During its 61^st annual convention, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association announced its new board of directors and officers who will serve during the next 12 months. Robert Neagle, president and CEO of Finova Capital, is the new ELFA board chair and Robert Boyer, CLFP, president of First Commonwealth Equipment Finance, is now chair-elect. The chair-elect and new board members were recommended by ELFA’s nominating committee and approved by a vote of the general membership.

“It is my honor to serve as the board chair of ELFA and to represent the interests of our member companies, the staff of the association and its board,” Neagle said. “For more than 60 years, our member companies have supported the financing goals of business owners, both small and large, through a host of business cycles. Equipment finance has always been a critical part of our economy and will continue to support businesses of all sizes through these potentially challenging post-pandemic times.”

“As ELFA begins to implement a new long-range strategic plan in the year ahead, we are fortunate to have a member volunteer like Bob Neagle as chair of our board of directors,” Ralph Petta, president and CEO of the ELFA, said. “Bob’s industry knowledge and commitment to our association will have a positive impact on both our membership and the equipment finance industry at large.”

Neagle has more than 30 years of senior management experience at payment and equipment leasing and financing companies. Before launching Finova Capital, Neagle founded and led the merchant finance team at Ascentium Capital. He previously led the First Data Global Leasing unit at First Data (now Fiserv). Prior to that, he served as the senior leader for finance units at Bell Atlantic Capital (now Verizon) and AT&T Capital, where he launched a franchise finance business that provided SBA, construction, real estate and enterprise value lending programs.

As an ELFA member volunteer, Neagle has served on the ELFA board of directors since 2016. He currently is a member of the board’s executive and nominating committees. He also has served as board liaison to the ELFA’s small-ticket business council steering committee (BCSC) and as a member of the captive and vendor finance BCSC. In addition, Neagle has been active with the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, serving two terms on the board of trustees and as a member of the foundation’s finance committee, nominating committee, research committee and editorial review board for the Journal of Equipment Lease Financing. He is also a longtime donor to the foundation.

2023 ELFA Board of Directors

In addition to Neagle and Boyer’s appointments, the newly elected members of the ELFA board of directors include:

• David Drury, President, Senior Vice President and Group Head, Fifth Third Bank
• Brian Eschmann, CLFP, President, Northland Capital Equipment Finance
• Michael Jones, President of Business Capital, CIT
• Brad Peterson, Chief Operating Officer, Channel
• Jayma Sandquist, Chief Marketing Officer, SVP JDF U.S. & Canada, John Deere Financial
• Nick Small, Vice President of Finance Shared Services, Cisco Systems Capital

The following individuals were elected by the ELFA’s membership to serve as ELFA vice chairs:

• Deborah Baker, Head of Worldwide Leasing and Financing, HP
• James Cress, Vice President and General Manager, Stryker Flex Financial

Daniel Krajewski, executive vice president of Equify Financial, will serve as treasurer. Ed Rosen, the ELFA’s director of governance, will serve as secretary and Ralph Petta is an ex-officio officer. Mike DiCecco, executive managing director of Huntington Asset Finance, is immediate past chair.

Other members of the board are:

• Jon Biorkman, U.S. Managing Director and Head, BMO Equipment Finance
• Kathleen Canum, Senior Vice President of Administration, Canon Financial Services
• Debra Devassy Babu, Shareholder, Darcy & Devassy

• Mark Duncan, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Mitsubishi HC Capital America
• David Farrell, Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets, Bank of America Global Leasing
• R.J. Grimshaw, President and CEO, UniFi Equipment Finance
• Amy Gross, Executive Vice President, Key Government Finance
• Eric Gross, COO, Dext Capital
• Kirk Phillips, President and CEO, Wintrust Commercial Finance
• Ricardo A. Rios, President and CEO, Commercial Equipment Finance
• Barry Ripes, Senior Vice President and Financial Services Leader, Equifax
• Michael Romanowski, President, Farm Credit Leasing

• David Verkinderen, CLFP, Senior Vice President of Office Equipment and Manufacturing Vendor Services, U.S. Bank Equipment Finance
• Robert Wax, Co-President, Kingsbury Wax Bova