Patrick T. Aylmer
Executive Vice President, Managing Director

Patrick Aylmer is the Managing Director for Partner Engagements in the affinity and co-brand financial services space at The Kessler Group. During his tenure, he has worked on a host of successful client engagements in the retail, financial institution, occupational, college & university, professional sports and not-for-profit sectors. Mr. Aylmer is a member of our North America mergers and acquisitions team and has worked extensively on deal restructures and portfolio transactions with Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citi.

Mr. Aylmer joined the company in 2002 from Staples, where he was the Managing Director of Credit Marketing, overseeing the company's domestic and international credit card and loyalty programs. He also developed Staples' retail, online, and catalog payments strategies, including association interchange negotiations.

Mr. Aylmer holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College.

Marc Bellanger
Senior Vice President

Mr. Bellanger is a member of Kessler’s Marketing Services group with 15 years of expertise across a variety of consumer lending products. Since joining Kessler in 2002, he has held key operational, strategic and client management positions serving key card issuing clients including MBNA, Bank of America and HSBC. He has led client engagements focused on driving new account originations, existing account growth and channel revitalization.

Prior to joining Kessler, Mr. Bellanger held domestic and international financial services marketing positions at JP Morgan Chase, MBNA and Partners First.

Mr. Bellanger has an undergraduate degree in Management and Government from Georgetown University and an MBA from Babson College.

Chris Cox
Senior Vice President

Mr. Cox is a member of Kessler's Marketing Services team and brings over 15 years of operations and marketing experience. Mr. Cox joined The Kessler Group in 2006 and has since led marketing and process design/improvement efforts for several key clients. The results have been reduced marketing costs for clients of more than 20% while simultaneously improving speed to market and internal staff productivity.

Prior to joining KG he led new product implementation and domestic and international direct marketing operations for G.E. Financial Assurance as well as direct mail strategic sourcing and supply-chain management for Capital One.

Mr. Cox is Six-Sigma certified with a degree in Economics from Wake Forest University and an MBA from the University of Richmond.

Robert F. Curry
Executive Vice President, Managing Director

Bob Curry is responsible for consumer credit card loan portfolio acquisition activities for The Kessler Group, including business planning and financial analysis. Mr. Curry joined the company in May 2001 from Citigroup, where he led business development and credit card acquisition activities. He has completed over $25 billion in consumer credit acquisitions and is an accomplished and recognized consumer portfolio valuation expert.

Mr. Curry holds a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Manhattan College and an MBA in Finance from Long Island University.

Todd J. DaCosta
Executive Vice President

Todd DaCosta is the national sales manager for all business development and acquisition activities in the Financial Institution marketplace of The Kessler Group. He joined the company in 1988 and has 19 years of experience in the credit card business. Prior to joining the company, Mr. DaCosta was employed at First Data Resources.

Mr. DaCosta holds a BSBA from Nichols College.

Greg Fisher
Senior Vice President

Greg Fisher currently manages The Kessler Group's Risk Syndication business as well as various corporate and business development initiatives including KG’s Enterprise Planning.

In 2000, Mr. Fisher left Kessler to start an Internet marketing company working with clients such as Discover Card and Dun & Bradstreet. The company grew to 25 marketing and technical consultants before being sold to the largest independent media conglomerate in Europe. In 2002, Mr. Fisher returned to Kessler to lead the Alternative Channels department, at which point Risk Syndication was included in his responsibilities.

Prior to Mr. Fisher's first stint at Kessler, he worked in Moscow, Russia, for two years at a USAID-funded investment firm that had been founded to help medium-sized Russian businesses transition to a free market economy. Mr. Fisher is proficient in Russian.

Mr. Fisher has a BA from the College of the Holy Cross and an MBA from the Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College.

Bradford Giles
Senior Vice President

A member of Kessler’s Marketing Services team, Mr. Giles is in charge of new business development initiatives. Mr. Giles brings over 18 years experience in direct response marketing across multiple vertical markets. Having held key management positions on both the client and marketing services sides of the business, he delivers unique insight into the opportunities and challenges facing marketing executives today.

Prior to joining Kessler, Mr. Giles worked with nationally recognized direct response organizations including Protocol Integrated Marketing, Wilde Direct and the Response Marketing Services Division of RR Donnelly — working with companies such as AAA Life, Nextel Partners, Bayer, Comcast and Henkel.

Prior to this, Mr. Giles was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Real Time Image (now Kodak). Mr. Giles was also co-founder and President of Digital Art Exchange (DAX). While at DAX, he pioneered in-network workflow applications and on-line community forms (the original social networking) in the publishing, retail and agency markets before selling the company to a national business services provider.

Mr. Giles is a frequent lecturer at Johnson & Wales University and Framingham State College and is an active member of the New England Direct Marketing Association.

Sandi Goodman-Brown
Vice President

Mrs. Goodman-Brown is a member of Kessler's Marketing Services team with 15 years in customer driven database marketing across a wide variety of retail and consumer lending products. Since joining Kessler in 1995, she has managed Kessler's analytics group with responsibility for translating customer response, usage and portfolio data into actionable insights for clients including HSBC, US Bank, TD Bank, and Payless.

Prior to joining Kessler, Mrs. Goodman-Brown worked in the Corporate Strategic Planning and Development group at JP Morgan Chase and for GE Capital Corporate Finance Group.

Mrs. Goodman-Brown has an undergraduate degree in Finance from Boston College and has attended New York University MBA program.

Sanji Gunawardena
Executive Vice President, Investment Banking

As Executive Vice President in Kessler's Mergers & Acquisition team, Sanji Gunawardena manages the execution of portfolio transactions and whole business transactions globally.

Mr. Gunawardena has over 15 years of extensive mergers & acquisitions, strategic planning, and capital market experience. Prior to joining Kessler he headed the Bank of America Credit Card Mergers & Acquisition team where he conducted over $6B in Credit Card transactions including structuring the Credit Card Joint Venture between China Construction Bank and Bank of America.

Mr. Gunawardena holds an undergraduate degree from University of Georgia and an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Kevin B. Mulligan
Senior Vice President

Kevin Mulligan is responsible for all portfolio acquisition activity for the Community Financial Institution market. He has been with The Kessler Group since 1997. Mr. Mulligan brings over 15 years of credit card experience to his position.

Prior to joining the company, Mr. Mulligan spent two years with First Data and four years with BayBank, now a part of Bank of America.

Mr. Mulligan holds a BS in Economics and Finance from Bentley College.

Greg Murphy
Senior Vice President, Business Development & Client Services

Greg has been a part of the company's new business efforts for 12 years. His knowledge of the card industry adds to the firm’s expertise in working with co-branded and private label card products and in structuring successful, exciting programs for the endorsed credit card marketplace. His dealings have revolved not only around co-branded and private label, but auto, consumer and small business loans as well.

His work on new and existing business development, and on occasion portfolio acquisitions and divestures, has been on behalf of many of the company's financial services partners, including Bank of America, Fleet, WaMu, Capital One and Visa.

Greg has also provided advisory services to organizations in search of an endorsed card solution, most recently with MySpace, Cabela’s and PetSmart.

Prior to joining the company in 1997, Greg worked as a fraud investigator for Household Credit Services (HSBC).

Greg holds a BS from DePaul University.

Ray Nakhwa
Associate Director of Investment Banking, KFSI

Ray Nakhwa joined The Kessler Group in 2006 and is the Associate Director of Investment Banking for Kessler Financial Services International (KFSI). In this capacity, Mr. Nakhwa manages the execution of portfolio transactions and origination of whole business transactions in Europe.

Prior to joining The Kessler Group, Mr. Nakhwa was a member of the Financial Institutions Team at KPMG Corporate Finance, specializing in consumer finance transactions and involved in the successful completion of a number of finance deals, including the following: advised WesBank, a division of FirstRand Bank, on its acquisition of the business and assets of Carlyle Finance, a motor finance provider (total assets £250m); advised Kingfisher plc on the sale of their retail finance arm, Time Retail Finance to GE Capital (£149m); and advised Wesleyan Assurance Society and Commonwealth Bank of Australia on the disposal of their UK mortgage portfolios (total assets £130 million).

Mr. Nakhwa holds a BSc from the University of Warwick and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

David Silberman
Executive Vice President

David Silberman manages The Kessler Group's insurance business, whose clients include the Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co., Union Labor Life Insurance Co., and the AFL-CIO Mutual Benefit Fund. Mr. Silberman also serves as a Senior Marketing Strategist for the company's strategic marketing practice.

Prior to joining the company's management team in 1999, Mr. Silberman held a variety of positions with the AFL-CIO. He was one of the founders of Union Privilege, the benefits arm of the AFL-CIO, served as its General Counsel for 12 years, and then as its President and Chief Executive Officer for five years.

Mr. Silberman is a graduate of Brandeis University and Harvard Law School.

Wendy Staudt
Executive Vice President,
Business Development & Client Services

As Executive Vice President in Kessler’s Client Services & Business Development team, Wendy Staudt supports Kessler’s client services model, strategic growth plan, and leads Kessler’s relationship with several key clients.

Prior to joining Kessler in March of 2009, Mrs. Staudt spent 21 years at Bank of America (previously MBNA), where she held various senior level positions in marketing, business development, administration and operations, both domestically and in Canada. Since joining the company, Mrs. Staudt’s extensive experience in the affinity and financial services space has resulted in new client engagements and successful expansion of existing relationships.

Mrs. Staudt holds a BSBA from the University of Delaware, Lerner College of Business and Economics.

Steve Webb
Senior Vice President

Since joining The Kessler Group in 1996, Steve Webb has been instrumental in building and managing key accounting and control functions, including cash flow maximization, general ledger reporting, international consolidations, overhead tracking and review, and the implementation of accounting and information technology policies and procedures for all company entities. Mr. Webb also manages the day-to-day operations of The Kessler Group's Accounting and IT departments.

Prior to joining the company, Mr. Webb worked for nearly five years in the audit practice of KPMG Peat Marwick, becoming a Certified Public Accountant in 1994.

Mr. Webb holds a BA from the College of the Holy Cross and an MS/MBA from Northeastern University.

Ted Wilkins
Senior Vice President

Mr. Wilkins is a member of Kessler’s Marketing Services team and has product management and marketing expertise across a variety of industries including credit cards, insurance, education and travel.  Since joining Kessler in 2006, he has managed two key client relationships with responsibility for both strategy development and execution of their on-going direct marketing programs.  He has also participated in a variety of consulting engagements focusing on growing new customer acquisitions through new and existing channels.

Prior to joining Kessler, Mr. Wilkins held marketing positions at Grand Circle Travel, Hartford Financial Services, First USA/Bank One and CIGNA.

Mr. Wilkins has an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia University.