Wintrust Commercial Finance (WCF) created a new business group, Commercial Dealer Services (CDS). CDS will focus on delivering financial products to large franchised truck and trailer dealerships which then provide full-service financing and other ancillary services, including full maintenance leasing and daily rentals, to customers, primarily for Class 6, 7 and 8 trucking assets.

To execute this initiative, WCF hired a team of seasoned professionals led by Mike Jones as senior vice president and group head of business development. Joining Jones are Joel Ruf and Steve Perry as vice presidents of business development, Jeff Utech as vice president of credit and Maria Sanchez as senior operations analyst.

“We think this team is a natural expansion of our current WCF services,” Kirk Phillips, president and CEO of Wintrust Commercial Finance said. “We’re excited about the group we’ve welcomed to launch this new platform. Under Mike’s leadership, we’re confident the CDS team will expand our product offering by providing capital to OEM transportation dealers to support their lease and rental fleets coupled with exemplary customer service that our clients have come to know and expect.

“Wintrust has been a leader in providing financing solutions to their commercial clients for almost a decade, and it’s exciting to be able to hit the ground running with a new financing partner to our clients,” Jones said. “The group we’re bringing over to launch CDS has worked together for years and has the background and expertise to support the franchised commercial truck and trailer dealerships and full-service leasing companies across the U.S. It’s an exciting time to be joining Wintrust and we look forward to growing CDS together.”