Brandon Roberts, Ph.D.
Founder, President & CEO
Brandon A. Roberts founded Premier Insights in 1995 and continues to serve as president and principal of Premier Insights and Radiant Lending Technologies, LLC. Serving the financial industry since 1995, today the firm is an agile, boutique consulting and technology firm providing risk assessment and mitigation strategies and profitability enhancements through analysis and technology solutions with respect to fair lending, pricing, and credit risk.
With a solid track record in the financial and regulatory space, the company’s success has been driven by expertise, the ability to tailor solutions specifically to, and stay ahead of, client needs and expectations, and a client-centered, relationship-oriented approach.
Brandon has been published in scientific journals such as Review of Policy Research, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Health Economics, and Urban Studies. Additionally, he has had articles published in three different books: Public Policy Research Trends, Health Care: Causes, Effects, and Controls, and Regional Economics. Brandon has also written articles for trade and professional publications such as the Mississippi Banker, the Mississippi Business Journal, the Memphis Business Journal, The Review of Banking and Financial Services and is often cited as a source for banking related news in various print media.
Brandon has served as part of the Adjunct Faculty at Mississippi College and holds a Masters Degree in Applied Sociology from Mississippi College and a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Economy from the University of Texas.
John DeLancey
Chief Technology Officer &
Vice President of Engineering
John DeLancey formally joined Premier Insights and Radiant Lending in January 2021, although he had been working with them for many years in his role as owner of White Raven Technology LLC. His addition was the result of a strategic merger among the entities. Through White Raven, a software development firm specializing in custom application development, cloud computing, and digital management and marketing technologies, John had long served as Senior Developer for Radiant, the software and technology subsidiary of Premier Insights.
Formerly an officer in the United States Air Force, John leverages more than two decades of experience learning, implementing, and evolving with technology to enhance the Radiant brand as well as integrate technology solutions into analysis provided by Premier Insights. His software development expertise spans distributed and cloud-based systems, blockchain-backed asset tracking & credential management solutions, in addition to many other well established and budding new technologies.
His focus for Radiant includes improved analytical and reporting capabilities for the vast trove of data the software makes available to customers as well as active monitoring of data trends, peer data, credit loss risk evaluations, forecasting and much more. Of special focus is integrating machine learning technology into areas such as underwriting and fair lending trend projection, enhanced mortgage origination, and commercial loan origination.
Brandon Bolen, Ph.D.
Chief Analytics Officer, Fair Lending and Econometrics
Brandon Bolen joined Premier Insights in 2018 after completing his Ph.D. in Economics from Mississippi State University. He is an applied microeconomist who specializes in fair lending and econometrics as well as consumer credit policy and risk. In his role with Premier, he designs and implements analytics for fair lending monitoring that mitigate risks, and he assists institutions with navigating regulatory examinations and inquiries from both regulatory and enforcement agencies.
Dr. Bolen is published in academic journals, including Economic Inquiry, Southern Economic Journal, Public Choice, Kyklos, the Journal of Institutional Economics, and the Journal of Sports Economics. He received the Pittman Young Faculty of the Year Award at Mississippi College in 2020 where he also serves as an economics faculty member.
Brandon also works with the Mississippi Council on Economic Education to promote economic and financial literacy in Mississippi. As an undergraduate, Brandon played basketball at Mississippi State University from 2007-2011 where he was named to the Southeastern Conference Men’s Basketball Community Service Team (2011) and the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll (2007-2011).
Darrin Webb, Ph.D.
Senior Economist, Macroeconomics & Forecasting
Premier Insights is pleased to have Darrin Webb, the former State Economist for the state of Mississippi, as a key member of our analytical team.
As State Economist and Director of the University Research Center for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, Dr. Webb’s primary focus was revenue forecasting, upon which all state budgeting and funds allocations were based. He also oversaw all research projects conducted by the University Research Center. As such, his work has appeared in numerous journals, and he has become a recognized expert in macroeconomics, forecasting, and the accurate measurement of the dramatic impact that economic forces and financial conditions have on businesses and consumers alike. In addition, his experience has given him a keen understanding of state economies in the U.S., particularly in Mississippi and surrounding states.
Darrin joined Premier Insights in 2020, and has enabled the company to expand its approach to address more comprehensively and precisely the qualitative component of CECL, and will continue to do so as financial industries evolve and the U.S. economy continues to grow and change.
Prior to being named State Economist, Darrin began his professional career as Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics for the Department of Agriculture at Northeast Louisiana University. He went on to join the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning as a Senior Economist.
Dr. Webb earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Agribusiness and Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics from Mississippi State University, and his Doctorate Degree in Applied Economics from Clemson University.
