Jana Merfen

Jana Merfen is the current Chief Technology Officer and Managing Partner at CrossFirst Bank. Prior to this, they served as the Chief Information Officer at Dickinson Financial Corporation from April 2017 to January 2021. As the company's first externally recruited CIO, they were selected in the midst of an M&A campaign to drive transformative change across a legacy enterprise technology organization in alignment with CEO vision and growth strategy. Jana inherited and quickly evaluated the team as well as processes, technologies/systems, KPIs/metrics, and culture.

Jana identified and engaged a strategic third-party firm to lead a thorough assessment of digital platforms (card platform; online and mobile platform, and ESB driving API integration). Jana is currently leading the team in the implementation of state-of-the-art solutions. Jana has also identified and led opportunities to reframe the change management process and put a customer-focused roadmap in place. In addition, they have developed an Enterprise Project Governance Committee and associated process to ensure projects are evaluated, prioritized, approved, budgeted, and resourced to meet objectives. Furthermore, they have implemented a new Change Advisory Board, synthesizing IT and business partner interests into a holistic review process.

Ensuring the full integration of newly acquired banking operations and the associated technologies and practices has been another key focus for Jana. Jana has also assertively structured, reviewed, and negotiated multimillion-dollar contracts and ensured compliance with contract terms. In addition to their responsibilities at CrossFirst Bank, Jana attends 10-15 Gartner analyst calls quarterly as well as annual conference to maintain industry, technology, and leadership insights. Jana also attends monthly CIO Exchange meetings to learn about and discuss relevant topics with other Kansas City CIOs. Under their leadership, the IT organization has been positioned as a strategic partner in company growth, focusing on process design/re-engineering, improved technology functionality, SLA delivery, customer service call volumes, and account open times.

Jana Merfen graduated from Miami University with a degree in accounting.

Their manager is Mike Maddox, President & CEO, Managing Partner. They are on a team with Tom Robinson - Executive Director, Risk & Credit, Managing Partner, Randy Rapp - Chief Risk & Chief Credit Officer, Managing Partner, and Steve Foskin - President, Oklahoma City and Managing Partner.