Meet The Team

Rodd Kilponen

Head of Systems & Optimisation

Rodd is an experienced professional with over 18 years' experience driving customer experience, team performance, and financial growth in the financial services industry. Driven by a genuine desire to make the entire client experience effortless, Rodd is committed to maintaining a culture of high performance and strict compliance across all key clients, while delivering market-leading recovery rates through innovative and proven processes and strong employee engagement and enablement.

Alina Clarkson

Head of Fines & Enforcement

Alina commenced her career working within a Government HR Department, and was quickly promoted to HR Manager where she continued to develop her skills over the 6 years tenure. She left to pursue study in Arts and a career in Photography. She then went on to successfully manage successful studios whilst also winning many Customer Service awards. After her son was born, she commenced working in Debt Collection and absolutely loved it. In her words “I think of it as helping my customers to resolve their financial difficulties.”

It is now over 6 years since she joined the Credit Clear Group as a Team Leader who helped to build the wonderful culture and success within our QLD office. She prides herself on her ability to analyse systems and issues whilst creating solutions, plus keeping her team motivated and engaged. The teams that she has managed continually out perform all other recovery panels whilst she has personally taken the up most pride in maintaining unique and close working partnership with her clients.

Alina is now in the position of Head of Fines and Enforcement based in our QLD office, and is looking forward to continuing to build a successful, resilient and motivated team that will delivery exception customer centric outcomes.

Damien Versluis

Group General Manager - Operations

Spanning over 20 years, Damien’s experience includes senior roles within finance and operations across several industries including direct marketing, marketing communications, recruitment, and renewable energy. Having worked within domestic and several global businesses during his career, he has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge within business sustainability, business development and continuous improvement, management and leadership, operational excellence, risk and compliance, marketing and human resource management.

Piero Gross

Chief Risk Officer

Piero is a proven risk and compliance professional with over 18 years’ experience in receivables management and call centre operations across multiple markets and industry sectors including utilities, state, and local government, banking and finance, and telecommunications. He has held key senior positions within a number of debt collection agencies financial technology businesses throughout Australia. A qualified compliance, audit and risk mitigation strategist, Piero’s strengths are in developing innovation and change management programmes using big data analytics, meaningful trend analysis and cultural engagement.

Justin Watson

Head of Consumer QLD, WA & Government

A qualified and accredited management professional, Justin has over twenty years’ experience within the credit industry in a diverse number of management roles from specialist project teams to large-scale call centre operations. Justin brings a deep understanding of how to manage successful recovery operations across commercial, consumer, government, insurance and fine enforcement portfolios - an understanding that has driven the successful development and deployment of highly focused recovery solutions for his clients. Justin has also been an active member of the Australian Institute of Credit Managers (AICM), becoming a Council Member in 2016.

Nikki Dennis

Sales & Marketing Director

Nikki has over 20 years’ experience in debt collection, receivables management, hardship, and training. She possesses specialist knowledge of contract management within government, utility and finance sectors. An industry leader and speaker at AICM’s national conferences and events, Nikki is a regular contributor to industry publications both within Australia and the UK, and has been on the judging panel for the AICM Young Credit Professional of the Year Award.

Joseph Safi

Legal Recoveries Manager

Joseph’s experience spans over various roles in credit including collections, account management, key account management and legal recoveries. Having worked with several domestic and global businesses during his career, he has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge in corporate structures, accounts, contracts, credit processes, legal escalation processes, driving continuous improvement and leadership and management.

Pierre Safi

Chief Legal Officer

Pierre Safi is the General Council for Credit Clear Group and ARMA. He has been privileged to serve the legal profession for more than two decades. Over the years, Pierre has developed an extensive and broad knowledge of general legal practice, focused primarily in advocacy, advisory and private practice. Pierre has an unsurpassed track record of delivering outstanding service and results for his clients. He is a valued, core and trusted advisor of many government and commercial organisations.

Alec Settineri

Head of Insurance

Alec Settineri is a well-experienced specialist with over a decade of experience in the debt collection industry, specializing prominently in insurance recoveries. As the Head of Insurance at ARMA Group, Alec leads operations and oversees a dedicated team of 30+ staff members. With an extensive background in debt collection spanning 10+ years, Alec has honed his skills in insurance recoveries to an exceptional level. With Alec being responsible for overseeing a wide range of claims, insured and uninsured motor claims, property claims, and landlord claims. His strategic insight and hands-on experience have played a pivotal role in optimizing recovery processes and maximizing outcomes for both clients and ARMA Group. Alec Settineri's impressive know-how, strong leadership skills, and his strong dedication makes him a crucial asset at ARMA Group, helping advance the insurance division at ARMA Group.

Eddie Smith

Chief Sales Officer

Eddie is an experienced professional having worked in business development and account management roles within the Financial Services, Business Information and Management Consulting industries. Since joining ARMA in 2016, Eddie has been instrumental in carving out key growth sectors across the business by differentiating unique operational capabilities and building the brand as a key industry expert.

Matt Byant

Head of Consumer

Matt has over 10 years’ experience in the financial services industry, with a proven track record in maximising profit and productivity, whilst maintaining strong client and customer relationships. A late stage collections specialist, Matt’s key strength is his ability to optimise returns on investment for his clients through strategic planning, comprehensive training, and strong adherence to compliance – all whilst ensuring that each interaction with both customer and client is that of a positive and productive nature.

Chris Hayes

Group General Manager - Recoveries

Chris has over 20 years’ experience in Debt Recovery, Dispute Resolution, Insolvency and Litigation. Over his career Chris has assisted multi-national clients by offering frank and commercial advice, allowing them to make informed decisions to achieve maximum returns. Prior to joining ARMA Group Chris was a company founder and Managing Director, continues to be a member of the Australian Institute of Credit Management (AICM), the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), and is a Justice of the Peace. Chris has been awarded the AICM Pinnacle award for External Collections Agent of the Year and been a finalist numerous times.

Jason Serafino

Chief Operations & Technology Officer

Jason is an experienced, hands-on technology and product leader with in excess of 20 years' experience leading teams from foundation to scale-up and established corporates. Jason has a passion for helping businesses achieve breakthrough innovation and scale. Prior to his current role, Jason was GM of Innovation and Technology at Liberty Financial and lead a team of technology professionals with responsibility for the design, development and management of Liberty’s end-to-end technology platforms including broker, risk assessment, settlement, portfolio servicing and funding systems.

Andrew Smith

Chief Executive Officer

Andrew has more than 16 years’ experience working in the credit and collections industry. He has founded three companies, the latest of which, ARMA Group Holdings, was acquired by Credit Clear Limited in February 2022. Following the acquisition, Andrew was appointed as Group CEO and Managing Director. Andrew’s deep industry connections, collections knowledge and a modern empathetic approach to collections has seen him emerge as a leading voice in the Australian collections industry.

Lamys Bultaif

Head of Insurance & Commercial

Lamys stands as a distinguished professional in the realm of insurance operations , with over 8 years of dedicated expertise within the industry. She specializes in managing both insured and uninsured motor, property, and landlord claims.  As a valuable member of the team at ARMA, Lamys has been with the business since the very first year and has played a significant role in the growth of the insurance team. With her wealth of experience, Lamys has developed strong leadership and management skills, and is currently responsible for leading a team of 30+ consultants in her role as Head of Insurance. Lamys is also a skilled project leader, having led numerous successful challenger projects during her time at ARMA. She is distinguished for her ability to identify opportunities and create effective solutions that help businesses recover lost insurance claims and improve their overall profitability. She holds a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Business Law & Human Resource Management from the University of Technology Sydney.

David Jovanov

Sales Director – Northern Region

David has over 20 years’ experience working in the credit, collections, technology, and broader finance industries and has worked for some of the largest and most successful organisations in Australia. A winner of the Australian Institute of Credit Management Consultant of the Year Award and finalist on multiple occasions, David has a proven track record in helping clients overcome their debt recovery challenges, improving their business processes and financial outcomes, and is highly respected in the industry.