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Mitek Systems Inc. announced the departure of chief executive James B. DeBello at the end of this year. The remote deposit capture provider said DeBello, who became its president and CEO in 2003 and chairman of the board in 2016, will leave Jan. 1. DeBello has served on Mitek’s board since 1994.
In related news, Jeff Davison, Mitek chief financial officer, also is leaving the company at the end of November. Mitek says Davison’s departure is for personal and family reasons and not due to any discord with the company. San Diego-based Mitek will use an executive-search firm to help fill both positions. In the meantime, Bruce Hanson, Mitek’s lead independent director, assumes the chairman role.
Under DeBello’s leadership, Mitek developed its remote deposit capture and identity-verification technology, used by more than 6,000 financial institutions and 80 million consumers worldwide. He oversaw three acquisitions and a portfolio of more than 50 patents. DeBello holds five of these patents.
One of these acquisitions happened in May when Mitek paid $49.8 million for Artificial Intelligence and Image Analysis, developer of text-recognition and imaging software.
Analyst Bob Meara praised DeBello’s work at Mitek. “In a climate where the office of the CEO is a revolving door, Mitek stands in sharp contrast,” Meara, senior analyst at Celent, tells Digital Transactions News in an email. After twenty-three years as a Mitek Director and fifteen years as its CEO, DeBello is finally moving on…DeBello couldn’t have left the once fledgling Mitek Systems in better stead.”
Notably, Meara cited Mitek’s early adoption of mobile technology when many competitors eschewed it and the company’s subsequent achievement of capturing “at least three-quarters of the North American mobile check capture market,” as evidence.
DeBello positioned Mitek’s mobile identity verification products for growth “to ensure continued revenue growth as mobile RDC reaches maturity,” Meara says. “If this were on my resume, I’d move on also.”
