Agreement Express Names Burke LaShell As New CTO

Agreement Express, which works in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based digital client onboarding and underwriting, has added Burke LaShell as its new chief technology officer (CTO), according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

LaShell is coming from an eight-year role as CTO for Skillsurvey, which saw its revenue increase from $11 million to $30 million, the release stated.

The release noted LaShell is “passionate about creating an environment that nurtures innovation and yields exceptional results,” and has over 20 years’ experience delivering major software products.

Agreement Express CEO Dave O’Brien said in the release that LaShell is an “extraordinary technology leader.” O’Brien also said he is “confident [LaShell will] play a key role in the growth of our company.”

Financial institutions (FIs) using Agreement Express can design and execute consistent automated onboarding experiences, the release stated. The company’s latest product is Merchant ScanXpress, which works with the company’s onboarding and underwriting processes and lets payments incumbents and challengers use configurability to boost processing volume.

That service is designed for wholesale independent sales organizations (ISOs), payment facilitators (PayFacs) and independent software vendors (ISVs), and it lets them take advantage of the emerging opportunities in the unprecedented speed to market for the end-to-end merchant acquisition strategies for new channels or territories.

Agreement Express also added Mike Winters as its vice president of sales, PYMNTS reported earlier this month. Winters has had success developing relationships with bigger financial entities in North America, and he brings over 30 years of experience with sales experience.

Before Agreement Express, Winters was senior vice president at Zywave, an insurance sales provider. There, he worked closely with O’Brien, who was previously CEO at Zywave.

O’Brien told PYMNTS in an interview this month that the future is likely to be increasingly linked to digital and voice-controlled adaptations for payments, with the keyboard going the way of the Dodo. He said the change would be more complex than just switching out a Google Assistant or Alexa device, instead requiring a rework of existing consumer habits.