Fourth Fleet Financial Expands Executive Team and Secures Financing
SAN MATEO, Calif.--Sept. 7, 2004--| Company's off-lease financing solution maximizes vehicle value for driver and employee sales programs |
Fourth Fleet Financial, a new breed of auto financing company, today announced that it has added three key executives to its management team and received an infusion of cash from El Dorado Ventures. Fourth Fleet is now better positioned to provide the remarketing industry with its off-lease auto financing solution, which maximizes end-of-lease vehicle value by servicing the entire credit spectrum of driver and employee sales programs.
"Our goal is to enable more partners to sell ever-increasing volumes of off-lease autos while reducing costly remarketing expenses." said Jeff Danford, founder and CEO of Fourth Fleet Financial. "With this newly expanded team of industry veterans we will implement more aggressive marketing programs and rapidly scale operations to meet increased industry demand."
A Deeper, More Experienced Executive Team
"We at Fourth Fleet are lucky to have a team of professionals so deeply committed to raising the industry's standard of excellence," continued Danford. "Doug, John and Edan are a perfect fit because they join an excellent team with a passion for serving customers, a keen sense of integrity, and a constant drive to overachieve."
Doug Galen is a noted consumer-marketer and consumer-finance expert who has joined Fourth Fleet as its President. Previously, Mr. Galen worked for eBay as its Vice President of New Ventures. In this role, he identified and launched new business categories, similar to eBay Motors, for the Internet auction giant. Under Mr. Galen's guidance, eBay launched eight new business categories during his tenure at the company, generating more than $500 million in annual sales.
Prior to eBay, Mr. Galen was Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development for E-LOAN, Inc, an online home and auto lender. At E-LOAN, he was responsible for creating over 70 corporate alliances, joint ventures and acquisitions - including overseeing the company's diversification beyond mortgages and into auto loans through the acquisition of Bank of America's auto finance division. Mr. Galen received his undergraduate and MBA degrees from University of California, Berkeley.
John Orta joins Fourth Fleet as its Vice President of Product Development. Previously, Mr. Orta served as the Director of Business Development and Associate Counsel for E-LOAN, Inc. At E-LOAN, he was the driving force behind implementation of the company's multi-lender auto financing network. Prior to E-LOAN, Mr. Orta was the Director of Business Development at iMotors. In the past, he has also specialized in Intellectual Property litigation. Mr. Orta earned an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business, a J.D. from the University of San Francisco, and a B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Edan Kabatchnik has joined Fourth Fleet as its Vice President of Technology. Mr. Kabatchnik has a wealth of experience building scalable, high-touch customer support solutions for Oracle and a number of other Silicon Valley companies. He left his position as lead software developer for Oracle to found his own software infrastructure company called Eventus Software. Mr. Kabatchnik then joined RelayHealth Corporation as its Senior Vice President of Product Development and later as Chief Operating Officer. While at RelayHealth, he led the effort that built a next-generation, highly scalable customer service solution for the health care industry designed around an easy-to-access partner module. Edan Kabatchnik graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990 with a Master's degree in Computer Science with Engineering.
Experienced Venture Capital Partner
El Dorado Ventures, known for investing in proven entrepreneurs and identifying next-generation businesses, believes Fourth Street's unique approach to auto-financing represents a significant market opportunity.
"This industry is poised to grow as companies realize the savings available to them through driver and employee sales programs," explained Charles Beeler, partner at El Dorado Ventures. "Fourth Fleet has consistently exceeded expectations since they opened for business two years ago, and the addition of these industry experts only served to validate our investment."
About Fourth Fleet Financial
Fourth Fleet Financial is a new breed of auto financing company that helps the remarketing industry maximize end-of-lease vehicle values through an easy-to-implement financing solution for the entire credit spectrum of off-lease buyers. The company excels by offering superior levels of customer service, extended protection contracts, and a service that can be customized to your existing sales programs. To find out how our financing solution can help you sell more off-lease autos through your driver and employee sales programs, call 1-800-259-7472 or visit www.fourthfleet.com.
About El Dorado Ventures
El Dorado Ventures (EDV) is a top-tier venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies, with a particular focus on the enterprise software and communications sectors. EDV has a successful 25-year track record of early-stage technology investing, including early investments in Earthlink, Efficient Networks, Novellus and Sun Microsystems. Numerous EDV portfolio companies have gone public or been acquired by major acquirers such as Cisco Systems, Ciena, nVidia and Siemens. EDV partners with its entrepreneurs by providing strategic guidance, access to a wealth of industry contacts and value-add support services. EDV's team includes a blue-ribbon group of Technology Partners, 40 technology industry luminaries who play an active role as strategic consultants to EDV and its portfolio companies. For more information, visit www.eldorado.com.