Our Leadership
Principals and senior management have held senior leadership roles in Fortune 100 Companies and have deep industry and technical expertise.
Mark ParsellsExecutive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Parsells is a seasoned senior financial services executive having run multi-billion dollar divisions for Citigroup, American Express and Bank One, a start-up business for AIG, Prudential and Kemper, and an early-stage company backed by Bain Capital Ventures and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Parsells has significant experience in running online and highly technical businesses as a successful CEO, President, COO, Chairman, and Corporate Director. He is a recognized operating manager as well as a start-up and turn-around expert. In addition, Mr. Parsells served as the Chief Compliance Officer of the $105B American Express division that managed relationships with merchants that accepted the Card for payments. At Bank One, as Chief Privacy Officer, Mr. Parsells spearheaded the development of industry leading consumer data protection policies that ensured all data had the highest levels of encryption. His policies dramatically restricted the sharing of consumer data both internally and externally. He met with numerous state attorney generals as well as Federal regulatory and elected officials to promote the safe and proper handling of consumer financial data. He is a recognized expert on privacy and data security. Mr. Parsells holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Emory University, a Master of Business Administration from both Cornell University and Vlerick Leuven-Gent Management School and is an alumnus of the General Manager Program of the Harvard Business School.
Ben Kahrl
Managing Director, General Counsel
Ben Kahrl is the acting General Counsel of Global Debt Registry. Prior to going to GDR, Mr. Kahrl was a principal in the national law firm Kahrl Wutscher LLP with a litigation practice representing mortgage lenders, as well as mortgage loan servicers, mortgage loan investors, and other consumer lending industry participants. He has been a frequent speaker on legal and technology issues for the mortgage banking industry, having given presentations to the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, the American Legal and Financial Network, the USFN, the Federal Trade Commission and the annual membership conferences hosted by MERSCORP, Inc. He is the co-author of "Can Reckless Mortgage Underwriting Practices Constitute a Defect in Title?," 16 Business Torts Journal 3 (Spring 2009). He was a featured lecturer for the American Bar Association teleconference "Title Insurer v. Lender Amidst the Foreclosure Crisis," and has co-taught a CLE to title lawyers for the Rhode Island Bar. He teaches real property law for the Institute for U.S. Law at George Washington University Law School, and has appeared as a guest legal expert on the "Tomorrow's Business" radio program in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kahrl is licensed to practice in Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., and is a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Bar Association's Committee on Consumer Finance Services. Mr. Kahrl received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from UCLA, and received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he represented the school in the National Trial Competition and the Jessup Cup International Law Moot Court Competition.
David Mertz
Managing Director, Compliance, Privacy and Risk
Rachael Sokolowski
Managing Director, Mortgage Services
Ms. Sokolowski is a respected industry executive with more than 25 years of management experience in the financial services and mortgage industries, as well as other industry verticals. Her expertise encompasses web technologies, residential and commercial mortgage banking systems, electronic signatures, and industry standards. She is a recognized leader in the mortgage banking industry as both a technology evangelist and subject-matter expert who has acted as a trusted advisor, key decision maker, and driver of results in industry initiatives. Ms. Sokolowski has held operational and/or executive positions in many of the financial industry's leading firms including: Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo, First American, SoftPro/LPS, Mortgage Bankers Association, Quicken Loans, MERS, Fiserv, Everbank, Digital Docs, Flagstar, NYCB/AmTrust, and Xerox Mortgage Services. For the last ten years, she has been a major contributor to the mortgage banking industry standards organization, MISMO. In March of 2006, the Mortgage Banking Magazine designated Ms. Sokolowski as a "MISMO All-Star." She is a columnist for Mortgage Banking Magazine, writing "Standard Time," a quarterly commentary on technology and policy issues facing the financial services industry. Ms. Sokolowski is a graduate of Smith College.
Bruce Gilmore
Founder, Adviser
Greg Ousley
Founder, Adviser
