Pondera President Takes New Role with Thomson Reuters

When Pondera Solutions was acquired last month by business intelligence and media corporation Thomson Reuters, it made national news. Pondera, founded by Jon Coss in 2011, has made a name for itself through the innovative use of machine learning in predicting and detecting waste, fraud and abuse in programs such as Medicaid, unemployment benefits, taxes and food aid.

In California, the Folsom-based company has contracts with, among others, the state Department of Social Services and the Department of Health Care Services. Those contracts will continue, Coss told Techwire in an interview last week. The company's core products include FraudCaster, CaseTracker and DataResolver.

One significant change has been the role of Pondera President Greg Loos, who is shifting to the role of Vice President of Sales for Thomson Reuters as a result of the acquisition. Before joining Pondera in 2017, Loos spent 23 years in senior management at Oracle Corp. including roles in sales, finance and customer support. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University and graduated from the Stanford Executive Program in 2010.

In an email interview this week with Techwire, Loos talked about his new role, the new structure of Pondera, and what changes, if any, the state’s chief information officers who do business with Pondera or Thomson Reuters should anticipate. Herewith is the transcript of that interview, edited lightly for style and brevity.

Techwire: You’ve gone from the role of president of Pondera to a key VP role with Thomson Reuters. Without getting too deep in the weeds, how will your job change?

Loos: Not a lot will change for me in the immediate future, other than I hope to offer our solutions to a broader audience. My new role will be to focus primarily on driving growth for the Government division at Thomson Reuters. I also plan to leverage Thomson Reuters’ existing investigative solutions for our fraud detection platform in order to bring additional value to our customers.

Techwire: Will you relocate? Whom will you report to in your new role?

Loos: I will continue to be based in Sacramento and will report to Jon Coss. I do expect to travel to Washington, D.C., a fair amount as we continue to focus on fighting fraud in federally funded benefit programs. 

Techwire: Will the structure of Pondera change so that a president is no longer part of the executive team? Or will the company find a successor for your role?  

Loos: The overall structure of Pondera will not change, but the role of president is no longer necessary. Thomson Reuters has around 25,000 employees and over $5 billion in annual revenue. My new title is VP of Sales. Jon will continue to lead the Pondera executive team, of which I’m a part. He now reports to the president of Thomson Reuters Government division, Steve Rubley. Steve has already given us a tremendous amount of resource support since the announcement. The combined team gives an opportunity to bring not only more value to our existing clients, but to grow our customer base. Thomson Reuters made it clear they wanted to keep our core executive team in place with the acquisition to build on the success that we have had. 

Techwire: Are you aware of any other restructuring coming within Pondera as a result of the acquisition by TR?  

Loos: We view it as realigning around each other’s strengths. For instance, we plan to leverage Thomson Reuters data solutions, subject matter expertise, legal research and customer success, all of which brings more value to our clients.    

Techwire: Will Pondera still have a Board of Directors? 

Loos: Pondera will no longer have an independent Board of Directors, as we are now 100% owned by Thomson Reuters.

Techwire: What’s your general feeling about the acquisition?

Loos: I’m really excited. Our companies have an excellent functional fit, especially where we combine Thomson Reuters’ investigative solutions with Pondera’s fraud and case tracking platform, making us an industry leader in the space. More importantly, our cultures are aligned around protecting government programs, and we are already hitting the ground running.

Techwire: Will the acquisition of Pondera affect the way TR does business with state and local government in California? 

Loos: The acquisition should only have a positive effect on state and local government in California. As our services are complementary, this will certainly bring more value to Pondera’s California customer base and expand the footprint of Thomson Reuters.

Techwire: Do you expect/hope to expand your government business as a result of the acquisition and your move?  

Loos: Yes. We expect to grow the government business as a result of the acquisition, and my role will be focused on just that.

Techwire: What should state and local CIOs expect? 

Loos: CIOs can expect a more complete offering. We will be able to offer robust online investigation and fraud detection solutions as one integrated suite. Thomson Reuters will continue to offer stand-alone investigative solutions to the market, but we plan to offer Thomson Reuters CLEAR to all of our current and future customers.