2026 NEDC Expo Sponsors   »  

Thalita Berpan

Thalita Berpan has spent the past decade building the systems behind loan servicing and collections. At Figure Lending, a FinTech lender, and Highnote, a card-issuing and payments platform, she built and scaled servicing, collections and payments infrastructure from the ground up, supporting more than $20 billion in combined assets and payment volume.

She is now the Founder and CEO of Verc, an AI-native platform transforming collections through intelligent, compliance-first agents. Verc works directly with firms to improve consumer engagement, strengthen compliance, and drive performance.

Earlier in her career, Thalita worked at Credit Karma, BlackRock, and Barclays across product, strategy, and investment banking. She holds an MBA from the MIT where she focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Bobbie Blue

Bobbie Blue is the Director of Business Development at Renkim Corporation, a 100% employee-owned communications company. He works with organizations across the receivables industry to build and orchestrate consumer communication strategies across print and mail, email, SMS/MMS, and digital delivery.

Bobbie focuses on helping organizations connect these channels to improve consumer engagement, streamline communication workflows, and create a more effective consumer experience. He is passionate about emerging technology, digital communications, and building lasting partnerships throughout the receivables industry.

Katie Borchers

Katie Borchers is the owner and President of Beyond Green Solutions in Rochester, NY, a healthcare collection agency focused on empathy and technology. Katie is also the current President and Legislative Chair of the New York State Collector's Organization where she advocates for agencies, creditor businesses, and consumers to be treated with respect and have the best possible outcomes.

Leah Dempsey

Leah Dempsey, co-chair of the financial services practice, is a lawyer and advocate with a unique ability to lead efforts bridging policy, financial and telecommunications laws, regulations and politics. She advises several trade associations and helps a range of businesses in the financial services, housing, capital markets and fintech marketplaces navigate rulemaking and legislative processes.

Leah advocates before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, National Credit Union Administration, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, Department of Labor, the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as other regulators.

Leah also helps organizations understand their rights and options when facing regulatory supervision and enforcement activity. She has a deep understanding of the Administrative Procedure Act, the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act process and the Congressional oversight tools needed to ensure a fair and transparent process for businesses and industries. Leah has advocated for reforms to dozens of federal rulemakings and related legislation in Congress on her client’s behalf. She also regularly works with colleagues to challenge agency overreach through litigation and amicus briefs in courts around the country including the U.S. Supreme Court.

During her time in executive and leadership roles at financial trade associations in Washington, Leah fostered strong relationships on Capitol Hill and at federal agencies. She served as vice president and senior counsel for federal advocacy at ACA International, where she led efforts to develop and implement the industry agenda for third-party agencies, asset buyers, vendors, banks and other creditors. She also represented thousands of credit unions across the country as senior director of advocacy and counsel at Credit Union National Association (CUNA), leading its Consumer Protection Advocacy team. Prior, she worked on the legal team for several Republican candidates.

Jeff DiMatteo

Jeff DiMatteo is president and one of the founding partners of American Profit Recovery, with offices Franklin, Massachusetts and Farmington Hills, Michigan, since 2004. He is ACA's President for the 2026-2027 year. DiMatteo joined ACA's board in 2022 and was elected treasurer in 2024. He has been a very active ACA member for years, having served on the board and as current president of the New England Collectors Association as well as a member of the ACA International Education Foundation Committee and Interstate Committee. He was named ACA's Member of the Year in 2020 and won the Education Foundation award in 2011. He also earned ACA's Scholar and Fellow designations, and volunteers his time to the Advocacy Committee, Judicial Committee, and Budget and Audit Committee. DiMatteo has published numerous articles in business publications and has made several appearances on television and radio advocating for the industry and consumer financial literacy. He continues to be an active advocate for the ARM industry dealing with lobbyists and legislative issues, consumer financial literacy and the growing use of social media in the industry.

Jonathan Goldberger

Jonathan Goldberger is a cybersecurity executive with 29+ years of experience driving growth. As CEO of SecureGovernComply, he leads the company in providing managed services for cybersecurity, IT operations, and compliance. He has a history of transforming security businesses and contributing to successful acquisitions, including Cybertrust by Verizon, Venafi by CyberArk, and Sourcefire by Cisco. Jonathan is known for his strategic vision, customer focus, and team leadership.

Kirby Miller

With more than 20 years in the financial industry, Kirby Miller has sat in the seat of the collector himself, managing call centers and helping teams rethink how they reach contacts. As Head of Sales at VoApps DirectDrop Voicemail, he brings that firsthand perspective to every partnership. Kirby is a proud member of ACA and RMAi, representing collectors' interests alongside industry leaders. Outside of work, this Lancaster, PA native can be found cheering on his kids from the sidelines.

Eric Najork

Eric Najork is the President of the Collection Bureau of the Hudson Valley, Inc. (CBHV) and Healthcare Billing Service of NY, Inc. (HBS) located in Newburgh NY. Eric leads the companies with his brother and business partner Kurt Najork who serves as COO.

Eric has a BA in Economics from Union College. He is a Past President & long-time board member of the New York State Collectors Association and a member of the Council of Delegates of the American Collectors Association International.

Eric has served and chaired many community boards including Hudson Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America, The Powelton Club, St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital Foundation Board, Leadership Orange, and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh.

Eric resides in Newburgh, New York with his wife Trisha, where they are happily outnumbered by their four semi-adult children and two pups. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, as well as golfing, hiking, boating, and traveling.

David Peltan

David G. Peltan, Esq. has entered the receivables management industry in 2004, and since served as General Counsel and the Chief Compliance Officer for several collection agencies. He has been an instructor and panel member for continuing education classes and ACA webinars. For decades he has vigorously defended collection agencies in lawsuits alleging violations of debt collection laws and other consumer protection laws. Not only has he developed and managed compliance programs, but also has handled government subpoenas, civil investigation demands, and enforcement actions. Graduating with honors both from law school and from the University of Florida MBA program, David has been a valuable member of executive management. Having served three years as President of the New York State Collectors Association, he has moved into the role of Past President and State Chair for the Members Attorney Program.

Krishna Ponnapalli

An executive who witnessed technology and trends in financial services domain since Y2K panic late 1990s through internet and digital transformations in subsequent couple of decades into current Artificial Intelligence era. Led, contributed and collaborated accounting, billing, payables, receivables and financial domains under legendary investor - Mr. Warren Buffett in their $30B portfolio at that time around 2010.

Proud to be part of a startup insurance software vendor Guidewire helping them grow from ground up to reach new heights until around 2018.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GenVantage with a visionary to execute a web of consistent, accurate, precise, and secure (CAPS) digital twins of base commodities like Accounts Receivables empowering the underserved industry to make confident, strategic decisions.

Scott Purcell

Scott Purcell is ACA International's CEO. He started in that role in January 2022, and previously served on the association's board for four years - three as an officer including in as 2020/21 president. Purcell is formerly the president of member agency Professional Credit in Springfield, Oregon.

As ACA's CEO, Purcell is dedicated to educating regulators and legislators to help them better understand the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry on behalf of ACA's members, including the valuable role they play in the credit ecosystem, increasing access to capital at lower interest costs and reducing costs overall for all consumers.

In addition to being an enthusiastic supporter of ACA's advocacy initiatives he leads the ACA team with a focus on expanding the association's emphasis on technology tools, expanding Collectors Insurance Agency as the ARM-industry leader for E&O and cyber coverage, supporting ACA's leading-edge education program, and growing membership. He further integrates insights gained from the Industry Advancement Fund with compliance resources, all with the goal to help members succeed in their businesses at even higher levels.

Harry Strausser III

Harry is a second-generation collection veteran having held the position of President of two successful collection firms until the sale of those firms in May 2017. Throughout his career Harry has been active in the Mid-Atlantic Collectors Association where he is currently a board member and served as President, and ACA International, Inc., the association of credit and collection professionals, in which he is a Senior Certified Trainer. He has served on the ACA International Executive Committee and held the position of President in 2004-2005. He was elected to a three-year term on the ACA Board of Directors in July 2022. He currently holds the position of President of Applied Innovation, a software company that serves the ARM space and continues his national and international ARM industry involvement on many levels.

Roni Teson

As VP of Business Development at TP Collections, Roni Teson is a seasoned industry leader with a 32-year track record of success in the debt collection space. Her career is anchored by years of hands-on operations leadership, where she advanced from an entry-level agent to managing multiple facilities and mastering both first- and third-party collections. Roni has translated that deep, ground-up operational expertise into strategic business development-focusing on building lasting client relationships and successfully acquiring new logos. This rare blend of operational reality and client-focused strategy makes Roni a uniquely effective force in driving growth and client success.

Kelli Van Cleave

Kelli Van Cleave has made it her life's mission to rescue adults from boring training. As Director of Education for ACA International, she designs learning experiences that are practical, interactive, and built to change behavior, not just transfer information. With 30 years of experience in the ARM industry and 26 years in Learning and Development, Kelli brings a unique blend of industry expertise and instructional design to every program she creates. Known for her energetic facilitation style, Kelli believes adults learn best when they're actively involved in the learning process. She combines learning science, behavioral psychology, storytelling, and hands-on activities to help participants think differently, practice new skills, and leave with ideas they can immediately put to work. A Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Kelli is passionate about developing leaders, strengthening teams, and creating learning experiences people actually remember. Whether she's facilitating a workshop, designing educational programs, or speaking from the stage, her goal is simple: make learning meaningful, memorable, and a lot more fun than anyone expected.