Bryce Elliott in December announced on LinkedIn that he is starting a new position as head of payments and lending innovation technology at Chase.

Elliott joined Chase in March 2024 as head of payments technology after serving as Charlotte, N.C.-based Truist Financial’s chief information officer of wholesale and enterprise functions.

Solifi makes Corazzi CEO

Minneapolis-based fintech Solifi, which  provides cloud-based technology solutions for financial services, appointed Dan Corazzi as its chief executive.

Corazzi moved to Solifi on Jan. 13 from cloud-based business automation tech provider Jaegger, where he was chief revenue officer. He succeeds David Hamilton, who became the company’s chairman, a Solifi spokesperson told Bank Automation News.

“Corazzi brings extensive experience with enterprise SaaS solutions which is central to Solifi’s growth plans going forward,” the spokesperson said.

Corazzi’s short-term goals include speaking with as many customers within his first 100 days as possible to determine how cloud platforms can accommodate their specific needs, he told BAN.

His long-term goals include:

• Further defining strategy roadmaps;
• Growing the consumer and revenue base; and
• Continuing to infuse intelligence and innovation into Solifi’s solutions.

Gohman, Wernikoff named to board of Bill Holdings

Financial operations platform Bill Holdings added financial services industry leaders Keri Gohman and Dan Wernikoff to its Board of Directors, Bill announced on Jan. 15.

Gohman, a fintech veteran, and Wernikoff, a software industry executive, will help Bill accelerate product innovation, according to the release.

Bill develops technologies that automate multiple banking functions, including:

• Digital payments;
• Expense monitoring;
• Cash flow management and forecasting; and
• Filing of 1099 forms.

Banks that have integrated Bill’s solutions include:

• $4 trillion JPMorgan Chase;
• $2.4 trillion Bank of America; and
• $271 billion American Express.

Kasisto taps Schechter to lead agentic AI innovation

AI platform Kasisto appointed Joshua Schechter as its chief product and innovation officer to accelerate its agentic AI for banking initiatives, Kasisto announced on Jan. 7

Kasisto’s AI banking solutions include:

• The KAI Platform, which provides digital insights and conversation recommendations to financial services leaders;
• The KAI-GPT AI agent help feature for answering customer support questions; and
• The KAI Answers policy search function, which expedites document retrieval for employees.

Previously, Schechter held several leadership roles at AI technology company Amelia, according to LinkedIn.

Climate First Bank promotes Ford to CEO

St. Petersburg, Fla.-based digital community bank Climate First Bank promoted Lex Ford to CEO, the bank announced on Jan. 15.

Ford, who had been Climate’s president, has extensive experience in the Central Florida banking sector, including serving as chairman at Eustis, Fla.-based First Green Bank, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The $858.1 million Climate is focused on optimizing operational efficiency and sustainable banking, Ford told BAN.

While the bank has an efficiency ratio of 73%, putting it in line with its peers, the 3-year-old bank’s return on assets is 3.35% to 3.37%, compared with the industry average of around 1%, he said.

The average return on assets among banks was 1.4% in 2024, according to a November report by the online database Statista.

Climate First Bank is leveraging human talent, systems and AI integration to pursue its sustainability and digitization initiatives, Ford said.

Some of Climate’s technologies include:

• A mobile banking app;
• Online wire transfers; and
• OneEthos, its solar energy-based lending platform.

Climate is also in the process of developing products that improve the customer experience, Ford said, without disclosing details.

MDC selects Tobey as CEO

Credit union network Members Development Co. (MDC) named Ned Tobey to serve as its CEO, effective this month.

Tobey succeeds Jeff Kline, who has been CEO since 2007. “Kline’s first order of business in January will be connecting with the MDC team, owners and partners to gain valuable insights and perspectives,” an MDC spokesperson told BAN.

MDC members consist of more than 80 credit unions including Suncoast Credit Union, VyStar Credit Union and Vantage Credit Union, according to the company.

Meirink named new CEO at fintech AML RightSource

Financial crime compliance fintech AML RightSource appointed Steve Meirink as its CEO effective Jan. 15. He succeeds Frank Ewing, who will remain on the board of directors, according to the company’s Jan. 15 release.

Meirink most recently served as CEO of Wolters Kluwer Financial and Corporate Compliance, according to the release.

Akuvo names Coffey chief risk and data officer

Credit risk management provider Akuvo has appointed Will Coffey as its new chief risk and data officer to oversee cybersecurity initiatives, data strategy and risk management, according a Jan. 7 Akuvo release.

Initially, Coffey aims to drive growth within Virtual Collector, Akuvo’s new digital collections tool. The tool enhances platform functionality across communication channels, he told BAN.

The Malvern, Pa.- Akuvo plans to incorporate AI into its operations to improve customer relationships and bolster the company’s risk management and cyber security infrastructure, Coffey said.

“Innovation is ahead of regulation with technologies such as AI and machine learning,” Coffey said.

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