Rising Stars of the Profession: Lindsay Furr

Ms. Furr focuses on compliance and oversight functions related to the originations and servicing of consumer products (mortgage, auto, credit cards, student loans, and deposits). She helps clients prepare for regulatory examinations and other internal or external assessments through detailed reviews of their business processes. Recently, Ms. Furr led a team of more than twenty individuals while serving as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) independent consultant in a lookback review and assisted a bank in updating its policies, procedures, and operations to comply with an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) formal agreement.

Ms. Furr has experience in completing acquisition and vendor due diligence, current and future state process assessments, and enterprise-wide compliance risk assessments. She also helps clients with a wide range of accounting and auditing issues, including reviewing accounting policies against applicable guidance, setting up internal audit programs, and assessing Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

Leaders have supported me and provided me opportunities to achieve outside my comfort zone. Recently, I managed our practice's largest project to date. I hired, trained, and/or mentored over twenty-five individuals to assist in a lookback review in which BRG acted as the CFPB-approved third-party consultant. I was given autonomy to build the team around me and redistribute top performers to quality control reviewers or other positions or tasks that helped increase weekly productivity four-fold. Last month, I was encouraged to take my knowledge of fair lending and the auto industry and lead a webinar on important CFPB developments in the indirect auto market. Without my relationships with individuals who have continuously opened doors, I would not be where I am today. The skills and confidence I have gained from opportunities like this have led me to seek out more challenging situations and continue to expand my abilities.

The success I have experienced from having remarkable mentors also makes me want to be an advisor and advocate for those around me. I attempt to model the attributes and skills I have learned and continue to learn by mentoring new hires and affording them opportunities to manage portions of client engagements, to get involved with business development activities, and to offer guidance, knowledge, and transparency in all aspects of projects.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

Consulting has offered me opportunities to expand my knowledge, learn new skills, work with industry executives, collaborate with talented people, and progress quickly in my career. I have enjoyed the chance to work on a variety of projects and help provide meaningful impact to clients. I have expanded my skillset and knowledge of the financial services industry in a short period of time by working with different types of clients (banks, originators, servicers, service providers, etc.) and products (mortgage, auto, credit card, student loans, deposits, etc.). In addition, the relationships established and contacts made working long nights huddled in team rooms with talented colleagues have made my experience in consulting even more valuable.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

Instead of "drinking the Kool-Aid" presented to you, make your own Kool-Aid. In other words, take the status quo or normal way of doing things and make it better. I attempt to bring this way of thinking to every project or team I have been a part of and challenge myself to think of new strategies that provide more impactful services to clients or better solutions for the firm.

For example, recently when we needed a listing of over five hundred documents provided by a client, I sought help from a resource who excels in coding to build a script that would pull document names out of a folder. Going forward, our team can use this script and free up time to provide more value to clients and more interesting learning opportunities for our associates.

What would this recognition mean to you?

Recognition is a great motivator for most people, including me. Receiving this distinction means that my hard work is recognized by not only my team and firm, but also others in the industry. It serves as a motivator and energizes me to do and achieve more and, hopefully, be an example to the next generation of rising stars as to what they can accomplish.