SAN DIEGO, July 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Encore Capital Group, Inc. , a leading accounts receivable management firm, today announced that it has hired Ron Eckhardt to fill the newly created position of Executive Vice President and General Manager. Mr. Eckhardt will report directly to Brandon Black, Encore's President and Chief Operating Officer, and will be responsible for all facets of the Company's traditional debt collection business, from portfolio acquisitions through the collection process.
Mr. Eckhardt joins Encore following a 20-year career at Hewlett-Packard, most recently serving as Vice President and General Manager of the Software Services Division of Hewlett-Packard Consulting & Integration for a six-year period. In this position, Mr. Eckhardt managed a workforce of more than 2,000 employees worldwide, and grew this start-up division to over $250 million in annual revenues while consistently exceeding profit goals. Prior to that, Mr. Eckhardt held senior positions in two other start-up divisions at HP, serving as Operations Manager for Test Management & Measurement Systems and Director of Marketing for the Integrated Systems Division. Mr. Eckhardt was instrumental in growing revenue for these start-up divisions to over $50 million and over $100 million respectively.
"We are extremely pleased to add an executive of Ron's caliber to our management team," said Mr. Black. "Ron has an exceptional track record for effectively managing growing businesses and is another example of our belief that adding successful executives from more mature, sophisticated industries enhances Encore's intellectual capital and stimulates further innovation. The strong leadership and organizational skills he developed during his highly productive career at HP make him well suited to manage our core debt collection business. Ron's addition will allow other members of the management team to increase their focus on pursuing long-term growth strategies such as expanding into the healthcare debt collection market and exploring acquisitions of complementary businesses."
"I am very excited to join Encore at this time of great opportunity," said Mr. Eckhardt. "With the recent portfolio acquisition and forward-flow agreement with Jefferson Capital, Encore has built a strong foundation for profitably growing the core debt collection business in the coming years. I look forward to furthering the Company's efforts to enhance efficiencies and optimize collection productivity in order to continue generating strong returns from this business."
As previously announced, Mr. Black will succeed Carl C. Gregory, III as Encore's Chief Executive Officer on October 1, 2005, and the Company intends to eliminate the COO position from its organizational structure at that time.
About Encore Capital Group, Inc.
Encore Capital Group, Inc. is a systems-driven purchaser and manager of charged-off consumer receivables portfolios. More information on the company can be found at http://www.encorecapitalgroup.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements
The statements in this press release that are not historical facts, including, most importantly, those statements preceded by, or that include, the words "may," "believes," "projects," "expects," "anticipates" or the negation thereof, or similar expressions, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Reform Act"). These statements may include, but are not limited to, projections of future purchase volumes, revenues, income or loss (including our expectations regarding the current environment for and timing of portfolio purchases and the resulting effect on revenue recognition rates and profitability); plans for future acquisitions, operations, products or services; and financing needs or plans, as well as assumptions relating to those matters. For all "forward-looking statements," the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Reform Act. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company and our subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect the Company's results and cause them to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include: the Company's ability to purchase receivables portfolios on acceptable terms and in sufficient quantities; the Company's ability to acquire and collect on portfolios consisting of new types of receivables; the Company's ability to recover sufficient amounts on or with respect to receivables to fund operations; the Company's ability to successfully execute acquisitions; the Company's compliance with the restrictive covenants under its $150 million senior credit facility, including limitations that the financial ratios may impose on its ability to acquire receivables portfolios or consummate acquisitions in the future; the Company's continued servicing of receivables in its third party financing transactions; the Company's ability to hire and retain qualified personnel to recover on its receivables efficiently; changes in, or failure to comply with, government regulations; the costs, uncertainties and other effects of legal and administrative proceedings; and risk factors and cautionary statements made in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K as of and for the year ended December 31, 2004. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statement was made. They are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which the Company cannot predict or quantify. Future events and actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The Company will not undertake and specifically declines any obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events, whether as the result of new information, future events or for any other reason. In addition, it is the Company's policy generally not to make any specific projections as to future earnings, and the Company does not endorse any projections regarding future performance that may be made by third parties.
CONTACT:
Encore Capital Group, Inc. (Shareholders/Analysts)
Carl C. Gregory, III, 858-309-6961
