Executive Team
The WhiteFence executive team is comprised of a diverse mix of seasoned experts and forward-thinking entrepreneurs. This creative group is focused on providing innovative solutions for consumers and their essential home services needs.
Bob Harris, Chief Executive Officer, serves on the Board of Directors and is responsible for the company vision, planning and overall strategy of WhiteFence. Mr. Harris came to the WhiteFence team from LendingTree, where he had worked for almost a decade. While he most recently served as president of the core LendingTree Exchange business, he also served as president and chief operating officer and as chief marketing officer during his time with the company. Under his leadership, LendingTree achieved more than 80 percent brand awareness and became known nationally through its tagline: When Banks Compete, You Win. Prior to his time at LendingTree, Mr. Harris served as managing director of consumer marketing for The Coca-Cola Company and also led brand marketing, new products and sales initiative for McCormick & Company. Mr. Harris holds a B.S. in commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Francisco J. Arbide, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, is responsible for the company's corporate development, vision and strategy. Since joining WhiteFence in 2001, Mr. Arbide has held several key roles within the company’s executive team and has led the development of several new areas of business including WhiteFence’s relationships in the multifamily housing industry and the real estate industry. Prior to joining WhiteFence, Mr. Arbide spent 12 years working closely within the residential and commercial real estate industries on a broad range of transactions and development projects, including the structure, finance, design, construction and unit sale/lease up of multifamily residential complexes, planned residential communities, high-rise condominiums and commercial retail centers. As a shareholder in the law firm of Carlton Fields, P.A., where he served on the real estate and finance practice groups, he successfully represented and negotiated contracts with multifamily owners and managers, large single-family residential developers, condominium developers and managers, institutional lenders, title insurance companies, brokers, private financiers, hotel and timeshare developers, contractors, major tenants and governmental authorities. He earned a BBA in finance, magna cum laude, from the University of Miami and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.
David R. Brown, Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for all aspects of WhiteFence's finance function, including accounting, financial reporting, financial planning and analysis, treasury, audit and investor relations. His primary role is to drive profitability by increasing the focus on financial and operational metrics across all parts of the company. Mr. Brown comes to WhiteFence with over 25 years of diverse senior financial executive experience with a focus on middle market companies. Mr. Brown has served as chief financial officer for several companies in the Houston area in industries ranging from securities broker/dealers to office furniture distribution. Prior to joining WhiteFence, he spent the past five years in the mortgage industry, holding senior financial reporting positions for both public and private mortgage companies with a national footprint. Mr. Brown spent the first six years of his career on the audit staff at Ernst & Young. He received a BBA in accounting from Texas A&M University and is a CPA.
Hal Elrod, Senior Vice President of Technology, brings a background of large scale systems development in energy platforms and electronic trading. Mr. Elrod came to Whitefence from consulting, most recently at the Internet commodity website Pricelock, where he served as chief technologist and led the company's commercial launch. He is responsible for all technology at WhiteFence, including the infrastructure and delivery of our core ecommerce software. Mr. Elrod has held senior technology management positions in energy and technology companies such as Centrica/Direct Energy, Reuters and Enron. His area of specialization has been in systems for trade execution and post-trade processing for commodities such as electricity, natural gas, wood pulp and paper. He started his career in consulting, designing and coding complex dispatch and load management optimization software for trucking companies. Mr. Elrod received his undergraduate degree in economics and computer science from Baylor University, and a Master of Science in engineering in operations research from The University of Texas at Austin.
Lonnie Ferrell, Senior Vice President—Customer Care & Operations, directs WhiteFence sales and customer service call center operations and also oversees the back office order processing and integration efforts. Mr. Ferrell is responsible for impacting company profitability, streamlining processes and identifying revenue opportunities. As a seasoned veteran with over 14 years of diverse experience in the communications industry, Mr. Ferrell has a tradition of building customer focused sales channels. Prior to joining WhiteFence, he held a number of key positions in the telco industry in sales, channel management and customer care. Mr. Ferrell held positions as vice president business development for One Touch Direct, director of sales and distribution at Windstream Communications and as director of competitive strategy and channel operations at Qwest Communications.
