Signature Financial, the wholly-owned specialty finance subsidiary of Signature Bank, appointed seven professionals to equipment finance executive sales officer roles, including Alfredo Anguiano, Scott Armitage, Thomas Austin, Michael Luke, Andrew Pennline, Thomas Prendergast and Scott Stromquist.

An equipment ESO is responsible for providing commercial clients financing and leasing solutions to facilitate their acquisition of equipment. Signature Financial now has 33 equipment finance executive sales officers throughout its U.S. footprint.

In addition to these appointments, Signature Financial added Kelly Lane and Tim Pedersen as asset management officers.

Anguiano joined Signature Financial from Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, where he served as senior vice president of food, beverage and agribusiness, originating related transactions throughout the West Coast. Anguiano has more than two decades of finance experience and previously served as a relationship manager at several other institutions, including U.S. Bank and GE Capital, before joining Wells Fargo. Anguiano, who is based in Los Angeles, will be working directly with Signature Bank’s private client banking teams on the West Coast, supporting clients as well as sourcing new relationships.

Armitage, based in Boise, ID, will originate relationships in the greater Western Mountain region for Signature Financial. Armitage joined Signature Financial following his tenure at First Interstate Bank in Boise, where he spent five years in roles of increasing responsibilities across the bank’s various Idaho locations. Most recently, he was assistant commercial relationship manager, handling regional mid-market accounts.

Before joining Signature Financial, Austin, a finance professional with 35 years of experience, was vice president and regional sales manager in the equipment financing division at Ameris Bank. Focused primarily on the construction equipment market, Austin was responsible for equipment financing business development with direct lending and dealer-sourced relationships to generate organic growth through the division. Austin also held roles at Caterpillar Financial Services and GE Capital. Austin will complement Signature Financial’s existing Southeast region executive sales officers from Orlando, FL.

Luke joined Signature Financial from Sterling National Bank’s equipment finance division in New York City, where he served as managing director for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and was responsible for business development in the construction and transportation sectors throughout the greater New York City metro and Mid-Atlantic areas. Luke will cater to Signature Bank clients as well as independently developed relationships. Earlier in his 25-year career, he held specialty finance-related roles at JP Morgan Equipment Finance and Key Equipment Finance. Luke works from offices in Greenwich, CT.

An equipment finance professional with a generalist background in the specialty finance industry and more than a decade of experience, Pennline joined Signature Financial from Wells Fargo Equipment Finance. He was an account manager, originating equipment loans and leases as well as managing a territory team. He has held other equipment leasing roles at Net Health, Komatsu Mining and the Reznick Group. Pennline will use his Pittsburgh home base to cover the greater western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio regions for Signature Financial.

Prendergast is an equipment finance veteran with 38 years of experience in the space. Prior to joining Signature Financial, Prendergast was vice president at Fifth Third Equipment Finance, responsible for business development, mostly within the manufacturing, agricultural, transportation and construction industries. Prendergast held previous roles at Wells Fargo Equipment Finance and U.S. Bancorp Leasing & Financial. Prendergast, based in the Chicago metro market, will provide additional client coverage for Signature Financial in the Midwest region.

Prior to joining Signature Financial, Stromquist, based in Nashville, TN, held the position of sales support manager at Caterpillar Financial in Nashville. He managed a sales support team and provided equipment financing for 20 Caterpillar dealers, spending more than a decade of his career at the company. In addition to Caterpillar in Nashville, he served in management roles at Caterpillar in Peoria, IL, and San Antonio.

Lane and Pedersen will support the continuing growth of Signature Financial’s direct equipment origination avenues as well as Signature Financial’s other specialty businesses, including its intermediary funding and capital markets equipment channels, transportation funding, franchise finance and commercial marine lending.

Lane, a senior equipment finance professional with 22 years of equipment finance and asset management experience, was named vice president of asset management and is based at Signature Financial’s offices in Melville, NY, as well as in Brookfield, CT. Most recently, Lane was senior vice president of equipment management at Santander Bank Equipment Finance, where he managed the valuation, risk mitigation and profitability for the group’s multibillion dollar portfolio of financed and leased assets. Over the course of his more than 20-year career, Lane has served in analyst, underwriting, portfolio management and equipment finance roles at a range of finance companies, including CIT Equipment Finance, Somerset Capital Group and GE Capital.

Pedersen, who was named asset management officer, has spent 30 years in the leasing and financial services industries, with an emphasis on portfolio management, underwriting, capital markets and asset management. In his most recent position, he provided equipment evaluations for portfolio acquisitions and individual lease financings at Craig & Associates in Deer Park, MD. Earlier, he was co-founder and managing director at Rockwell Financial Group, a middle market lender. He also previously worked for Southern Pacific BanCapital, where he established the leasing division and Capital Associates, with several roles of increasing responsibility spanning a 10 year-period. Pedersen is based in Boulder, CO.

“Signature Financial continues to identify and attract talent nationwide, which has contributed to our growth to $5-plus billion in assets,” Walter Rabin, president and CEO at Signature Financial, said. “Professionals such as these are the reason Signature Financial has emerged as the 15th largest bank-based lender in the specialty equipment finance space, a position we secured in just nine years since the launch of our subsidiary at Signature Bank.”

“Akin to Signature Bank’s founding single-point-of-contact philosophy and relationship-based model, where we attract veteran bankers who join as teams, Signature Financial is further cementing its similar relationship-based approach through these appointments,” Joseph J. DePaolo, president and CEO of Signature Bank, said. “These newly appointed client-facing professionals each bring extensive, specialized knowledge of the equipment finance niche, which will further strengthen Signature Financial’s national market penetration and reputation. We look forward to the contributions our new colleagues will make to the ongoing growth of the specialty finance business.”

Editor’s Note: The original version of this post said that Luke and Pennline joined Sterling Financial. It has been corrected to reflect that they joined Signature Financial. Monitor apologizes for the error.