Andrew J. Shaevel

Andy is an accomplished entrepreneur and corporate executive. Since graduating from Canisius College with a BS in Economics and an MBA with concentrations in Marketing and Finance, Andy has founded and led dozens of companies. Of these organizations, two were acquired by Fortune 500 companies and collectively had annual revenues in excess of $120 million and employed more than 1,500 associates.  Several other ventures were successfully harvested on a smaller scale.

Andy began his career as an Investment Banker and Strategic Planner with Marine Midland Bank - which is now a part of HSBC USA. During his time at Marine Midland, Andy was instrumental in developing and implementing the strategy to divest Marine Midland's industry leading "private label" automotive finance unit - Marine Midland Automotive Finance Corporation (MMAFC). MMAFC had assets in excess of $8 billion and was sold to Ford Motor Credit to create Primus Financial Services - the Ford unit responsible for financing non-Ford brand vehicles.

It was at Marine Midland that Andy met and first collaborated with Devon Cohen and Stuart Angert, where the team was collectively responsible for the wind-down of Marine Midland's residual automotive leasing portfolio. With Devon and Stuart, Andy developed an algorithmic model-driven approach to vehicle portfolio management, including vehicle disposition, logistics, and auction arbitrage that is still widely recognized as the foundation for modern-day automotive remarketing. With the support of angel investors, Andy and his partners went on to form Remarketing Services of America, Inc. (RSA) in 1991.

While RSA started as a vehicle management platform, its services evolved from auction arbitrage to high-touch consultative sales and servicing. RSA provided an extensive range of private labeled services that assisted client banks in managing existing asset portfolios to minimize losses, optimize yield, and leverage customer relationships to create new high performing assets. Andy pioneered the creation of RSA's Center for Advance Automotive Research (CAAR) which further positioned RSA as the "expert" service provider of vehicle management services and analytics.

In 1996, RSA was acquired by Debis Financial Services - now known as Daimler Financial Services - the diversified financial services arm of Daimler Benz. In 2001, after the Daimler merger with Chrysler, Andy facilitated a change in ownership to Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) as its 100th acquisition. Under Fiserv's ownership, Andy further diversified RSA's business model to leverage other markets served by Fiserv, including the formation of RSA Mortgage Solutions, Inc. - Fiserv's private label, third-party mortgage originator. RSA Mortgage Solutions was one of the first 50-state licensed mortgage brokers and was chartered and regulated as a bank in New York State. In addition, Andy led and participated in the acquisition and integration of numerous add-on businesses.   RSA together with the other acquisitions are the foundation of what is known as Fiserv Lending Solutions.  In 2018, Fiserv entered into a stategic joint venture with Warburg Pincus, an international  private equity firm to form Sagent Lending Technologies, which is the current owner of the RSA business model.

From 1991 to 2007, Andy served as RSA's President and Chief Executive Officer, directing RSA through its various stages of development and various shareholder groups. Andy fostered the recruitment and retention of a very talented and cohesive management team that focused on deep strategic client relationships using creative and client-focused business models. Andy cultivated a corporate culture that focused RSA on achieving its strategic objectives and generating shareholder value, while creating an award winning associate value proposition that yielded low turn-over, high performance, and enabled the organization's reputation as "a great place to work".

While growing RSA, the RSA partners founded several other businesses. The largest of these ventures, Account Solutions Group, LLC (originally founded as Receivable Services of America, LLC and now known as FirstSource Advantage, LLC), was founded in 1995 in partnership with Tony Frisicaro, a seasoned collection industry executive. ASG was a specialty receivable management services company, and was an early contributor to and adopter of the COPC standards for receivable management service companies. ASG was acquired in 2004 by ICICI Once Source - known today as FirstSource - a BPO organization based on India.

In 2007, Andy founded Bobalew Ventures, where he provides strategic insights, capital and active management to a number of start-up and growth oriented ventures.   ​Bobalew's portfolio companies, include:

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Ventures

• Bluebird Mobility, a growth oriented and innovative non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) company that operates in New York State.
• Debitrum, LLC, a technology company that developed a blockchain based debt registry
• Hover Networks, a cloud based telephony company servicing business users
• Israel Discovery Ventures, a boutique consulting firm focused on helping Israeli companies gain access to the US market and assisting US companies gain access to the Israeli market. 
• MSBP Hospitality, LLC, the hospitality and event management company that operates the Admiiral Room at the Marin, the premier event space at the Marin Building, the historic Marine Trust Company Building in Buffalo, NY.

Real Estate

• Main Street Buffalo Properties, LP, a real estate investment and management firm managed in partnership with Priam Enterprises, LLC that owns, develops and manages of over one million square feet of projects in the central business district in Buffalo, NY 
• Mensch Capital Partners, LLC, an investment firm working on the redevelopment of the former Westwood Country Club, a 170+ acre site n the heart of Amherst, NY. 
• Hamister Group is the sponsor and manager of various hospitality investment funds in the hospitality sector, including high quality hotels and senior housing developments

In addition to these current ventures and real estate companies, Andy founded and/or shepherded several other successful start-ups, including but not limited to:

• Ambitious Enterprises, LLC, a WNY real estate venture focused on revitalizing residential housing leveraging a private mortgage structure and disciplined investment .  ​
• ​​RECSPA, a patent-pending financial models and calculations that was engineered to assist senior citizens in optimizing the value that can be gathered from a reverse mortgage. 
• SuiteParks, LLC, a niche real estate development company focused on creating an innovative real estate solution that meets the needs of small professional and allied medical and service companies

Not every start-up is successful and Andy has had his fair share of ideas that did not pan out as he had hoped.  Andy believes that entrepreneurship is about calculated risk, creative value propositions, great teams, focus and execution, and knowing when to hold and when to fold.

Andy is a lifetime learner, and a 20+ year legacy member of  Vistage, the premier CEO peer-to-peer coaching organization.  Andy has attended various professional development programs at world class universities, including Harvard and INSEAD..  Andy is a frequent guest lecturer at the Wehle School of Business at Canisius College and the School of Management at the University at Buffalo

Andy has received many awards and honors recognizing his personal and corporate achievements, as well as his civic and community involvement, including:

• Entrepreneur of the Year (Finalist) – Ernst & Young (1996)
  
• Entrepreneur of the Year – Amherst Chamber of Commerce (1998)
  
• International Excellence Award (Finalist) – Microsoft Corporation (1999)
  
• Business of the Year – Amherst Chamber of Commerce (1999)
  
• Young Leadership Award – Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo (2000)
  
• Esther Leah Ritz Next Generation Leadership Award – Jewish Community Centers Association of North America (2000)
  
• Entrepreneur of the Year (Nominee) – Ernst & Young (2000)
  
• Dr. Bernard L. Martin Distinguished Graduate Business Alumni Award –Wehle School of Business, Canisius College (2000)
• WNY 40 Under Forty – Business First (2000)
  
• Human Resource Excellence Award – Amherst Chamber of Commerce (2001)
  
• Ann & Meyer Riwchun Young Leadership Award – Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies & Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo (2001)
  
• National Young Leadership Award – United Jewish Communities (2001)
  
• Excellence Award – Buffalo Niagara Partnership (2002)
  
• Pathfinders Award – Buffalo Alliance for Education (2003)
  
• Beta Award – Cyber Culture – InfoTech Niagara (2003)
  
• Distinguished Alumni Award – Canisius College (2004)
  
• Executive of the Year – Canisius College, Beta Gamma Sigma (2007)
• Ralph Kushner Volunteer Service Aware, Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo (2011)
• Williamsville Wall of Fame, Williamsville East High School & Williamsville Educational Foundation, Inc. (2015)

Andy is very active in both local and national philanthropic and civic organizations and serves as an Officer, Director and/or Trustee on various local and continental Boards.