CARMEL, Ind. — Mark Hill's decision to leave Baker Hill, the company he helped get off the ground more than 20 years ago, is a mixture of tart and savory.

Hill recently announced his plans to leave Baker Hill to pursue philanthropic and business development interests. He will remain on as president emeritus until Dec. 31.

Joe Kuntz has been named the new president/CEO. Kuntz is no stranger to the company having started there as sales executive in 1993 and then becoming vice president of sales in 2001.

“It's a bittersweet thing,” Hill said on his decision to leave. “It's not a decision that comes lightly. There are a lot of people that I've become close to. That's the bitter part. The sweet part is having the opportunity to do anything I want to do. That's the exciting part.”

Baker Hill has steadily built its presence within the credit union industry since 2000 when it launched its Credit Union Solutions division. Specifically tailored and bundled exclusively for credit unions, the program is a suite of list services, prescreen programs, collections and risk/fraud management tools developed to address all stages of the member life cycle. Prior to that, the company had partnered with several credit unions to offer a plethora of services including evaluating credit applications and risk management solutions. Today, it counts nearly 100 credit unions among its 1,200 client base.

Founded in 1983 by Karen Hill, Mark's wife, Hill came to the company in 1985. Baker Hill made big headlines last year when it was bought by Experian Information Solutions, Inc. in August 2005. The 200-employee company is now a subsidiary of $3 billion Experian, which has 12,500 employees in 28 countries.

Looking back, Hill can recall the early days of struggle when, even after seven years, Baker Hill only had five employees and credit cards were being used to keep the company afloat. Both Hills were still “quite young” so struggles were the order of day, he said.

“We made so many mistakes, there were so many things to learn,” Hill said. “It was a good thing for us because we were a relatively small business. It was a struggle to get it going.”

Part of the hardship had a lot to do with cracking into the “conservative” banking industry, Hill said. Building trust “took awhile” for the young couple trying to sell technology solutions to the close-knit bank community. The turning point came in 1990 when Baker Hill had garnered enough clients that were using multiple solutions and most of its revenue was coming from existing clients.

It was just as difficult to break into the credit union industry albeit for a different reason, Hill said. Credit unions were not heavily into business lending about five years ago, but when regulations changed, member business services started to take off for the company.

“Credit unions are their own community, just like banks,” Hill said. “It took us awhile to crack into that [community]. We made the decision that we really needed to focus on serving credit unions.”

That meant bringing in Pat Spencer to become Baker Hill's credit union solutions manager. Spencer's credit union and banking background includes vice president and manager of business services at $979 million Forum Credit Union where he grew the loan portfolio from $1.8 to $50 million in under three years, according to Baker Hill. Spencer has also worked as a branch manager, commercial lender and sales manager at Bank One and in similar capacities at Key Bank.

Meanwhile, both credit unions and banks are benefiting from the Experian buy that took place last summer and the company is “exceeding the goals we set forth at the time of acquisition,” said Mark Zablan, president of Experian's Business Information Solutions group.

Hill admits he was a bit doubtful about the acquisition.

“You say a lot of things coming into the marriage,” Hill said. “Frankly, I was a little skeptical about if they were really going to do what they said they were going to do. But they have done it. For any company, when you're doing well, they like you to keep doing what you do.”

Since the acquisition, Karen Hill has left the company to pursue other interests. Hill, who considers education a priority, has been working with Indiana state officials to implement technology programs in elementary, middle and high schools. Both Hills are currently involved in getting a school started in downtown Indianapolis. In 2002, he was the inaugural chair of the TechPoint Foundation, a group whose mission is to provide volunteers and financial support to community programs to help bridge the digital divide by providing technology for at-risk youth. Hill plans to continue efforts in the education arena as well as continuing to serve as an angel investor with nonprofits and philanthropic efforts.

As for the future of Baker Hill, the father of three said Kuntz is the right leader to take the helm.

“He has those strong leadership skills that make everyone in the business attracted to him,” Hill said. “In talking with Experian, we told them the train is on the track and if you want to keep it there, bring someone on internally. Joe has the expertise to keep it on track.”

Hill said he's proud that Baker Hill is having record growth and in terms of percentages, the past two years will be the most prosperous for the company.

“It's been such an honor to serve credit unions and bankers. Both have great groups of people.” –[email protected]