Bio

With twenty years in financial services and agency management, Jonathan has held numerous senior leadership roles in product development, marketing, business development, PR, operations, and customer service capacities. His expertise includes retail product management, audience planning, database marketing, payments innovation, and enterprise loyalty solutions. This experience provides a strong foundation for understanding customer behavior and developing strategies to drive customer acquisition and retention through multiple channels..

Currently, Jonathan is Senior Vice President, Vertical Practice Lead, in the Financial Services Group at Merkle. In this role, he is responsible for managing the portfolio, establishing a differentiated value proposition, innovating capabilities, and guiding the team to ensure the strategic development and delivery of integrated solutions for each client.

Previously, Jonathan was Executive Vice President of Strategy, Marketing, & Corporate Development at Affinity Solutions. In that role, he was a strategic advisor to more than fifty financial institutions including US Bank, Capital One, Wells Fargo, VISA, Sallie Mae, and Discover where he developed customer-focused strategies using transaction-based behavioral data models. Notable accomplishments include partner-funded acquisition strategies, digital wallet innovation, and real-time point-of-sale offers and messaging.

Prior to joining Affinity Solutions, Jonathan was with Regions Bank where he was Vice President of Payment Products and established the first consolidated payments vertical for the bank including the line of business management of credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, and other access channels.

He has held similar roles at SouthTrust Bank.

Jonathan holds a BA and MA from Case Western Reserve University, and an MBA with honors from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.