FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -

Southern Auto Finance Co. (SAFCo) hired a former Exeter Finance Corp. executive to be its new senior vice president of risk management and credit policy.

Tapped for this role was Karyn Lentz, who was most recently the executive vice president of risk management and chief credit officer at Exeter.

While at Exeter, Lentz was responsible for among other things, setting and administering pricing and credit parameters, managing the company’s credit risk, performing loss forecasting, overseeing model validation and ensuring organizational effectiveness. In particular, she was instrumental in the design and implementation of a state-of-the-art loan origination system that reduced decision time from an average of 30 minutes to only 10 seconds and that resulted in a double-digit increase in booked loans. 

“We’re remarkably fortunate to have Karyn join our team,” said George Fussell, founder and chief executive officer of SAFCo. “She comes to us with a degree of experience that is simply unbeatable, with specific expertise in finance, credit, risk management and operational analysis that dovetails exactly with our needs as we grow our organization. 

“Our entire company from top to bottom is sure to benefit from all that she has to offer,” Fussell added.

Prior to Exeter, Lentz served in various executive roles related to risk management and portfolio analysis for such companies as AmeriCredit, Triad Financial Services, One Technologies and Javelin Direct.

Now at SAFCo, Lentz has made one of her primary goals to build a strong risk management team.

“SAFCo has a thorough appreciation for the broad range of benefits that risk management makes possible for an enterprise — more tightly controlled operations, better products for clients, a more manageable balance sheet, greater predictability in cash flow and cash available, just to name a few,” Lentz said.

“With this new role, the company is making a clear statement that it is committed to putting in place all the resources it takes to make these benefits a reality,” she went on to say.