2007
ELFA Leadership
T
The ELFA Nominating Committee has named the following individuals to stand for election to the ELFA Board of Directors. If elected,
all will take office at the conclusion of ELFA’s Annual Convention,
October 28–30 in Orlando, Florida.
Each ELFA member company has one vote for directors. On August 17, voting
materials and instructions will be emailed to each member company, which
can then vote via electronic ballot on the ELFA website until October 12.
Verhelle to stand for Chair, Ambrose slated for Vice Chair
L
aird Boulden has tendered his resignation as
bership’s belief that the industry should be a robust
Chairman-elect of the Association due to in-
voice to represent and uphold fair and honorable
creasing business demands. Laird is an experienced,
passionate and committed executive and ELFA
48
business practices.
As a result of Laird’s resignation, the Nominations
commends him for his contribution as an officer
Committee is recommending the leadership slate of
and as Chair-Elect. Laird was involved with many of
Bill Verhelle as Chairman and Jim Ambrose as Chair-
ELFA’s most recent strategic initiatives, most recently
man-elect for the 2007–2008 term. Both Bill’s and
as Chairman of the Code of Fair Business Practices
Jim’s names will be placed on the ballot for election
committee ­a milestone that underscores our mem-
by the membership. LT • July/August 2007
2007
ELFA Leadership
Council, and the Middle Market Independent Business Council Steering
Committee.
Jim has been active with ELFA for
a number of a years and has vicechairman of the Executive Committee, and the Finance Committee.
Chairman
William H. Verhelle
Bill is the CEO and founder of First
American Commercial Bancorp, Inc.,
d/b/a First American Equipment
Finance. Before founding First American in 1995, Bill was Vice President
and Western Division Manager for
Tokai Financial Services, Inc. where
he was responsible for managing
seven of Tokai’s middle-market leasing offices. Bill has nearly 20 years of
equipment leasing industry experience in sales, operations, credit,
syndications and management.
Bill is a member of the New York
Bar and is an active member of the
Equipment Leasing and Finance
Association, having served as a vicechairman and irector of the board
of the Government Affairs Council,
as well as having participated as
a member of the Industry Futures
was named General Manager, GE
Healthcare Financial Services (HFS) in
1999. HFS became the first GE Commercial Finance vertical in November
2001 after completion of the Heller
Financial acquisition, and Jim is
currently the President of the global
Equipment Finance organization
within HFS. HFS Equipment Finance
includes: GE Healthcare equipment
financing, vendor program financing, Healthcare and dental practice
financing and has operations in the
U.S. Europe, Asia and Latin America. Chairman-Elect
James J. Ambrose
With over 27 years of experience
within the GE business community,
Jim is the president of Equipment
Finance at GE Healthcare Financial
Services. Joining GE’s Information
Systems Management Program
(ISMP) in 1982, he went on to become an Electronics Trader with GE
Trading Company from 1984-1988
before moving to GE Plastics in 1988,
where he held positions in Marketing
and Product Management until being promoted to Business Development in GE Capital’s Transportation
& Industrial Funding Corp. in 1990. In
1995, he became Northeast Region
Manager for GE Capital’s Commercial
Equipment financing business. He
Captive Vendor Finance
Business Council
Kent M. Adams
Kent M. Adams is president of Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation.
July/August 2007 •
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2007
ELFA Leadership
He has administrative responsibility
for the Financial Products Division,
which is comprised of Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, Caterpillar Insurance Services Corporation,
Caterpillar Redistribution Services
Inc. and Caterpillar Power Ventures
Corporation.
Kent most recently served as executive vice president with responsibility for North America operations,
including the U.S. Regions, Canada,
FCC Equipment Financing Inc. and
the Customer Business Center. Since joining Caterpillar in 1979, he
has held various positions including
Assistant Treasurer for Caterpillar
Americas Co., Region Finance Manager for North American Commercial
Division, Treasurer for Caterpillar Asia
Pte. Ltd., and Treasurer-Controller
for Caterpillar Brasil Ltda. In 1998,
Kent was appointed vice president
at Caterpillar Financial with responsibilities for operations in Europe and
Marine divisions, and later Corporate
Support Services which included
Accounting, Business Excellence,
Human Resources, Information
Technology, Risk Management and
Corporate Marketing, CRSI & Remarketing, and Treasury. Kent has been
involved with the association for a
number of years and has served as
a member of the Global Committee,
the Large Ticket Business Council
and the Captive and Vendor Finance
Business Council.
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LT • July/August 2007
Middle Market Independent Business Council
Fred Summers
Fred founded Vision Financial
Group in 1991. With over 35 years of
experience in the leasing and consumer finance business, he is actively
involved in sales and marketing, as
well as monitoring relationships with
key customers, vendors and funding
sources.
Prior to founding Vision Financial,
Fred was a senior executive with a
number of prominent leasing companies including: Capital Associates,
Joy Finance, Banc Boston Leasing, GE
Capital, and American Financial. As
a result of
this experience, Fred
is extremely
knowledgeable
about all
aspects of
the leasing
industry. He
has been
very effective over his
career in creating innovative leasing
packages to solve his customer’s
equipment leasing needs. This innovation has resulted in Fred being
successful in building Vision Financial into one of the premier, privately
held leasing groups in the Midwest.
Throughout the years Fred has maintained a high level of interaction
with ELFA, including stints on the
Nominating Committee, the Middle
Market Business Council Steering
Committee, and the Funding Exhibition Planning Committee.
Small Ticket
Business Council
Jim McGrane
Jim is a veteran in the business of
equipment leasing and the president
of US Express Leasing. He brings 23 years of experience to the helm of
USXL, with leadership stints in such
industry standouts as US Leasing,
AT&T Capital, and Heller Financial.
Jim is no stranger to building successful businesses, having launched
AT&T’s CapitaPlus business — later
sold to American Express — and two
successful management consulting
practices. His expertise spans disciplines from sales and marketing to
business process
and organization design,
business development and
global relationship-building.
Most recently, as
Group President of Heller
Global Vendor
Finance, Jim was
responsible for leading the company’s activities in North America,
Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He
received his bachelor’s degree in
Business Administration from New
York Institute of Technology. Jim has
2007
ELFA Leadership
been active in ELFA for a number of
years and has sat on various committees, including the Government
Affairs Council, the Industry Futures
Council, Nominating Committee, and
the Small Ticket Business Council
Steering Committee, of which he is
currently the chair.
He is admitted to practice before the
Massachusetts courts and the U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, First Circuit.
Phil has served as a mediator for the
Middlesex Multi-Door Courthouse
and on the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Boston Bar
Association’s Litigation Section.
Service Providers
Business Council
Phil is a long-standing member of
the ELFA’s Legal Committee and a
frequent speaker at industry and
professional gatherings.
Philip R. Rosenblatt
At Large Director
Christa Hemans
Christa Hemans is president of Provident Bank’s Court Square Leasing Division in Malvern, PA. Hemans, who
most recently served as a senior vice
president within Provident’s Credit
Administration Division, has more
than 25 years of experience in lease
financing, credit administration, consumer financing, and small and large
corporate financing. Prior to joining
Provident, she began her banking
career at the former First Union Bank,
where she served as a trainer and
later became a Senior Vice President
in the Commercial Banking Division.
At that time, she supported a $900
million portfolio and went through
the organization’s Credit Management Training Program. Christa has
been active with the ELFA for several
years, participating in the Bank Leasing Conference, Funding Exhibition,
and the annual Convention.
At Large Director
Rick Remicker
Serving as Managing Director of the
Equipment Finance Group of Merrill
Lynch Capital, Rick leads the business
group dedicated to providing structured equipment financing solutions
to middle-market and non-invest-
Philip R. Rosenblatt is a partner in the
Business Department and co-chair
of Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLC
Commercial Finance Group. Phil also
represents technology, health care,
and other entrepreneurial companies through every phase, from initial
planning through capital formation,
operations, and exit.
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ELFA Leadership
At Large Director
ment grade large corporate public
and private companies, including
specialties in business aviation and
marine transportation. Adam Warner
Prior to serving at Merrill Lynch
Capital, Mr. Remicker was President and CEO, Commercial Leasing
Services at Key Equipment Finance. Rick, who is a 24-year veteran of the
equipment leasing industry, has
significant experience in numerous
aspects of the equipment finance
field, including full P&L responsibility, sales management, lease documentation, syndications, operations
management, business process
design as well as acquisitions and
integration. He is the past chair of the ELFA
Middle Market Business Council
Steering Committee and is currently
a member of the Board of Directors for The Leasing Exchange and a
member of the Financial Institutions
Business Council Steering Committee. Rick also serves as a trustee of
the Equipment Leasing and Finance
Foundation.
At Large Director
Bob Rinaldi
Robert J. Rinaldi, executive vice
president — National City Commercial Capital Corp. and president
— National City Commercial Capital
Canada Corp, has over 20 years of
experience in the commercial equipment finance industry. He is actively
involved in ELFA, having held many
posts, and is currently a member of
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LT • July/August 2007
the Government Affairs Committee and the Chairman of LeasePac
-ELFA’s political action committee.
Bob also serves as a trustee of the
Equipment Leasing and Finance
Foundation. Bob was one of the four
founding partners of the original
ILC organization before its sale to
Provident Financial Group Inc. in
December 1996 and its subsequent
merger with National City Corporation in July 2004. NC4 has over 330
employees nationwide, with $2 billion in owned assets and another
$1.5 billion under management.
Adam Warner
was named
president and
chief operating officer of
Key Equipment-commercial leasing services in
October 2006.
He joined Key
Equipment Finance as president and COO, Express
Leasing Services, in August 2001.
Prior to joining Key, he was senior
vice president, sales and marketing, at Mellon Leasing Corporation
where he had worked since 1988.
Prior to that position Mr. Warner was
vice president and chief operating
officer. He also worked at McDonnell
Douglas Finance Corp. where he was
operations manager from 1985-1988.
Adam has been active in the association for a number of years, regularly
attending and contributing to the
annual Convention and the Executive Roundtable.