Membership Industry Roundtable February 2021

Julie Harris is head of Global Banking Digital Strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In her role, Harris is charged with developing and executing the Digital Strategy across Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking, and Global Corporate & Investment Banking.

Previously, Harris was the Enterprise Credit Risk Information Strategy and Allowance Executive in Global Risk Management at Bank of America where she was responsible for the company’s allowance for loan losses on the balance sheet and the related annual provision expense of ~$3 Billion. She was also responsible for the Enterprise Credit Risk data strategy and reporting, providing updates to the company’s Credit Risk Committee, Management Risk Committee and Enterprise Risk Committee of the Board as well as day-to-day management reporting.

Harris was selected as one of Charlotte’s 40 Under 40 leaders in Business by the Charlotte Business Journal in 2015 and served as the chair of the Arts and Science Council Campaign for Global Risk in 2017. She was also recognized in 2019 by the Mecklenburg Times as one of the 50 Most Influential Women.

Teresa Covington has joined Lightning eMotors, a leading provider of commercial electric vehicles for fleets, as its chief financial officer. Covington is part of Lightning’s senior leadership team and leads the company’s finance and investor relations teams as it transitions to being a public company as a result of its announced business combination with GigCapital3, Inc.

Most recently, Covington served as chief financial officer for asTech, a leading cloud-based automotive technology and diagnostic services provider. Prior to joining asTech, Covington was the head of the global finance organization at AeroVironment, a publicly traded technology company in aerospace and defense that designs, manufactures and distributes unmanned aerial vehicles. There, she served as senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2017.

Covington earned her master’s in business administration from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Last month, Lightning eMotors and GigCapital3, a special-purpose acquisition company or SPAC, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination. Upon closing of the business combination, the combined operating company will be named Lightning eMotors and will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol [“ZEV”].

Lightning eMotors provides complete zero-emission-vehicle (ZEV) solutions for commercial fleets – from Class 3 cargo vans, passenger vans, and ambulances, to Class 4 shuttles buses and box trucks, to Class 6 work trucks, Class 7 city buses, and Class 8 motorcoaches. The Lightning eMotors team designs, engineers, customizes, and manufactures electric vehicles to support the wide array of fleet customer needs, with a full suite of telematics, analytics, and charging solutions to simplify the buying and ownership experience and maximize uptime and energy efficiency.

Bruce Lehrman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, is best known for his entrepreneurial spirit and ability to build world-class technology organizations. He has been involved in three greenfield business start-ups and has also worked with large, nationally recognized brands. In 2007 Bruce founded Involta LLC, a privately held Hybrid IT services company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Involta was named the second fastest growing IT Company in the country in 2010, according to Inc. Magazine 500 Fastest Growing Companies (#40 overall) and has remained on the Inc. 500/5000 list since. In 2016, Involta was selected Technology Company of the Year by the Technology Association of Iowa, and Bruce was named CEO of the Year at the same event. He has also been recognized as the Entrepreneur of the Year by the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce and as a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young.

Bruce sits on the Board of the Entrepreneurial Development Center, Technology Association of Iowa (as 2013 Chairman), Iowa Seed Fund, Geacom, Higher Learning Technology and Van Meter Industrial. Prior to Involta, he was CIO of RuffaloCODY and CEO of LIVEware5.

Lou Krupp worked in audit for 10 years before joining The Denver Wholesale Florists Company (DWF) as their CFO in May 2018.  During his time in public accounting, he served clients in a variety of industries, particularly in the not-for-profit and manufacturing/distribution worlds.  DWF is an employee-owned floral wholesale distribution company with 15 locations throughout the US and ~235 employees.  They’ve begun the process of implementing a new operational ERP and financial package which will transform the Company’s technology infrastructure for years to come.