Growing up in Dayton, Tennessee, Tony Hollin began his career making loans as a commercial lender for the former Rhea County National Bank while volunteering in a number of local service and recreational clubs.
"I loved it, and my career goal at that time was to be a community banker helping Rhea County to grow," Hollin recalled Wednesday in a telephone interview.
But after talking with his mother, who worked in financial aid at Bryan College, the young banker discovered an opportunity to help both colleges and students with federally-backed student loans. So, Hollin left his hometown 35 years ago to start the student loan processing business Edfinancial Services in West Knoxville. As chair and CEO of Edfinancial, Hollin has built the business into one of the largest government contractors handling requests for information and applications for loans anywhere in the country.
The company has more than tripled its staff in less than two years, growing from 386 employees in October 2021 to more than 1,100 workers today. But Hollin said he is eagerly hiring more workers and hopes to soon expand the staff to reach anywhere from 1,600 up to 1,800 employees.
After expanding to other satellite offices, Hollin is returning to his hometown to open the newest Edfinancial call center and back office operations. Hollin is buying the former bank building where he once worked at 1271 Market St. in downtown Dayton from its current owner, Simply Bank, to open a new office to help hire 150 employees in the Dayton area.
"I want to give back to the community where I grew up," Hollin said.
About 75 employees will work in the downtown Dayton office, and an equal number will likely work remotely in the area once they undergo training in the office, Hollin said. The employees will be paid an average annual compensation of $42,500, which is above the median pay level in Rhea County, according to U.S. census data.
With increased staffing needs and unemployment near historic lows in Knoxville, Hollin said he reached out to rural areas with higher jobless rates to try to fill job vacancies a few years ago and soon added 25 workers in Rhea, Meigs and Bledsoe counties and surrounding areas where unemployment was still above most areas. With most of the staff working remotely, Edfinancial was initially able to hire the new workers without any brick-and-mortar presence in Southeast Tennessee.
"My operations manager came to me in April and said the staff hired in Rhea County had very low attrition rates and were some of the best performers," Hollin said. "He told me I need more people from Rhea County."
Edfinancial has emerged as one of only a handful of student loan processors and customer service companies with contracts to handle government student loans. The Knoxville-based company provides a variety of assistance programs and loan processing services for the federal government, which has cut in half the number of such contractors it uses to help with student loan information and financial assistance qualification. As one of only a handful of government contractors handling such services, Edfinancil provides both back office support and customer service assistance for federal student loans.
Edfinancial handles about a fourth of all assistance calls for people seeking help in filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid applications, Hollin said.
Through its Edamerica subsidiary, Edfinancial Services also operates default management services for more than 100 colleges and universities across the nation.
With the pandemic-related moratorium on federal student loan payments to be lifted this fall, Hollin said he is trying to prepare for an influx of requests for help and new loan requests from new and existing borrowers.
"We expect to see a tsunami of calls," he said. "Two years ago, nearly all of our employees were at our West Knoxville headquarters, but we are expanding our staff at several locations."
Edfinancial Services has grown to handle more than 5.5 million accounts, Hollin said.
Edfinancial opened its first branch office in Montgomery, Alabama, and then took over a small business in El Paso, Texas, to help with its bilingual staff and then, as other companies exited the business, Edfinancial added staff and offices in Concord, New Hampshire, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Hollin said he hopes to have the new Dayton office ready for use next month.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.