Alex Mallman, president and chief executive of AutoGravity
AutoGravity has announced the appointment of a new chief executive to lead the company as well as a new chief technology officer, following the departures from two of the company’s head brass.
Alex Mallmann was named president and chief executive today, taking over for Andreas Hinrichs who quietly left the company in May, according to a report from the Orange County Business Journal last week. Hinrichs’ LinkedIn page now simply lists him as a fintech entrepreneur and digital executive. AutoGravity declined to comment on the reason for his departure.
Jason Bonifay was also promoted to replace Sheng Wang as chief technology officer. Wang was one of the early leaders at AutoGravity serving as the company’s first Director of Product before being promoted to CTO in December 2017.
“I am taking a break from work and won’t be returning to AutoGravity,” Wang told Auto Finance News via LinkedIn. She and AutoGravity both declined to elaborate further on the reasoning for her departure.
Emerging from this transition, AutoGravity is gaining a CEO with deep auto finance experience. Before joining AutoGravity, Mallmann led Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance China as president and chief executive since 2014. He began his career in 1998 with Mercedes-Benz Brazil before moving on as the president and chief executive for Mercedes-Benz Financial Services in Spain and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services in Portugal.
“Alex has the unique ability to translate vision and strategy into world-class execution, which enables a compelling customer experience,” said Benedikt Schell, chief experience officer at Daimler Financial Services AG and chairman of AutoGravity’s board of directors. “With millions of users embracing AutoGravity, the company has paved unprecedented digital roads in the industry. Under Alex’s leadership, adoption of AutoGravity’s award-winning technology is expected to accelerate exponentially.”
Less than two years since its launch, AutoGravity also reached 2 million users on its platform, according to the press release, and has generated $2 billion in financing requests to date, the Orange County Business Journal reported.
Bonifay joined AutoGravity in May as vice president of engineering and just two months later has been named chief technology officer. Before joining AutoGravity, he was vice president of development for product and engineering at CDK Global, spent more than five years as vice president of software engineering at Bankruptcy Management Solutions (BMS), and was chief technology officer at Propero Software.
Lenders on the platform include CarFinance.com (the direct lending arm of Flagship Credit Acceptance), First Investors Financial Services, Global Lending Services, Hyundai Capital America — which does business as Hyundai Motor Finance, Kia Motors Finance, and Genesis Finance — Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, VW Credit, and Westlake Financial Services.