Justine Cook
During Justine’s tenure at CIT she has experience working in all aspects of the lease life cycle: residual setting, originations, collections and end of term servicing. Justine has also successfully worked the portfolio on due diligences, portfolio conversions (including international) and technology initiatives. A lot of focus was spent working closely with sales as new programs are onboarded to ensure proper servicing requirements. As new applications and enhancements are rolled out to support existing and new businesses Justine works to practice transformational change with the improvements. Most recently Justine was promoted from VP of Asset Management to a Director of Operations.
Veteran support is a passion of Justine’s and she is National Advocacy lead for the Be You Veterans employee resource group. Away from work Justine enjoys spending time at the beach with her family. Her two boys keep her busy fishing, boating, surfing and watching lacrosse tournaments.
Valerie King
I grew up in Boise, Idaho, and my high school class consisted of 13 people. 40% of the school came from countries around the world. I earned an international baccalaureate degree and knew from the age of 12 I wanted to go to school in Boston. My younger brother went the opposite route—he headed to Portland, OR. I went to Wellesley College (right outside of Boston—close enough) and majored in theatre studies and anthropology. I was the president of the Shakespeare Society and I directed three plays in college; I acted in/produced/sound designed for maybe 25 more. I have lived in Idaho, Boston, New York City, Jamaica, St. Louis, Chicago, and San Francisco. I ended up in Philadelphia and this is my third stint living here—I just can’t stay away. I bought a house here—now I also can’t move away. I have a tech background and I’ve done some political campaigning. I’ve always been sales or sales-adjacent, but my passion is coaching. My husband is from Germany and my dog is from Kensington. He is a pug-cocker spaniel who is very lazy and very funny. I am childfree by choice. I am the Demand Gen/SDR Manager at Marlin Capital Solutions. I like people who are funny, intelligent, and generous. All day, I seek to laugh, make other people laugh, and shine a flashlight through the dark tunnel of one person’s career. I’m excited to work with you all.
Rich Irwin
Richard Irwin is SVP and Chief Financial Officer at Marlin. Mr. Irwin is responsible for overseeing the company’s Accounting, Financial Planning & Analysis, Tax, and Treasury teams. Mr. Irwin joined Marlin as Treasurer, relaunching the Term ABS program after an 8-year hiatus, streamlining the syndicated secondary marketing process, assisting in M&A and due diligence activities, as well as overseeing the company’s general pricing strategy. Prior to joining Marlin in 2016, Mr. Irwin spent over 19 years at CIT Group Inc., holding various positions in Corporate Accounting, Treasury Risk Management, Funding, and Mergers & Acquisitions. During his time at CIT, Mr. Irwin was responsible for certain fundings of the US and Canadian Vendor Finance, US Factored Receivable, and the Global Aerospace and Rail portfolios as well as analyzing over 75 M&A transactions including the US acquisition of Direct Capital and CIT’s divestitures in Asia, Europe, and South America. Mr. Irwin earned a BS in Finance and an MBA from Rutgers University, earned the Certified Treasury Professional designation, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder.
Jaymi Sander
I grew up in a small rural community in mid Missouri and have always been very involved in athletics. After High School I played division II basketball while completing my Bachelor of Science in Sports Management with an emphasis on business. I started my career in the proprietary education sector. I began working for the admissions office, from there became the Director of Admissions, and eventually had the opportunity to move back to my hometown and be the Director of a school locally. I eventually realized I was looking for a career change that would allow me to use the skills I had developed, while gaining additional knowledge that could help me achieve personal and professional goals. I started my journey in the Leasing and Finance industry in early 2012 with LEAF Commercial Capital. LEAF has created an environment where colleagues truly feel like family, and I am proud to be a part of the organization. I began my journey in the technology sales sector, transitioned into the office products sales division, and most recently helped the company to leverage a business unit in the diversified equipment space. I am currently the Director of Sales for Diversified Vendor Markets and looking forward to continue providing growth opportunities for my company and employees.
Matt Diehl
I wear many hats at LEAF - which makes my role fun and exciting. I work closely with LEAF’s multiple business lines, shared services, parent organization, and external partners to serve our customers and advance our mission. My wife and I live in New Jersey with our two young children and feisty terrier. I was previously an entrepreneur, which led me to develop a passion for business strategy and creating unique growth opportunities.
Jake Nguyen
Seasoned credit risk professional with over 10 years of experience in the equipment finance industry with proven record of developing high performance teams in a banking regulated environment, specialize in bridging internal and external partners to achieve desire outcome on small and middle ticket transactions.
Riley Nemeth
I am a Vice President of Asset Management for Wintrust Commercial Finance in Frisco TX. I have held that role with WCF for 4.5 years and has been in the industry for over 6 years. I was born and raised in rural Northwest Nebraska, I am a passionate sports fan and also enjoy restoring old vehicles and woodworking. I am married to my high school sweetheart, Krista. We have no kids and one dog, Ruger. We both love to travel and attend concerts.
Joseph Turner
Joseph Turner is a Vice President responsible for Strategy and Analytics for Business Capital and has been with the firm since 2016. Joseph began his career at the bank through its two-year Finance Development Program and after three years in Finance transitioned into a role within Business Capital in 2019. He joined the bank straight after graduating from the University of North Florida (UNF) with dual Bachelor of Business Administration degrees in Finance and Economics. While in school, Joseph served as Student Body President and a Trustee on the UNF Board.
Lee Wisler
Personal: I am 35 years old and reside in Granger, a suburb of South Bend, IN. I am married to my wife Cristine since 2014 and have two kids. My daughter Camille is 5 and my son Wade just turned 3. We are fortunate to have our extended family reside in the nearby area and spend the majority of our summer free time on the water at a family lake home. I am struggling to get better at golf, but enjoy 9 holes after work when my schedule affords.
Professional: I joined 1st Source Bank in 2016 following a decade in sales and business prospecting. New to commercial lending at the time, I received a tremendous education as an SBA focused Small Business Lender. In this role I became practiced in CRE, working capital facilities, business acquisitions, and utilized SBA afforded protections to help start-up businesses obtain capital. In 2018 I joined 1st Source Bank’s Specialty Finance Group and pivoted to a career in equipment finance. I specialized in growing the banks delivery and vocational vehicle portfolio and maintain my production focus in this area to date. In 2020, I entered into a management role of our Specialty Vehicle Division. This division houses a number of product lines to include Motorcoach, Shuttle Bus, Delivery, and Funeral Car. I am a committee member of the bank’s Commercial Banking Development Program and enjoy working with young emerging bankers eager to explore their own careers.
Erin Smith
Erin has 15+ years managing office buildouts and corporate events for mid-sized to large international organizations. Working with multiple internal and external stakeholders to ensure goals exceed expectations.
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.