Errin Adams began her equipment finance career as a documentation specialist at Banc One Leasing Corporation. She quickly developed expertise in commercial middle-market equipment finance, syndications and specialty collateral. For some time, she managed the operations department for Commerce Bank/CBI Leasing, but ultimately returned to Banc One Leasing, which had by then been acquired by JPMorgan Chase and had undergone a rebrand to Chase Equipment Finance.

During her time at Chase Equipment Finance, Adams had roles in both sales and operations. She started as the manager of the newly created internal sales function, where she assisted in re-engineering the sales process and enhancing the end-to-end deal cycle. She was then promoted to regional coverage manager, garnering experience in the product education and demand generation aspects of sales. She moved back into operations as Chase Equipment Finance’s national operations manager, at which time she added asset-based lending to her team. Gaining experience in the ABL product further developed Adams’ knowledge of core commercial banking operations.

Adams then accepted an opportunity to lead the development of JPMorgan Chase’s ‘know your customer’ commercial banking operations team, an entirely new business process in a dynamic regulatory setting. Adams was instrumental in building out a secondary site in Bangalore, India, defining the new workflow and implementing new processes and technology. She also had the opportunity to work in the data and analytics team to develop new tools and reporting in support of the program.

Adams was excited to return to equipment finance operations when an opportunity arose to join Citizens Asset Finance, where she is currently the national operations manager for the equipment finance and asset-based lending groups.

Throughout her career, Adams has led through change, process engineering, business optimization and new technology implementations. She’s unique in this industry as someone who has managed teams in regulatory and data/analytics, sales and operations in both large and small companies. Adams is most proud of the many people that she has been fortunate enough to work with in this industry and the role that she has played in helping to develop the next generation of leaders.

“I have partnered with Errin for close to 15 years while she has held senior leadership roles in documentation, regulatory, sales and operations. In each position, she has demonstrated an ability to provide a consistent client- first approach while maintaining staunch risk management and controls on behalf of the bank,” Stan Walker, managing director for Citizens Asset Finance, says. “I wish I had one specific example of what sets Errin apart, but there are simply too many. I will say that, if she has one defining attribute, it would be that in times of stress – which feels like 50% of our days, some weeks – Errin is at her best. She has the unique capability of blending a calm and focused demeanor with a thoughtful deep dive of the issues at hand. Her team feels it, the clients feel it and, ultimately, we reach the best solution available and are able to avoid making a potentially bad situation into something worse. It’s been an absolute honor to work with Errin for these many years and am hopeful there are many more to come.”

“The first principle is really just to apply yourself and learn everything you can about the business and role you are in: volunteer for projects and take any training that you can. This is the best foundation to take a chance on your next role, and don’t be afraid to take that chance when it comes.”