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More
on Orix---And is Jay Holmes Now Gone? Leasing News published
that Orix USA was floundering, and it was rumored that
the president and chief executive officer, Jay Holmes, was on
his way out. Several readers
on Thursday sent us e-mail that Holmes was no longer with Orix , specifically that he was “let
go.” The Orix PR Department would not confirm nor deny it, and others
contacted said, “No comment.” http://www.leasingnews.org/Conscious-Top%20Stories/Orix.htm Jay Holmes Chairman,
President and Chief Executive Officer, Holmes was appointed president and chief executive
officer on June 19,2000. He succeeded John Moss, who served in these
positions on an interim basis after. Philip Cooper retired from ORIX
CREDIT ALLIANCE in March 2000. The press release
at the time stated, "In his new role, Mr. Holmes will oversee all
ORIX CREDIT ALLIANCE interests. Mr.
Holmes joined ORIX CREDIT ALLIANCE after nearly two years as President
& CEO of Transamerica Equipment Financial Services, a Chicago based
provider of equipment financing and leasing for middle-market companies
in the United States and selected foreign countries. He previously held
senior positions in Heller Financial, Inc., Chrysler Capital Corporation,
Citicorp Industrial Credit and Westinghouse Credit Corporation.
He has 28 years of commercial finance experience. "Regarding Mr.
Holmes' appointment, John Moss, President and CEO of ORIX USA, said,'This
is a tremendous step for ORIX CREDIT ALLIANCE.
Jay's extensive knowledge of the equipment finance industry will
be an invaluable asset to OCAI, who already has a strong foothold in
this market. I am confident that he will provide the leadership and
innovative approach to further improve OCAI's position in their core
market, as well as diversify them into new strategic segments.'" He then preceded
to move into the “Perfect Storm” as evidenced by the Leasing News list: http://www.leasingnews.org/list_alpha_new.htm Readers have been
commenting about the steerage of the ship under Holmes’ helm, and here are two
more, one from Steve Geller and the other from Mike Pilla: “Kit: I have read,
with interest, your report and elicited comments about ORIX. I must add my views at this time. I was a loyal employee at ORIX Credit Alliance from
1989 to 2001, eleven plus years. When
I was told that the company
was no longer interested in the brokerage business that I was empowered to
bring in and that my services were not warranted and that I should leave
the building as soon as possible so as not to "upset"
the other employees. I was hurt very badly.
Although an officer of the company, I
was treated like a common criminal.
This contrasts sharply with my leaving
Tilden Financial in 1989 to take the ORIX job in Orangeburg with Bob
Salge. I gave two weeks notice
to my old friend George Berenz and
he "forced" me to stay the entire two weeks and review and approve deals
up until the very last day. I
did not take any company secrets,
nor did I take advantage of my imminent departure by using standards any
less than I used throughout my long Tilden tenure. If I take any satisfaction,
at all, for the ORIX problems today, it is due to those events. “When Jay Holmes
came to ORIX and announced the "bigger, better, higher" policy referred to
by the writer in Wednesdays Leasing News I knew that it was only a matter
of time before the entire company, as we knew it, would implode and
it seemed that whatever we did would never be good enough for Mr. Holmes
and his associates. No one from
the new regime ever discussed my
operation with me and the nature of the business that I was doing and whether
it could fit into the new ORIX model.
I believe that I had some valuable
insights into the business that could have been used by the company. They chose to "throw the baby out with
the bath water." That was their prerogative. “I came to ORIX long
after the Palitzes were gone and after Financial Federal was well-established.
I do not think the Palitzes had anything to do with the problems
of the late 1990's and subsequent years, at least a full decade
plus later than their departure. “I was proud of my
time at ORIX, and despite a few things that I would have done differently,
I represented the company in a positive fashion. Reflecting on the
old ORIX, I look back and see that what was extolled as the company's
strength also attributed to its downfall.
Most of the management team were
lifelong employees of the company dating back to the Credit Alliance
Corp./ Leasing Services days from the 1970's and 80's. The average branch manager was an employee who
had been with the company at least
15 years, and there were many loyal, highly knowledgeable and
hard working individuals who supported the company throughout its life. We all felt that we were family. Even when I
hit my tenth anniversary
with the company, I was still a short timer. “Do I know the reasons
the company did not succeed? I can only speculate that it was high interest
expense, heavy occupancy costs and a drive to put on volume that got
away from top management. We
never had a chance to see the change through.
Those secrets will never be known! “ Steven B. Geller,
CLP Leasing Solutions
LLC 20 Dike Drive, Wesley
Hills, New York 10952 (845) 362-6106 fax (845) 354-2803 cell (914) 552-0842 sgeller@leasingsolutionsllc.com -- “I worked for Credit
Alliance, First Interstate Credit Alliance, Orix Credit Alliance and Orix
Financial Services. I happened
to be in the NYC office the day that Cal and Bernard got their first payment from First
Interstate and Cal bought Neil Reeder
and myself lunch. Cal showed
us the check and trust me, it had a lot of zero's
on the back end. “I believe that FI
bought in late "84 and Orix bought in "89.
I agree with the other x-employees
that the Palitz Bros. were long gone and Cal had founded Fin-Fed at some time. I agree that it was
extremely difficult to get a deal done longer that 60 months, it did happen
but not to often. Regardless,
those deals were long gone, either retired
by the customer or paid off by a competitor. “The problems with
Orix were not discussed with the troops in the field, so everything would
be 3rd party and speculative. New
management, (Holmes) blamed everything
on old management (Phil and Sandy).
For almost 40 years, things were done
in a very professional manor and customer service from Emeryville and then
Walnut Creek was held in the best of tradition.
We always had repeat
business and lots of it. “Holmes downsized
into 7 offices, which was probably a necessary step and was done by several competitors
previously. We had to report
to Pasadena. Our customers suffered
greatly with this change because of poor customer service and our turn-a-round
on new deals went from 24/48 hours up to 10 days. (NO JOKE). This was typical in speaking to other marketing
people in other consolidated branches.
“Most people saw
the handwriting on the wall and a lot of good people left. I worked with some
of the best people in the business and we did a lot of business. We looked for ways to do deals instead of looking
for ways to decline they. “I'd like to see
the exit package that Holmes has and for all of his "buddies" that he brought into
the company and made the Senior Vice Presidents" Hell, they have all "chiefs"
and no "Indians" in my opinion.
I heard Holmes had a 3 year deal, sink or
swim. It is about that time for the life boat to pull away. He, in my opinion, tried to make Orix a "Transamerica"
or "Heller Capital". He could not see the forest through the trees. Orix did not have that type of clientele
or reputation. Sometimes the "fix" is worse that the ‘problem’. “Who is to blame
for the Orix problems? Flip a
coin. All that I know is that I had a great
time, booked a lot of deals, made good money, had a good customer base and
worked with a lot of good people and all of that is yesterdays news. “I heard that it
was a poor credit portfolio that was the problem. So what do you do, get rid of
the sales people and keep the same credit people on staff. “With all of my years
with the company, I never had lending authority so lay off the sales people!!!!
That will correct everything!!!!!!!!!!!!” Mike Pilla Sacramento, CA
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