Celebrating Vicki Turjan: 2025 Home Furnishings 500 Captain of Consumer Finance

It would be hard to spend much time in the home furnishings industry over the past two decades without crossing paths with Vicki Turjan. During that time, she has built relationships with retailers, lending partners and industry leaders across the country while helping guide Versatile through more than 20 years of growth, change and innovation.

But anybody who has had the opportunity to sit down with Vicki and talk about their business, or work alongside her, knows what distinguishes her isn’t simply how long she has been doing it. It’s how she does it.

Vicki listens. She asks questions. She takes the time to understand what is happening inside a business and what its people are trying to accomplish.  And she approaches those conversations with a fundamental belief that the strongest partnerships are the ones in which everyone has an opportunity to succeed.

It is an approach that has helped defined both her career and Versatile.

“Vicki has built a career by forging meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships as a true partner.  She is relentless in identifying opportunities to help drive growth for partners based upon her core belief that driving profitable growth for others will come back to Versatile.  Her integrity, passion, and sense of humor have allowed her to navigate through all business cycles and challenges.  She is the very definition of a true partner.”

Ed O’Donnell
CEO

Leadership That Shapes a Company

The relationships Vicki has built outside Versatile tell only part of the story.

Inside the company, her influence can be seen in the culture she has helped create: one where people are encouraged to listen, challenge assumptions, bring forward ideas and continually look for better ways to serve the businesses that rely on Versatile.

For Vicki, innovation has never simply meant introducing new technology. It starts with understanding the people who will ultimately use it and the problems they are trying to solve.

That philosophy has shaped Versatile as much as any individual product or technology.

“Put plainly, Vicki is the heartbeat of Versatile. Her actions set the tone for the Company, and she truly leads with compassion and care for the individuals that make up Versatile. Her work and leadership over the years have made Versatile the company it is today.” 

Brendan Buisch
VP, Human Resources

That culture of listening extends beyond Versatile’s walls. Feedback from merchants, lending partners, consumers and employees has continually informed how the company thinks about financing technology and the role it can play in creating a better experience.

At the center of that approach is a simple idea: progress doesn’t need to come at someone else’s expense.

“Vicki’s leadership has been instrumental in shaping Versatile into the company it is today.  She leads with integrity, curiosity, and a genuine care for our customers, partners, and employees.  She is always listening, asking questions, and empowering people to turn what they learn into something better.  She has fostered a culture of innovation built around the belief our industry isn’t a zero-sum game. When we create better outcomes and wins for consumers, merchants, and our lending partners, Versatile succeeds along with them.  That philosophy has helped bring us where we are today and continues to shape where we are going.”

Sam Miller
VP, Marketing

Relationships Built to Last

Perhaps the clearest measure of that philosophy is the relationships themselves.

Many of the retailers and partners Vicki works with today are relationships that have been built over years and, in some cases, decades. They have endured changing economic environments, evolving consumer expectations and dramatic changes in the technology retailers use to serve their customers.

Through all of it, Vicki has remained focused on understanding what partners need today while continually asking what they may need tomorrow.

It’s an approach that has earned her trust of partners across the industry, sometimes long before they ever had the opportunity to work alongside her.

“For more than 20 years, Vicki has been the heart and backbone of Versatile Credit. Her ability to truly listen to retailers, understand the challenges and turn those insights into a technology solution that helps merchants succeed and creates a better experience for their customers is what makes Vicki an influential leader in our industry. But what sets Vicki apart even more is how deeply she cares about her people. She is always willing to go to bat for her employees, her partners and the relationships entrusted to her.

“Long before I joined Versatile, I referred various merchants to Versatile because I knew Vicki and team would take care of those relationships. Having the opportunity now to work alongside Vicki and witness firsthand the professionalism, passion, and compassion she brings every day has been a true honor.”

Scott Friss
VP, Business Development

“Vicki brings extensive knowledge of the financing industry and the environments we support. She brings thoughtful considerations to the challenges facing our merchants and lenders and helps bring clarity to where we can add value. What stands out most, though, is how she leads— with empathy, intelligence, and genuine care. That comes through in every partnership she builds, especially with her team. From the moment I met Vicki, I felt a deep sense of trust, which ultimately led me to join the company. She is an attentive, resilient leader who brings out the best in the people around her and someone people want to follow and work alongside.”

Stephanie Charlillo
VP, Product Utilization

More Than 20 Years of Moving the Industry Forward

The company Vicki has helped build looks very different today than it did more than two decades ago.

Versatile has grown into a leading consumer financing technology provider for the home furnishings industry, now working with more than 45% of Furniture Today’s Top 100 retailers and helping merchants provide financing options to more customers wherever and however their buying decisions are made.

Technology has changed. Consumer expectations have changed. The ways retailers sell and customers shop have changed.

What has remained remarkably consistent is the philosophy behind how Vicki approaches the business: listen first, build together and create opportunities for everyone to succeed.

Furniture Today describes the Home Furnishings 500 as recognizing the leaders, innovators and trailblazers shaping the home furnishings industry. For those who have worked with Vicki, partnered with her or simply had the opportunity to sit across the table from her and talk about their business, it is difficult to imagine a more fitting recognition.

Congratulations, Vicki, on being named a 2026 Home Furnishings 500 Captain of Consumer Finance.