NEFA Summit Attracts More than 260, Features Charitable Initiatives



More than 260 commercial equipment finance professionals from across North America gathered last week at the 2017 National Equipment Finance Summit at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach, CA.

Chairperson for this year’s Summit was Frank Peretore, of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi. Working with a group of NEFA member volunteers, Peretore put together an educational program for the conference with sessions ranging from growing your business to preparing it for sale and all the stages in between.

“It’s a pleasure to work on NEFA programs because the membership is so passionate about education and so willing to share information,” Peretore said.

Included among the attendees were some 70 first-time summit participants and 15 new NEFA members.

“We’re always excited and gratified when our emphasis on community, education and professionalism attracts new attendees and members” said Stephanie Hall of BlackRiver Business Capital, NEFA’s current president and chairperson of the board.

Randy Haug of LeaseTeam, Chris Lerma of AP Equipment Finance, Nancy Geary of ECS Financial Services and Chris Enbom of AP Equipment Finance helped organize a Golf Networking and Fundraiser, on Wednesday, March 15, to benefit the Chris Walker Education Fund and were on hand to thank the golfers and speak to attendees about the fund.

More than 100 attendees boarded the Queen Mary Thursday evening, March 16, looking for the ghosts the famous ship while exploring one of America’s top 10 most haunted places (as voted by Time Magazine) for a charity networking tour. Net proceeds are being donated to support the fight against domestic violence, supporting Su Casa, a local Long Beach, CA, non-profit organization.

Shawn Smith of Dedicated Commercial Recovery, Mae Philpott of Quality Leasing and Lovern Gordon of Love Life Now Foundation, spearheaded and supported this event and cause. Shawn Smith spoke at the luncheon, emphasizing the networking and recognizing the charity tour sponsors and attendees, Thursday, March 16.

Also at the luncheon, Reid Raykovich, executive director of the CLFP Foundation, was presented the 2016 Leasing News Person of the Year Award. The award was presented to her on behalf of Leasing News by Hall.

The CLFP Foundation, with whom NEFA has a long and close relationship, also presented some of its own awards during the Finance Summit. Jared Keepman, Tom Lockhart, Matt Crawley, John Pitre and Dan Nelson were formally announced as the newest Certified Leasing & Finance Professionals by Raykovich.

In addition, NEFA Executive Director Gerry Egan formally announced NEFA’s new full scale online education center. Egan emphasized the expression “Each One, Teach One” in his talk and encouraged summit attendees to reach out and share their knowledge with others.

“This is a long-term, strategic initiative that NEFA is proud to embark on, which will benefit current and future NEFA Members and the whole industry in support of our core values of Community, Education and Professionalism,” Egan said. “We’re very excited about the future for this.”


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Terry Mulreany
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