A career built around what happens after signing

Mandate

Improve the quality of equipment-finance growth while preserving independent credit and service judgement.

Outcomes

• Reviewed 180 proposed residual-value structures and changed 46 unsupported assumptions before commitment.
• Established a non-exclusive supplier pilot that funded 37 transactions totalling US$14.8 million.
• Separated owned and partner-administered receivables in executive operating reports.

Decisions in context

I became chief executive with a mandate to improve the connection between origination choices and the work required after a contract was signed. The business already had capable credit specialists; it needed earlier access to their judgement in commercial discussions. I changed the sequence of proposal review and asked each channel sponsor to explain the obligations that would survive termination of a partnership. My authority includes commercial strategy and operating priorities, while the board retains its oversight responsibilities and approval of reserved matters. The managed portfolio figure includes receivables administered for funding partners and must not be read as our owned balance sheet. My continuing challenge is to make specialist knowledge available before a customer receives a persuasive quotation, without turning every ordinary transaction into a committee exercise.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; continuing the operating and commercial programme agreed with the board.

Mandate

Make customer administration and asset-return operations dependable as the company expanded.

Outcomes

• Introduced witnessed condition records before equipment moved from customer premises.
• Reduced contested charges from 28 of 160 completed returns to 13 of 172 in comparable annual cohorts.
• Sequenced the customer portal after the supporting dispute process had been redesigned.

Decisions in context

This role changed my understanding of what a finance agreement demands from the people administering it. My teams handled documentation, customer requests, inspection coordination and technology delivery; they could not resolve every technical or legal dispute themselves. I established clearer referral routes and funded independent assessment where the available evidence could not support a defensible decision. I also chose to delay a visible portal launch until we understood which records the revised process needed. That decision cost us a planned marketing milestone, but avoided publishing an attractive interface over an unreliable hand-off. The reported dispute reduction concerned completed returns, so I required a separate view of returns still awaiting resolution. My budget accountability covered the operating function, not the value of financed equipment or the company's funding arrangements.

Reason for the move

Appointed chief executive after the incumbent's planned retirement.

Mandate

Develop regional equipment relationships with clearer escalation of installation and servicing risks.

Outcomes

• Introduced direct customer review for supplier-led applications with unusual installation requirements.
• Separated 31 service-dependent proposals from routine approvals during a six-month pilot.
• Built a regional team of 42 while retaining specialist credit review for exceptions.

Decisions in context

Moving from portfolio work into regional lending required me to become accountable for opportunities as well as adverse outcomes. I could no longer recommend investigation without considering what the delay meant for a customer's equipment order. I learnt to distinguish questions that could change the offer from information that merely made the file thicker. The regional book grew to US$420 million by the end of my tenure, but I do not treat that closing figure as growth attributable solely to me. Existing relationships, repayments and colleagues' origination work all contributed. My most useful intervention was to bring installation and service dependencies into the discussion before a standard offer was issued. The role also exposed my tendency to generalise from recovery experience; healthy customer investments needed a different conversation from distressed assets.

Reason for the move

Promoted to chief operating officer as the company expanded into a third state.

Mandate

Improve account-level understanding of payment adjustments and equipment-related customer difficulties.

Outcomes

• Separated installation delays, lost customer orders and equipment performance disputes in portfolio reviews.
• Introduced documented reasons for 84 payment-adjustment decisions during the first full review year.
• Established monthly joint review between portfolio specialists and regional lenders.

Decisions in context

I managed a team examining the reasons accounts departed from their expected payment pattern. Our responsibility was to investigate and recommend action within delegated limits, not to describe every missed payment as evidence of the same problem. A customer whose machine had not been installed could need a different intervention from one whose order book had disappeared. I required the file to distinguish the customer's explanation from evidence obtained elsewhere and to show the basis of a recommended adjustment. During a difficult economic period, those distinctions were particularly important because an apparently short delay could become a much longer deterioration. Working closely with regional lenders also taught me that information needed to arrive while a choice remained available. I left to learn the commercial side of those decisions rather than remain solely an adviser on their consequences.

Reason for the move

Moved to Orvenstead to take responsibility for regional origination and customer development.

Mandate

Prepare reliable evidence for equipment recovery and disposal decisions.

Outcomes

• Reconciled inspection, removal and documentation costs in assigned recovery recommendations.
• Introduced a field distinguishing observed condition from supplier-reported condition.
• Supported 63 completed asset disposals in 2003 without claiming individual recovery authority.

Decisions in context

My first role involved assembling the evidence other people used to decide how equipment should be recovered or sold. I reconciled outstanding balances with inspection reports and estimates for removal, storage and refurbishment. I had no authority to approve a disposal or negotiate a customer's settlement. That boundary matters when I describe the experience today. Site visits showed me how quickly a nominally valuable machine could lose practical marketability when controls, documentation or access were missing. I began adding a field that separated directly observed condition from a description supplied by another party. The change was modest, but it made discussion of uncertain evidence easier. By 2003 I supported a larger annual file exposure and helped the team complete 63 disposals; the proceeds and legal decisions remained collective responsibilities under the recovery manager.

Reason for the move

Internal promotion into portfolio management following five years of asset-analysis work.