Where is Fred Van Etten? Again!

1997 Picture of a very happy man, taken by Charlie Lester

“Fred Van Etten, Chief Executive Officer of the leasing division, has more than 25 years of experience in the commercial leasing and asset-financing marketplace. Most notably he was co-founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for First Sierra Financial, a successful company which was sold to American Express in 2001. He holds a business administration degree from Arizona State University and an MBA from Pepperdine University.”

from the press release, August, 2003

“This new division of the bank will be called SilverMark Capital™ and will provide equipment-leasing services to bank customers and to select national vendor relationships.

“Offering an in-house business equipment leasing program is a logical step in providing full-service banking to our customers,” commented Sterling Bank President and Chief Executive Officer J. Downey Bridgwater. “Our philosophy is that to be the best, you get the best people. That's why we're proud to bring aboard these four professionals. In our opinion they represent the industry's best in the field of commercial leasing services.”

“The four leasing professionals are Frederick M. Van Etten, Richard S. Andersen, Daniel L. Fritz, and Hernan R. Traversone.”

from the press release, August, 2003

Where is he today? Leasing News spoke with Van Etten's old boss, Tom Depping, who responded, “ He is not affiliated with Main Street Bank.”

Remember when Mark McQuitty was running he and Jim Raeder old company for Sierra Cities, Depping sent Van Etten in to fire him. McQuitty thought so much of Van Etten, who wrote to underwriters of the company that the direction of becoming a “dot com” was going the right way, and they should appoint Van Etten the president---that's how highly McQuitty thought of him.

March 6,2002, We asked Where was Fred Van Etten? He responded:

“Thank you and your readers for your interest in what I have been doing since I departed First Sierra/Sierracities.com.

“ As you and many of your readers may remember, The Redstone Group was the seed capital that helped us start First Sierra in 1994. Redstone which is a privately held conglomerate has ownership and investments in a myriad of different entities which included Northwest Bank and Redstone Bank, both here in Houston.

“ I joined Redstone in March of 2001 and was EVP of Business Development of Northwest Bank until we sold it to The Whitney Bank in October 0f 2001. Since then I have been working on the business development and strategic direction of Redstone Bank. We are excited about the prospects for the Bank and the Holding company and are considering several options to help it grow.

“I miss all my friends and colleagues in the Leasing business and in light of "The Perfect Storm" hitting the industry I sincerely hope that prospects are better for you all in 2002.”