From his business life to his community life, Max Haynes remains committed to education, finance and technology.

Max currently serves as founder and Chief Executive Officer of Customer Engagement Technologies focused on efficiency and financial literacy for underbanked customers. As CEO and strategy leader for the company, Max is responsible for driving solutions to serve the underbanked market.  

Max also currently serves as the Director of Private Lending for Alpen Mortgage, the largest private lender in Northern Nevada. For over 20 years, Max has helped finance the development and construction of numerous commercial projects and thousands of housing units in the region.

An aggressive innovator, Max has spent more than two decades disrupting traditional financial models in the lending, real estate, banking and private finance sectors. Prior to founding Customer Engagement Technologies, Max invested years in the private mortgage arena while also consulting for numerous players in the U.S. banking industry, including Citibank. His work with both national and regional banks opened his eyes to the limits of traditional banking and its profound effect on the underserved.

Max has a deep understanding of commercial real estate, construction and mortgage lending. He helped provide private construction financing in Nevada at a time when no banks would consider lending. He also led American business delegations to Russia, China and Japan to assist in the development of creative strategies for both finance and technology companies.

A successful serial entrepreneur, Max was an early member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and has been a major speaker at conferences hosted by EO, as well as the Young Presidents’ Organization. Max has spoken on the topics of entrepreneurship and innovation at more than 50 universities in the United States, Canada and Mexico and has been featured as a thought leader in numerous television, radio and print interviews. Max’s natural aptitude for innovation led to his active involvement on a number of national advisory boards—including the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce—and as Executive Director of the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs.

Before entrepreneurship was mainstream, Max attended the University of Southern California’s Entrepreneurship Program and later championed the concepts of new enterprise at universities across the globe. He has led educational conventions with globally-recognized entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Ted Turner and Mark Cuban, to inspire young entrepreneurs and to elicit that same passion for disruption in the younger generation.

Besides his business interests, Max is actively involved in his community in Reno, Nevada and is committed to helping youth gain a better education with special emphasis on technology.  Max serves on the City of Reno Mayor’s Housing Taskforce helping streamline the development and entitlement process for the fast growing region. He has two school aged children who are committed to a Montessori education. He has spent many years studying Montessori and alternative education methods. He currently is the Vice Chair of High Desert Montessori Charter School.  Max believes in teaching children to be more independent, self-driven and creative in their educational lives. He strongly supports private and charter schools and believes that parental involvement is the key to a child’s success.