PRA Group, Inc. has named longtime board member Vikram (Vik) Atal as its president and CEO, effective immediately. He will be succeeding Kevin Stevenson, who served as president and CEO since 2017.
PRA Group, Inc. is a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans. Atal, who joined PRA Group’s board in 2015, served on the audit committee and as chair of the risk committee. He has a career spanning 27 years during which he was part of Citigroup where he led the North American card franchise, with 30,000 employees and 60 million customers.
As the vice-chair of Citigroup’s worldwide credit card franchise, he oversaw operations spanning 50 countries. His team successfully managed US $200 billion of high-risk consumer assets during the 2008 financial crisis. Atal, who holds degrees in economics and finance from the London School of Economics and mathematics from St. Stephens College in India, is a member of the board of Goldman Sachs Bank USA and has served as a senior advisor to both McKinsey & Company and venture investment firm MissionOG.
He has worked extensively in Europe, Asia and Latin America as well as the U.S. He currently lives in New York City but will relocate to Norfolk for the new job role.
“I feel privileged to have the opportunity to serve the talented and deeply experienced team of PRA Group from an exciting new vantage point,” Atal said in a statement. “Our strategic focus as a company remains unchanged—capitalizing intelligently on the near-term growth we expect in the receivables pipeline; optimizing operational performance with customers and controls at the centre; building out our global expansion into newer markets; and continuing to identify
and test new opportunities that complement our core franchise. And we will do so without ever losing sight of our values and the responsibility to our communities that have been key to PRA Group’s sustained performance and will contribute to our future success.”
Current PRA Group Board Chair Steve Fredrickson reacted to Kevin Stevenson’s exit by saying: “We wish Kevin the best and thank him for his many contributions over the years. We now look forward as we transition to a deeply experienced, collaborative new leader who is truly passionate about our company and our future.”
Fredrickson said: “Vik has been a tremendous asset to our board, and will now bring his unmatched vision, integrity, market insight, energy and leadership skill to shaping our growth from the other side of the boardroom table, and unlocking new opportunities to serve our customers, scale our business and expand our reach around the globe.”
