About Us
As the largest negotiator of debt in the nation, Freedom Debt Relief takes a human approach to debt relief. We are passionate about helping people overcome debt as quickly as possible.
About Us
As the largest negotiator of debt in the nation, Freedom Debt Relief takes a human approach to debt relief. We are passionate about helping people overcome debt as quickly as possible.
Helping debt-burdened consumers
Brad Stroh and Andrew Housser
Founders and Co-CEO’s
In 2002, Stanford Business School graduates Andrew Housser and Brad Stroh noticed a real problem: there were no consumer-friendly options for people struggling with debt. To solve that, they built Freedom Debt Relief. Their mission was to provide financial solutions, services, and education that enable people to reduce debt, build wealth, and achieve financial freedom.
By staying true to this mission, hiring the best employees in the industry, and providing exceptional service for clients, Freedom Debt Relief has grown to employ over 2,000 highly trained professionals and resolve debts for over 600,000 clients.
Proud of our reputation
Unlike some companies that charge fees before debts are settled, Freedom Debt Relief never charges a fee until we’ve done our work and negotiated a settlement. Here are other ways we set ourselves apart from other companies in our industry:
- Involved in establishing 2010 Federal Trade Commission rules that ban abusive debt settlement practices
- Founding member of the American Fair Credit Council (AFCC), which is dedicated to promoting and adhering to best practices in the credit advocacy industry
- Platinum member of the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators
Our goal:Ensure people have all the information they need to make informed choices about solving their debt problems — even if the choice they make isn’t Freedom Debt Relief.
If you enroll in our program, you are trusting us to help you. We are honored by this trust, and will work hard every day to earn it.
Led by smart, caring people
Everyone on our management team is an experienced professional dedicated to empowering people to create a brighter financial future.
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Tanya Peterson
VP, Brand & Creative
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Tanya Peterson
VP, Brand & Creative
With 20+ years of experience in both large marketing organizations and startups, Tanya Peterson is a seasoned marketer with an exceptional breadth and depth of skills in strategy and execution—including brand strategy, consumer insights, and market research. She is passionate about combining consumer marketing with innovative technologies, advocating for customers in product development and communications, and leading strategic brand and insights initiatives to guide product and marketing strategy. Tanya earned her B.A. in English from Yale University.
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Francesco Fagnini
VP, Marketing & Monetization
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Francesco Fagnini
VP, Marketing & Monetization
Francesco Fagnini leads the affiliate marketing efforts for Freedom Debt Relief, where he focuses on opening up new marketing channels and mentoring and leading marketing teams. Before joining the company, Francesco ran business development at Bankrate. He earned his BA in Communication from USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
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Michael Freedman
General Counsel
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Michael Freedman
General Counsel
Michael Freedman serves as General Counsel for Freedom Financial Network. With nearly 25 years of experience in law, Michael was General Counsel at Borrower’s First and a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP before joining Freedom. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University and the Juris Doctor degree from American University’s Washington College of Law.
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Kenneth Wandstrat
VP, Wholesale
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Kenneth Wandstrat
VP, Wholesale
Kenneth Wandstrat is responsible for affiliate relationships and development for Freedom Debt Relief. Before joining the company, Kenneth was an account executive with New Century Mortgage and the Manager of Internet Business Development at New Century Mortgage. He earned an MBA and BA from Xavier University.
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Liz Ray
VP, Treasurer
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Liz Ray
VP, Treasurer
Liz Ray joined Freedom Debt Relief after spending over a decade at Gap, Inc. where she focused on capital structure, M&A, treasury, and investor relations. She started her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, then moved to global banking at Citigroup, where she covered financial institutions. Liz earned her MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and graduated with a BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College. She is a CFA charterholder.
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Aleksander Zajic
VP, Analytics
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Aleksander Zajic
VP, Analytics
Aleksandar Zajic leads analytics here at Freedom Debt Relief, applying advanced data mining and statistical modeling techniques to help us better serve clients. Before he came to the company, Aleks held senior management and executive positions at Bank of America, GE Money, Apple, Symphony Advanced Media, and Mixr Inc. He earned his MBA from RIT and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Belgrade.
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Oren Gal
VP, Consolidation Plus
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Oren Gal
VP, Consolidation Plus
Oren Gal manages the Consolidation Plus program at Freedom Financial Network. Before joining Consolidation Plus, he spent two years managing online marketing at Bills.com. Before that, Oren spent three years at Markel Insurance, where he worked in various roles in the underwriting department. Oren graduated with a BS from Virginia Commonwealth University and earned his MBA from Stanford Business School.
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Nathan Mascenic
VP, Business Systems
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Nathan Mascenic
VP, Business Systems
Nathan Mascenic has over 15 years of experience as a business systems expert in call center technologies. He has a proven track record of delivering on key company initiatives at start-ups and enterprise companies alike. With a passion for success and service leadership, Jason loves to apply his paramedic skills to triage, prioritize, and solve business problems. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Arizona State University.
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Patrick Devlin
SVP, Business Development
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Patrick Devlin
SVP, Business Development
Patrick Devlin focuses on creating long-term, strategic partnerships with leaders in the banking, insurance, affinity group, and fin-tech industries and bringing Freedom’s suite of debt solutions to their customers. Before joining Freedom, Pat held various positions at Pepsi-Co, AAA, PayPal, Visa, WorldPay, and more. At PayPal, Visa, and WorldPay, he developed and led business development teams that pioneered key growth strategies for the organizations. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Berkeley and his Master of Business Administration from University of San Francisco.
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Jason Pack
SVP, Operations
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Jason Pack
SVP, Operations
Jason Pack leads all efforts at Freedom Debt Relief to deliver world-class customer service. Before joining the company, Jason held vice president and director roles in Global Call Center Operations with Servicemaster, Dollar Financial, and Discover Card. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Management and Administration from the University of Phoenix.
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Carlyn Lamia
VP, Strategy & Innovation
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Carlyn Lamia
VP, Strategy & Innovation
Carlyn Lamia joined the team in 2012 after honing her business, leadership, and analytics skills on Wall Street. Carlyn runs the company's data-ruled Strategy team, where she dedicates her time to identifying and executing large strategic initiatives. If there's a new marketing technology to tackle, or an opportunity to leverage data in a new way--she's on it. Carlyn graduated with a BA in Economics from Amherst College. She is an alumna of Columbia Business School. Her favorite ingredients are passion, empathy, and data.
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Kevin Gallegos
SVP, New Client Enrollment
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Kevin Gallegos
SVP, New Client Enrollment
Kevin Gallegos manages all sales operations for Freedom Debt Relief. Kevin came to the company with over a decade of sales and customer service management experience and holds certifications in call center operations and credit counseling. He also worked with California Higher Education Loan Association, Southwest Student Services, and Bank One.
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Ed Chang
VP, Business Development
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Ed Chang
VP, Business Development
Ed Chang brings over 20 years of financial services experience to Freedom Debt Relief. Before he joined the company, he was the CEO of Strands, a global provider of personal finance and analytics software. His background also includes investment banking at Citigroup and Morgan Stanley and technology at eBay and NetConversions, a software company he co-founded. Ed earned an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Pomona College.
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Noah Brownell
VP, Marketing
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Noah Brownell
VP, Marketing
Noah Brownell is responsible for marketing for Freedom Debt Relief. Before he joined the company, Noah worked for a CPA firm. Noah earned a BS in Mathematics from UCLA.
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Jason Yee
EVP, Corporate Development
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Jason Yee
EVP, Corporate Development
Before joining Freedom Debt Relief, Jason Yee was Founder and Managing Partner at Cypress Coast Partners. Prior to that, he was the CIO and Portfolio Manager for Global/International Equities at Janus Capital Group, where he managed over $5 billion in assets. Jason holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. At Stanford, he was captain of the tennis team, 3-time All-American, and member of four National Championship teams.
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Jon Pedley
EVP, Product Management
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Jon Pedley
EVP, Product Management
Jon Pedley brings a great deal of product expertise to Freedom Debt Relief, based on his years of experience working at Charles Schwab and JPMorgan. Jon is passionate about building compelling online user experiences that make the complex simple and delightful—for consumers as well as employees. He earned an MBA from Stanford Business School and a BS in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge.
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Dennis Harrison
EVP, Business Development
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Dennis Harrison
EVP, Business Development
Dennis Harrison leads new business development for Freedom Debt Relief, specifically focusing on identifying new market opportunities. He previously worked at Reply! Inc., TARGUSinfo, and Vicinity. He began his career in sales and sales management at Oracle Corporation. Dennis attended Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a BS in Finance.
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Linda Luman
SVP, Human Resources
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Linda Luman
SVP, Human Resources
Linda Luman has extensive experience in managing people strategy at fast-growing, high-performance organizations. She is passionate about employee engagement and enablement, and is an expert in Succession, Talent Management, Learning, and Development. She defines success as getting the right talent in the right place at the right time in every area of the business. Before joining Freedom Debt Relief, Linda was involved in HR leadership at United Rentals and GT Advanced Technologies. She hold a Bachelor's degree in Business Management.
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Mark Tonnesen
CIO
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Mark Tonnesen
CIO
Before joining Freedom Debt Relief, Mark Tonnesen was Chief Information Officer at McAfee, Neustar, Logitech, and Electronic Arts during times of significant growth. In each role, Mark was key in transforming the company’s technology to the cloud while also leading significant changes in Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Finance. While at McAfee, Mark headed a scaling effort that drove over $1B in Anti Virus consumer revenue. During almost 13 years at Cisco, he developed business and IT strategies that achieved tremendous top line growth. At TSA, Mark brought technology into the world of securing all 435 commercial airports in the US.
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Abhijat Thakur
CTO
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Abhijat Thakur
CTO
Abhijat Thakur brings decades of experience in software engineering, design and development to his role here at Freedom Debt Relief. Before coming to the company, Abhijat held positions at BDNA, VMware, and Digital Chocolate and gained experience in recruiting, managing, and mentoring engineering teams globally.
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Chris Capozzi
CFO & COO
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Chris Capozzi
CFO & COO
Before joining Freedom Debt Relief, Chris Capozzi was the Chief Risk Officer of General Electric. At General Electric, he also served as the CFO of GE Capital Corporate Finance, the CFO of GE Water, and was a Managing Director for GE Energy Financial Services. He earned an MBA from Columbia University and a BS from Boston College.
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Ravi Keswani
President, Product & Technology
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Ravi Keswani
President, Product & Technology
Ravi leads product and technology at Freedom Financial Network. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer at Ten-X, a leading online real estate marketplace . Prior to Ten-X, he served as Vice President of Engineering at high scale consumer businesses - Betfair and Coupons.com. He also served on the Board of Directors of Kabam, a global leader in online and mobile gaming. Ravi is named inventor on six US patents and holds a Bachelors degree from Delhi Technological University and a Master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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Megan Hanley
CMO
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Megan Hanley
CMO
Megan Hanley is a skilled brand builder and marketing leader who joined Freedom Debt Relief in 2016. Before joining the company, she worked in various senior marketing roles at Microsoft, Auction.com, and ShopRunner. Megan began her consumer marketing career leading Direct Marketing for Esurance, building a beloved consumer brand and growing the business to $1B in revenues. She has been an advisor to, and serves on the boards of, a number of early-stage businesses. Megan holds an MBA from Duke University and a BA from the University of Notre Dame.
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Sean Fox
President & Chief Revenue Officer
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Sean Fox
President & Chief Revenue Officer
Sean Fox joined Freedom Debt Relief from Reply! Inc., where he had served as Chief Operating Officer. Before that, Sean was president of the social networking start-up Connecting Neighbors. Sean began his online marketing career in 1998 with the start-up bamboo.com, which went public in 1999 and evolved into Internet Pictures Corporation (iPix), where Sean served as VP of Sales and Strategic Alliances. Sean earned a JD from Georgetown Law School, a Master’s degree from Cambridge University, and two Bachelor’s degrees from Stanford University.
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Jeff Staley
Managing Partner
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Jeff Staley
Managing Partner
Jeff Staley joined Freedom Debt Relief in the early days, partnering with co-founders Andrew Housser and Brad Stroh to expand the company's scope and scale. Before Freedom Debt Relief, Jeff was a growth equity investor at Summit Partners. He also worked as a commercial and consumer investor at CarVal Investors, focusing on real estate, corporate credit, and loan portfolios. He continues to invest in and advise to several entrepreneurial companies. He graduated summa cum laude with a BA from Boston College and earned his MBA from Stanford Business School. Jeff is married with 3 young boys and enjoys being active in the great outdoors of Northern California.
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Andrew Housser
CEO & Co‑Founder
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Andrew Housser
CEO & Co‑Founder
Andrew Housser co-founded Freedom Debt Relief in 2002 with Brad Stroh, after meeting him at Stanford, where they both earned their MBA. Andrew was an Arjay Miller Scholar and received a BA summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to co-founding Freedom Debt Relief, Andrew worked in private equity investing with Littlejohn & Co. and investment banking for Salomon Smith Barney.
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Brad Stroh
CEO & Co‑Founder
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Brad Stroh
CEO & Co‑Founder
Brad Stroh co-founded Freedom Debt Relief in 2002 with Andrew Housser, whom he met at Stanford, where they both earned their MBA. He was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and received a BA from Amherst College, where he captained the lacrosse team. Brad is an investor, advisor and board member to several entrepreneurial companies.
Giving back
Freedom Debt Relief is proud to have offices in San Mateo, CA and Phoenix, AZ. As responsible members of these communities, we strive to make positive impact through employee volunteering and monetary donations.
The organizations we support include:
There with careOrganizes volunteers to work with hospitals and social workers to provide support and relieve stress for hundreds of families who have critically ill children.
Mid-Peninsula Boys and Girls Club Helps local youth achieve their maximum potential through mentorship, academics, and hands-on learning. Encourages healthy lifestyles, character building, and giving back to those in need.
Child Advocates Trains and supports Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers to work one-on-one with abused, neglected, or abandoned children to ensure each child has the resources needed to grow up healthy and strong.
The Family Giving TreeThe largest holiday gift and backpack donation program in California, it provides school supplies and gifts for in-need children throughout the greater Bay Area.
Tipping Point A grant-making organization that funds and partners with the groups that connect Bay Area individuals and families to opportunities that can help them break the cycle of poverty and achieve economic self-sufficiency.
HIP HousingEnables people with special needs due to income or circumstance to live independent, self-sufficient lives in decent, safe, low-cost homes.
Samaritan House Provides services to help meet the essential daily needs of more than 12,000 low-income people within San Mateo County, California.
Second Harvest Food BankRallies community resources to assist hungry people in Santa Mateo and San Clara counties.
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