Management Biographies
The management team at Oasis is comprised of many of the pioneers in the legal finance industry, bringing significant experience in law, finance, insurance, credit, and marketing. This experience has helped grow legal finance from a cottage industry in the late ‘90s to a robust financial service business helping those consumers involved in personal injury litigation. Below you’ll find the management biographies of each of the executives that Oasis is proud to have on our team.
Gary Chodes; Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
As founder and CEO of Oasis, Mr. Chodes’ early strategic vision identified the enormous opportunity to build the first national player in consumer legal finance. Through assembling and guiding a diverse team of executives at Oasis, Mr. Chodes has been able to achieve this vision by investing aggressively in branding and infrastructure, as well as building a large attorney referral network.
Gary Chodes is acknowledged as a leader and spokesperson for the consumer legal finance industry as well as an expert on issues impacting a wide range of emerging consumer finance markets. His experience building businesses with significant consumer direct marketing efforts and national distribution networks goes back nearly 20 years.
Since founding Oasis, Mr. Chodes has played an active role in government affairs and spearheaded efforts to establish industry best practices and laws that regulate the legal finance industry and protect consumer interests. He was instrumental in founding the Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding (ARC) and the American Legal Finance Association (ALFA), leading legal funding industry trade groups. He was previously involved with key boards, sub-committees and working groups within other financial services trade organizations such as the VAA and the ACLI (Life Settlements and Life Insurance) and VPA (Auto Warranties and Vehicle Service Contracts) and NASP (Structured Settlements). These groups have addressed a wide range of issues such as broker and distributor compliance, licensing, capital requirements, consumer disclosure, telemarketing and solicitation restrictions, and taxation. He has testified on matters related to consumer finance and insurance before more than 30 state legislatures, as well as the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Chodes’ focus on the evolving regulatory issues and public image of a number of newly emerging industries has helped foster their growth, public acceptance and financial success.
Mr. Chodes is also the co-founder and former Chairman of Paylink Payment Plans, a leading payment processing and financial services firm serving the vehicle service contract market. Since its inception in 2006, Paylink has originated over $1.5 billion of financed contracts through more than 600,000 units. D.E. Shaw and Mr. Chodes were the initial investors in this highly successful financial services organization. Paylink was sold in December 2011 achieving a 7x return to shareholders.
Prior to founding Oasis and Paylink, Mr. Chodes founded Viaticus in 1993. Viaticus’ life settlement service provided funding to high-net-worth individuals and businesses through the purchase of existing life insurance policies on a discounted basis, thus allowing customers to meet their estate planning objectives and succession planning needs. At its peak, the company’s portfolio exceeded $1 billion. Mr. Chodes led the sale of Viaticus in 1994 to CNA Financial Corporation (parent company of the CNA Insurance Companies) and served as the President of Viaticus through 2000.
Starting in 2001, Mr. Chodes worked at Discernus and Ideahatchery (both of which he founded) pioneering the research and development of various financial products geared toward optimizing government retirement, pension and disability benefits. Several patents were filed on these financial products.
Mr. Chodes was a founding investor in and advisory board member of Insurance Vianet, a leading commercial insurance e-commerce business launched by former CNA Insurance Company executives. Insurance Vianet was sold to Willis Group Holdings, Inc. in 2007 for approximately $30 million. Mr. Chodes has a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. In 1999, he was inducted into the UIC Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame – recognizing innovators and leaders in the Chicago area.
Michael Pekin; Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, Operations
Michael co-founded Oasis with Gary Chodes and has overall responsibility for underwriting, sales management, and operations at Oasis. Prior to co-founding Oasis Legal Finance, Michael was a name partner at Pekin & Levin, a personal injury law firm in Chicago. During his legal career, Michael resolved $1 million-plus cases involving wrongful death, construction injuries, and automobile accidents. He arbitrated and mediated over 100 cases to successful resolution including complex medical malpractice, product liability, construction, premises liability, automobile accident, and other personal injury cases. In addition, Michael tried numerous cases in his legal career. Michael has been honored in the "Top 30 Million Dollar Settlements" in the Chicago Law Bulletin and has been featured in Crain's Business Magazine and the Chicago Tribune's "On the Law" section for noteworthy attorneys. Michael has a B.A. from Indiana University School of Business and a J.D. from Kent Law School. Michael has also lectured on consumer legal finance at many events.
Juan Pablo Reyes; Chief Financial Officer
Juan Pablo has overall responsibility for the finance, accounting, risk management, lender relations and corporate development functions at Oasis. Juan Pablo has over 14 years of experience in private equity investing and portfolio company management oversight. Prior to joining Oasis, Juan Pablo spent four years at Sterling Capital Partners where he sourced and structured new investment opportunities as well as secured financing, implemented financial reporting processes and controls, and developed strategic and business plans for portfolio companies. Prior to Sterling, Juan Pablo worked at the Latin American private equity fund for Trust Company of the West and as the VP of Finance for Octet Holdings, a Latin American telecommunications company. Juan Pablo received his B.S. in Economics from Boston College and M.B.A. with high honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Mike Olsen; Chief Marketing Officer
Mike has overall responsibility for the brand and marketing management at Oasis. Mike joined Oasis in 2004, and has 20 years of marketing experience with both large companies and small entrepreneurial firms. Prior to Oasis, Mike was with Citi Commerce Solutions (a division of Citigroup) where he held several positions with responsibilities that included marketing, revenue enhancements, and client development for several retail private label credit portfolios worth $50 million, which included American Airlines. Prior to Citigroup, Mike worked at Wynwyn.com, Moore Wallace Response Marketing, and GE Capital-Partnership Marketing. At these companies, Mike held a variety of roles including product and marketing management, direct-marketing consulting, new business and new product development. Mike received his M.S. in Direct Marketing from Northwestern University, IL, and his B.S. in Business and Advertising from Ferris State University, Michigan.
Dave Winkiel; Chief Technology Officer
Dave manages Information Technology and Software Development. Prior to joining Oasis Legal Finance, Dave was a Senior Manager of Software development and information interchange at Intersections, Inc (nyse: INTX) Chicago Optional Product division where he managed development, new product development, SOX. The division was responsible for marketing and selling of optional products to financial institution’s customer base. Previous consulting engagements with The Northern Trust Bank, CNA Insurance, Thompson Financial and General Growth Properties. David has a B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.
Vildana Kujundjic; General Counsel
As General Counsel, Vildana is responsible for the Company’s corporate legal affairs and provides general legal counsel to the Company’s management team, as well as support of the Company’s sales, marketing, and IT departments. Vildana also advises on and negotiates commercial transactions with customers, vendors and partners, with a focus on improving the customer experience in contracting with Oasis. Vildana spent most of her legal career in private practice at DLA Piper US LLP and several years at mid-size and smaller firms in Chicago. She developed a broad based corporate and finance practice that extended across capital markets, cross-border M&A transactions, and securities-related matters. Her negotiated transactions include stock and asset dispositions, public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures, private placements and fund formations. Her experience also includes negotiating various commercial contracts, including licensing agreements, service agreements of all types, employment and consulting agreements and lease agreements. She received her B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her J.D., with honors, from Chicago-Kent School of Law.
Lisa Foreman; General Counsel
Lisa manages the Company’s litigation and provides strategic legal risk management and compliance counsel. Prior to Oasis, Lisa practiced law at Jenner & Block, Ross & Hardies, and Sperling & Slater. Lisa brings a broad litigation background to Oasis, with experience in both state and federal court litigating claims involving breach of contract, securities law violations, as well as various torts and employment law issues. Lisa received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Tulane University; and her J.D. from University of Chicago, School of Law.
Colin Lawler; VP Operations
Colin manages the attorney referral, case management, funding, and call center operations. Colin is also a Senior Underwriter. Prior to joining the Oasis Legal Finance, Colin was a named partner at Tews, Theisen & Lawler, a firm founded in 1867 and one of the oldest law firms in the city of Chicago, where he managed a diverse portfolio of litigation and transactional work. Subsequently, he has also served as General Counsel to a consortium of family run corporations in Chicago, where he managed their legal and transactional affairs as well as supervised their litigation. He has diverse legal experience ranging from personal injury and workers compensation to probate, contract and corporate law. Colin has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and a J.D. from DePaul College of Law.
Lou Vena; Controller
Lou manages the finance, accounting, and risk management operations for Oasis Legal Finance. Prior to joining Oasis, Lou was a Senior Risk Manager for Cargill Investor Services (Cargill’s futures broker) and was responsible for presenting credit recommendations to the risk committee, monitoring client positions and margin levels as well as performing audits on large proprietary trading operations. Prior to Cargill, Lou was a Senior Finance Manager at Universal Access, a publicly-traded telecommunications provider, and was responsible for financial modeling, credit analysis, and overall risk management. He also worked directly with the CFO and Goldman Sachs in the preparation of the company’s initial public offering. Lou began his career at Deloitte in their Audit Services Group and served clients in the Gaming and Technology sectors. Lou received his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Nevada and his M.B.A. from the University of Illinois. Lou is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Michael King; Call Center Director
Michael manages call center operations and the call center representative training program. Prior to joining Oasis, Michael was a Call Center Manager with United Marketing Group, a leading direct marketing company based in Schaumburg Illinois. Prior to United Marketing, Michael was a District Customer Service Manager for Avis/Budget Group where he developed training programs and insured customer service standards were met for all Avis/Budget locations in the Chicago-land area. Prior to Avis/Budget Michael was with IBM Corporation in Toronto Canada as a supervisor in their call center and as an Integrated Marketing Specialist managing direct marketing campaigns. Michael has a B.A. in Marketing from Columbia College Chicago and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
Rich Smolen; VP Finance
Rich has responsibility for forecasting, budgeting and management reporting. Most recently, Rich was Vice President, Finance at Telecom Transport Management where he oversaw the process to raise equity, closed on a subordinated debt facility, managed the forecasting and Board reporting function, and actively participated in strategic discussions. Previously, he was Director, Corporate Finance at optionsXpress Holdings, Inc., a publicly-traded online retail discount brokerage. Rich was responsible for the management of board-level reporting, monthly earnings reports, the annual meeting and proxy statement, the annual budget process and due diligence for three acquisitions the company completed. Prior to that, Rich was Assistant Treasurer of Looking Glass Networks, a provider of high capacity fiber optic telecommunications services which was funded by Madison Dearborn Partners and Battery Ventures. He was involved in the negotiations related to the establishment, amendment and recapitalization of a $275 million senior credit facility. After Looking Glass was acquired by Level 3 Communication in 2006, Rich was Vice President, Planning and Analysis for the Metro Network Services organization within Level 3. He began his career at Salomon Smith Barney as an Investment Banking Analyst. Rich holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Amy Au; Senior Attorney and Director, Servicing Department
Amy manages the servicing and compliance functions at Oasis. Amy has extensive legal experience as a prosecutor, corporate transactional attorney, and employment law attorney in San Diego and Orange Counties in California. Ms. Au has extensive litigation experience, trying cases at the state and federal levels in both lower and appellate courts. She is Bar-certified and practices law in both the States of California and Illinois. Ms. Au received her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Political Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago Honors College in 1998, and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School Of Law in 2000.