Mr. Matthew Friesen reports

OCAL FINANCIAL APPOINTS RYAN MCDONALD AS VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES

Ocal Financial Inc. has appointed Ryan McDonald as vice-president of sales. Mr. McDonald brings more than 25 years of leadership experience across automotive, recreational vehicle, marine, power sports and industrial distribution businesses to the role.

Over his career, Mr. McDonald has led organizations with responsibility for up to $50-million in annual revenue, $15-million in inventory, teams of up to 55 people and multilocation operations. He has held general manager and senior operating roles at Western Canadian dealership and distribution businesses including Applewood Performance Centre, Genesis Vancouver and Boundary Hyundai, Fraserway RV, Galaxy RV, and Go RV & Marine, where he was repeatedly brought in to strengthen leadership, introduce performance reporting and improve accountability and operating discipline.

Several parts of his background map directly onto how Ocal operates. He has consolidated multilocation dealership operations onto a single CRM (customer relationship management) platform, which fits the systematized, data-driven model Ocal is built around, and he has direct experience in specialty and subprime automotive finance, having worked on lender relationships and financing for credit-challenged customers. That aligns closely with Ocal's approval-first model and its focus on serving capable borrowers that traditional dealership submissions often turn away.

As vice-president of sales, Mr. McDonald will lead Ocal's sales organization, with responsibility for sales performance, process and team development as the company grows its financed-deal volume and prepares to enter new markets. Growing across British Columbia and Alberta and then into Ontario and beyond takes more than technology and lender relationships; it takes disciplined sales execution, and Mr. McDonald's record of standardizing operations across multiple locations and building teams that last is directly relevant to that stage.

"Ryan has spent his career building disciplined, accountable sales operations across multilocation automotive and retail businesses, and he understands the finance side of this industry, including the non-prime customer, from the inside," said Mehdi Moghareh, chief executive officer of Ocal. "That combination is exactly what we need as we scale."

"Ocal is building something the traditional dealership model has not, and an approval-first, technology-driven approach is where this industry is heading," said Mr. McDonald, vice-president of sales of Ocal. "I am glad to join the team and help build a sales organization that can grow with the company across markets."

About Ocal Financial Inc.

Ocal Financial is an asset-light, AI-native (artificial intelligence) virtual automotive dealership and vehicle-finance platform. Operating remotely and licensed in British Columbia and Alberta, Ocal moves customers from application to approval, vehicle matching, digital contracting and delivery in a single workflow. Rather than carrying owned inventory, Ocal sources each vehicle only after a customer is approved, drawing on the Openlane auction network and select partners. Ocal earns revenue from vehicle sales and related finance and protection products and does not hold consumer loans or assume credit-default risk. Its technology stack, which includes workflow orchestration, a lender-routing credit-intelligence system, voice AI and a centralized business-intelligence system, is built specifically for automotive transactions.

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