EVERY WOMAN PROFILED IN THIS ISSUE WAS PUT FORWARD BY SOMEONE ELSE. Monitor readers nominated the more than 50 honorees who appear in this year’s Top Women in Equipment Finance list. Someone saw their work, decided it deserved a wider audience and said so. That small act of advocacy is the thread running through nearly everything else in these pages, and every feature here asks a version of the same question: Who is opening doors, and for whom?
It is also what the honorees say they want more of. When we asked these women to name the biggest challenge facing women in the industry, many answered with one word: sponsorship. “Mentors give advice. Sponsors create opportunities,” said Rebecca Masserini-Cooper of NewLane Finance. Elizabeth Cook of First American Equipment Finance adds the other half in our new LeadHER Voices column, her reflection on Monitor’s inaugural LeadHER Women’s Leadership Summit: Real leadership means bringing more of yourself to the table, not editing yourself to fit the room.
Sponsorship matters most at the front of the pipeline. Kelli Nienaber of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association calls equipment finance a “discovery industry,” one most people find through someone they already know. Two stories show what happens when companies stop leaving that to chance. Dext Capital’s first three interns spent 14 weeks rotating through every department, automating workflows and underwriting small-ticket deals, and one is already coming back as an employee. Next spring, La Salle University will begin teaching commercial equipment finance, and the first class of at least 12 students will earn the CLFP Student Certificate.
The second theme is judgment. Many honorees expect artificial intelligence to reshape the deal lifecycle, and many say it will make experienced people more valuable, not less. The lenders in our Bank 50 roundtable agree. Kirk Phillips of Wintrust Commercial Finance says his philosophy is to “remove friction, not replace relationships.” Cam Krueger of The Alta Group offers five questions to ask before you buy a vendor’s AI. Ty Schwamberger’s Collector’s Chronicles makes the same point from the collections desk: Every “yes” teaches a customer what to expect next.
The numbers support that confidence. Our Bank 50 commentary shows the group’s net assets rising 2.5% to $310.7 billion and new business volume climbing 8.7% to $104.6 billion, with smaller players growing fastest. Yet Publisher Lisa Rafter’s year-in-review of Monitor Suite coverage sounds a caution: 64% of dealers rank the speed and clarity of the funding process above rate. Demand is not the problem. The process is, and people run it.
The companies that win will invest in those people and make sure every capable one gets a fair shot at leading.
So read the profiles. Then do what the nominators did. Pick one woman whose work you admire and, as Nienaber puts it, “Recommend her for the panel. Nominate her for the committee. Hand her the client relationship.” Or nominate her for 2027 Monitor recognitions.
Someone did it for each woman in this issue. Let’s make it the rule, not the exception.
