Kristin Jones
Kristin Jones serves as the Chief Financial Officer of HC3, overseeing the company’s financial strategy and operations. Before becoming CFO, she was HC3’s Director of Project Management, where she led various strategic initiatives. Kristin’s experience spans key roles in project management and finance, including her time as a Senior IT Project Manager at Motion Industries, where she managed high-impact projects related to digital content and ecommerce. She also held multiple project management roles at Motion Industries, leading initiatives in marketing, social media, and website development.
Kristin holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Mississippi State University and an Associate’s degree in Pre-Engineering from Bevill State Community College. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and contributing to community projects in Birmingham, Alabama.
Lee Long
Lee Long serves as the Chief Experience Officer of HC3. In her role, Long oversees the Compliance, Knowledge Management/Training, Human Resources, Client Experience, and Account Management teams.
Long has worked in the financial printing and communications industry for more than 25 years, acquiring expertise in statements, payment books, marketing, and electronic offerings. In her previous position as Chief Operating Officer at BSI, she was responsible for leading the overall growth of the company. Prior to BSI, Lee served as Founder and Co-Owner at a digital marketing firm, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at NCP Solutions. Long received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Alabama.
Tori VanCura-Rutland
Tori Rutland serves as the Chief Growth Officer of HC3. Currently, she is responsible for Business Development, Partnerships, and Marketing. Previously with HC3, she worked as the Director of Project Management. Before her work with HC3, Tori served as Associate Director to Ballet Tennessee, Sales/Project Manager with Wolverine Worldwide (NY), Sales Development with Nine West Group (IL), and Project Manager with MediBase. Tori received the Oprah Civic Leadership Award for her work with City Year Chicago, an AmeriCorps-supported program. She has served on the following boards of directors: Association for Financial Technology, Ballet Tennessee, Bessie Smith Cultural Center, and the Tennessee Association of Dance. Tori currently serves on the board of the University of Tennessee’s Digital Marketing Program.
Mrs. Rutland received her BA in Sociology with honors from Roosevelt University. Outside of the office, she spends time with family and horses.
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Chris Santomassimo: Welcome back to the Think Factory Podcast powered by OGC Solutions.
I’m your host today Chris Santomasimo and really excited to be in Birmingham Alabama with the leadership team from HC3. I’m sitting here today with Kristin Jones the CFO, Lee Long the Chief Experience Officer and then Tori Vancouver Rutland the Chief Growth Officer. Welcome to The Think Factory podcast.
I wish everybody could see some video from you know the experience I had just walking into the facility. I mean the places it’s beautiful and it really to me anyway this is my impression it really represents sort of a technology-forward look and feel which is really what the company is all about. You just happen to be a tech company that does some printing as part of your your customer service.
I would love to introduce have you folks really introduce the company to everybody in case they haven’t heard about HC3. I mean Tommy McGahey, your CEO, is a pretty prominent figure in the industry but I suppose some people may not have heard.
Tori VanCura-Rutland: Yeah, so, Tommy McGahey purchased this company in the 80s, but it was previously Wayne D’s mailing company and really known for doing fulfillment work. So, he really kind of came in and he made it High Cotton Direct Marketing and then kind of got more into transactional mail and we became High Cotton.
And then as we added some of the financial documents into the things we were doing as a company, we really started to focus just on that vertical. And once kind of Tommy and his son Griffin McGahey really were focusing on that, they developed out their first ever software component delivering e-statements through our own system. So, previously everything we kind of had that was maybe a little bit software-based was outsourced and now it was in-house.
So, we had this operational history of over 60 years of printing, inserting, and mailing and we added this software component and really made financial services our focus. And that really started I think in 2012, really focusing on the financial vertical. 2016, we moved into this beautiful facility and we’ve added, I think in the early 2000s, we added our facility in Dallas and then we went through several acquisitions where we gained great people as well as business.
So, Bank Statements Inc. was here locally and so Lee actually joined our team from that acquisition and merger and we got a ton of great people. And they also had a facility in Texas and they also had a facility in Indianapolis.
So, we merged our facilities in Dallas, Texas and then we took the Indianapolis facility and we wanted to kind of mirror our equipment and we relocated it there in Indy. And so, we had three facilities after that acquisition and just phenomenal talent. Then the same thing happened.
We acquired a company out of Jonesboro and added Bob Allen and Jeremiah James to our leadership team. Got a lot of great business as well as great employees and they had a lot more software development as a company. So, if you’ve heard of AutoMail and AutoDoc, that’s that company.
We really were able to kind of invest more in software than we had previously with our other acquisitions. So, we’ve really rounded out our leadership team and growth. And Tommy and Griffin have had great vision in doing that at strategic moments.
And it’s just, I think, I’m kind of rambling. You guys can add in, but it’s really created opportunity to add people as well as clients and I think that’s what’s exciting. It isn’t just that we’ve grown the company at the cost of other companies, but we’ve been able to all grow along together and that’s just really unique in today’s world.
Chris Santomassimo: Thank you. You’re a great spokesperson.
Tori VanCura-Rutland: It’s why I’m in sales. [laughter]
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