Oak Street Funding Adds Seasoned Insurance Industry Leadership to Its Large Loan Strategic Markets Unit


INDIANAPOLIS, IN--(Marketwired - Feb 11, 2014) -  Oak Street Funding (www.oakstreetfunding.com) is delighted to announce it has promoted one its most talented professionals, Kirsten Petras, to the newly created position of Operations Manager of the Strategic Markets unit, which is focused exclusively on providing larger (between $1 million and $15 million) loans to the insurance industry. Oak Street is also pleased to announce it has added seasoned insurance executive Joe Mauro to its Strategic Markets business development team.

Already staffed with a team that has collectively closed nearly $500 million in insurance industry loans, Oak Street Funding is looking to augment and complement existing strategies and processes that have contributed to tremendous growth of larger loan originations over the past few years.

Petras, who has held several sales, business development and management positions during her Oak Street tenure, is being promoted to Operations Manager for the Strategic Markets unit. She will focus on strategy and ensuring the efficiency of internal processes, communications, technology and other key functions involved in moving Strategic Markets loans through the origination, underwriting and closing processes at Oak Street. Petras has over 13 years experience in financial services and holds a degree in business administration and management from Marian University in Indianapolis. "We want to continually enhance the customer experience with our larger transactions -- which can be fairly complex -- and Kirsten's new role should allow us to do just that," said Oak Street Chief Financial Officer, Todd Gray.

As Business Development Manager, Mauro will cultivate and manage relationships with insurance professionals with the intent of continuing to build the Strategic Markets loan portfolio. With prior experiences that include owning an insurance agency, managing brokerages, overseeing sales teams, and being a sales executive for national insurance carriers, Mauro brings a wealth of experience to Oak Street Funding. "You will meet few people in the insurance industry who have a background that is as rich and relevant to our customer's as Joe's," Gray continued. "He knows insurance from an agent, broker and carrier perspective and he's been involved in major financial transactions. This is the perfect combination of skills and experience to identify needs and structure custom deals to meet them."

Oak Street Funding's in-depth and unique understanding of the insurance industry and its constituents, such as insurance agents, brokers, MGAs and program administrators, has always provided the insight to develop effective products and services that meet the unique needs of its borrowers.

About Oak Street Funding
The Carmel, Ind.-based Oak Street Funding (www.oakstreetfunding.com) is a family of diversified financial services companies that offers commission-based commercial financing exclusively for insurance professionals and third-party loan servicing for financial institutions. Oak Street utilizes industry knowledge, proprietary technology and passion to deliver top-quality service and capital products to insurance and finance professionals nationwide.