James cares deeply for everyone he works with and is considered the “fun dad” at Engage fi. He is an energetic, engaging, and laser-focused entrepreneur. James has never met a stranger, and you’ll never meet a celebrity who doesn’t know him.

James brings over 30 years of experience in the Banking and Credit Union Industry to Engage fi with previous senior leadership positions at Fiserv and Open Solutions. Before founding Engage fi, James held the position of Chief Sales Officer at PSCU.

James was educated in England and moved to the United States in 1984. He lives in Treasure Island, FL with his wife, Bettina, and their daughter Alyssa lives in Orlando.

Justine is kind, helpful, supportive, and great at anticipating needs. Not only is she approachable, but she has a get-it-done attitude and phenomenal organization skills. Justine is fast, accurate, and thoughtful about her work. She has an easy-going humor, and she is caring and considerate of the team.

As the Accounting Manager, Justine provides critical support to our nationwide team from our Tampa, FL corporate headquarters. She brings over 20 years of experience in office management and administrative support, as well as a strong background in real estate loan servicing, accounting, marketing, and project management. Her diverse experience has prepared her for the fast-paced, project-specific needs of Engage fi.

Outside of work, Justine and her husband enjoy volunteering and attending sporting events and other functions involving their two daughters. They also love going to theme parks, the dog park, playing board games, and family movie nights.

John brings more than 20 years of experience to Engage fi. The majority of his career has been in the payments ecosystem, acquiring/processing, and issuing. He had experience with all payment acceptance options from retail, e-commerce, back-office, unattended, and mobile. Within payments, John specializes in security and compliance, validated P2PE, tokenization, and data encryption.

As Area VP, Strategic Consulting, John initiates and nourishes relationships between Engage fi and financial institutions.

When he’s not working, John enjoys golf, surfing, and fishing offshore for Mahi, Wahoo, and anything else that bites!

Sharmin has over 28 years of experience in the financial services industry. During this time, she held numerous operational, and leadership positions at credit unions. Most recently, Shamin worked at Fiserv where she specialized in assisting clients through their core conversion as a Lending Implementation Consultant, and then subsequently as an Enterprise Engagement Partner where she was a dedicated consultant to credit union clients.

As a Strategic Core Consultant, Sharmin will utilize her first-hand financial institution and consulting experience to help clients optimize their core.

When not working, Sharmin enjoys strength training, participating in running events with my daughter, wakeboarding, and hanging out with her family.

Jennifer’s tenure in the Automotive Accounting and Finance field nurtured her love for numbers and data. She admits to getting immense satisfaction when working with spreadsheets and organizing chaotic information. In combination with her pursuit of a Master’s in Technical Writing and Communication, she likes to evaluate quantitative data and articulate their significance critically. Jennifer’s goal as Engage fi’s Pricing Analyst is to continuously serve the Engage fi team and clients with accuracy and insight so they may, in turn, optimally serve their communities.

While Jennifer Currently lives in Georgia, she was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games (i.e., Minecraft, Sims4, Animal Crossing), reading (i.e., any book written by Brandon Sanderson, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell), and watching her three quirky cats (named Boba, Taro, and Mango) defy gravity.

A recent graduate from UNC Charlotte in Software Engineering, Connor is currently living in Cary, NC. He is applying his skills as a Full Stack Developer at Engage fi, working on projects that streamline business processes for our business analysts.

In his free time, Connor likes to travel, read, spend time with friends, and spend time outside.

With a background in International Business, Allison spent the past eight years as a BA/QA for a medical technology company.

Allison lives in Kansas City, Missouri with her husband and their kids – a three-year-old boy (Walker) and a nine-month-old baby girl (Mara). When not working or busy with very active kiddos, Allison loves being outdoors, hiking, playing tennis, and reading.

Jake is a Director of Business Development at Engage fi, where his main focus is growing relationships and brand awareness with banking and credit union clients through association interaction.

Prior to joining Engage fi, Jake led vendor membership at one of the nation’s leading banking trade associations as well as strategic partnerships for a fintech company focusing on loan origination and loan servicing.

Outside of work, Jake enjoys fitness, cooking, and traveling. He lives in Clearwater, FL with his fiancée Annie and their two-year-old dog named June.

Tonia is an excel wizard. She is extremely organized, tenacious, and friendly. She has the ability to create a report out of anything. She has a jovial nature and an impressive tiara collection. Tonia is dependable, dedicated, and a great team member to collaborate with.  Her generosity is aspirational.

Tonia’s primary focus at Engage fi is to develop project and process strategies with a focus on quality and process improvement.  Tonia brings 26 years of expertise as a leader within the bank, credit union, and Fintech worlds.

Before joining Engage fi,  Tonia held several positions at both a credit union and at Fiserv.  Most recently she worked as the Quality and Process Manager for Fiserv.  She is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and is a leader in quality service standards, process standardization and improvement, and accountability standards. Her career has allowed her the opportunity to work with over 300 credit unions in many areas including project management, process improvement, strategy, and, most recently, internal process/strategy development within the FinTech space.

When Tonia is not at work, she likes to spend time with her husband Paul, dreaming of her next trip to Disney World, and she loves volunteering for local non-profits who are working to end homelessness and hunger in her local area.

As a Payments Consultant, Jennifer brings deep card and money movement experience to each engagement. Jennifer drives client strategy discovery, vendor assessment and selection, pricing, contractual negotiation projects for Credit, Debit, and Loyalty solutions.

Jennifer has been a passionate contributor to her clients’ success throughout her career in technology, product development, sales, and client relations roles. Her payments industry experience has been across the full spectrum of card associations, processors, and credit union service providers. Having spent over 15 years at FIS, she joined CO-OP as the Vice President of Credit Services, successfully launching their credit processing business line.

Jennifer enjoys serving at her church, boating with her husband, Jeffrey, and playing with their pooch Miles in her free time.

Charisa Lin is the Chief Financial Officer at Engage fi. With over 20 years of experience, she is an executive-level financial professional with broad knowledge in accounting, financial, and business principles. Charisa oversees the day-to-day operation of finance, accounting, and treasury functions, and is responsible for financial planning and analysis and Board of Directors reporting.

Prior to joining Engage fi, Charisa was the VP of Finance at RBmedia, and former Director of Finance and Administration at designDATA. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Sun Yat-Sen University, a Master of Science in Accounting and Financial Management from University of Maryland, and an MBA from Champlain College. She started her career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen.

Charisa lives in North Potomac, MD with her husband and two children. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, traveling, and watching as much soccer as possible.

Kellie brings almost three decades of experience working with FI’s to help them achieve their goals. Prior to joining Engage fi, Kellie was operating as a partner to our team while growing and managing her own consulting firm. Her passion for insurance comes from working with clients across the US; as an executive at SWBC, for almost fifteen years prior to starting her own business.  As senior advisor, Kellie will work with our team to build a new line of business to serve our clients’ insurance needs.  She will utilize her expertise to consult with financial institutions as they navigate key insurance decisions and negotiations.

Outside of work, you’ll find Kellie playing with her rescue dogs, practicing her pool game, and enjoying the many incredible dishes her husband creates.  She is also an active volunteer with Refugee Services of TX, helping resettle families from all over the world.

With years of experience in the Fintech world as a Data Analyst, Pam has gained the knowledge necessary to analyze and deliver solutions to support business needs.

As a Data Analyst at Engage fi, Pam works in many aspects of pricing and data analysis to assist consultants with client needs.

When she is not working, Pam likes to travel, read, paint/craft, and make memories with her family and friends.

Jacy assists banks and credit unions during the selection process to ensure that the credit unions’ goals are being achieved.

Jacy started her journey in the industry while in college and immediately realized it was going to be a lifelong passion. After graduating with a Bachelor of Business degree, she spent the next 12 years working in credit unions in a variety of roles in lending, accounting, and management. Jacy joined Fiserv in 2016 and worked closely with credit unions on their core system.

Jacy lives in Illinois and enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews, reading, and cheering on the Chicago Bears.

Andres Pasantes is the COO at engage fi, where he is responsible for business operations, client experience, and the successful delivery of all services.

Andres started his career in the financial services industry 25+ years ago and has worked with over 500 financial institutions in formulating strategic plans, successful technology conversions, and long-term executive partnerships. He has held senior positions at Fiserv, Open Solutions Inc, FIS, and D+H within their credit union and community bank segments.

Andres received his bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from Florida State University. He resides in Orlando, Florida, and in his spare time he enjoys working out, traveling, and spending time with his wife Colette and their two boys Nathaniel and Mathias.

Johanna is the Learning and Development Specialist for Engage fi. With more than 20 years of experience in the financial, training, and documentation fields, she has worked towards developing exceptional curriculums and course designs. Johanna has experience working in the back office, in the field of the banking industry, and on the digital vendor side of the fence. Outstanding customer service is her passion, and she believes the core of that is in supporting her organization with the tools, information, and support they need to deliver gold standard results to our clients.

When Johanna is not working, along with her daughter, family, and a great group of friends she enjoys all that their area has to offer! Mobile, Alabama is a beautiful city, rich in history. It is known for Mardi Gras, azaleas, Spanish Moss, and seafood, but also it is a great city for family fun! The beautiful beaches are her favorite thing to enjoy year-round.

As Engage fi’s Director of Human Resources, Courtnay is responsible for building and leading all aspects of Human Resources Management and is focused on maintaining a people-centric culture.

Courtnay has extensive experience in the financial services industry and over a decade of experience in human resources.  She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and has held multiple leadership positions in HR, also achieving the certifications of SHRM-CP and SPHR.

She has a passion for values-based hiring, employee engagement, and performance coaching. Courtnay was instrumental in USF Federal Credit Union earning the Florida Governor’s Sterling Award for Performance Excellence.

When not at work, Courtnay enjoys traveling, boating, and spending time with her husband and their two daughters in sunny Florida.

As an Operations Support Specialist, Nick provides support to the sales, project management, and operations teams.

Before Engage fi, Nick taught middle school band and orchestra where he learned the virtues of patience, time management, and communication. Now out of the classroom, Nick hopes to maintain a positive impact through the Effective Altruist movement. Nick plans to one day give a substantial portion of his income to effective charities.

In his free time, Nick teaches private saxophone lessons and enjoys learning Japanese. He lives with his fiancée Samantha in Pinellas Park, Florida.

Jan was with FIS for 24 years in various roles, from dispute/chargeback analyst to client relations rep, to training systems and reports for 11 years and her most recent role was Strategic Account Manager.  Jan’s Expertise is reports and how to read them.

Jan lives in Trinity, FL, but is originally from Rockford, IL by way of several years in Wisconsin.  Jan was in radio for several years as an on-air personality at different radio stations. She is a die-hard Tampa Bay Lightning fan and has traveled all over to see games played in different parts of the country and also in Stockholm, Sweden. Engaged to her life partner, Vito, Jan has 6 fur kids, 2 dogs, and four cats that she adores. Her absolute favorite bands are Queen, and REO Speedwagon.  She is a self-proclaimed “music nut.”

As a Project Manager for Engage fi, Tricia enjoys assisting financial institutions achieve their goals, by driving for the best possible results. Tricia has a don’t-give-up attitude and her number one goal is to build relationships while providing excellent customer service. Tricia began her journey in the world of finance after graduating from college in 2004. She was hired at iPay Technologies to implement bill pay for banks and then moved into the contracting world. After deciding to be a stay-at-home mom for a couple of years, Tricia realized she missed working in the finance industry and went to work for Jack Henry & Associates. Her experience includes working with both banks and credit unions on core conversions, adapting training programs, membership, and loan applications, digital platforms, and most recently all things related to cards.

Tricia lives in Elizabethtown, Kentucky with her husband, Josh, two children Megan and Colton, and their dog, Gnash. They enjoy traveling, watching sports, playing games, and spending time with family and friends. As a family, they also volunteer for a non-profit that Tricia and a couple of others founded for individuals with special needs. Time to Shine provides events throughout the year, such as talent night, Easter egg hunt, and trunk or treat, but Tricia’s favorite is the “prom like” dance, where their guests get to be treated like royalty.

Chris is a 20-year veteran in the field of front-end web development, having driven the user experience for all types of organizations, from some of the largest corporations to the smallest local businesses and non-profits. He also has a strong design background and navigates seamlessly between marketing, research, and development. Growing up on a farm in northwest Minnesota, Chris is no stranger to hard work and long hours. Thankfully that translates well to programming because when it’s time to buckle down and get the job done, there’s nothing that can get in the way of a Midwest-grown work ethic.

He is a retired roller derby skater, musician, drone pilot, track rat, mechanic, dog lover, and general heck-raiser. When he isn’t busy at work or dreaming up new work, he can be found recording with other Minneapolis musicians, at the boxing gym, changing the brakes on his mom’s car, or helping little kids learn how to skate.

Ana is a passionate and knowledgeable professional with a can-do attitude who is always willing to help others. It’s great to see how family-oriented Ana is with her daughter and hearing her speak Spanish on the phone with her mom. She is known around the office as the “Girl Scout Cookie Queen” because every year we single-handedly help her daughter make her quota.

Ana is a Director of Relationship Management, and she works hands-on with banks and credit unions guiding them through Renewals, Evaluations, and Re-negotiations in Credit/Debit, Online Banking, Brand, Core, Rewards/Loyalty, and Startups.

Her credit union journey began in 1999 as a Bi-Lingual Contact Center Representative at PSCU and later progressed into product development and project management. In 2008, she moved to Grow Financial, where she spent over seven years in project management and product ownership across Credit, Debit, ATM, Online Banking, Symitar Core, Bill Pay, and Lending.

At Engage fi, Ana focuses on the continual improvement of our processes and content to streamline how we deliver value. She values building strong relationships and maintaining a good rapport with clients and vendors to ensure everyone’s satisfaction.

Vikki is patient, professional, and calm and always does whatever she can to help. She is known for her prompt responses and offering different perspectives. She is both a co-worker and a friend, which is a rare relationship to cultivate in the workplace and a precious one.

Vikki’s career thus far has been a fusion of marketing and zookeeping. Her eclectic background, paired with her Psychology and Animal Behavior Bachelor of Science degrees, enabled her to become a master communicator. She has trained a variety of animals as well as several unruly engage fi team members! Vikki’s unique experience certainly brings a fresh spin to our marketing initiatives.

As Marketing Manager, Vikki works to creatively establish Engage fi’s position in the bank and credit union industry, identify target audiences, and develop marketing plans with specific objectives across different channels and segments. She puts all the puzzle pieces together to lead marketing initiatives and deliver integrated marketing and communications strategies for the organization. She is responsible for Engage fi’s brand management and corporate identity.

Outside of work, Vikki enjoys traveling with her husband, spending time with her infant son, and spoiling their dog.