Equipment Leasing and Finance Association - Equipping Business for Success

Michael DiCecco

Executive Managing Director, Huntington Asset Finance
Huntington Equipment Finance

Michael DiCecco is Executive Managing Director of Huntington Bank’s Asset Finance business which includes asset-based lending, equipment, technology & healthcare finance, vendor & inventory finance, public capital, renewable energy, premium finance, and lender finance. DiCecco, along with a group of colleagues, established Huntington’s equipment finance capabilities in 2001 after starting his career at Star Bank (nka US Bank) in 1988. Over the last 30 years DiCecco has earned increasing responsibilities in equipment finance and commercial banking, including leading Huntington’s commercial bank for Northeast Ohio from 2005-2008.

Active in the industry and community, DiCecco, has served on the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association’s Membership Committee, Financial Institutions Business Council, and from 2014-2017 served on the ELFA Board of Directors and Executive Committee. DiCecco rejoined the ELFA Board of Directors in 2018 and is currently Chair-Elect. Michael is also on the Cuyahoga County Regional Advisory Board for the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Ohio and an active fundraiser for cancer research through Pelotonia.

DiCecco holds a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Finance from the College of Mount St. Joseph, and he is a member of the Leadership Cleveland class of 2008. Michael lives in Avon Lake, Ohio with his wife Amy and has three children.

Alexandra Dressman CLFP

Legal Counsel
DLL

Lexie Dressman is Legal Counsel at DLL. She was previously with Huntington Equipment Finance for over 7 years. Prior to joining the Equipment Leasing & Finance industry, Lexie served as a Public Defender for 3 1/2 years. Active in the industry, Lexie is a Past Chair of ELFA's Emerging Talent Advisory Council and a former member of the Legal Committee, where she created the Rising Lawyers Subcommittee. She is currently serving on the Women's Council, where she is Chair of the Mental Health Subcommittee and Co-Chair of the Women's Spotlight Subcommittee. Lexie has her B.A. in History and Political Science from the University of Kentucky and her J.D. from the Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law, where she was a Henry Clay Scholar. She enjoys reading, traveling and, most importantly, spending time with her husband, 2 children and 2 dogs.

Nathan Gibbons CLFP

Chief Experience Officer
QuickFi

Terry Grim

Founding Partner
Foresight Alliance

Benjamin Grove

Legislative Director
Thompson Coburn LLP

Jeff Jensen

Vice President
Keybridge Research, LLC

Jeff Jensen is a Vice President at Keybridge, where he serves as an economic and policy advisor for small businesses, industry associations, and government agencies. Jeff has 15 years of experience applying economics, data analytics, and program evaluation techniques to a wide range of public policy issues, including macroeconomic policy, federal regulatory policy, environmental policy, immigration, flood insurance and hazard mitigation, equipment finance, and credit and debit card markets.

Before joining Keybridge, Jeff spent 4 years at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he specialized in transportation security and related homeland security issues.

Jeff holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Carleton College and Master’s degrees in Public Policy and Environmental Management from Duke University.

Xiang Ji

Commercial Risk Senior Manager
Toyota Industries Commercial Finance, Inc.

Martin Klotzman CLFP

Director of Marketing and Operations
Ivory Consulting Corporation

Martin is Senior Manager Marketing and Product Management at Ivory Consulting Corporation. His focus includes creating and leading all organizational marketing efforts, and developing strategies to maximize Ivory’s internal operational fluidity by leveraging Salesforce's platform. He is Chair of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association's "Emerging Talent Advisory Council," where his focus is on educating and attracting new talent to the industry.

Prior to joining Ivory, he co-founded the San Francisco based concert production company, Our House Records, where he served as CFO. Martin received an MBA with an emphasis in Sustainable Business from San Francisco State University and B.S. in Finance from San Francisco State University. He also graduated from Bloc's full-stack web development bootcamp.

Svetlana Kralik CLFP

Senior Operations Director
Dext Capital

Lana joined the Equipment Finance industry right after her graduation from Portland State University. During her time with U.S. Bank Equipment Finance, her skills have been put to the test. In her first role, Lana was instrumental in developing and implementing operational procedures geared towards improving and streamlining documentation processes to eliminate bottlenecks, increase speed to market and improve process flow within the department. She also handled multimillion-dollar contract documentation, negotiations, funding, and auditing for compliance with internal policies and external regulations. In her current role, Lana manages a team of underwriters, reviews and approves large ticket credit requests from borrowers within the healthcare and manufacturing industry.

Outside of work, Lana enjoys spending time with her active 12-year old son exploring Pacific Northwest. She is also an active traveler and gardener. Lana was born in Russia and her husband in the Czech Republic, so they split their vacation time between the two counties.

Sherry Lowe Johnson

Director, Senior Counsel
Volvo Financial Services

Sherry Lowe Johnson has over 20 years of experience representing financial institutions, equipment leasing companies and special purpose entities on a myriad of legal issues and concerns, including litigation, regulatory and compliance, and transactional matters.  She is a highly requested speaker on issues concerning representation of lenders and bankruptcy-related issues.  

Zack Marsh CLFP

SVP – Accounting & Analysis
AP Equipment Financing

Kara Miyasato CLFP

Marketing Director

Kara Miyasato is the Director of Marketing for Stryker’s financial services business, Flex Financial. In this role, she leads a team responsible for product development, marketing communications, sales training, process improvement, and business analytics for North America and Europe. She sits on the Flex Financial leadership team.

In 2007, Kara began her career at Stryker at Stryker Endoscopy in San Jose, California. She relocated to Kalamazoo in 2008 and has held various individual contributor and management roles within Flex Financial in both operations and marketing. Her focus throughout her Stryker career has been around customer engagement, continual process improvement, and employee development.

Kara currently chairs the Emerging Talent Advisory Council (ETAC) for ELFA and sits on ELFA Equality. She was previously the ETAC liaison to the Captive & Vendor BCSC and was identified as Monitor’s inaugural Next Generation Leader for their Industry Icon Awards.

Kara holds degrees in philosophy and economics from Santa Clara University, attained her Master’s degree in Finance from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) as well as a Certified Lease & Finance Professional (CLFP). She sits on the board of directors for the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestras and resides in Kalamazoo, Michigan with her husband, Cullen Stevenson, and their son, Kai.

Pierre Quinn

Motivational Speaker

Pierre Quinn is on a mission to help people from all walks of life harness the courage to live, learn, and lead with confidence. Pierre is the author of Leading While Green: How Emerging Leaders Can Ripen Into Effective Leaders and Leading While Scared: How To Find The Courage To Keep Going.

Today as founder of The Cardell Group he travels the country speaking to leaders at conferences, conventions, retreats, and training sessions.

While Pierre does love motivating, challenging, and inspiring leaders, he loves his wife and two daughters even more. He and his family live in the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Michael Romanowski CPA

CoBank Enterprise Leader, Cash Management
Farm Credit Leasing

Kris Snow

Kristine (Kris) A. Snow has more than two decades of commercial leasing and finance experience. In 2009, she joined Cisco Systems Capital Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc. As President, she leads the company's global captive finance and certified remanufactured equipment businesses. Kris previously served as President of Global Vendor Finance at CIT Group.

Kris is currently serving as the Chairman of the Board at ELFA. During her tenure, Kris has been an active participant serving 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, Kris 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, received the Silicon Valley Business Journal's Women of Influence award, and the YWCA Tribute to Women Award for the Silicon Valley.

Kris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Gonzaga University and a Master of Business Administration from St. Mary's College of California.

Scott Thacker CPA, CLFP

Chief Executive Officer
Ivory Consulting Corporation

Mr. Thacker is the Chief Executive Officer of Ivory Consulting Corporation, the software and consulting company that has helped define the modern equipment finance industry with the proven software solutions for modeling, analyzing, and pricing equipment leases and loans, managing equipment, and optimizing portfolios.

Scott is the immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees of the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, where he is founding chair of The 1989 Society, the legacy giving initiative. He is also the founding chair of ELFA Equity, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative.

His previous volunteer roles with the ELFA include being a member of the Board of Directors, a member of the Finance Accounting Committee, chair of the Operations and Technology Committee, and co-director of the Foundation’s Research Committee.

Thacker is a member and DEI lead (leave of absence 2023) of Sand Hill Angels, one of the largest angel investment groups based in Silicon Valley. Previously, he served on the Board of Advisors of StartOut for over ten years and was a judge for the business plan competition for the Wharton Executive MBA program and the Visa Everywhere Initiative. He is a second-generation board member of The Ridgewood School.

Prior to joining Ivory Consulting, he was a partner at Accenture and earlier, a Senior Director at Oracle. Thacker began his career at Arthur Andersen & Co.

Thacker holds an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Accounting from Wake Forest University. He holds the C.P.A. (active) and C.L.F.P. certificates.

Ryan van de Boogaard CLFP

Relationship Manager
Verdant Commercial Capital LLC

Ryan van de Boogaard is currently supporting the commercial vendor business at Key Equipment Finance (KEF). In this role, Ryan is responsible for assisting in the development and growth of vendor finance programs. He manages relationships with manufacturers, vendors and captive finance sales teams by providing customized financial solutions to help them sell their equipment. This involves strategizing with decision makers, pricing, structuring and proposing transactions that fit the customer’s needs.

 

Previously, Ryan served as a Senior Team Leader in Originations managing the Small Ticket Originations teams and the KEF Booking Team. Before that, Ryan managed the KEF Booking and Account Maintenance team which was responsible for all servicing aspects of the entire US and Canadian KEF portfolio. Ryan’s been with KEF for 15 years and has served in a variety of roles with increased responsibility.

 

van de Boogaard earned his bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Ryan is a Colorado native and resides with his family, wife Erin and three children Chase, Brooke and Jordan in Erie, Colorado. Hobbies include, attending University of Colorado football and basketball games, playing basketball, golf, and old man softball. He also enjoys all outdoor activities with his family in the beautiful Colorado playground.

Matthew Vazzana CLFP

National Account Executive
Huntington Technology Finance

Matt is currently a National Account Executive at Huntington Technology Finance.  He joined the Equipment Finance industry more than 10 years ago and has enjoyed serving customers in various roles including sales, operations, and program management.  In his current role, he is responsible for developing and managing financing programs for OEMs, distributors, and national VARs within the technology space.

Matt consistently ranks in the top tier of sales performers at Huntington.  He is a two-time Gold Sales Achievement winner and earned Top Vendor Sales Rep in 2021.  He is also a member of the ELFA's Emerging Talent Advisory Council (ETAC).