Eric Marks Joins West Monroe’s Banks & Credit Unions Practice and Leads Firm Into the Payments Space

West Monroe Partners, a full-service North American business and technology consultancy, today announced that Eric Marks has joined the firm as leader of the East Coast Banks & Credit Unions practice. Eric is responsible for leading the firm’s increased focus in the payments space nationally, augmenting West Monroe Partner’s success with card issuers in areas such as customer experience and operational excellence. Marks has more than 20 years of financial services industry experience. He is based in the firm’s New York City office.

Over the course of his career, Marks has delivered a wide array of consulting projects involving performance improvement, business and technology strategy, partner selection and contract negotiation support for co-brand, private label, network, processor and other payments partnerships. He is also experienced in transactional advisory and due diligence support, organizational design, market assessment, performance benchmarking and portfolio valuation. In addition, Marks has built and led national consulting practices.

“Eric Marks has built and managed relationships with some of the world’s most prominent card companies, banks, and lenders and crafted innovative solutions to challenging industry problems,” said Gil Mermelstein, managing director and leader of West Monroe’s New York City office and East Coast market. “We are fortunate to have his exceptional blend of industry and technology experience and deep payments expertise as part of our team. He will help our clients navigate complex change to address new channels, customer expectations, and competitors.”

Marks joined West Monroe from Auriemma Consulting Group, where he led the Partnerships practice. He and his team delivered many strategic transactional and advisory projects involving co-brand, private label, affinity, agent bank, network, processor, back office and emerging payments partnerships for an array of merchants, banks, card networks, processors and payment providers.

“West Monroe impressed me with its capabilities for delivering transformational initiatives involving both business and technology,” said Marks. “I am also very impressed by the people themselves; there is tremendous talent, experience, passion and enthusiasm at West Monroe. While I will be continuing my Payments Partnerships work, I am very excited to have a strong platform on which to expand into such areas as customer experience, digital strategy, data analytics, PCI compliance and mergers and acquisitions support.”

Marks is a respected thought leader and frequent speaker at industry and client conferences.