Female Leasing/Finance Association Presidents

June Sciotto (1994-1996)
President, Regal Finance, Inc. “First female president of a Leasing Association since 1988. She was President of Regal Finance, one of the original persons that started the National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers, worked countless hours to get the organization off the ground, then went on to serve on the board becoming as its first Female President. This was back in the day when the term for President was for 2 years and all the work was done by the officers and board with no help from any management group or hired individuals. Several of the policies and procedures that were implemented by June Sciotto helped bring the National Association of Equipment Leasing to become a viable association for the Leasing Broker and also broke the barriers of the other organizations by getting them to recognize the NAELB and to include its members in their meetings.”


Donna Cole (2004-2005)
Owner, Business Capital Leasing, Inc.

Heather von Bargen (2005-2006)
Owner, Caladesi Capital, Inc.

Sonia V. M. Stoddard (2010-2011)
Owner, Stoddard 8 Associates

Joan Modes, BPB (2013-2015)
President, Gem Commercial Credit

Sheri Bancroft (2018-2019)
Vice-President, Bancroft Leasing

Cindy Downs (2020-2021)
Business Marketing Manager, Heartland Capital Group, LLC

Carrie Radloff, CLFP (2021-2022)
Business Development Manager
American Financial Parters, Inc.
Red Thread Financial Group, LLC
Gary, South Dakota

Carrie Radloff is a Business Development Manager for American Financial Partners (AFP). She has been in the business for over 24 years, spending her first 10 years in credit and sales for U.S. Bank Manifest and the last 14+ years with AFP. She graduated from Southwest Minnesota State University in 1998 with a B.S. in Accounting and in 2006 with a Master of Business Administration degree. Carrie attained her Certified Lease and Finance Professional (CLFP) designation in 2016. She became involved with AACFB in 2013 when she joined the Marketing Committee serving as co-chair from 2014-2017. Carrie joined the board of directors in 2017 is currently serving as past president of the AACFB board as well as serving as the board liaison for the Meetings Committee and Sponsorship Committee. Carrie is a member of various local non-profit boards and resides in Minnesota with her husband, Scott, and two daughters, Madison and Samantha.

Laura Estrada (2022-2023)
Business Development Manager
Prefered Capital Funding
Chicago, Il.

Laura Estrada is a vital part of the family-owned business, Preferred Capital Funding. She handles marketing, processing and closing different types of commercial loans. Her expertise is in equipment and transportation.  Laura graduated from the University of Georgia and has worked for several large companies in marketing and sales. She enjoys working with and offering options for clients seeking commercial loans. Preferred Capital Funding, Inc., became a member of the AACFB (NAELB) in 2014.

Teresa Cranney (2023-2024)
Senior Credit Analyst and Loan Syndicator
for Brahma Lending & Leasing
Burley, ID

Teresa came to Brahma five years ago. She started out in sales, making cold calls to acquire her client base. She used her wealth of knowledge of the trucking world, her people skills that were compared to none, and a work ethic that was hard to beat, to quickly move up the ladder to where she is today. She builds strong relationships with our lenders, and she knows them well. With that knowledge, she can easily place a customer with the right lender upon viewing their credit and experience.

Nancy Pistorio, CLFP (2005–2007)
2022 - First Woman to Chair Board of Trustees, Equipment Leasing & Finance Association
President, Madison Capital, Baltimore, Maryland, April 25, elected to two year term as president of the Eastern Association of Equipment Lessors (EAEL.) The first woman elected president in the 25-year history of the EAEL (Merged with United Association of Equipment Lessors, now the National Equipment Finance Association). She is Vice Chair of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation.

Valerie Jester (Chair) (2007)
President of Brandywine Capital Associates. She served as Senior Vice President of First Sierra Financial. She was President and owner of Corporate Capital Leasing Group, which she sold to First Sierra Financial. Prior to founding Corporate Capital's predecessor company in 1988, Ms. Jester was a Regional Manager for General Electric Credit Corporation - in the company's Commercial Asset Finance Department. It is her volunteerism that nominates her as being one of the most influential women in leasing. For 17 years she has been active in the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, very active on many committees, and also it was for her work that she was elected as the first woman chairman of the association. Ms. Jester has not limited herself and activities to one association. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Eastern Association of Equipment Lessors and as a member of the Ethics committee of the United Association of Equipment Leasing (now National Equipment Finance Association.) She also has been a speaker and chair of many industry conventions and workshops. Ms. Jester has also served on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Chester County, Red Cross of Chester County, the American Lung Association of Chester and Delaware Counties, the Salvation Army, and the Chester County Art Association, and has served as Chair for many local fundraising events .Leasing News Person of the Year 2014.

Martha Ahlers (Chair) (2020)
Ahlers has more than two decades of commercial leasing and finance experience. She joined United Leasing & Finance in 1996. In her current role as President, her areas of direct involvement include sales, risk management, marketing, credit, operations and human resources. Prior to her promotion to President, she served as Vice President & Chief Operating Officer.  An active participant in ELFA, Ahlers has served on the ELFA Board of Directors since 2014. In addition to her current position on the ELFA Board, Ahlers is a member of ELFA’s Executive, Nominating and Personnel Committees. She previously served on the Fair Business Practices Committee. From 2015 to 2016, Ahlers was Chair of LeasePAC, ELFA’s nonpartisan federal political action committee. Ahlers also has been active with the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation. In 2018, she served as the ELFA Board Liaison to the Foundation. She has contributed to multiple Foundation studies, including “State of the Equipment Finance Industry” and “U.S. Equipment Finance Market Study.” She also has participated in the Industry Future Council and supports the Foundation as a donor. Outside of ELFA, Ahlers has been involved in numerous civic and community organizations, including the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Ohio Valley Board of Directors, Evansville Executive Forum and the Tri-State MS Association Board of Directors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Illinois.  

Kristine A. Snow (Chair) (2021)
President of Cisco Systems Capital Corporation
Snow has more than two decades of commercial leasing and finance experience. She joined Cisco Systems Capital Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc., in 2009. As President, she leads the company’s global captive finance and certified remanufactured equipment businesses. Previously she served as President of Global Vendor Finance at CIT Group. An active participant in ELFA, Snow served on the Board of Directors from 2008-2011 and returned to the Board in 2017. In addition to her current position on the Board, she is a member of ELFA’s Executive, Nominating and Personnel Committees. Previously, she served as Chair of the Captive and Vendor Finance Business Council Steering Committee. She has also served as a participant in the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation’s Industry Future Council and a contributor to previous “State of the Equipment Finance Industry” reports. Outside of ELFA, Snow has been involved in numerous civic and community organizations. She serves on the Gonzaga University Board of Trustees and is Board Member Emeritus for St. Mary’s College School of Economics and Business Administration. She was honored by the Computer Reseller News 2019 Women of the Channel list and received the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence award and the YWCA Tribute to Women Award for the Silicon Valley.

Bette Kerhoulas, CLFP (2003)
Owner, Pacific capital
UAEL Elects First Female President--Oct. 7, 2002, Leasing News
Oren Hall, emeritus member, former president of the United Association of Equipment Leasing (UAEL), made the motion from the floor, and President Bob Fisher, CLP, made the announcement, In the first 26 years of our association, we now have a female president, Bette Kerhoulas, CLP.

Tara Aasand
2014 - 2015
Vice-President, Sales and Relationship
Management at LTi Technology

Stephanie Hall, CLFP (2016-1017)
EVP, Small-Ticket BankFinancial Equipment Finance

Laura Carini, CLFP (2020-2021)
SVP Operations, Financial Pacific Leasing

Deborah Monosson (2008) 
President and CEO Boston Financial & Equity Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts. A role model for women in leasing, active on the board at the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation, first female president of the Commercial Finance Association, serving on many committees, very active and outspoken. Operates a very successful company. Active is several leasing and finance associations.

Andrea Petro (2017)
Managing Director, Waterfall Asset Management. Ms. Petro has 26 years of experience lending to specialty finance companies, beginning her specialty finance career at Transamerica Business Credit and culminating in 17 years with Wells Fargo Capital Finance’s Lender Finance Division. As a managing director, Ms. Petro is leading the effort to expand Waterfall’s participation in lending to the specialty underlying commercial finance company market. Previously, she was Executive Vice President/Division Manager at Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Currently she is on the 2022 Secured Finance Foundation Board of Directors as Individual Campaign Chair.

Jennifer Palmer
Founder
JPalmer Collective
New York

Jennifer Palmer, founder and CEO of JPalmer Collective, LLC is an entrepreneur and industry leader who spent 17 years building the brand of Gerber Finance Inc which became one of the most respected asset-based lenders in the northeast which helped lead to its successful sale in 2017.
Jennifer has served as a Board Member of the SFNET (formerly CFA and renamed to the Secured Finance Network) the industry’s leading trade organization since 2009.  She has served on the Executive Committee since 2017 during which time she spearheaded SFNET’s rename and rebrand and was appointed onto the Executive Committee as of 2020. Jennifer served as President from 2022 to 2023 and during this time has created successful alliances with other trade organizations and the Small Business Association. Jennifer now serves on the Management Committee.