Encina Business Credit made several key personnel moves aimed at accelerating the already significant growth that the company experienced in 2018.

Industry veteran Matt Grimes joined EBC as senior managing director, West region leader with the objective of scaling the company’s business development efforts west of Texas. Grimes will be based in Los Angeles and will report to Rob McMahon, EBC’s chief commercial officer.

Dave Braff has joined EBC as managing director and will lead the company’s business development efforts primarily in Northern California. Based in San Francisco, Braff will report to Grimes.

One of Grimes’ initial priorities is to hire a senior business development executive in Los Angeles with responsibility for Southern California.

In addition, the company has promoted Tron Allen to senior managing director, Central region leader. Allen will remain in Houston and report to McMahon. In his new role, Allen will oversee and contribute to the success of the company’s existing business development executives in Chicago, Detroit and Tulsa. He will also be responsible for continuing to build out the Central region and expects to add to his team later this quarter a senior business development executive located in either Dallas or Houston.

Grimes brings to EBC more than 25 years of experience in both asset-based and enterprise value lending. Before joining the company, Grimes served as the West region manager for Ares Commercial Finance. Previously, Grimes held senior business development roles at First Capital, GoldenTree Asset Management, Tennenbaum Capital Partners and Congress Financial. He also spent a couple years as a restructuring advisor at CRG Partners.

Braff has approximately 25 years of relevant experience working at both bank and non-bank ABL platforms. Most recently, he served as principal, Business Development at Ares Commercial Finance. Previously, Braff held business development roles at First Capital, Sovereign Bank, GE Capital and Union Bank, among other institutions.

Allen joined EBC in connection with the company’s launch in March 2016 as senior managing director. He has more than 25 years of experience in lending (both asset-based and enterprise value) and investment banking. Before EBC, Allen provided strategic advice to clients on capital structure alternatives as an investment banker at both BKD Corporate Finance and Deloitte Corporate Finance. He previously held a variety of business development and operating roles at GE Capital and JP Morgan Chase.