Equipment Leasing and Finance Association - Equipping Business for Success

Martha Ahlers

President
United Leasing & Finance

Garland Brooks II

Consultant, Federal Enablement & Automation
Dell Financial Services

James Cress

Vice President & General Manager
Stryker Flex Financial

James is the Vice President and General Manager of Stryker’s captive finance arm, Flex Financial. He joined the company in 2008 and is responsible for delivering financial solutions that make it easier for Stryker’s customers to reach their clinical and financial goals. Previously, James was Senior Vice President and Vendor Business Unit Director for eight years at National City Commercial Capital and he spent several years as a Vice President in Small Business Banking at US Bank.

James has been an active member of ELFA since 2000 and has served as a Director on its board. He is currently serving as Vice Chair and is the current board liaison to the Emerging Talent Advisory Committee. He has previously served as LeasePAC Chair, regularly attends Capitol Connections, and has been a member of the Captive and Vendor Finance Business Council Steering Committee, Women’s Council, and provided ELFA Guest Lectures at Michigan State University.

James holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in executive leadership and organizational change from Northern Kentucky University.

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.

Jeffry Elliott CLFP

President
Huntington Equipment Finance

Mr. Elliott is President of Huntington Equipment Finance (“HEF”) a division of The Huntington National Bank. Mr. Elliott is responsible for the Business Equipment Solutions Team (“BEST”), which focuses on equipment financing for Huntington’s Regional Banking clients, Huntington Public Capital®, which focuses on lending to the municipal, university, school & hospital (“MUSH”) entities and more recently launched the Renewable Energy Finance group that focuses on solar, wind, battery and other renewable energy generation projects. Additionally, Mr. Elliott is leading the Clean Energy Banking strategic initiative focusing on helping Huntington clients with the energy transition.

Mr. Elliott began his banking career with Security Pacific a Subsidiary of Bank of America in 1993 in the consumer finance division. Prior to Huntington, Mr. Elliott was Vice President with U.S. Bank as Manager of the Indirect Funding Group; he joined Huntington in 2001 as part of the newly established Huntington Equipment Finance Division.

Mr. Elliott specializes in analyzing equipment finance related financial contracts as it relates to wholesale lending activities or merger & acquisition transactions. He is an active participant in the syndication markets, both on the buy and sell side of equipment leasing and loan transactions. Project Finance is another area of focus, primarily in the renewable energy markets working on back leverage term loans, solar sale-leaseback, and tax equity transactions.

Mr. Elliott holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from the Richard T. Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a Master of Business Administration from the Williams College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mr. Elliott is a Certified Lease Finance Professional (“CLFP”) and was formerly an active member of the CLFP Board of Directors. Mr. Elliott was formerly involved with the Mid America Association of Equipment Lessors (“MAEL”), where he served as Vice Chairman/Board of Director. Currently he is Treasurer and a board member of the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association. Mr. Elliott is a former Chairman of the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation and former Chairman of the Research Committee and a member of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Elliott is a current board member of the Association for Governmental Leasing and Finance (“AGLF”). Mr. Elliott is also a retired member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association as a High School Basketball & Football Official.

Mr. Elliott enjoys the pursuit of the culinary arts, wine appreciation and collecting and golf, where he is a member of Avon Oaks Country Club. He resides in Bay Village, Ohio with his wife and two children.

Jacob Fahl

Director of Capital Markets
KLC Financial LLC

Jacob is responsible for managing and leading MHCA’s 3rd-party syndications division. Involved in all aspects of serving the independent market, Jacob thrives in the energetic and reliable environment at MHCA. Jacob’s contributions range not only in sales and customer service but all the way through legal and contract negotiation, sales and managing Division P&L.

For the past four years, Jacob has been on the ELFA’s Emerging Talent Advisory Council, contributing to the growing need to involve energetic talent at all levels of the industry. Within MHCA, Jacob also leads their Diversity & Inclusion Committee, focused on bringing awareness and action to workplace engagement.

Jacob holds a Bachelor’s degree and MBA from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, MN. Jacobs still resides in Marshall with his wife, Angie and four children.

Sabrina Fest

Account Credit Manager
John Deere Financial

Jon Gerson

President
Executive Solutions for Leasing and Finance, LLC

Jon Gerson is President of Executive Solutions, a second generation Executive Search firm that has focused exclusively on the commercial equipment leasing & finance industry since 1990. He first joined Executive Solutions in 2004 while on sabbatical from Rutgers University. He finished his degree and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rutgers while working full time as an executive recruiter.

Executive Solutions provides Talent Solutions for all functional roles and levels of seniority in equipment leasing for bank owned equipment finance firms, captives, independents, brokers, and everything in between. In addition, ESLF provides consulting services including on compensation plans, interview structures, and general business strategy.

Jon is an active member of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, serving on the Emerging Talent Advisory Council since 2017, the membership committee starting in 2013 and the Service Provider Business Council Steering committee off and on since 2012. He has also presented several times at the ELFA annual conference.

Jon lives in Atlanta with his wife Jessica, their daughter, and too many pets.

Nathan Gibbons CLFP

Chief Experience Officer
QuickFi

Michael Hube

SVP, Syndications Team Lead
Fifth Third Bank, National Association

Michael is the Senior Vice President, Syndications – Team Lead, with Fifth Third Bank, National Association. Headquartered in Cincinnati Ohio, Fifth Third is a Super-Regional bank with $205 Billion in assets. Mr. Hube is responsible for generating fees and managing the Bank’s exposure for both credit and asset concentrations through the syndication of equipment leases and loans to various institutional investors.

Michael has been with Fifth Third for 16 years, holding a variety of roles within the equipment finance division including credit, pricing, portfolio management and syndications.

Mr. Hube received a Bachelor of Science in Business at Miami University (OH) and a Masters of Business Administration at Xavier University.

Michael has been involved in various roles with the ELFA by participating in Capital Connections and served on the Emerging Talent Advisory Counsel (ETAC) and the Financial Institutions Business Council Steering Committee

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.

Emily Latham-Bolt

Head of HR
DLL

Matthew LeSage

Chief Commercial Officer

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.

Ralph Petta

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.

Kaitlin Thompson

New Product Development & Sales Enablement Specialist
Siemens Financial Services, Inc.

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.