About us

About Strum Platform

Strum Platform's leadership has helped financial institutions adapt their growth strategies and accelerate performance for over 30 years.

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Our mission

To unlock the potential for data to predict people’s unique life needs and challenges, then deliver highly-personalized solutions that improve lives - across all generations.

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Our founding story

Strum Platform emerged from Strum, a national marketing agency with 30 years advising credit unions and community banks.

Collaborating with financial leaders led us to a critical insight: the best strategies and marketing results came from rich, actionable customer data. But leaders struggled to implement their data effectively. So we set out to create the solution—a single platform to unlock customer insights, enhance experiences, enable personalization, and drive measurable marketing growth.

Welcome to Strum Platform™, the future of personalized financial services marketing.

Strum Platform's founding story

Leadership

Mark Weber

Ben Stangland

Ben Stangland

President

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Lee Allen
COO

Lee Allen

COO

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Bill Hasapidis
Director of Data Analytics

Bill Hasapidis

Director of Data Analytics

Zakir Hossain
Director of Development

Zakir Hossain

Director of Development

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Rachel Jarvinen

Director of Product Management

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Kristine

Kristine Ziccardi

VP of Professional Services

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Laurie Flanders
VP of Client Solutions

Laurie Flanders

SVP of Client Experience & Growth

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Jae Lee
Director of Client Solutions

Jae Lee

VP of Product Operations

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Debb

Debb Westergren

VP of Professional Services

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Katie

Katie Petschke

Director of Product & Professional Services

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Quick answers to your important questions

How do you connect brand strategy, media, and campaigns into one cohesive plan?

An effective marketing plan starts with a clear business objective and defined audience insights. Marketing strategy sets the direction, creative strategy shapes the message and identity, and media strategy ensures precise audience delivery. Alignment across all three ensures consistency, relevance, and impact. Without this cohesion, efforts become fragmented and less effective. Strum collaborates with our clients to align these strategies to boost performance.

How do you know which channels will perform best for our audience?

Strum utilizes a variety of data sets to define high-impact strategies, including sources such as first-party client data, audience segmentation insights, market research, competitor insights and target audience channel preferences. We test audience response, engagement and acquisition and continuously optimize the campaign for high-impact performance and conversions.

What types of campaigns are most effective — brand or product?

Both can be effective depending on the goal. Brand campaigns build long-term awareness, interest and trust, while product campaigns drive immediate sales or conversions. The best choice depends on whether the focus is acquisition growth, market recognition, or short-term sales performance. At the onset of campaign planning, Strum collaborates with its clients to define a clear set of goals, KPIs and objectives.

Read Our Latest Blogs

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May 5, 2026
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5 mins

3 Leadership Habits that Drive Consistent Growth in Credit Unions

3 leadership habits credit unions can use to turn data into action, align teams, and drive consistent, meaningful growth

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April 14, 2026
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3 min read

Strum Platform™ and FinGoal Partner to Deliver Deeper Member Personalization for Credit Unions and Banks

FinGoal integrates with Strum Platform to deliver personalized transaction insights, helping financial institutions activate deeper member intelligence at scale.

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January 30, 2026
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3 min read

Speed Wins. Even in Banking.

Banking’s edge is speed. Institutions that win turn widely available data signals into automated action fastest, closing the gap between insight and execution.

Want to learn more?

"My 15 years of leading financial institutions gave me a deep understanding of what data teams need to be successful. I believe Strum Platform is the future."
- Laurie Flanders, SVP of Client Experience & Growth at Strum Platform