The European leasing
industry has a wealth of up-and-coming talent. Profiled here are 30
of the brightest stars among these future leaders. With an average
age of 34 and an impressive array of achievements under their
belts, they are chosen for their potential to lead the industry in
exciting new directions.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Craig
Aston, 37
Complex deals sales executive, IBM,
2010-present
Aston has been with IBM since 1999
in a variety of financing roles. In 2007, he headed up the UK and
Ireland sales team that brought in more than $1bn (€740m) of new
originations. His ambitions for the future include running his own
leasing or technology business. In the meantime, he aspires to the
more modest goal of adding value to IBM. Aston also holds a BSc in
mathematics from the University of Manchester.
Formerly: UK and Ireland sales
manager, IBM Global Financing, 2007-2009
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By GlobalData
Artti Aurasmaa, 35
CEO, 3-Step IT, 2005-present
Having started at 3-Step IT more
than a decade ago, Aurasmaa has steadily climbed the ladder ever
since. During his tenure, he has been part of the team that helped
the company to transform turnover from €14m to €300m a year, and
took the number of staff from eight to 180. With Aurasmaa as CEO,
the company has also been judged as one of the best places to work
in Finland four years in a row.
Formerly: CFO, 3 -Step IT,
2000-2003
Andrew Barnard, 39
Finance director, Lombard, 2010-present
Multi-talented Barnard originally
joined Lombard in January 2008 as head of decision support and was
seconded a year later to be finance director at RBS Invoice
Finance. Over the past 10 years and more, he has held a number of
high-level finance positions, including acting as European finance
manager in the home and personal care division of Unilever, based
in Paris. He returned to Lombard in February 2010 and is also a
qualified chartered management accountant.
Formerly: Finance director, RBS
Invoice Finance, 2009-2010
Julie Brooks, 38
Director, Central Asset Finance, 2007-present
Brooks started her career as a
documentation checker and has since enjoyed a remarkable ascent.
Beginning at Sabre Leasing (now owned by GE Capital) in 1991, she
worked her way up to customer service manager at Siemens Financial
Services and, in 2007, she helped to found Central Asset Finance.
Popular among colleagues and clients, Brooks is noted for her
enthusiasm, energy and commitment to customer service.
Formerly: Various roles, Sabre
Leasing, 1991-1995
Andy Cronin, 32
CFO, Avolon, 2010-present
Cronin has been at the forefront of
nascent aircraft lessor Avolon’s fundraising activities, helping to
bring total capital raised to more than $2bn since May 2010. He
previously worked at RBS Aviation Capital and became senior
vice-president of investor markets in 2005. From 2008, Cronin was
involved in the financial planning and balance sheet structuring of
the company. He holds a first-class degree in mechanical
engineering from University College Dublin and a Masters in
industrial engineering.
Formerly: RBS Aviation Capital,
various roles, 2004-2010
Matteo Cavazzoli, 37
CFO, UniCredit Leasing, 2009-present
At 37, Cavazzoli has risen to a
position of great responsibility, counting among his achievements
helping to secure €2bn of funding from supranational entities in
the last two years. He oversees, among other things, planning and
control, capital allocation, finance, administration, and tax
affairs, and has grand ambitions for the future, including
simplifying the company’s structure in terms of governance.
Formerly: CFO, UniCredit
Romania, 2004-2007
Andrew Cotter, 35
CIO, Somerset Capital Group, 2002-present
Cotter has been an active
participant on the executive management team at Somerset Capital
for the past five years. He is currently the lead on a business
transformation initiative that includes a full reworking of the
company’s IT applications. At 35, he is already something of a
veteran, having started his career almost 13 years ago. Before
joining Somerset, Cotter owned a full service technology services
organisation, which offered a mix of hardware, software, networking
and internet skills.
Formerly: Director of network
technology, Weston Technology Group LLC, 1998-2002
Ben Creswick, 29
Business development director, Zenith Provecta,
2010-present
One of the youngest entrants in
this list, Creswick has been with Zenith Provecta since November
2002, and has worked his way up the ranks to his current role on
the board of directors. He has helped lead the development of a
salary sacrifice product and strategy, which has proved hugely
successful, and was part of the team to secure a joint venture with
Santander. Creswick has also helped bring in more than 25 large
corporate customers in the past three years, and, with Morgan
Stanley, worked on the buyout of Zenith Provecta in 2010.
Formerly: n/a
Joanne Davis,
35
National head of asset finance & regulatory, Shoosmiths,
2008-present
Based in Shoosmiths’ Birmingham
office, Davis currently heads up the law firm’s asset finance team,
and has a wealth of experience in asset finance and consumer credit
litigation. She has been working in the industry for the past 15
years, collecting both qualifications and awards along the way. In
2007, Davis picked up the Credit Today Litigator of the Year award,
and in 2009 she was on the team at Shoosmiths that won the Leasing
Life UK Law Firm Asset Finance Provider of the Year Award. She has
also developed a reputation for her extensive knowledge on the
Consumer Credit Act 1974, as well as for her experience in advice,
drafting and litigation on hire agreements.
Formerly: Legal executive,
Clarke Willmott, 2000-2002
Kevin Flowerday, 35
Southern regional sales manager UK, ECS,
2009-present
Starting in retail banking at HSBC,
Flowerday joined the leasing industry as an internal salesman at
Syscap. He worked in client and vendor sales before landing the
position of head of public sector in 2001. Something of a leader of
men, he prides himself on having chosen the right people at the
right time to join his team over the past couple of years.
Flowerday’s aspiration is to become sales director before he turns
40.
Formerly: Head of public
sector, Syscap, 2001-2009
Paul
Geaney, 31
Head of marketing for the Americas, Avolon,
2010-present
Currently based in Stamford,
Connecticut, Geaney was most recently a partner in Claret Capital
and became head of its Americas operation while still in his
twenties. Before joining Claret Capital, he had already built up
solid experience in aviation finance, spending four years with RBS.
From 2002 to 2004, he was a business analyst with RBS Aviation
Capital, and from 2004 to 2006 he led the bank’s corporate jet
financing activities. He began his professional career with Merrill
Lynch in New York.
Formerly: Partner, Claret
Capital, 2006-2010
Frank Geisen, 37
Managing director, VR Factorem, 2009-present
During Geisen’s tenure, VR Factorem
has become wholly owned by VR Leasing, and was expected to reach a
turnover of €2.1bn for 2010. His focus now is on increasing the
company’s earnings and boosting client numbers. Geisen holds a
Diplom-Kaufmann – the German equivalent of an MBA – from the
University of Trier, and is also a certified public accountant.
Formerly: Senior manager,
Deloitte, 2001-2009
Victoria Goodenough, 33
Head of debt capital markets, Avolon, 2010
-present
Another young talent at Avolon,
Goodenough already has significant experience in aircraft financing
and has held senior roles at various companies. In her career to
date, she has arranged more than $4bn in asset financing.
Goodenough’s most significant achievement to date was helping to
develop and execute budget airline easyJet’s financing strategy
while working for the company between 2004 and 2008.
Formerly: Capital markets
manager, easyJet, 2004-2008
Jessica Gorman, 29
Sales support supervisor, First Independent Finance,
2002-present
Gorman is among a growing number of
women climbing the ranks early in the industry. She was one of a
team of four at First Independent, all under 40, who helped the
company achieve the Investors in People gold standard in just a
year, despite setting a two-year target. Her eye is on growth now,
within her department and within the company as a whole.
Formerly: n/a
Stuart
Hall, 36
European partner manager, Cisco Capital,
2008-present
Hall joined Cisco in 2004, after
spending about three years as a sales and business development
manager for a finance intermediary. He progressed after 12 months
from UK SME sales manager to business development manager for the
commercial segment, where he helped develop Cisco’s popular
EasyLease programme in Europe. Since then, Hall has helped the
company build up its channel partner strategy in Europe almost from
scratch.
Formerly: Sales manager, Heller
Financial, 1996-2001
Andy
Hart, 36
Managing director, Business and Commercial, Lombard,
2009-present
Hart took over as managing director
of Lombard’s Business, Commercial & Indirect arm in 2009, and
has been credited with helping transform the division, including a
large-scale restructuring and the eventual closure of the Indirect
part of the business. He is also one of a minority on the list to
break into the industry fresh from school, and already has 20
years’ experience under his belt, having started at the age of 16
at Barclays Bank. His ambition is to become a CEO before he turns
40.
Formerly: Responsible for
Marine, Aviation and Offshore, Lombard, 2007-2009
Graeme Laing, 38
Head of leasing, Bank of London and the Middle East Plc,
2008-present
A seasoned professional, Laing has
gained experience across the UK, Europe and the US. Progressing
steadily since the beginning of his career at BNP Paribas
(Humberclyde) in 1994, he joined PACCAR Financial in 1998 and
helped to found PACCAR Financial Europe, the in-house finance
company of DAF Trucks. There, he was responsible for fleet
financing activities across eight countries. He now has
responsibility for BLME’s entire leasing book across the UK and
US.
Formerly: European programmes
manager, CIT Group, 2005-2008
Gábor
Lévai, 36
General secretary, Hungarian Leasing Association,
2006-present
Lévai came to the Hungarian Leasing
Association in 2006, after a stint at Mansoon Outsourcing, a human
resources company working for financial institutions, and has since
helped breathe life into the trade body. Despite extremely
difficult economic conditions in Hungary, including a controversial
new bank tax pushed through in July 2010, Lévai runs a successful
lobbying organisation, with a strong professional network of
leasing experts.
Formerly: Head of stock
financing at Budapest Car Finance (subsidiary of GE Capital in
Hungary) 1999-2000
Ruairidh Macdonald,
26
IT supervisor, First Independent Finance,
2005-present
Macdonald, who started out at fast
food chain MacDonald’s, has been a leasing high achiever in a
relatively short career. Something of an IT whiz kid, he was
responsible for developing FIF’s Imax offering, a leading edge
calculator and proposal system embedded on dealer partners’
websites. He joined Scottish company First Independent Finance
(FIF) straight from university and has since helped the company to
achieve its Investors in People gold standard, along with fellow
finalist Jessica Gorman.
Formerly: n/a
Vineesh Madaan, 39
Managing director, Bluestone Leasing,
2005-present
Madaan has devoted much of his
career to shaping, developing and driving Bluestone Leasing
forward, including a management buy-out in 2006. Alongside this, he
worked on side project General Equipment Leasing between 2000 and
2007, setting the business up from scratch, including software
systems, funding lines, procedures, documentation and underwriting.
In 2010, having weathered the recession at Bluestone, he helped
steer the company to 80% growth in business volumes.
Formerly: Finance director,
Bluestone Leasing Ltd (then Wyse Leasing, North),
1999-2002
Stuart McKee, 30
New business development, Tower Leasing,
2010-present
Showing a tenacious commitment to
the industry, McKee started as a humble office assistant at Shire
Leasing in 2001. From there, he worked his way up to the role of
personal assistant to two sales executives, and in just two years,
he became a sales executive himself. Now at Tower Leasing, having
joined in October 2010, he plans to make an even more impressive
leap, aiming to reach director level in the next three years.
Formerly: Sales executive,
Shire Leasing, 2003-2010
Jacqueline Mills, 31
Senior advisor, Leaseurope, 2004-present
Mills is known for her lobbying
work on European regulatory issues, which include prudential
supervision, accounting and taxation matters. As a result, she has
become the face of the European leasing industry in Brussels. Last
year Mills played a huge role in raising awareness inside and
outside the industry about impending changes to lease accounting
standards. She has also been instrumental in developing market and
statistical research, positioning Leaseurope as the main reference
point for European market figures. She launched Leaseurope’s series
of market segment reports and is noted for her dynamism and
professionalism.
Formerly: Part-time assistant
lecturer in finance, Université Libre de Bruxelles,
2005-2008
Nathan Mollett, 35
Sales director, vendor finance, Syscap,
1997-present
Mollett joined Syscap 14 years ago
at age 22, and has progressively honed and refined his skills,
working his way through the ranks to become an experienced sales
leader. A big part of the role has been to develop and implement
effective market strategies. Mollett now oversees Syscap’s partner
programme and manages the vendor sales teams.
Formerly: Account manager, Bank
of Scotland, 1996-1997
Maxine Nwoye, 30
Financial sales executive, IBM Global Finance talent
rotation programme, 2008-present
Although only working in the
industry for a short period, Nwoye has developed a passion for her
work and intends to stay with IGF on completing its talent rotation
program. She joined the scheme in 2008, following an MBA at
Cambridge University, and has gained a wealth of experience,
working at IBM’s centre for excellence in Budapest and its
headquarters in New York. This has included being part of a small
team that developed and delivered targeted sales education to the
entire IGF sales team in EMEA.
Formerly: Consultant, Jaywing
Digital Marketing Group, 2005-7
John Phillipou, 38
Managing director, Deutsche Leasing UK,
2004-present
Phillipou started his career as a
branch-based sales representative at North West Securities (now
Bank of Scotland Asset Finance) but it was at JCB Finance that he
began to develop the skills needed to tackle the nuances and
potential pitfalls of working with vendors and understanding
clients’ requirements. At Deutsche Leasing, he has worked to
maintain a solid vendor base and has combined a strong
understanding of assets with knowledge of various lease accounting
changes.
Formerly: Business development
manager, Citi Group, 2001-2004
Graham Stubbs, 39
Relationship director, strategic asset finance, Barclays
Corporate
Stubbs has shot towards the top,
going straight from a graduate programme to an assistant manager’s
role, before taking on two consecutive assistant directorships and
most recently becoming a relationship director in strategic asset
finance at Barclays Corporate. Noted for the variety and number of
transactions he has closed in the past 10 years, he next hopes to
lead a business within Barclays.
Formerly: Graduate programme,
1992-1993, London Stock Exchange
Vladimir Sulaj, 36
Senior sales manager, Raiffeisen Leasing Albania,
2005-present
Working in Albania, Sulaj landed a
role with market leader Raiffeisen Leasing in 2005. With a strong
technical background and 12 years’ experience in banking, Sulaj is
a promising talent who is aiming to help to improve legal and
market regulations for leasing in Albania.
Formerly: Branch manager,
ProCredit Bank
Judit
Vály, 37
Chief sales officer, member of the board, UniCredit Leasing
Hungary, 2010-present
A powerhouse in the Hungarian
market, Vály is responsible for 40 employees, covering six
segments. Having taken up the role of chief sales officer in
September 2010, she has her sights set on making UniCredit the
market leader in Hungary. She cites a fierce loyalty to the company
as a key part of her professional philosophy. She is also known for
inspiring a strong team spirit among her staff.
Formerly: Head of sales,
equipment finance, HVB Leasing Hungary, 2003-2008
Bas
van Asseldonk, 33
Head of strategic and
financial planning, De Lage Landen, 2009-present
Van Asseldonk has amassed a broad
scope of experience over the course of his career, starting at
Heineken in the US, before joining DLL on his return to the
Netherlands in 2002 on its international management programme.
During his career with the Dutch funder, van Asseldonk has been the
driving force behind transforming the business, in 2010 developing
and implementing new group strategy and governance structure.
Formerly: International
management traineeship, De Lage Landen, 2002-2003
Shaun
Watts, 26
Business development
manager, Leasedirect Finance, 2008-present
Watts joined leasing through an unconventional route: having
left school at 16, he worked as a football coach until the age of
18, before progressing to the management team at a bar and
restaurant. In November 2008, aged 24, while a sales executive at
Hyundai, he was headhunted for a position at Leasedirect Finance
(LDF).Formerly: Sales executive, Hyundai, 2006-2008
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