New Appointment at CapitalSource

by Stuart P. Papavassiliou and Amanda L. Gutshall November/December 2011
When the industry learned of Laird Boulden’s promotion to president of CapitalSource at the end of October, the logical question arose: who will succeed him to lead the company’s equipment finance operations? According to Boulden, the appointment of Maureen Carr to his former position goes way beyond the naming of a suitable replacement…

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Maureen CarrMaureen Carr, Director Corporate Asset Finance Group, CapitalSource

In late October, monitordaily readers learned that Laird Boulden, the head of CapitalSource’s Corporate Finance Group, assumed the role of president for the Maryland-based specialty finance company turned bank. Some ten days later, the industry learned of Boulden’s choice to lead the company’s equipment finance operations. In Maureen Carr, his protégé for more than a decade, Boulden sees not only a skilled executive and trusted colleague, but an example of the next generation of industry leadership as well.

Carr, who joined the workforce as a CPA, first met Boulden at Heller Financial in 1997, where she started out as a financial analyst but eventually joined the equipment finance group in mid-2001. “I worked for Laird at that point as a credit analyst,” Carr recalls. “That was a short stint because after a couple of months in equipment finance, GE bought Heller.” But it was then that Carr got a taste of the equipment finance industry and the differences between the front and back offices. She says, “After a number of years in finance roles, I felt that I needed a change. Once GE bought Heller at the end of 2001, I had to decide whether to go back into finance or continue on the new path that I had begun. It was at that time that Laird called me and asked me to join him at RBS Asset Finance.”

That was in June 2002 and Carr has never looked back on her decision to further her career. Carr joined RBS as a credit analyst and by the time she left in 2008, she was leading the capital markets group. Her association with Boulden continued when she joined Tygris Commercial Finance as head of the capital markets group. “My time at Tygris was interesting for a couple of reasons. I was able to leverage my background in finance and work closely with the CFO at Tygris. I had the opportunity to go backwards, so to speak, and ask myself, ‘Did I make the right decision?’ This experience reinforced my decision to continue with the path I was on.”

The fourth quarter of 2009 proved to be pivotal for Carr. First, Tygris announced it was to be acquired by EverBank, a Florida thrift seeking to expand its product offering into the world of commercial finance. Then in the final days of 2009, CapitalSource issued a release announcing it had hired Boulden to lead its new equipment finance unit. Under a new shingle and once again, Boulden turned to Carr to head up the new unit’s capital markets efforts. Carr explains, “I joined CapitalSource in February 2010 and my focus has been on handling all aspects of indirect originations.”

Boulden had plans of his own. He notes, “My philosophy has always been to promote people from within whenever possible. Our team has been fairly cohesive and we’ve worked together at numerous organizations.” In choosing his successor, he recognized the need to select an individual who possesses a number of skills. He continues, “You can’t just be sales or credit or finance. And I guess everybody is being groomed for their next position, so the question for me was: who was I grooming to be the next head of CapitalSource’s Corporate Asset Finance Group? In the end, I was well aware that Maureen would be my replacement well before she was. Maureen has done an excellent job of wearing many hats in her many roles and she’s well prepared to take on whatever lies ahead.”

Carr’s long association with Boulden aside, we asked what other factors contributed to her decision to join the team at CapitalSource. She notes, “From an industry perspective, CapitalSource really fills a void. We have a commercial finance mentality with the stability of bank funding. And when we joined the firm in early 2010, there were few players in the market. This enabled us to put our knowledge to good use by working on more structured deals, without multiple players nipping at our heels.”

Beyond the market conditions, Carr notes that organizationally, CapitalSource dispenses with the bureaucracy found in other institutions. “If a deal makes sense and it’s priced well, we’re very much attuned to doing it. That’s in contrast to the big bank approach where you may have more bureaucratic hurdles such as asking for permission from a relationship manager. Here, if we want to pursue a deal, you do.”

She also recognizes that CapitalSource, as a relative newcomer to the equipment finance business, has to establish its presence in the marketplace. “A big factor is that 85% of our business last year came in through indirect channels. We closed about $220 million in indirect business, and will probably close about the same amount this year. Our main goal now is to continue to build out the direct franchise.”

She adds, “Another important factor is execution. Since joining CapitalSource, we haven’t had a single decline from the credit committee. We’ve worked very hard to deliver on our promises and continue to build a name for ourselves. We recently closed a $15 million deal in just seven days — many companies can’t move that fast.”

As for 2012, Carr’s main objective will be purely from the originations standpoint. “We need to diversify our business to rely less on the indirect market. These days, you’re at the mercy of the banks and finance companies that bring you deals. We’re also finding that banks aren’t calling on the single B credits and have minimal focus on the low BB credits. They simply aren’t pursuing deals in our sweet spot. We need to gain greater control over our deals. So, we’ll continue to be laser-focused on making sure we’re executing in the marketplace and making our name synonymous with delivering on our promises. That makes all the difference.”

Carr’s Chicago-based team calls on both privately and publicly held customers throughout the U.S. and Canada with annual revenues in the $50 million to $20 billion range. Carr says, “Our deal sizes are typically from $5 million to $50 million. We focus predominantly in the heavy equipment sectors with anything from manufacturing equipment, barges, railcars, marine, as well as the energy sector, since that’s a big source of CAPEX these days.”

From a macro view, Carr sees things as many do when it comes to the near term. “I think we’ll continue to see a level of disruption in the market, at least for the next 12 months. People started to come into our market earlier this year, but once the August noise hit, they pulled back to where they’re comfortable: investment grade credits or just below. With Europe in such a state of disarray, the gang of twelve’s failure to finalize the necessary budget cuts and next year’s election, my feeling is that things in 2012 will bump along in a similar way to 2011.”

She continues, “Borrowers will continue to spend, but predominately for replacement equipment, not growth. As for what the banks do in the equipment finance space, a lot depends on the general economic feel. I think many would rather do larger deals for investment grade companies at cheaper rates than try to go after structured transactions with better pricing. But if things start to look a little better, you’ll see them widen their boxes again.”

In spite of the uncertainty, Carr says she and her team at CapitalSource Corporate Asset Finance are in a good place. “We like our position in the market. As a team, we have a wide breadth of experience and truly enjoy thinking outside of the box to get tougher, more structured deals done. We’re in a bit of a niche and that keeps our people excited about the deals that we’re doing.”

From Boulden’s perspective, Carr’s appointment to head CapitalSource Corporate Asset Finance signifies something of importance — the ushering in of a new generation of leadership in the equipment finance industry. “Maureen’s appointment is good news for the industry because it shows a changing of the guard. As an industry, we’ve had discussions year after year about how to attract younger people and provide them with a good future. Well, here it is — the future.”


Stuart P. Papavassiliou and Amanda L. Gutshall are senior editor and associate editor of the Monitor, respectively. Stuart can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] and Amanda can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

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