Few firms reach the Monitor 100 in their second year, and Eric Miller frames that milestone in his own terms. “We didn’t chase growth for growth’s sake,” he says. “We focused on serving clients, preserving capital and creating a sustainable business.” Reaching this scale so quickly, he adds, “is a testament to our people, our relationships and the confidence our clients and capital partners have placed in us.” Notably, he says the firm never chased a number: “We had a clear vision for what we wanted to build, but we were careful not to become overly focused on a specific asset target or timeline.”
That platform traces back to rebuilding BciCapital as an independent, Ares-backed company. Miller saw banks retreating from a business that “consumes balance sheet without generating the deposits, treasury management relationships or ancillary banking revenues that most banks prioritize today.” Partnering with Ares, he says, “gave us the flexibility, scale and long-term capital necessary to pursue larger and more complex opportunities,” letting the firm decide “with a singular focus on clients, underwriting quality and long-term value creation.”
Miller traces his approach to three earlier stops. “GE taught me the importance of process, data-driven decision making and maintaining high standards regardless of where we are in the cycle.” CIT gave him his first full P&L, and BciCapital gave him a mentor in Mark Trollinger. “When I look at Ansley Park, I see elements of all three experiences,” he says, “GE’s rigor and discipline, CIT’s ownership mindset and business leadership and BciCapital’s lessons on values, relationships and long-term value creation.”
On winning deals from $5 million to north of $100 million, Miller is blunt: “It’s often not about being the cheapest capital provider, it’s about being the most knowledgeable and reliable execution partner.” He believes independents are still early in displacing banks: “We believe we’re still in the early innings of this shift.”
Asked about Ansley Park’s back-to-back culture recognition, Miller doesn’t hedge: “We don’t just talk about culture, we live it every day.” Five years out, he says, success “won’t simply be measured by asset size,” but by “the quality of our portfolio, the strength of our team and the trust we’ve earned from clients, investors and our industry partners.”
“Our goal is simple: to build a company that earns trust, performs consistently across market cycles and becomes one of the premier equipment finance platforms in the industry.”
Rita E. Garwood is editor in chief of Monitor.