“Empathy isn’t softness. It’s the fastest way to build a team that acts with confidence and ownership. When people feel understood, they stop asking for validation and start making real decisions. That’s what I’m after, not a team that follows well, but one that leads from wherever they stand.”

Esteban Zuleta entered equipment finance drawn by something few industries could offer: a deep record of how businesses behave when they borrow, how assets retain value, and how risk unfolds over time. His early focus was technical, centered on building credit scoring models that could translate that data into sharper lending decisions.

Over time, his perspective evolved. Better models, he came to realize, were only part of the equation. The harder challenge lay in the judgment behind the model — the daily decisions made by credit officers, portfolio managers and executives navigating real risk amid competing pressures and incomplete information. In Zuleta’s view, transformation in equipment finance is not a technology problem. It is a judgment problem.

That conviction shaped his proudest achievement of the past year. As Kin expanded, the team found itself pulled in too many directions. In response, Zuleta made a deliberate shift: every initiative the company pursues must connect directly to a meaningful client outcome. If that connection cannot be clearly drawn, the work does not move forward.

It is a philosophy that quietly redefines what leadership in the industry can look like — less about output, and more about consequence.