Anthony Salm, president; Scott Glover, executive vice president of sales and operations; Hank Lee, chief operating officer; and two Cleveland-based business analysts formed the new equipment finance company, Patriot Equipment Finance. The company will focus on key vertical markets such as energy, construction and mining industries.

Together, they have over 75 years of experience working together and on their own and at a multitude of mid-ticket lessors and banks. Collectively, they have financed over $1.5 billion in capital projects – from aviation to energy.

Patriot Equipment Finance intends to provide value to corporate CFOs by offering creative lease finance tools to assist them in their strategic planning. The company will evaluate how equipment finance plays a role in helping CFOs build and communicate the company’s values. This, in turn, will help build rapport with analysts and investors, while creating trust in the CFO, the numbers they report, and their companies. Patriot Equipment Finance will help educate CFOs on how a resourceful leasing partner will allow them to work more effectively as a team with the COO, CEO, and others on the management team.

“We know many of the major players in these vertical markets, and we also know what funding sources have an appetite for based on their current credit situations. And, we also understand the collateral they are trying to finance,” explains Salm. “It was no surprise that a consortium of oil and gas investors wanted to invest in us and our books of business. With our new investors, we knew we could fund transactions from private equity and go beyond the super broker model with these guys (investors).”

Patriot Equipment Finance has its corporate office in Strongsville, OH and sales offices in Pittsburgh, PA and Los Angeles, CA.