Meritize is guided by visionary and proven leadership with decades of combined credit and finance expertise from big banks and leading marketplace lenders.
5757 Main Street
Suite 207
Frisco, TX 75034
833-637-4848
Mon-Fri: 8am-9pm Central
Sat: 11am-3pm Central
Meritize observes major US holidays. Normal business hours may be impacted before and after a US holiday.
Chris Keaveney is a proven consumer lending credit executive with deep financial industry knowledge and more than 20 years’ experience in lending analytics and risk management across various asset classes, including student lending, mortgage, auto, credit card and consumer banking. Prior to founding Meritize, Chris was president and chief credit officer of MeasureOne, a higher education data and analytics company focused on the student loan market. At MeasureOne, he designed data analysis software, managed optimization of credit policies and strategies, and directed the company’s student lending research efforts.
In his career as a statistical modeler, credit analyst and credit executive, Chris has also worked with Social Finance (SoFi) where he built out policy infrastructure, underwriting policy and process, portfolio analytics and governance programs. He served as credit officer for Chase Student Lending where he managed a $14 billion portfolio through much of the financial crisis, and he was responsible for loss mitigation strategies and policies for Capital One Mortgage. Chris brings a wealth of experience in credit policy development, portfolio analytics and strategy, behavioral modeling and business intelligence.
He has Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Richmond, a Master of Arts in economics from the University of Miami and a Master of Science in operations research from Virginia Commonwealth University.
An experienced financial services executive with broad expertise spanning consumer and corporate financial markets, credit risk management, quantitative analytics and public policy, Phillip Stegner brings a wealth of experience to Meritize. He has deep knowledge of econometric and financial models and an intimate understanding of credit strategies as well as practical public policy expertise in the financial industry.
Prior to founding Meritize, Phillip worked with Capital One where he led a team of business analysts and at J.P. Morgan in its investment bank division. He also served as senior economic analyst and special assistant to the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He graduated magna cum laude from Rice University with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, political science and policy studies. He has a Master of Public Policy degree from George Washington University and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
Scott has over 22 years of experience in Financial Services that spans banking, captive financial services, consulting, and FinTech. Through this experience, he developed expertise in Consumer Lending, Compliance, Risk Management, Lending Operations, Change Management, Product, and post-M&A integrations.
Prior to joining Meritize, Scott held executive roles in Risk, Credit, Compliance, and Operations and most recently was a Principal Consultant helping lenders solve Operational, Product, Compliance and Risk challenges in their respective businesses. Before this latest role, he was the SVP & Managing Director at Cross River Bank, responsible for Risk, Compliance, and Governance for the Bank. Prior to that, he was the Chief Compliance Officer for BorrowersFirst, a FinTech Lender in the unsecured consumer lending space. Lastly, he worked at Dell Financial Services, where he helped to build their Consumer and Small Business private label credit card program in addition to leading global teams in the Risk, Strategy, M&A, and Operations organizations.
Outside of his professional experience, Scott holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, served two terms in elective office at the local level, served as the President of a multi-city Texas Water Utility, and served as a counter-intelligence analyst in the US Army National Guard.
Beck Pryor brings a decade of experience in strategy and business development across a variety of sectors including social impact, technology, and finance. She is responsible for growth and strategy development at Meritize.
Prior to joining Meritize, Beck was Director of Business Development for Digital Insights, a new business building digital tools for agriculture at Cargill, where she led strategy and growth through investments and partnerships. She also spent several years in Cargill’s Corporate Strategy and Development group, working on strategy and M&A across businesses from aquaculture to oil & gas. Beck began her career at Community Enterprise Solutions, an international development non-profit, leading teams in Guatemala, South Africa, and New York.
Beck holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Science from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Benton McTaggart brings with him over 9 years’ experience across employee engagement, talent development, coaching and internal communication.
Prior to joining Meritize, Benton was a Career Strategist and Coach at SoFi – a finance company – where he helped dozens of high-performers advance their careers in Fortune 500 Companies. He also formerly served as a Senior Manager of Internal Communications for LIME – a telecommunications company – where he handled employee engagement and communications for 13 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. Earlier on in his career, Benton worked as a public relations executive for Digicel, the largest telecommunications company in the Caribbean.
Benton has a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications from the University of the West Indies and an MBA from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester. He is a Certified Professional Coach by the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching.
Gene Ostrovsky is a seasoned finance professional with more than 15 years of experience in capital strategy, loan portfolio management and disposition channel development of student and consumer loans. He brings deep expertise to Meritize in early to mid-stage growth for specialty finance companies, innovative fintech banking solutions and in developing and maintaining strategic relationships.
Prior to joining Meritize, Gene was head of capital markets for the fast-growing fintech financial services provider Cross River Bank, where he was responsible for portfolio management and strategic capital solutions for consumer loans. He also formerly served as head of capital markets for Laurel Road (formerly DRB), a national lending and banking institution offering student loan refinancing, mortgages and personal loans, where he built a securitization platform that brought the bank’s credit rating to AAA by both Moody’s and DBRS. Earlier in his career, Gene spent several years at Morgan Stanley as a vice president with a focus on student loan asset-backed issuance, as well as at Royal Bank of Scotland and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
Gene has a Bachelor of Science in business management from St. Francis College and a Master of Business Administration from St. John’s University.
Courtney Ramirez is Vice President of Product, leading the Product Management and Marketing teams. She brings extensive knowledge of SAAS product management experience to develop product and marketing strategies and deliver market-ready product positioning at Meritize.
Prior to joining Meritize, Courtney spent a decade in EdTech at Edmentum, formerly Study Island, a K-12 education software company. She wrote math and science curriculum, was the Program Manager for Edmentum’s virtual school, and in most recent years was in Product Management for a variety of products including 3rd party technical integrations. While she was at Study Island, she experienced the rapid growth of the startup software company before it was acquired by Plato Learning to become Edmentum.
Courtney has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from East Texas Baptist University.
Andrew Courter has over 10 years of experience as a software engineer, team lead, and software consultant. As the Head of Technology his goal is to build great teams that use best practices in Extreme Programming (XP) and User Centered Design to develop joyous software for users.
Prior to joining Meritize, Andrew built software across several industries including defense, airline travel, healthcare, finance, and media. He got his first taste of the benefits of XP while working at the American Thrombosis and Hemostatis Network (ATHN). Andrew then worked as a Staff Software Engineer for Pivotal Labs, an agile software development consulting firm, before founding the EarthVectors consultancy, where he helped clients realize significant cost savings and increase development speed through the implementation of XP practices.
Andrew holds a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Texas Tech University.
