New Hires/Promotions in the Leasing Business
and Related Industries

Erik Harkee was hired as Senior Vice President, 36th Street Partners, Morristown, New Jersey. He is located in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. Previously, he was Senior Vice President, Honour Capital (February, 2024 - September, 2024); Senior Vice President, Development, SLR Equipment Finance (April, 2022 - February, 2024); Senior Account Executive, Alliance Funding Group (May, 2017 - April, 2022); Account Executive, Jules and Associates (January 2016 - May, 2017). Full Bio:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-harke-57404a59/details/experience/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-harke-57404a59/

Tyler Johnson was promoted to Senior Account Executive, Reliant Capital Holding, Irvine, California. He is located in Fort Collins, Colorado. He joined the company as Sales Representative (March, 2023 - September, 2024); Service Representative, Tandem Finance (August, 2021 - March, 2023).

Kaitlyn Kasprzak was promoted to Vice President of Channel, Minnetonka, Minnesota. She is located in Provo, Utah. She joined Channel January, 2024, Strategic Account Manager. Previously, she was at Lendio, starting January, 2018, promoted Senior Account Manager (March, 2020  - January, 2024).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlyn-kasprzak-03461a195/

Michael Orlando was hired as Vice President, Venture Debt, Atel Venture, a division of ATEL Capital Group, San Francisco, California. Previously, he was AVP, Relationship Management, Bridge Bank (September, 2021 - August, 2024).Full Bio:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-orlando/details/experience/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-orlando/

Daniel Reed was hired as Relationship Manager, Ascentium Capital, Kingwood, Texas. He is located in Greater Boston. Previously, he was Relationship Manager, First Citizens Bank (December, 2022 - September, 2024. Full Bio:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-reed-a01b4054/details/experience/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-reed-a01b4054/

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M2 Equipment Finance Calls Out: "We Quit"
Doors to Close

M2 Equipment Finance, LLC, Waukesha, Wisconsin, reportedly not taking any new business but "intend to honor all approvals but will not issue any extensions or preapprovals,” according to an insider.

The company is a subsidiary of QCR Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCRH), a multi-bank holding company headquartered in Moline, Illinois, a  "boutique lender."

QCR intends to close the equipment financing subsidiary and use the savings for higher earning assets, Chief Executive Larry J. Helling stated in a company press release.

According to an insider, "The company has let the majority of their staff go and only a few to manage the remaining activity."

Founder of the company is John Engelbrech, January, 1998. His LinkedIn bio states he was Senior Vice President, M&I Leasing Corporation (1977 – 1997).
https://www.m2equipmentfinance.com/our-team

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Leasing and Finance Industry Help Wanted
Excellent Compensation/Marketing Support
Plus other openings for successful, growing funders

Self-Motivated
By Scott Wheeler, CLFP

Top originators in the commercial equipment finance and leasing industry are self-motivated. They don't wait for instructions; they go out and create opportunities every day.

The role of a company is to provide a game book (expectations, requirements, product criteria, etc.). The role of the originator is to work within the general guidelines and develop new opportunities.

Origination roles are more than a job. It requires an entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to motivate yourself on a daily basis. Top originators are more than order takers, processors, or account managers. Top originators are:

• Self-motivated to contact new prospects on a daily basis.
• Self-motivated to explore new avenues of success.
• Self-motivated to think and act outside the box.
• Self-motivated to learn about the current market, competition, and their position in the market.
• Self-motivated to focus on the positives rather than the challenges.
• Self-motivated to focus on their success.
• Self-motivated to be an industry

Scott A. Wheeler, CLFP
Wheeler Business Consulting
1314 Marquis Ct.
Fallston, Maryland 21047
Phone: 410 877 0428
Fax: 410 877 8161
Email: scott@wheelerbusinessconsulting.com
Web: www.wheelerbusinessconsulting.com
Wheeler Business Consulting is working with individual originators and sales teams throughout the industry to ensure that they are well positioned in the market, capturing their fair share of business, and outperforming the competition. To schedule a one-on-one meeting contact Scott Wheeler at: scott@wheelerbusinessconsulting.com

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Three Ways to Protect the Personal
Info on Your Cellphone

Imagine carrying a written copy of all your conversations with you everywhere you went. Or copies of your account numbers, usernames, and passwords. Or all the photos and videos you’ve ever taken. I bet you’d do just about everything in your power to protect all that valuable information. Well, your mobile phone holds all that stuff — and maybe more. Are you doing everything in your power to keep it from ending up in the wrong hands? Here are three things you can do today to protect the personal information on your phone.

1. Lock it. Keep prying eyes out of your phone by setting it to automatically lock when you’re not using it and create a PIN or pass code to unlock it. Longer pass codes are better, so use at least six digits. After you’ve set it up, you might be able to unlock your phone with your fingerprint, your face, or your iris.

2. Update it. Your operating system has security features built into it. And phone manufacturers regularly push out free updates to protect you against security threats. Set your phone to automatically update the operating system to stay up with the latest protections.

3. Back it up. The convenience and portability of our phone puts it in peril. We might break or lose it. Or an opportunistic criminal might steal it. Back up your phone to the cloud or an external drive. That way you can recover your information if something goes wrong. And turn on the feature that helps you track a lost or stolen phone – it also lets you remotely lock or erase your phone if someone steals it, or you can’t find it.

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##### Press Release #######################

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### Press Release #########################

ELFA Announces Two Free Webinars
Open to All on Marketing and Data

Washington, DC,—The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) announced two free webinars designed to give industry professionals actionable insights and cutting-edge tools to drive business growth.

Unlocking Effective Marketing Tools and Tech for Every Business Model
Monday, Sept. 16, 1-2 pm ET
Discover the latest tools and technologies to boost your marketing efforts. Elevate your impact—whatever the size of your business—and walk away with practical tools to implement today.
Presented by the ELFA Communications Committee.

Data: What Do You Have and What Can You Do With It?
Tuesday, Sept. 24, 1-2 pm ET
Learn how to harness the power of your data. Get tips on what to collect, how to organize it and how to leverage it for better decision-making and revenue generation.
Presented by the ELFA Service Provider Business Council Steering Committee.

Learn more and register at www.elfaonline.org/webinars.

About ELFA
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) represents financial services companies and manufacturers in the $1 trillion U.S. equipment finance sector. ELFA’s 575 member companies provide essential financing that helps businesses acquire the equipment they need to operate and grow. Learn how equipment finance contributes to businesses’ success, U.S. economic growth, manufacturing and jobs at https://www.elfaonline.org

#### Press Release ########################

Watch at Home
by Fernando Croce, Leasing News Movie Reviewer

Able to embody wounded turmoil, electric humor, and breathtaking ferocity, Gena Rowlands (1930-2024) was deservedly revered for some of galvanizing performances in cinema. Check out our list for this extraordinary performer’s greatest roles.

Minnie and Moskowitz (1971): Though she worked with several other filmmakers, Rowlands is treasured mainly for her collaborations with her husband, legendary indie firebrand John Cassavetes. After a supporting part in the 1969 breakout “Faces,” Rowlands takes center stage in this superbly pugnacious comedy-drama, which often plays like a classic Hollywood romance updated to the rough and gritty Seventies. Minnie Moore (Rowlands) is a Los Angeles museum curator disillusioned by love after a rocky breakup. Seymour Moskowitz (Seymour Cassel) is a brash parking-lot attendant, movie buff, and hopeless romantic idealist. They cross paths in the wake of the blind date from hell, and grudgingly but irresistibly their bruised emotions connect. Showcasing the comic side of artists best remembered for dramatic intensity, the film is a two-fisted, exhilarating ride.

A Woman Under the Influence (1974): Rowlands delivers her greatest performance (as well as one of the greatest performances in all of cinema) in John Cassavetes’ magnificent, harrowing domestic drama. She plays Mabel Longhetti, a woman whose palpable hunger for affection often leads to awkward situations with other people. Her husband, construction worker Nick (Peter Falk), and their children adore her, but Mabel’s increasingly erratic behavior places pressure on the family. It’s not long before Nick reluctantly decides to commit her to a mental institution. When she returns after six months, a heavy mix of relief and dread hangs over the homecoming. Galvanizing the screen into zones of pure volatile feeling, Cassavetes offers an unforgettable portrait of human unpredictability. Falk is splendid, but the movie belongs to the jolting Rowlands.

Opening Night (1977): The blurring of life and art was always a theme in Cassavetes’ films, and it becomes the very subject of this multilayered drama. Rowlands stars as Myrtle Gordon, a Broadway stage actress struggling to connect with her latest role during rehearsals in a Connecticut town. When a fan named Nancy (Laura Johnson) dies in a car accident while trying to get her autograph, Myrtle’s already anxious psyche begins to deteriorate. Taking to drink after being haunted by images of the young woman, her turbulent behavior threatens to unmoor the production. The play’s director (Ben Gazzara) and writer (Joan Blondell) try to ground her before opening night, when the moment of truth comes alongside her co-star (Cassavetes). What emerges is an intoxicating look at the crossroads of rawness and artifice.

Gloria (1980): Cassavetes flirted with mainstream cinema in this crime drama, which gave Rowlands the chance to marvelously play a hard-boiled dame straight out of classic pulp fiction. She plays the eponymous heroine, a gangster’s ex-girlfriend who reluctantly agrees to watch over Phil (John Adames), a boy whose family was murdered by mobsters. Saddled with the child and a tell-tale accounts ledger, Gloria leaves the Bronx and goes into hiding in Manhattan. Their bond is a spiky one filled with irritations, though her maternal instincts are always ready to help her pick up a gun to protect her young charge. Mixing grittiness with surprising sweetness, Cassavetes bends seasoned Hollywood genre tropes to his characteristically idiosyncratic vision. Throughout, Rowlands peerlessly embodies the fierceness of an underworld lioness.

Love Streams (1984): Rowland and Cassavetes teamed one last time for this beautiful melodrama, which ranks among their best achievements. Reeling from a messy divorce, Sarah Lawson (Rowlands) visits her brother Robert (Cassavetes), a middle-aged bachelor whose life is a whirlwind of booze, smoking and short-term girlfriends. In need of shelter, she stays at his Hollywood Hills mansion and tries to help him with his self-destructive tendencies while he tries to support her in her time of emotional need. As the days pass, the two high-strung siblings meet on a path of struggle, exasperation and, ultimately, transcendence. The title refers to the torrential nature of love and the bottomless human need for it, which imbues every scene with joy and pain and unpredictability. A masterpiece of profoundly personal, instinctive cinema.

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News Briefs

Treasury proposes rule to prevent large
    corporations from evading income taxes
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/12/business/treasury-proposes-rule-prevent-large-corporations-evading-income-taxes/

Wholesale inflation mostly cooled last month
    in latest sign that price pressures are slowing
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/12/business/wholesale-inflation-mostly-cooled-last-month-latest-sign-that-price-pressures-are-slowing/

Layoffs Are Few. So Why Are Jobs
    Harder to Find?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/business/economy/layoffs-jobs-economy.html

Potential port strike has retailers,
    manufacturers scrambling
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/potential-port-strike-has-retailers-manufacturers-scrambling?oly_enc_id=6911J6520389I8K

Broken Blades, Angry Fisherman and
    Rising Costs Slow Offshore Wine
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/business/energy-environment/offshore-wind-blade-vineyard-wind.html

 

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Satellite TV Is in Trouble. DirecTV’s
   Dispute With Disney Shows Why
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/business/media/directv-disney-dispute.html

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Sports Briefs---

MLB says A’s will play in Sacramento in 2025,
 dismisses report that move is in danger
    of falling through
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/09/12/mlb-says-as-will-play-in-sacramento-in-2025-dismisses-report-that-move-is-in-danger-of-falling-through/

San Francisco 49ers pour nearly $1 million
   into PACs for Santa Clara City Council races
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/09/12/san-francisco-49ers-pour-nearly-1-million-into-pacs-for-santa-clara-city-council-races/

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California News Briefs---

Willie Brown, Art Agnos and Frank Jordan on what
    they’re looking for in S.F.’s next mayor
https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/san-francisco-mayor-race-19748340.php

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Gimme that Wine

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJnQoi8DSE8

California harvest report 2024:
    A pleasant surprise
https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/california-harvest-report-2024-a-pleasant-surprise-537968/

France to produce one of smallest vintages
in a century
https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2024/09/france-to-produce-one-of-smallest-vintages-in-a-century/