----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Adler-Jim created a lease document that was the most widely used in the industry while at Colonial Pacific Leasing Corporation. All lenders accepted it and many lessors made it their standard document. Jim being available to explain the document and how to use it to my advantage in marketing and enforcement. Though this is a marketing driven industry without an ironclad document; none of us would be successful.
Sudhir P. Amembal-Respected worldwide, author, lecturer, leader of international conferences and to name the leasing companies he has served as a consultant would fill up this page. He has been partners in several leasing ventures and services, as well as current co-publisher of WorldLeasingNews.com. As a publisher and author he has published 12 and co-authored 14 books on leasing including the international bestseller, The Handbook of Equipment Leasing. A keynote speaker not only to international and US conferences, but sought after by all US leasing associations. His greatest gift: education.
One of his best assets: His sense of humor.
A.J. Batt--Formerly the CEO & Chairman of ATEL. He started in the industry in 1977 and worked his way up from walking the streets of San Francisco selling off deals to banks such as BofA, to running a 150 person operation using Public Funds to invest in Operating Leases for Large Ticket transactions. Not to mention he wrote the first "Leasing Software" called LEAH II in the early 80's. Originally a NASA engineer he knew numbers…a genius with numbers and making leases work. Joe Bonnano, CLP-He and Barry Marks should be credited with the great help they gave in the formation and beginning of the National Association of Equipment Brokers. In 1998, Barry left from alternating as the Legal Counsel for the association. Joe has not only contributed much here, but also to members and non-members with legal questions and dilemma's, and brought the progress of education, ethics, and good will, including serving on the CLP Foundation board for many years. A major influence in the leasing industry, always available to answer questions, seemingly day and night.
Hon. Ken Bentsen, Jr.-He became president of the Equipment Finance and Leasing Associations (ELFA) July 1, 2007, following in the footsteps of Mike Fleming, CAE, he held the post for 27 years. In this relatively short period of time, he has brought considerable attention to the media about the leasing industry, quoted often in major magazines and newspapers, appearing on radio and television, quite frequently, too. In addition to the attention he gets in congress, actually appearing at signing of bills by President Bush, he has become the number one leader of equipment finance and leasing in the United States to not only the news media but general public as well. ELFA also has many new programs, up-dating old ones such as the web site and now daily News Briefs, as wells as continuing perhaps Mike Flemings greatest asset, getting members involved. On the personal side, Ken Bentsen is also an active member of a number of educational, civic and charitable boards. He serves as Chairman of the Board of the Susan G. Komen For The Cure.
Bernie Boettigheimer- CLP--Bernie's career as founder of Pioneer Capital, provided tremendous opportunities for brokers, small business owners and banks to be successful. However his best accomplishment is yet to come as Lease Police continues to grown in popularity. Lease Police, created and developed by Bernie, may prove to be the greatest cost saving program available to funders in history. While I believe that his accomplishments are many, Lease Police, in the coming years, may prove to be his greatest contribution to the industry yet. John P. Colton--He is well known to many lease veterans, attended many leasing association conference. When the small ticket office equipment finance industry was highly fragmented, three national players emerged. COPy Equipment Leasing COmpany [read COPELCO], LeaseAmerica, and Eaton Financial. Each of the three eventually ended up in the arms of a major industrial acquirer: Itochu International (later sold to Citigroup), GE Capital, and AT&T Capital. John Colton was the right hand man to Paul Gass as together they built Eaton Financial. A former banker, John raised Eaton's debt and managed the development of lender relationships. Once the AT&T acquisition was complete, debt was no longer a challenge and John became an ambassador to the industry, helping to expand AT&T's broker program. He was active in the industry and eventually became the president of the American Association of Equipment Lessors, the precursor to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association. He rejoined Paul Gass at BankVest Capital and retired in 2000 during the prior industry meltdown. Clark Covert- Original developer of the small-ticket, vendor leasing program & platform for the PC market. He designed and built Dell's vendor program in 1988, then later introduced the model to CompUSA, Staples, NEC, Micron, Gateway and others. He built proprietary workflow systems and automated documentation systems in the early 1990's, which produced faxed contracts and 2 hour turn-around times from application to equipment release. He introduced today's major PC funding sources to the idea of funding this equipment, and coached them on the importance of this market. John C. Deane---Founder of The Alta Group, the major independent "think tank" to the leasing industry, with principals and associates all over the world; past president of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, active in it as well as the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation. He has served as the CFO and president of several major financial corporations. Highly respected and his opinion carries much weight in the industry world wide. Thomas Depping, founder of Sierra Cities and Main Street Bank; organized a large company by combining many smaller successful operations into one; major influence in securitization and how business is conducted, perhaps revolutionized the way business is done today in the private label program. What he did prove is acquiring a bunch of smaller, independent leasing company's with a strong management team is failure which did influence a course of events but in a negative way.
Michael J. Fleming- He is the immediate past president of the Equipment Leasing Association ("ELA" now the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association - "ELFA"), a position he held for a distinguished 27 years from 1979 to 2006. His continuity of association leadership was a key ingredient in nurturing the growth of the equipment leasing and finance industry. During his tenure as the ELA chief executive, association membership grew from under 400 members to over 750. The association headquarters was moved to the greater metropolitan Washington, DC area to enable more timely and effective association advocacy. A significant number of events, publications and training courses were launched on Mike's watch. Association staffing grew to 25 professionals. A visionary, Mr. Fleming was driven to ensure the association work remained relevant and focused on the needs of its members. This included the development of business council steering committees to ensure that the distinct issues and challenges of Small Ticket, Vendor Lessors, Banks, Captives and Service Providers were simultaneously represented.
Al Gamper, Jr.-CIT Chairman, CEO led the company through two tumultuous periods connected with Tyco, joining Manufacturers Hanover, working his way up to the top, expanding the company overseas, leader extraordinaire building the company to
$50 billion in assets before his retirement in 2004. His last
stock raising tour was a triumph. A major leader in
commercial finance who in his watch was a tremendous
beneficial influence in the entire banking and financial industry.
Paul Gass--- His company Eaton Financial was purchased by AT&T Capital for $70 million in 1989, making Gass the richest man in leasing at the time. After he sold Eaton to AT&T he became the largest individual shareholder in AT&T and was a substantial underwriter of the American Association of Equipment Lessors lease education foundation. He helped pioneer a systemized approach to small ticket leasing. He started Eaton Financial originally naming it after the street where he lived in Framingham, MA. As the company grew he added branches but each branch ran like its own independent operation. He took Eaton Public, and then sold it to AT&T. When industry pundits argued it was luck and timing that made him so successful, he decided to prove them wrong. He sat out his AT&T non-compete and then paired up with Greg Smith to form BankVest. BankVest's original charter was to follow Greg Smith's successful model of setting up leasing operations for commercial banks. But BankVest would act as an outsource agent. When the vendor side of the business began to usurp the outsource program, Smith felt tremors of the Eaton ways creeping in and left. Gass relied upon securitization to build BankVest into a $30 million per month small ticket machine. Unfortunately sales won out over operations and the portfolio developed problems that they simply couldn't outrun. After the August 1998 Russian bond debacle that sent investors into a flight for security and almost collapsed the entire financial system, the securitization markets dried up and cracks began to show in the BankVest portfolio. BankVest began to sell off major slices of its portfolio. ORIX purchased $99 million within 2 months but allowed BankVest to continue to handle the cash. When BankVest ran into difficulties and spent some of ORIX's cash, coupled with an auditor from Fleet Bank that found discounted leases to Fleet but hadn't paid the vendors (purportedly monies were being used to replace bad deals in the conduits) everything came crashing down. BankVest was forced into bankruptcy that December. The Company that had been touted on the cover of the Worcester, Business Journal as the fastest growing company was the largest bankruptcy in Worcester County a year later. J. Stephen (Steve) Gagne--- HAfter expanding his Detroit-based small ticket leasing business VMS Leasing into a regional firm with offices in Ohio and Florida - Gagne sold out to Dana Corporation in the early 1980's. With investment tax credit as a primary incentive for growth, initially named Potomac Leasing and later dubbed Dana Commercial Credit, the group was tasked with converting the regional model to one of national, and ultimately international scope. What began as a copier leasing company grew and evolved into "The PC Leasing Source". The captives outsourced to DCC - Apple Commercial Credit, AST Leasing, Compaq Capital, IBM Global Finance, Kaypro Lease-Link, NEC Business Credit. As PC distribution evolved, so did DCC under Gagne's leadership. Ingram Micro, Tech Data, and Merisel all were clients of DCC. ComputerLand, Connecting Point, MicroAge, Intelligent Electronics, and others were clients through the '90's. To better serve their large cadre of global clients, DCC expanded to Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France before selling out to Heller Financial in late 1998 for nearly three times book value. At Heller, Gagne served as President of Global Vendor Finance until his retirement in January 2000.
Harvey Granat---The founder and CEO of Granite Equipment Leasing Corp., an American Stock Exchange listed company, which he ran as a financial services company for sixteen years. He also was
president and CEO of Sussex Leasing Corp., and he also founded and served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sterling/Carl Marks Capital, Inc. Past President and Director of The American Association of Equipment Lessors, the equipment leasing industry's association. Past Chairman of The National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC) and continues to serve on its Executive Committee. He also received the 1995 Entrepreneur of the Year Awards sponsored by Ernst & Young, INC Magazine. He is a frequent lecturer and contributor of articles related to financial services, and has participated at the White House Conference on Small Business.
Shawn Halladay---He has influenced our industry quietly from an academic and educational angle. He has authored or co-authored eight books on equipment leasing, including "A Guide to Equipment Leasing," "An Introduction to Leasing" and "The Handbook of Equipment Leasing." He has written articles for the Equipment Finance and Leasing Association, Equipment Finance and Leasing Foundation, Leasing News, the Monitor, World Leasing News and many associations and lessors throughout the North America, South America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He is an authority on lease accounting as well as both the intellectual and practical aspects of the world wide leasing industry.
Bruce Kropschot-created the channel by which leasing company's could sell to each other. Influential, yes, his focus on the leasing marketplace allowed him to obtain specialized knowledge on how to evaluate a leasing company, which continues today John Kruse, System 1/Capital Stream, instrumental in the first low cost software for brokers and small lessors to keep track of leases, contact management, as well as automatically type contracts of many leasing companies, unheard of in its day and quite inexpensive. Developed private label programs for the one person office to compete with much larger operations. The program grew for use with medium sized lessors and new owners wanted it to reach a more lucrative client usage. He is also known for introducing the automated front end system to the small brokerage industry but he copies the AOL model and gave the program away thinking people would come back to him for more.
Paul A. Larkins-Leasing News chose him as the person who has done the most for the entire equipment leasing industry in 2006. Throughout his career he has promoted education and opportunity, volunteering for many assignments in his community, in the industry,
expanding his company overseas. In addition, it was under his leadership that a smooth transaction and major changes in the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association were accomplished. His influence in the leasing industry, in leasing associations, and continued effort for more education is certainly now missed.
Elaine Litwer- She dedicated herself to improving the leasing industry. She fought tirelessly to abolish lessor vicarious liability in New York State. She was involved in the auto industry from almost every aspect, being a lessor, a sales rep, working in the offices at GM, lobbying in Albany. She was involved in the National Leasing Vehicle Association at the state and national levels. She always was there to answer other lessor's questions.
Charlie Lester - Charlie has always been an innovator in our Industry and gave his time freely to help the small broker understand the business and succeed. He helped lead the organization and success of National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers at its inception. When Charlie had LeasePro, he was always the ultimate creditable person at all times and the word integrity was born with him. With his organization of LPI, he again plotted his course and success followed and his true honesty prevailed. Lisa A, Levine, CAE--Executive Director of the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, who has continually attracted an active board of trustees, as well as conducting and commissioning " credible, unbiased future-focused research about the equipment lease financing industry. To date, the Foundation has funded more than $1.6 million in research grants." The Journal of Equipment Lease Financing, published three times a year. Curt Lysne, CLP Curt has worked all facets of the leasing industry. From being a broker himself to the head of both GE Capital / Colonial Pacific's credit department and chief sales officer. In both capacities Curt managed (directly or indirectly) relationships with over 400 brokers as well top brass within the GE organization itself (Paul Bossidy-son of famed Larry Bossidy-to mention in specific). In these roles Curt always maintained the highest levels of professional standards and ethics. Both his business and personal integrity are without question and he has always treated people in a fair and ethical manner. I think he exemplifies what a leader in this industry should possess and as such acts as a great role model to others. His common sense approach to solving business problems has always been much appreciated by the broker community. Further, Curt has served on many of the industry associations and is always willing to contribute to forums and round tables. All in all a stand up guy who has a lot left to offer all of us. Barry Marks--He was the original National Association of Equipment Leasing Broker's attorney and a very forward thinking, bright attorney, practical businessman, and a prince of a person. To the best of my knowledge, it was Barry's idea a zillion years ago to come up with a "list serve" for the association. He also was instrumental in moving us to a management company. Had it not been for those two things alone the NAELB would not be where it is today. I serve on the NAELB Board and his advice and counsel helped us move forward each year. He is one of only three people to earn the Bill Granieri award. Dan Michalek - He was the founder of Connor Capital Corporation (which was sold to Linc Capital, Inc.) and later founded Paynet, where he was the first chairman (http://www.paynetonline.com/board.aspx), whose payment history reports have become the standard for larger lessors in the commercial leasing industry. Paynet is sponsored both by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association and Experian, as well as "partnering" with InfoCentricity. Jim Merrilees, CLP now with QuikTrak, first to develop a "wide area network" BLISS before the days of the internet. Steered the Pegasus dealer program, and under his watch a computer credit scoring profile for both vendor and broker business in a highly quick process. The internet version of BLISS, BLISSnet, was created long after Jim had left the company. Where I see Jim's "influence" is through his contribution to the issues found in the industry. Paul Menzel, CLP- Highest of ethics, good clean portfolios, quality leader. He has been active in two leasing associations himself, also supporting others, giving his time to the industry for many years. Paul is a leader who believes in "do as I do, not as I say". He has set a great example for all his years in the industry. (He also is the First Leasing News Person of the Year: http://www.leasingnews.org/archives/January%202006/01-03-06.htm#person editor) Ben Millerbis, CLP/Brad Peterson, CLP-They created a unique funding mechanism whereby a lender turn downs would automatically be transferred to Pentech for review. This created an additional funding mechanism that allowed a broker to obtain an approval from a reliable source without having to search other lenders. This business had incredible growth in a very short period of time and were it not for the current credit crisis they still would be growing.
Alan J. Mogol, Attorney
Over the last 25+ years Alan and his team have created a large volume of middle market lease documentation currently used by the majority of the larger bank and finance companies in the industry; including standard forms of lease documentation as well as industry standard syndication, assignment, notice of assignment, participation and motor vehicle titling trust documents. Much of what Alan has created is considered de facto industry standard in the bank middle market space. He is a frequent lecturer and author in the equipment financing area. Ned Mundell--- Ned was chairman and CEO of U.S. Leasing International from the 1970s until just after the company was sold to Ford Motor Company in 1987. During that period of time, Ned led US Leasing to a position of being the largest independent leasing company (NYSE public company) in the United States, and amongst the largest in the world. He brought the company to international markets in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, forging banking and finance partnerships with some of the largest companies in the world. In Japan, even today?years after Ned?s retirement-- Ned is viewed as an extremely important and influential person in the industry (I witnessed this while meeting with the CEO of Orix in Tokyo a year ago). Under Ned?s leadership, US Leasing in the US became an early leader in the vendor business with active and important programs with the likes of Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, Wang, NCR, Kodak, Lanier, and more. Ned led his management team to act swiftly to engage with all the baby bells when they were spun out, and the company landed exclusive program agreements with Southwestern Bell, Nynex, US West, and PacTel. Finally, Ned?s negotiations with Ford were at the time characterized as ?brilliant?, as he sold the company for $68 a share, far exceeding the company?s equity value in the markets at the time. In 1987, the year Ford bought the company, US Leasing
Deborah Monosson--- 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.
David Murray, co-founder Direct Capital/Preferred Lease, founded the first telemarketing company based on computer program information, copied by many today, hiring college students and young people to follow a script, then selling the leases off in groups to funders. He copied the Transleasing model for using a leasing credit card. He was innovative in that he sent everyone a "pre-approved" card in a mass marketing campaign. Trans only used it for doctors they had done a deal with before through an internal credit line. This was very innovative but the business failed badly when they forced their growth on Advanta and took advantage of the weak credit underwriting. Walter Rabin-created a platform that went from zero fundings to over $1.4B in the last 10 years. All Points Capital is a dominate funding source for the broker community, especially in the Northeast. Jim Renner-head of Wells Fargo & Company's leasing and equipment finance business for over 13 years, who led the growth of the business's leasing portfolio during his tenure from $530 million to $7.5 billion. When he retired in 2005 there were 40 locations and 375 employees nationwide who make up Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc. (WFEFI) in the U.S. and Canada. He was active in many committees, past chairman Equipment Leasing and Finance Association as well as trustee and chairman of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation; greatly missed by both associations. Gary Shivers--Co-founder and former president of Marlin Leasing and current President of Navitas. He helped Marlin go public and they are one of the few micro-ticket leasing companies that has done so. As a former employee at Marlin, I know that people valued him as a true sales champion and he is clearly missed there currently! I followed him to Navitas when Marlin's Chicago office closed and was pleasantly surprised that I was not the first (or likely the last) ex-Marlin employee to make this switch which should be a great testament to Gary.
Saul Phillip Steinberg ---Born Brooklyn, August, 1939 is a Jewish American businessman who first became wealthy in the 1960s by leasing IBM computers. He proved so creative at the practice that his company, Leasco, became valuable enough in 1968 for him to use its stock to buy Reliance Insurance, a 150-year-old Philadelphia firm. He was just 29 years old. At the time, Forbes reported that he made more money on his own that year than anyone else in America under 30. Steinberg used Reliance as his base of operations. In 1969, he mounted a takeover of Chemical Bank, then one of the nation's largest financial institutions. Chemical and its allies in the establishment beat him back. President Nixon personally called Steinberg to dissuade him from continuing with his acquisition. In a now famous quote in Business Week, Steinberg said, "I always knew there was an Establishment ... I just used to think I was a part of it." For the next 30 years Steinberg used Reliance, and its steady cash flows, to finance numerous acquisitions and attempted acquisitions, including Flying Tigers, Days Inn, Telemundo, Frank B. Hall, Pargas, and the Disney Company.
Robert W. Stubbs -- Founder of Tricontinental Leasing in St. Louis, relocated to Paramus, NJ when purchased by Yegen Assoc., later bought by Bell Atlantic. Bob was Chairman of the AAEL (now the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association) prior to retiring and no one was a more active supporter of the Industry. He bought back the TriCon leasing division and then personally sold it to Bell Atlantic as AT&T was breaking up in the '84 ish time frame. Bob was one the smartest guys I ever met (Mensa member), one of the fairest men I've ever known, a great leader, and was tough as nails.
Robert Teichman, CLP
--Bob has probably instructed more currently influential people in the equipment leasing industry than any other individual. He has given and participated in an incalculable number of seminars and workshops under the auspices of UAEL (nee WAEL) and NAELB. Since the inception of the CLP program which he was instrumental in developing, he has been a primary instructor of classes for those preparing to take the CLP exam. These accomplishments and many more were recognized at the 2009 NAELB Annual Meeting where he received a commemorative trophy recognizing him as the "Leasing News" Equipment Leasing Person of the Year.
Bob's bio listing his many other accomplishments runs to multiple paragraphs and I am sure that as chairman of your Advisory Board, you have a much more complete and current list than I do. I cannot imagine anyone who has had a greater positive influence on the industry by raising the educational bar and thus raising the performance level of the entire industry. He should be at the top of your list.
Ron Wagner, CLP---Long time veteran in the leasing industry, active in several leasing associations, 1990 WAEL President, an illustrious career, leadership and high ethics by example. The Pentech Financial Navigator Program was run by him. He put together the team that successfully funded over $300 Million in small ticket leases, many already turned down by US Manifest. He ran the San Diego small ticket services with an iron fist. He insisted we look out for the broker first - they were the reason we received our paychecks. Paul Weiss, best known buyers of capital equipment portfolios beginning in the 1980s, working on innovative financing structures and finding new ways to structure transactions that had considerable residual value upside. In partnership with Beau Clarke, Weiss acquired ICON Capital in 1996 and introduced the first sizable portfolio acquisition strategy to a public fundraising vehicle. ICON became one of the largest independently owned leasing company; the largest public leasing program sponsor in that industry's history, changing the way that industry operating and causing many imitators who were unable to match ICON's dramatic success.
David Wiener--He has provided the industry with expertise in the structuring of transactions in the syndications arena and as project leader within the equipment leasing and finance industry. A proven top producer he has personally structured and executed over 700 transactions totaling $2.3 billion in sales volume generating $94 million income. He has created full capital markets deal placements capabilities for 3 separate to 10 vendor finance organizations. He is a national authority on equipment finance demographics. For 24 years David was a member of Equipment Leasing & Finance Association ("ELFA") Research Committee. Senior Vice President / Group Head, Capital Markets and Structured Finance for LEAF Financial Corporation. Senior Vice President, GE Capital Markets. Director, Corporate Planning reporting to the CFO at Tokai Financial Services (now De Lage Landen Financial Services in 1991. In 1981 when the Economic Tax Recovery Act was enacted, Mr. Wiener quietly engineered 47 tax benefit transfer leases - the most executed in the U.S. He went on to personally conclude a combined $195 million of financing for California's Bay Area Rapid Transit System and the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority. He also was a great help at Colonial Pacific Leasing.
Mr. Terry Winders, CLP ---He writes the column Leasing #102 every week since 2006, which I never miss for the information that it provides, always topical. The column states he has been a teacher, consultant, expert witness for the leasing industry for thirty years. He has given seminars for the Equipment Finance and Leasing Association for years, as well as other groups, including the Certified Leasing Professional Foundation. I could not find a biography, but he definitely has been an influence on keeping my staff abreast on leasing and financing in's and outs and how it affects my company. Joe Woodley, CLP--1988 president of the Western Association of Equipment Lessors, now National Equipment Finance Association, volunteered and became CEO in November, 2001, when the association was rudderless, also in financial difficulties. He brought in Bill Grohe, and they moved the group into solvency as well as reaching out to other leasing association, attending their conferences, making friends, promoting education, the CLP Foundation, and has been an outstanding leader. From your website, "president of Westover Financial, Inc., San Clemente, CA. He served as WAEL?s 1985 Secretary/Treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee. ??starting with a position with the Burroughs Corporation after his graduation from the University of Albuquerque. He was involved in private leasing in 1972 and 1975-77, spending the interim years with St. Paul Leasing. He was Vice President/Marketing at Colonial Pacific Leasing Company from 1977-85. ? Joe has been on the WAEL Board of Directors since 1982?It does not report the many hours on his own time that he has devoted to education, ethics, and improving the leasing industry, in addition to being a very nice guy at all times, extremely well respected by all who have know him.
|
 |
| 
