Article

Financial DNA founder will be remembered for his unique insight

An innovator, an analyst with a knack for financial technology and a Renaissance man with a 360-degree perspective - that was Gary Craft. The founder of Financial DNA died suddenly in September, shortly after launching a series of industry-leading conferences that were setting a new pace in the financial technology space.

December 11, 2005 by Tracy Kitten — Editor, AMC

In September, a couple hundred investors and top executives in financial self-service

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and technology businesses gathered in San Francisco for what was expected to be the first of many conferences geared toward efforts to reach unbanked and underbanked consumers in the United States. (Read also, Relearning old tricks to reach unbanked consumers.)

Gary Craft, the founder of San Francisco-based Financial DNA and organizer of the conference, was praised by many attendees for his forethought. Craft was well known throughout the financial payments space for successfully matching companies and investors, and through Financial DNA, a consultancy he founded in 1999, he was branching out.

But on Sept. 26, shortly after his Unbanked Financial Services Innovation conference, Craft died. He had been diagnosed only a week before with acute myeloid leukemia. He was 47.

Gary Craft predicted big changes in financial services in 1998, when he spoke at A.M. Best Company Inc.'s conference, The Key to E-Commerce: Straight-Through Processing, in Boston.

Financial DNA, a company he had built from the ground up, will likely close its doors, said Robert Coolbrith, a close friend of Craft's and Financial DNA's director of research.

"What really made Financial DNA was Gary's unique insight and all of his contacts," Coolbrith said. "That was the core of the business - his knowledge, his personality - and without that, you would really have a business that's a shadow of its former self."

Without Craft and Financial DNA, added Richard Crone, founder of San Carlos, Calif.-based Crone Consulting and a person who had worked with Craft for more than a decade "on both sides of the table," a huge void now exists in the niche that Craft carved out. Whether another consultancy will be able to pick up where Craft left off remains to be seen.

"The glue that brought all of these people together was Gary," Crone said. "He was the linchpin. He was the market maker. The fundamental premise of Financial DNA was objective, independent evaluation of these companies, and that need still exists."

Craft's idea for Financial DNA was "revolutionary," Crone said, because Craft could evaluate companies and financial technology without taking a financial interest. "Financial DNA was really a forerunner in doing this."

Potential unrealized

Gary Craft Founder, Financial DNA Education: Advanced degress from Trinity College and the University of California at Berkeley Career: Before Financial DNA, Craft was a managing director at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, a division of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., E*Offering Corp., which was bought out by SoundView Technology Group in 2000, and Robertson Stephens. Age: 47 Family: Craft is survived by his wife, Kyung Hui "Gina" Craft, his ex-wife, Odette Go, his daughter, Katelyn (11), and his son, Michael (7).

The role of independent consultant was one Craft played well. With a diverse background in insurance, industry analysis and investment from his days on Wall Street, Craft knew all of the game's players. And he had a breadth of industry knowledge that afforded him a "360 perspective on financial technology and business in general," Coolbrith said.

Crone echoed Coolbrith's admiration of Craft's unique insight, saying Craft was "the quintessential visionary."

"Every startup, every venture capitalist with an idea wanted to run it by Gary," Crone said. "He understood the dilemma of the venture capitalist. His background and upbringing in the industry made him different."

That style and intellect also impressed Dan Schatt, a senior analyst with Boston-based Celent LLC. Schatt, who met Craft in 2000, referred to Craft as a "Renaissance man" - a multifaceted person "full of talents and ideas."

"Gary had a knack for finding topics in the financial technology industry that were incredibly timely and thought-provoking - ideas no one really realized until he actually broached them. He brought a kind of a visionary approach about where financial technology was going. And he created a roadmap for many about what they needed to do to prepare."

That knack was something that never ceased to amaze Crone.

One of Craft's early industry reports, "A Tale of Two Cities: Direct Bill Presentment vs. Biller Aggregation," was "market-defining," Crone said. "Ten years later, every one of his predictions and outlines for the industry has happened - exactly the way he laid it out in the report. If you were an investor, you would have made a lot of money. If you were an entrepreneur, you would have known when to sell and when to hold, in thinking of mergers and acquisitions."

Gary had a knack for finding topics in the financial technology industry that were incredibly timely and thought-provoking - ideas that no one really realized until he actually broached them. -- Dan Schatt, Celent LLC

One company that Craft worked closely with over the years, Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign Inc., never doubted his vision. The $1.16 billion digital-commerce and communication products and services company heavily relied on Craft, said Steve Gibson, VeriSign's director of strategic development.

"Gary was able to combine deep industry knowledge with a form of calm, composed wisdom that gave us great confidence in the work that we did with him," Gibson wrote in an e-mail to ATMmarketplace.

And Glen Fossella, marketing vice president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Source Technologies, who had only recently worked with Craft during Financial DNA's unbanked conference, said Craft's brilliance was obvious.

"Gary had obviously done the grunt work in sorting out what the key issues were for potential deployers for the unbanked, as well as who the investors and vendors were for the unbanked space," Fosella said. "And he had put all the right people in the room - both public and private investors."

But beyond the boardrooms and corner offices, Craft prided himself on being a devoted family man.

"He started Financial DNA because, one, he was sick and tired of all of the regulatory burdens of being an analyst on Wall Street, and I think he wanted to do more with his kids," Coolbrith said. "He drove them to and picked them up from school every day."

For a man who had career opportunities that could have taken him around the world, Craft instead chose to stick close to home, Schatt added. "That's one thing I really admired about Gary. What he really wanted to do most of all was to work so that his life would revolve around his family."