Sam Shannon may have the most accurate and detailed description of his day from anyone who has ever completed this profile. Shannon has spent more than three decades in the ARM industry and isn’t afraid to be honest about his career highlight or what has driven him to stay in this industry so long. Read on to learn more about him, and why you should never ever bother him on Friday nights.
Name: Samuel D. Shannon III (but call me Sam)
Company: AMCOL Systems, Inc.
Length of time at current company: 1.5 years
Length of time in industry: 35 years
How did you get your start in the industry?
Field chasing for a small finance company that made loans to consumers who couldn’t get credit anywhere else.
What is your career highlight so far?
Having a judge order a consumer to pay all legal expenses for my company due to filing repeated frivolous law suits.
When or how are you most productive?
When I am working from my home office. No TV, no landline, no kids, no distractions.
Which industry professional do you admire most?
Wow … What a loaded question … There are many that I have met over the past 35 years. The person that sticks out in my mind as one of the most admired is Richard (Dick) Seeling, a former senior vice president at OSI. Dick taught me that it’s okay to say you work for a collection agency if, at the end of the day, you can say that you attempted to help the consumer and the company tries to do the right thing. That has stayed with me throughout my career and one of the reasons I came to work at AMCOL. They have the same philosophy when it comes trying to do the right thing.
What is one thing you do better than everyone else?
I can find the hole in anyone’s bucket. Every company has an unnecessary loss of revenue. Sometimes, it take someone who doesn’t have a dog in the fight to determine where those holes are and how to mend them.
What do you like most about this industry?
I love this industry so it’s difficult to say what I like most. I suppose it’s the colleagues that one gets to know from being in the industry so long. For me, there is also that one special consumer or regulator that you’ll never forget. Up until a few years ago, I still received a Christmas card from a consumer who saw our efforts to help rather than hinder. I also remember a regulator who called me prior to retirement, simply to say thank you. It’s the moments like that which make this industry so appealing to me.
What is one thing you wish you could change about this industry?
There are two things I would do if I had a magic wand:
- I would like the change the negative perception placed on us by plaintiff attorneys.
- I would eliminate the class-action status. I’ve never seen where it benefits anyone other than the attorney filing the case.
If you weren’t in this industry, what would you be doing?
I don’t know. I’ve been doing this for so many years another profession simply isn’t within my realm of imagination.
Describe a typical work day.
Check messages on the phone and respond to emails that came in overnight. Attend meeting. Monitor phone calls. Respond to BBB inquiries. Answer the phone. Attend meeting. Respond to morning emails. Monitor phone calls. Attend meeting. Research new court rulings regarding compliance issues. Check phone messages. Send emails to defense attorney regarding pending matters. Check afternoon emails. Respond to phone message. Research new court rulings regarding compliance issues.
What is your guilty pleasure?
I have two. I see a movie at least once a week and on Friday nights, I enjoy a hot bubble bath, with candles and soft music, like Enya. Yea, I’m a dork.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Treat others as you want to be treated.
What are you currently reading?
Dan Brown’s “Origin”
What is one fact you’d like everyone in the industry to know about you?
I am an animal rights advocate. Each year I do volunteer work with some animal research/rescue team.
Who else would you like to see answer these questions?
Ed Viviano of Cavalry Portfolio Services.
