“Reject passivity. Accept responsibility. Lead courageously. Finish well.”
“Who you are when no one is looking is what defines your character.”
– Dave Wiener
Dave Wiener’s equipment finance career reflects technical innovation, deal syndication, international advisory expertise and talent development. He applies a player-coach approach to executive consulting, bringing focus and discipline to help leaders drive strategic growth.
Wiener’s early breakthroughs reshaped the industry. After Congress enacted the Economic Recovery Tax Act, he co-designed the Tax Benefit Transfer Lease and personally closed $350 million-plus in transactions in the last 45 days of 1981. This included nine-figure retrofits of Bay Area Rapid Transit and financing the first solar breeder — a solar panel-powered factory that manufactured solar panels. He also beta-tested an emerging desktop lease modeling application, saving his firm over $1 million annually. Today it is known as Super Trump.
Wiener built de novo syndication capabilities for three leading vendor-oriented firms, helping generate more than $50 billion in transaction volume. At The Alta Group, he developed a proprietary eight-step market assessment tool that evaluates approximately 70 distinct factors, enabling clients to produce billions in incremental business. Working through Chinese, Spanish, French, Japanese and Russian interpreters, he advised international clients on strategies to enter or expand in domestic and U.S. equipment finance markets.
His commitment extends to industry research. During his 15 years as chair of ELFA’s research committee, the Survey of Equipment Finance Activity Report grew from 12 pages into the 300-plus-page authority it is today.
Embracing the role of a “wingman/navigator” rather than a “pilot,” Wiener advises future leaders to master the fundamentals through self-driven apprenticeship, champion peers’ success and network intentionally.
Guiding a container ship through the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Baltimore Harbor
This goes back to the late 1980’s …
… decades before the bridge was hit by a container ship and then collapsed.
