Rita E. Garwood,
Editor in Chief,
Monitor

As summer winds down and we enter the home stretch of 2023, we celebrate the up-and-coming companies in equipment finance with our annual Monitor 101+ issue.

This group of 41 companies put on a stellar performance in 2022, reporting year-overyear growth of 49.2% in net assets and 51.5% in new business volume. More banks joined the ranking this year, as a clear indicator of the ongoing appeal of the equipment finance business today.

But much like last year, the Monitor 101+ was dominated by independents. Jim Merrilees from The Alta Group outlines the opportunities available for independents, including entry into new markets, that may be tougher for banks in today’s economy. Following a similar thread, leaders from Mitsubishi HC Capital America share their insights on how to prepare and seize opportunities in today’s uncertain economic environment.

This year, 13 new companies joined the Monitor 101+ ranking. The Monitor team sat down with the leaders of five of these companies — Donald Wampler from Apex Commercial Capital, Gary Cook from 1st Equipment Finance, Saurin Shah from MidCap Equipment Finance, Matt Green from CIBC Equipment Finance and John-Paul Smolenski from MMP Capital — to learn more about their businesses, how they approach leadership and the opportunities that they see on the horizon.

In The Tomorrow Zone column, Deborah Reuben checks in with Kelly Riggs, author, speaker and executive business consultant, to discuss how the “un-training” of salespeople can greatly improve corporate leadership and sales performance. In Tipping the Scales, Tenor Ickes from Oswald Law Form outlines how companies can unite to help defend themselves against fraud and outlines several approaches companies can use to protect themselves.

Bill Bosco returns for a second installment of his CFO Chats series in Crunching the Numbers, which outlines a conversation between a salesperson and a CFO who is thinking about stopping leasing to improve company EBITDA.

And in Doing the Work, Jackie Jacobs explores how equipment finance companies can develop strategies that will help attract more diverse talent.

Be on the lookout for the Monitor team at upcoming industry events this fall and keep your eyes peeled for our Fall Conference issue, which will include our annual industry icon profiles and take a deep dive into the issues that are top of mind for brokers today.

Speaking of brokers, in this year’s Monitor 100, North Mill Equipment Finance made a reporting error which attributed the bulk of its volume it’s the vendor channel. Since North Mill works exclusively with brokers, its volume should’ve been attributed to its indirect channel.