5 Minutes with the Captive and Vendor Finance Chair

What’s happeningin the captive and vendor finance sector of the equipment finance space? Equipment Leasing & Finance magazine caught up with Eileen Schoonmaker, Chair of the Captive & Vendor Finance Business Council Steering Committee (BCSC), to take the pulse of this sector. Schoonmaker, President and General Manager of DLL, is currently serving her first year as Chair of the committee, which engages financial services organizations providing sales-assisted financing, vendor and manufacturer support activities, either on a third-party or captive basis.

How did you get involved with the Captive & Vendor Finance BCSC? 

DLL believes very strongly in supporting ELFA and many of our leaders participate in the BCSCs. A colleague who was rolling off the Captive & Vendor Finance BCSC recommended I join. After my freshman year I was asked to chair the BCSC. We have 18 committee members, five liaisons and a super terrific ELFA staff liaison, Bill Choi. It’s a great group of industry leaders and contributors who are willing to speak up on the pressing issues impacting our parent companies, partners, customers and our industry, and share best practices that can help the industry move forward! 

From your perspective serving on the committee, what issues are businesses in the captive and vendor finance sector focused on this year? 

For our first meeting we asked all committee members to discuss two topics we wanted to do a deep dive on during 2023. Then we voted and produced a priority list of topics, by month, that we will cover. To no one’s great surprise, the rising interest rate environment and impact on the global economy is front and center of mind for all. Included in the list are also key HR topics impacting the future of any mature industry: How to successfully recruit, retain and promote an inclusive culture in the hybrid work environment. Rounding out the list has everyone’s focus—how to recognize and prevent fraud. Whew!

Here’s the final schedule:
• Economic: Risk/Challenges in a Rising Rate Environment 
• Human Resources: Development of “Leasing” Talent through DEI 
• Managed Solutions: Back for Round 3
• Technology: Focus on Measuring Customer Experience/Success 
• Human Resources: Remote Working: Recruitment & Retention 
• Risk: Vendor Monitoring/Fraud: New Attacks & Defenses 
• Benchmarking/KPI’s: Measuring success as a captive with current headwinds, using non-traditional ways to support the parent.

About the BCSCs

The BCSCs represent ELFA’s five key business segments: Captive and Vendor Finance, Bank, Independent, Service Providers and Small Ticket. Learn more at www.elfaonline.org/BCSCs. Interested in joining? Contact Ed Rosen at [email protected].