Leadership
Leadership at Class Action Refund has a distinct way of analyzing the constantly changing landscape of claims management with a systematic method that harvests the best ideas in yielding the most innovative approach to claims management. Our executive team brings a combined knowledge of more than 100 years of industry experience in providing long-term value for our clients.
Richard DelGatto - Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Richard DelGatto is Chief Executive Officer and founder of Class Action Refund. Mr. DelGatto created the concept of the company when his business clients were affected by a class-action lawsuit in 2002 and he endeavored in their best interests.
He assisted his clients in obtaining their restitution and in the process, he identified the need to more efficiently connect claimants to their class action settlements and applied his experience in assisting his clients by removing the complexities of claim filing for claimants.
His vision was to make the claims filing process more accessible to class members of the business community affected by antitrust cases. He founded Class Action Refund a year later in 2003 and is considered a pioneer in the field of Class Action Claims Management.
Edgar Catalogne - Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Edgar Catalogne is the Chief Operating Officer for Class Action Refund. He is a veteran operations executive with over 25 years of experience.
Mr. Catalogne began his career at Class Action Refund as Operations Manager in 2005 and subsequently moved to Chief Operating Officer. During his time at Class Action Refund, he conceptualized and introduced major initiatives that included strategic growth and transformational change projects that ensure long-term operational viability for the company
Mr. Catalogne has led the way in infrastructure deployment, best practices, strategic sourcing, overseeing the companies technology projects and spearheading client initiatives, which also includes enabling franchiser clients to seamlessly integrate their business models into settlement profit centers.
Rocco Salerno - General Counsel
Mr. Rocco Salerno serves as General Counsel to Class Action Refund. Mr. Salerno began providing legal advice to Class Action Refund from its inception in 2003, as outside counsel. In 2016, Mr. Salerno was asked to join the Class Action Refund in the capacity of General Counsel. Before Class Action Refund, Mr. Salerno practiced law for his NY-based law firm for 35 years serving the interests of a diverse range of clients that included individuals, businesses, and lending institutions. The primary focus of Mr. Salerno’s practice was litigation. He has advocated for his clients in arbitrations, and trials. Mr. Salerno has extensive experience in all phases of civil litigation, including trial and appellate practice. He regularly counseled businesses and individual clients in various aspects of general business, corporate, commercial matters, real estate, and antitrust matters. He has also served as counsel in the New York State Senate. Mr. Salerno graduated from Iona College, Cum Laude and attended Pace University School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctorate.
Mari Rodriguez - Managing Director
Ms. Mari Rodriguez is Managing Director of Financial Settlements & Compliance at Class Action Refund. Before joining the company, she spent more than 25 years on Wall Street. In her most recent role, she served as Director of Counterparty Relationship Management for a large NY-based alternative investment advisor that managed global macro, credit, and relative-value hedge funds. Ms. Rodriguez negotiated all the trading agreements for the funds and managed over 75 bank and broker-dealer relationships worldwide. Before that, she managed transactional agreements for over 100 hedge fund client relationships for the Lehman Brothers derivative trading desks. While at JP Morgan, she managed the derivative confirmation team for the proprietary trading desk, and at Bear Stearns, she developed transactional documentation for structured trading on the mortgage-backed derivative desk. Until that, Ms. Rodriguez oversaw the portfolio integration of derivative trading for the Deutsche Bank acquisition of Bankers Trust. At Bear Stearns, she developed documentation for structured trading on the mortgage-backed derivative desk. Before finance, Ms. Rodriguez began her career in aerospace supporting the operations process for NASA’s space shuttle program. She held various roles at EG&G and Lockheed, where she worked with the Q&A teams producing technical procedures for the space shuttle’s main engines. At Pratt & Whitney, she wrote technical orders for the U.S. Air Force for F-14, F-15, F-16 fighter jet engines, including classified procedures for the SR-71. Ms. Rodriguez holds degrees in Business and English/Technical Writing and certification in Paralegal Studies and has attended Columbia University, University of Central Florida, and Boston University.
Joseph Espaillat - Director of Strategy & Research
Mr. Joseph Espaillat is Director of Strategy & Research at Class Action Refund. Before joining the company, he spent more than a decade in the class action field both as a practicing attorney and as a settlement administrator. While working at the world’s largest claims administrator, Epiq, Mr. Espaillat managed multiple teams of attorneys in both the claims review process and payment processing. He managed a team on the largest mass tort case in history, the BP Oil Spill, which developed sophisticated models for determining actual losses for business claimants. Mr. Espaillat worked on dozens of cases for Epiq, including the largest financial antitrust case in history, the Foreign Exchange Antitrust Litigation, and the multi-billion-dollar U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund. In private practice, Mr. Espaillat worked on major antitrust cases including Netflix and Babies R Us. Until his legal career, he was an equity analyst at Value Line where he wrote published reports on the Midwestern Banking and Water Utility Industries and advised investors on which equities to purchase for their portfolios. As a mutual fund analyst, his analyses of funds and the fund’s industry were quoted in the New York Times, Bloomberg, LA Times, Better Investing Magazine, and other publications. Mr. Espaillat received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from Temple Law School, where he was a Note/Comment Editor for the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review.
Tara Del Gatto - Director of Claims Administration
Ms. Tara Del Gatto serves as Director of Claims Administration for Class Action Refund. Ms. Del Gatto began her career at the company since its inception. She began processing claims and handling all administrative tasks during the early years of Class Action Refund as an administrative manager of the company and diligently grew her career to Director of Claims Administration in 2016. Ms. Del Gatto is responsible for managing the team responsible for the day-to-day administration of all client claims within the claim lifecycle. She ensures that all procedures are met that allows Class Action Refund to expertly execute the volume of claims processed for all settlements. She is instrumental in keeping the fast workflow organized and client issues properly managed. Ms. Del Gatto also provides oversight with cross-functional teams on methodologies to enhance internal processes and serves as a senior point of contact for clients in addressing inquiries on pending claims. Her role also entails supervising the reconciliation of proceeds received from all settlements in conjunction with the Accounting Team. Ms. Del Gatto holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Pace University in Criminal Justice.
A.J. Tejeda - Director of Strategic Partnerships and Security Systems Administrator
Mr. AJ Tejeda serves as Director of Strategic Partnerships and Security Systems Administrator for Class Action Refund. Since joining the company in 2017, his role has been instrumental in ensuring Class Action Refund’s business providers and partners are properly aligned to address the company’s technological needs, which are critical to its continued growth and success. Mr. Tejeda manages external relationships to ensure they comply with Class Action Refund’s SOC 2 compliance mandate from a technological and security perspective. He also serves as the technology coordinator for various client/partner relationships. Preceding Class Action Refund, Mr. Tejeda founded Triangulum Services, LLC to help businesses assess and implement their technological needs to improve company workflow. He also served as a relationship manager for Heartland Payment Systems, where he expanded the company’s business network via strategic partnering of entrepreneurs. Mr. Tejeda provided businesses with the expertise to manage their payment systems and implement solutions for their Credit/Debit, E-Billing, and E-Commerce systems. Consequently, Mr. Tejeda has expert knowledge of how to interchange fee systems work. Mr. Tejeda is also a custom BI Software developer and Payment Software developer and attended LaGuardia Community College for Engineering.