5 questions with … CEO Mary Leigh Phillips of DriveTime, Bridgecrest

Retailer DriveTime ’s New Year’s resolution is double-digit growth across its family of companies under the stewardship of Mary Leigh Phillips , who was named chief executive in June. [caption id="attachment_58357786" align="alignleft" width="124"] Mary Leigh Phillips[/caption] The push for growth is spread across the Tempe, Ariz.-based companies, which include: Auto lender and loan servicer Bridgecrest , which lends $3 billion annually and holds a total service portfolio of $27 billion; Retailer DriveTime, which sold around 130,000 cars in 2024 and has 150 locations; Ancillary product provider SilverRock ; and Indirect lender GoFi , which originated more than $300 million in 2025. DriveTime issued more than $2.2 billion in asset-backed securitization transactions in 2025, including a $553 million subprime deal on Oct. 15, according to CreditFlow , which tracks securities. Bridgecrest provides financing and servicing for vehicles sold by DriveTime along with third-party servicing for companies including Carvana . Phillips has been with DriveTime and Bridgecrest for more than seven years, starting as chief financial officer for both companies in 2018. She previously served as a director over consumer finance, ABS and lending for more than a decade at Wells Fargo . AFN sat down with Phillips to discuss DriveTime’s goals and her leadership advice. What follows is an edited version of the conversation. Auto Finance News : How would you summarize your goals across the Drivetime family of companies for 2026? Mary Leigh Phillips : We have double-digit growth projected for all our businesses, and that is really a primary focus for us as we head into 2026. To really execute that growth, it’s going to require intense focus on our team and execution to deliver that. It provides a great opportunity for everyone on our team to continue to grow in their careers as we think about the focus that it will take to execute that. The theme for us as we look to next year is growth and how we continue to execute excellently to support that. AFN : What industry trend are you following closely right now? MLP : This feels like a “gimme.” It has got to be AI, right? We continue to watch what is happening in the technology space … but over the last year or two, the evolution of automation, what’s possible with AI, is astounding, and absolutely it is going to change the way we do business. When we think about it here, we think about it not just from the standpoint of the efficiency that it will create, which is important … but we also think a lot about the effectiveness that it creates for us. As we’re trying to deliver excellent customer experience, the consistency that you get when you use technology, the ability for us to deliver customer experiences outside of typical working hours or on channels that customers want to use, perhaps digitally, that are more difficult to staff around, we think there’s a huge benefit for us. Not just from an efficiency standpoint, but also in how we seek to deliver a high-quality customer experience. AFN : What is the most underrated lending or strategy trend? MLP : This is so underrated I’m not sure you can even call it a trend, but the most underrated trend is discipline. Discipline really is critical, and for me that means staying grounded. It means not chasing whatever the shiny ball is. In our business, that’s looked like a lot of different things, as people have pursued growth or different capital structures, but it’s important to stay disciplined, to work on fewer things and to do them well. AFN : Who has had the biggest influence on your career? MLP : I have been very fortunate to have a lot of people influence my career … but the biggest influence on my career has been my family and friends. My family and friends have kept me grounded. They give me honest feedback — sometimes that I don’t always want to hear — and that’s the best kind of feedback. That’s the kind of feedback that you can grow the most from. They forced me to take a step back. I’ve got two young kids, and they force me to disconnect at times, which frankly, is very healthy from a reflection standpoint. They also support me in every way, whether that be moving across the country, with travel that I have with our team, as a sounding board when things are going well or things are not going well. I have been really fortunate to have great family and friends. AFN : What is your favorite piece of leadership advice you have received? MLP : Be yourself, authentically, be who you are. Ultimately, if it’s not authentic to how you lead, it’s not going to feel authentic to the rest of the team. It’s going to be less effective. One of the styles that really stands out to me … is called “Hug them and hold them.” You want to build authentic relationships with the people that are on your team, set extremely high standards for them and then hold them accountable. Give them direct feedback to hold them accountable to those standards. You are going to give them honest feedback with no BS, and you’re going to love them as much as you possibly can. If you can put those two things together, then you can create a foundation of trust for the entire team to be not only who they are, but to push each other to be better every day.

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5 questions with … CEO Mary Leigh Phillips of DriveTime, Bridgecrest

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