Equipment Leasing and Finance Association - Equipping Business for Success

Chelsey Barron

Vice President of Sales Operations
LEAF Commercial Capital Inc.

Chelsey Barron serves as VP, Sales Operations for LEAF Commercial Capital. As a legacy VAR Technology Finance employee, she has served on several internal committees on the merger transition with LEAF Commercial Capital. Chelsey currently oversees and manages account management and sales support teams. Her role is focused on implementing better efficiencies from beginning of the sales cycle throughout the life of the lease while also creating unique finance solutions. Chelsey currently serves on the ELFA’s Operations and Technology committee.

Brendan Cronin

Product Manager
Great American Insurance Group, Specialty Equipment

Tamara Darnow

SVP & Director, Compliance and Operational Risk Management
Key Equipment Finance

Christine Evershed

Project Manager, Global Capabilities
John Deere Financial

Christine Evershed is a Project Manager for John Deere Financial with more than 26 years of experience in the equipment lending and lease industry. Christine has worked in and led various aspects of John Deere Financial’s business from accounting, operations, business analyst, collections, repossession, litigation, end of lease, and marketing within Canada and United States. Christine is a Women’s Unlimited Alumni and is currently part of the EFLA’s Operations and Technology committee. Throughout her career, Christine has had a passion for process improvement and promoted the use of technology to gain efficiencies, drive business results, and improve employee engagement.

Andy Fishburn CLFP

VP, Federal Government Relations
Equipment Leasing and Finance Association

Andy Fishburn is the Vice President of Federal Government Relations for the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA), the premier trade association representing 575+ member organizations in the $1 trillion equipment finance sector.

Mr. Fishburn joined ELFA in September 2012. He directs and operates all aspects of the association’s federal relations strategy and the engagement of members in political programs.

Fishburn has focused on legislative, financial and tax policy matters throughout his distinguished career within the Department of Treasury and the U.S. Congress. He served in legislative affairs positions and as senior advisor to four Secretaries of the Treasury, including as a Deputy Assistant Secretary under Secretaries John Snow and Henry Paulson. During 2010 and 2011, he served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and worked for Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on tax policies such as bank taxation, tax administration, oversight of the IRS, tax extenders and small business tax issues. Most recently, he was the Director of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Mint, acting as the Bureau’s lead legislative strategist and congressional liaison.

He has a B.S. in environmental studies from the University of Michigan and a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University.

Keraz Gandhi

Head of Presales
Linedata Lending and Leasing

Melissa Godish

Documentation Manager
TD Equipment Finance, Inc.

Joe Graham

Managing Director
FIS

Peter Haug

Product Manager
LTi Technology Solutions

Current Member of the ELFA Operations and Technology Committee, Peter Haug is Product Manager at LTi Technology Solutions – the market-leading platform provider to the equipment finance industry. Since joining LTi in 2009, Peter has enjoyed collaborating with thought-leaders in the industry to understand and solve the critical challenges the industry is facing.

Recently, Peter has presented on technology topics covering innovation and the customer experience.

In his free time, Peter enjoys spending time with his wife and two kids, watching soccer, and learning languages.

Emily Krause CLFP

Director, First Line Risk Managment
First Citizens Bank Equipment Finance

Steve Nippak

Senior Vice President, North American Sales
Odessa

Bryan Parfitt

Senior Solution Architect
Northteq

Bryan Parfitt, a Senior Solution Architect at Northteq, is a current Member of the ELFA Operations and Technology Committee. Bryan has worked in the equipment finance industry for over eighteen years and authored reports for equipment finance industry associations in the past.

At Capgemini he worked directly with equipment finance lessors providing them innovative and contemporary solutions to differentiate themselves by increasing organizational efficiency. Bryan has experience in both originations and servicing platforms. He has led projects focused on system implementation, system selection, and process redesign among other subjects.

Since 2021 Bryan has worked for Northteq focusing on system implementation and development on their lease/loan origination platform, Aurora. Bryan has brought multiple clients live as well as assisted in the build out of Northteq’s latest product offerings.

Bryan’s project focus is always to bring meaningful change to a client, allowing them to expand their business and do so with increased effectiveness though their use of technology. Bryan graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in Business Administration and Political Science. He lives with his wife and two children in Ponte Vedra, FL.

Michael Rogers

Columnist, MSNBC's The Practical Futurist, Futurist-in-Residence of The New York Times
Leading Authorities

• Award-winning journalist and novelist with over thirty years of professional speaking experience
• Former vice president of the Washington Post's new media division
• Co-founder of Outside magazine and former writer for Rolling Stone
• Dynamic speaker helping businesses think about the future and the effect of technology their organization

Shari Schmidt

Vice President, Operations Manager
Huntington Equipment Finance

Shari Schmidt is VP of Operations for The Huntington National Bank’s Equipment Finance and Public Capital groups. She has 19 years of banking experience with the last 16 focused on Equipment Finance operations.

Shari currently manages the booking, quality review, participations, and maintenance teams with previous roles managing customer service, accounting, and funds movement.

Shari currently serves on the ELFA’s Operations and Technology committee and previously served on the ELFA’s Emerging Talent Advisory Council.

Tawnya Stone CLFP

Vice President, Strategic Technology
GreatAmerica Financial Services

Tawnya Stone, Vice President, Strategic Technology, is responsible for the overall strategic direction, oversight and implementation of customer-facing tools and products across various GreatAmerica business units. She works in close collaboration with business unit and functional leadership and external technology partners. Tawnya joined GreatAmerica in 2011 as an IT Project Manager and eventually evolved into subsequent roles that blended technology and customer facing activities. Prior to joining GreatAmerica she worked for Philips Electronics and Verizon Communications in the Washington DC metro area.

Tawnya was the previous President of the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) and Executive Council member of CompTIA’s Technology Lifecycle Services (TLS) Community and past Chair of CompTIA’s Managed Print Services (MPS) Community. She was recognized by ENX as Difference Maker in 2016 and 2018. Tawnya also is a member the Technology Innovation working group and Chair of the Operations and Technology committee within the ELFA.

Darren Tauer

Senior Consultant

Darren Tauer has been in the Equipment Finance industry for nearly 35 years. During this time he has been a software developer, project manager, technology manager and is currently a Senior Consultant with Tamarack Technology.

His career focuses on meshing business needs with technology and the utilization of software and processes to accomplish this.

Past experience is with Solifi, CoBank, and Huntington (TCF) Bank.

Shelly Tauer CLFP

SVP, EF Systems Product Group Manager
U.S. Bank

Sarah Tezuka

Product Manager
Solifi

With over 25 years of experience in equipment finance and secured lending, Sarah Tezuka is currently a Product Manager at Solifi; a leading global organization that's dedicated to delivering a solid financial technology foundation for equipment, working capital, wholesale, and automotive finance firms. She excels at creating client-centric solutions, managing product lifecycles, and delivering product vision and strategy. She also leads Solifi's Equipment Finance User group and serves on the ELFA Ops & Tech Committee.

Brian Tri

Chief Credit Officer
Channel

Jason Turner

Chief Investment Strategist
Great Lakes Advisors, a Wintrust Wealth Management Company

Jason Turner is the Chief Investment Strategist of Great Lakes Advisors. He is a member of the firm’s investment committee, authors market and economic commentary, regularly presents in the media and to professional conferences, and works with client portfolio managers to support institutional and private clients. As the Head of Multi-Asset Strategy, he is responsible for portfolio strategy, asset allocation, and for overseeing the firm’s manager due diligence and selection efforts. He is also a member of the firm’s Operating Committee and Management Committee.

Prior to joining Great Lakes in 2009, Jason served in various roles for Skyline Asset Management and Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting.

Education and Professional Credentials

• Industry Start: 2001
• North Central College, BA
• Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, MBA
• Yale School of Management- EDHEC Risk Institute, Certificate in Risk and Investment Management
• FINRA Series 7 and 63 registrations