David Miles
David B. Miles, Jr. was born and raised in Norwalk, CT. I would consider myself part of the “latchkey generation” of kids that were raised by working parents who needed to establish independence and self-sufficiency at an early age. This upbringing would ultimately shape and positively contribute to the man I would later become. If I could point to one significant childhood event that would change the course of my life, I would say it was my parent’s decision to place me in private school after I completed elementary school. From grades 6 through 12, I attended St. Luke’s School which is an elite private school located in New Canaan, CT. I believe this educational environment with smaller classrooms and a lower student/teacher ratio helped me reach my academic potential.
I graduated from St. Luke’s School in Spring 1997 and attended Wagner College in Fall 1997 on a partial athletic (football) scholarship. After a year at Wagner College, I decided that I needed a change in environment and transferred to Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. After my first semester at Morehouse, while home for Winter break, my mother passed away unexpectedly at the age of 46. I was 19 at the time. I was urged by some family members to stay home and take time off to deal with the sudden loss. I decided to return to school and continue my studies while also participating in Track & Field. Morehouse College was expensive so in order to lower costs I decided to eliminate Room and Board expenses and moved off campus. In doing so, I could no longer run Track because I had to work in order to pay expenses incurred from living off campus. In Spring 2002, I graduated from Morehouse College with my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Management.
After working various sales and banking jobs in the Atlanta area post-graduation, I decided to come home to Connecticut in 2006. Hitachi Capital America Corp (now Mitsubishi HC Capital America) gave me my start in Equipment finance in the capacity of a Jr. Credit Analyst. I immediately knew that I found my niche and underwriting was what I wanted to do with my career. All was going well at Hitachi until the Great Recession hit and I was subsequently laid off in February 2009. I would later come to realize that this event was one of the biggest blessings of my career. In May 2009, a recruiter reached out and presented me with an opportunity to interview with a small but growing finance company specializing in Coin Laundromat financing, Eastern Funding LLC. During that time, the credit market was mostly frozen with companies either laying off/furloughing Credit professionals and/or halting lending operations. I interviewed well and didn’t think twice about accepting the position as a Credit Analyst.
I performed well as a Credit Analyst during my first few years at Eastern Funding and was promoted to Senior Credit Analyst in January 2012. In October 2012, Eastern Funding launched Specialty Equipment Vehicle Group (SVEG) and the Credit Team Leader at that time transferred to that division. This created the opportunity for me to lead the team and I was promoted to Credit Team Leader. Over the course of the next several years I was fortunate to be involved in many significant projects including but not limited to:
Miser to Jack Henry Conversion (back end system)
Paperless Conversion/Transition to Synergy
Advantage to Vision Conversion (front end Originations system)
Vision to Vision XV Conversion
Vision XV to nCino Conversion
I am grateful to have also contributed to the growth and success of Eastern Funding LLC over the years. I have held titles including Credit Analyst, Senior Credit Analyst, Credit Team Leader, AVP and my current title of Vice President of Credit. I am now being promoted to VP, Director of Credit. In 2022, I will be working on ensuring the successful merger of Eastern Funding and Macrolease. I will also be focused on leading and making an impact at the executive level. I am confident the STRIPES leadership program will assist me in achieving these initiatives.