GreatAmerica Financial Services has announced three new appointments. 

First, it has appointed Mohammed Hanif as its new chief product officer. He brings more than two decades of experience leading technology and product strategy across financial services, health care, industrial supplies and private equity-backed organizations.

Most recently, Hanif served as chief information officer at Evergreen Financial Technology Group, where he led product innovation and digital transformation across a portfolio of financial SaaS companies. Hanif also held dual leadership roles at Sharetec Systems, where he consolidated multiple businesses into a unified entity and launched several new revenue-generating products and services.

Prior to that, Hanif was chief technology officer at Libra Solutions, where he spearheaded enterprise IT modernization and introduced a five-year growth plan that included a new product strategy and agile delivery model. Earlier in Hanif's career, he spent more than a decade at Grainger, where he led cloud transformation initiatives and unified operations across North America.

"Mohammed brings a rare combination of strategic vision, product innovation and operational excellence," said Martin Golobic, CEO, GreatAmerica. "His track record of building high-performing teams and delivering transformative solutions will be instrumental as we continue to evolve our offerings and deliver greater value to our customers."

Hanif holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor of science in computer engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

GreatAmerica Financial Services has announced the appointment of Arvind Rao as its new head of technology - chief technology officer (CTO). He brings more than two decades of experience leading digital transformation, enterprise data strategy and technology modernization across the financial services and technology sectors.

Rao most recently served as executive vice president and chief information officer of consumer digital banking, retail banking and wealth management at Texas Capital Bank, where he led technology for Bask Bank, the institution’s direct-to-consumer digital bank that became one of the fastest growing banks in the United States. Under Rao's leadership, Bask Bank was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as offering one of the best savings accounts in the country. He also oversaw digital onboarding, online banking, marketing technologies, payments, fraud detection and prevention, while modernizing retail branch, wealth management and Salesforce platforms.

Prior to Texas Capital, Rao held senior leadership roles at HP Inc., including global head of enterprise data, analytics, AI and integration. There, he led a $250-million transformation of HP's data and analytics platforms, implemented various analytics, AI and ML solutions for HP's Functions and Business Units globally. Rao's work supported more than $70 billion in global transactions and delivered significant cost savings and operational improvements.

 Rao also serves as an advisory board member for SBase Technologies Inc.

"We are thrilled to welcome Arvind to the GreatAmerica leadership team," Golobic said. "His deep expertise in data, digital platforms and enterprise transformation will be instrumental as we continue to evolve our technology to better serve our customers and partners."

Rao holds an MBA from Tulane University and a bachelor of engineering in computer science from Manipal Institute of Technology.

GreatAmerica Financial Services has also announced the appointment of Marcel Borg as director of syndication. With this strategic hire, GreatAmerica is launching a new syndication offering that will expand capital access and flexibility for its customers and partners.

Borg brings more than two decades of experience in equipment finance and capital markets, having held leadership roles at LEAF Commercial Capital, Accord Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing, TCF Equipment Finance and Bank of America. His expertise in structuring and managing syndication programs will be instrumental in building this new capability at GreatAmerica.

The syndication offering will allow GreatAmerica to broaden its reach and provide more tailored financing solutions by partnering with other financial institutions. This capability will complement GreatAmerica’s current sophisticated and proven capital markets strategy. This expansion supports the company's mission to help manufacturers, distributors, resellers and franchisees be more successful and keep their customers for a lifetime.

"Adding syndication to our capabilities is a natural evolution of our commitment to serving customers with flexibility and scale," said Brian Bjella, chief revenue officer, GreatAmerica. "Marcel’s deep industry knowledge and proven leadership make him the ideal person to lead this initiative and deliver value to our partners."