolios owned by banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions. 

 Greg joined CardWorks in 2005 with deep experience in the credit card business. A veteran of JPMorgan Chase & Co., he ran their Subprime Credit Card Lending Business and held senior positions in Marketing and Credit Risk Policy. He also ran Berkshire Hathaway’s credit card subsidiary, bringing to market several well-known credit cards across the MasterCard and Visa franchises, such as the GEICO Platinum MasterCard and Pampered Chef Visa Card 

 Greg earned a bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University, an MBA in Finance from Hofstra University, and completed a two-year Information Systems program at Columbia University. 

Rick Welsh serves as the Executive Vice President and Group Chief Operating Officer (COO) of CardWorks, Inc.

In this role, Rick leads as a central figure for counsel, escalation, and problem-solving across Operations and Data, Technology, and Digital (DTD). Leveraging his extensive experience in both operations and technology leadership, Rick addresses obstacles, drives strategic investments, and fosters collaboration between Operations and DTD, in addition to the Business Lines, Risk & Regulatory, and corporate areas at CardWorks.

Prior to joining CardWorks, Rick served as Executive Director of Ally Card at Ally Financial. He transitioned to Ally following their acquisition of Fair Square Financial in 2021, where he was a co-founding managing partner and had been Chief Operating Officer since 2016.

Rick’s earlier career in financial services spans senior leadership roles at Bank of America, where he was Senior Vice President of US Consumer Lending, and MBNA, where he began his career, spending eight years in various leadership positions within Consumer Credit Card Account Management Operations.

Rick holds a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University and currently resides in the Philadelphia area.

Fabienne Gimenez is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at CardWorks, Inc. She is also a member of the Executive Council.

Under Fabienne’s leadership, Operations includes all customer-facing functional areas, as well as the operations middle and back-office functions including the first line of defense. She also oversees the company’s social media efforts, including customer interaction through those channels. In everything, her focus at CardWorks is to strengthen and scale the organization while remaining highly compliant and providing an engaging customer experience.

Before joining CardWorks, Fabienne held senior and executive positions at a range of Fortune 500 companies, in roles related to both business operations and corporate strategy & development. Fabienne started her career in France in the venture capital space and spent time early in her career in Egypt, where she focused on providing microloans to women in the Middle East.

Fabienne was part of the executive program in investment appraisal and management at Harvard Institute for International Development and holds an MBA and postgraduate degree in banking and finance from the University of Toulouse, France.

Chris Corrado is Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for CardWorks, Inc. He is also a member of the Executive Council.

As CIO, Chris is responsible for leading all Data, Technology & Digital (“DTD”) initiatives and ensuring that the strategies, processes, infrastructure, and operational systems underpinning our systems and data are supporting the company’s goals and operational needs. Under his leadership, his team is focused on executing the DTD strategy to drive the implementation of innovative technologies, advanced product and service innovation and business growth through digital transformation.

With an enduring commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) at CardWorks, Chris is Executive Sponsor of the African, Black American and Caribbean (ABAC) Employee Resource Group (ERG).

Earlier in his career, Chris served as Managing Director, CIO and/or CTO roles at MSCI, UBS, Asurion, eBay, AT&T Wireless, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley. During this time, he led transformative initiatives such as recovering Merrill Lynch businesses from the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center buildings; helping to pioneer the introduction of smart mobile phones at AT&T Wireless; and growing a startup company by over 10-fold in value in less than 10 years.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and Business Administration from the State University of New York at Albany.

Brian W. Jones is President at Merrick Bank. He is also Head of Risk & Regulatory and a member of the Executive Council for Merrick Bank Corporation’s parent company, CardWorks, Inc.  

Since its founding in 1997 as an FDIC-insured Utah Industrial Loan Bank, Merrick Bank is now recognized as a top-15 credit card issuer and top-15 merchant acquirer in the U.S., serving nearly 3 million cardholders and extending nearly $6 billion in credit; and a leading consumer finance provider to marine, RV, powersports, and horse trailer dealers throughout the country. 

As President, Brian is responsible for all aspects of Merrick Bank’s operations and procedures and the overall direction and administration of its programs, products, and services, including the bank’s financial performance, credit quality, business development, regulatory compliance, risk management, and operations. 

Brian has been with Merrick Bank since 2005 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Prior to Merrick, he held various leadership and management positions at public and private financial services and technology companies including Credit Suisse and Zions Bancorporation.  

Brian holds both a B.S. in Finance and a J.D. from the University of Utah, and an LL.M in Litigation Management from Baylor University. 

Laurie Bigman joined CardWorks, Inc. in 2015. She is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary and the Organizational Area Leader for Legal. She has more than 30 years of experience focused on consumer credit and regulatory compliance, including having served as Chief Compliance Officer for a bank. She also provides legal advice to and serves as Secretary of the Boards of CardWorks, Inc., CardWorks Servicing, Carson Smithfield, LLC, and CWI Board Committees.

As General Counsel,  Laurie manages the Legal Team and is responsible for mitigating legal risk. She and her team provide guidance to the Board of Directors, senior management, and staff at all levels of the organization. Laurie serves on many committees and leadership teams, including the Executive Council, the Working 2021 Governance Team, the Third-Party Risk Management, Business Continuity, and Information Security Committees.

Before joining CardWorks, Laurie worked in a variety of legal and compliance roles at large and small banks, including Citibank, Capital One, Emigrant, GreenPoint, and North Fork. She earned a B.A. from Brandeis University, and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. Laurie is an active member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and New York State Bar Association’s Business Law, Corporate Counsel, and Women in the Law Sections.

Ken Caruso is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at CardWorks, Inc. He is also a member of the Executive Committee.

As the head of Human Resources, Ken oversees the Talent Acquisition, Benefits & Compensation, HR Business Partner & Employee Relations, Organizational Development, Communications, and Culture & Corporate Social Responsibility teams, and their related activities across the organization.

Ken has built his experience over nearly 30 years in HR, during which he has held executive roles across a wide array of financial services and payments organizations, among others, and developed a deep understanding of how to define a robust and rewarding employee value proposition, and execute holistic HR agendas focused on organizational effectiveness, talent, culture, and engagement.

Before CardWorks, Inc., Ken served as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at QBE North America, where he led the Human Resources Business Partner function for the North American business, covering 4,000 employees and $5 billion in revenue. Prior to QBE, Ken held senior HR roles at S&P Capital IQ, The McGraw-Hill Companies, MasterCard, Citigroup, and Allied Signal (now Honeywell). He began his career as a Senior Consultant in the Change Management practice at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

Ken holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations with a concentration in Human Resources from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Chris Wymbs is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at CardWorks, Inc. He is also a member of the Executive Council and a Director on two of the Company’s subsidiary boards.

As CFO, Chris is responsible for all aspects of financial operations, corporate strategy, real estate & facilities, and project management, serving an important role in developing the strategic direction of the enterprise and representing the company to the financial community and our investors.

With an enduring commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at CardWorks, Chris is Executive Sponsor of and active participant in our Employee Resource Groups.

Prior to joining CardWorks in 2021, Chris was Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer at AMC Networks Inc., a publicly traded global media company. There, he played a key role in leading the company thorough significant transformation into the digital streaming world. Before his time at AMC, Chris was Chief Financial Officer, Global Commercial services for American Express in addition to various other finance leadership roles; Global Controller for GE Consumer Finance; and started his career in Financial Advisory & Assurance services at EY.

Chris earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from Fordham University and an Masters of Business Administration in Management from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Chris and his spouse, along with their three children, live in Fairfield County, Connecticut.