Monitor W – Women for Women: Honest Conversations, Part 2

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Women for Women: Honest Conversations – Part 2

Monitor Suite will unveil W, a Monitor Women series focused on women in equipment finance, with a three-part Member Live+ series. In this three-part livestream moderated by Monitor Publisher Lisa Rafter, NextGen women will lead a Q&A with trailblazing women of equipment finance that will explore the truth of their experiences. Designed to create conversations that will benefit everyone in the industry, the livestream series will explore many topics, including:

  • How could the industry benefit from having more women in leadership roles?
  • How can we make leadership more attractive and accessible to women?
  • What does it take for women to achieve and maintain a seat at the table?
  • How have trailblazing women overcome adversity in their careers?
  • What are the best ways for women to support each other?
  • What can male colleagues do to become strong allies for women?
  • How can veterans and women who are newer to the industry learn from each other?
  • Work-life integration: Can it exist?

Panelist:

Deborah Baker

Head of Worldwide Leasing and Financing, HP

Deborah Baker has been a champion for women and other underrepresented groups during her 30-year career in equipment finance. Through her leadership at the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, she has transformed her commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion into meaningful action for the industry. Baker is an active participant in various industry associations. She joined the ELFA’s board of directors in October 2019 and is excited to be the incoming chair of the ELFA’s Women’s Council. She is also a member of the newly formed ELFA Equality Committee.


Panelist:

Laurie Bakke

President, Western Equipment Finance

Laurie Bakke is a dynamic, results-oriented leader who excels in sales management, business development, risk management and operational efficiency. Bakke’s career spans all phases of the business life-cycle, including startup, growth, turnaround and steady-state. In addition, her strong sales and relationship management skills produce year-over-year growth and strong future business development opportunities, while her operational management, including compliance, auditing and bad debt resolution, ensures business success and goal achievement.

Over the past 25 years, Bakke has been actively involved in the greater equipment leasing and finance industry. She is a past member of the board of directors for the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association and the board of trustees for the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation. She has participated on panels at the ELFA’s Annual Convention and Executive Roundtable. She also advocates for the Certified Leasing & Finance Professional accreditation, with several of her team members achieving the certification.


Panelist:

Nancy Robles

President, Eastern Funding

Throughout her more than 20-year career, Nancy Robles has earned a reputation as an exceptional leader with repeated success driving productive change across organizations specifically related to human resources, diversity and inclusion strategies. Robles has a talent for championing positive organizational cultures that generate exceptional employee experiences. Often described as a collaborative communicator, Robles is skilled at fostering and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders at varying levels of an organization to build consensus and create overall efficiencies. Additionally, she is a dedicated professional with the proven ability to facilitate cross-functional teams to deliver innovative solutions to complex issues.


Panelist:

Peggy Tomcheck

CEO, Aspen Capital

Peggy Tomcheck brings a wealth of leasing and management experience as leader of Aspen Capital’s business development and management team. Her vision for Aspen Capital is focused on the continued development of a rewarding and uplifting workplace for Aspen employees and business partners that promote the collaboration necessary to provide creative business financing solutions for customers and vendors.

Tomcheck has spent more than 30 years developing creative asset management leasing solutions for large public and private companies. She has leveraged that experience to establish best-in- class custom technology lease programs in the higher education market across the United States. In addition, she has business development professional skills in sales, management, account management, contract negotiation and healthcare.


Q&A Leader:

Vanessa Andel
Customer Success Coach, Leasepath

Vanessa Andel, CLFP, is the customer success coach for Leasepath, the cloud-first platform for CRM and Originations purpose-built for equipment finance. Andel leverages her equipment finance operations background and CLFP accreditation to drive organizations to embrace modern technology solutions that lead to teams becoming smarter, faster and more agile. Andel is passionate about finding creative solutions and is active with the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association and the National Equipment Finance Association. She seeks to take an active role in collaborating to solve common inefficiencies and challenges found in the equipment finance industry.


Q&A Leader:

Amy Majeskie

SVP, Wells Fargo Vendor Finance

Amy Majeskie is senior vice president for Wells Fargo Vendor Finance, managing the diversified programs and technology division, which is comprised of technology, industrial and medical assets for a variety of high-profile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. In her role, Majeskie is responsible for the overall portfolio sales strategy, including business initiatives, operational excellence and enhancing the customer experience, while driving volume and managing risk both internally and externally. Through her diverse group of programs, she is responsible for $800 million in new originations.

Prior to this role, Majeskie served as territory manager for Wells Fargo’s Construction Group, managing multiple geographical territories within the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, doubling growth volume and executing market strategy projects to create a cohesive and collaborative business model for a better client experience.

Majeskie brings almost 20 years of equipment finance expertise to the industry having held leadership and managerial positions at CitiCapital, Societe Generale, and Wells Fargo. She holds a B.A. in economics from Syracuse University.

Majeskie and her family reside in Southlake, TX.


Moderator:

Lisa Rafter
Publisher, Monitor

Lisa Rafter has been in the equipment leasing and specialty finance industries for more than 30 years, most notably as publisher of Monitor Magazine, ABF Journal, IFA’s Commercial Factor magazine and NACLB’s DealMaker Magazine. Rafter is also CEO of Molloy Associates. Molloy is a boutique executive recruitment firm focused on the equipment finance and asset-based lending industries. In addition, Rafter is founder and CEO of Stripes Leadership Program, a program designed to develop the leaders of tomorrow’s equipment finance industry.

As the former editor and current publisher of the aforementioned publications, Rafter was instrumental in the creation of many ground-breaking products such as the Monitor 100, the annual ranking of the top 100 equipment finance companies, monitordaily.com, the industry’s first website and daily e-news blast, World Leasing News, the industry’s first online magazine and ABF Journal, the asset-based lending industry’s first independent publication.

Rafter’s commitment to high performance doesn’t stop at the workplace. She is also involved in numerous community-building projects and services. Rafter delights in giving a voice to the unheard and, through various leadership roles, strives to provide people with the tools and distinctions to live an extraordinary life. With this commitment, Rafter has served on the boards of non-profit organizations and also has volunteered for many community organizations dedicated to serving at-risk populations. Currently, Rafter is on the board of MAGIC Charities and serves as the chair for the Adoption & Foster Care Committee.