Oct. 31 will be more than just Halloween for John and Perla Lewis.
The Intellaegis founders will be retiring on the last day of October from their respective roles in company management with John Lewis as CEO and Perla Lewis as chief financial officer.
According to a news release, both entrepreneurs will remain as shareholders in Intellaegis — the company they founded in 2011 — and John Lewis will continue to serve on its board of directors.
The announcement that arrived on Tuesday is a continuation of the leadership transition that began with the hiring of Lance Suder as the company’s chief operating officer in 2018.
Intellaegis said Suder has been instrumental in guiding the company forward as a member of the management team as well as ensuring a smooth leadership transition through this period of change.
In addition, Steve Schroeder — the first investor in Intellaegis and founder of CoreLogic — has taken a more active role in the company over the past year. He will assume the role of CEO upon John Lewis’ departure in addition to his current role of chief strategy officer.
John and Perla Lewis have a long history of innovation in the auto finance industry, having successfully founded and exited from eight prior startups before establishing Intellaegis 13 years ago.
They formed one of the first dedicated skip-tracing companies in 1988 and one of the first repossession assignment forwarding companies, ARS, in 1994.
This “forwarding” model has since evolved into a billion-dollar industry within the auto finance sector as finance companies can work with a single vendor rather hundreds of repossession agents directly.
John and Perla Lewis culminated their entrepreneur journeys with masterQueue, a solution designed to streamline multiple processes related to customer contact. Its core functionality is its ability to locate and contact individuals using data aggregation, automation and analytics.
“We are immensely proud of the journey we’ve taken with Intellaegis and we are confident that the company’s future is bright with Steve Schroeder at the helm,” John Lewis said in the news release. “Steve’s unparalleled expertise in building and scaling data-driven companies makes him the ideal leader to continue the evolution of masterQueue.”
The new company leadership offered these perspectives.
“I am honored to take on the role of CEO at Intellaegis,” Schroeder said. “Having been involved with Intellaegis since its inception, I have always believed in its potential. I look forward to building on the strong foundation laid by John and Perla and leading the company to new heights.”
Suder added, “We have an excellent, dedicated team, which is well-positioned for continued success. I am excited to work closely with Steve and the entire Intellaegis team to take our product and Company to the next level.”