Emerging Talent’s Hidden Heroes

Stories from ELFA’s up-and-comers show grit and innovation during COVID-19

IN A FEW WORDS, Eric Cable describes the daunting challenges COVID-19 has wrought for ELFA’s emerging talent: “It’s amazing how the pandemic turned everyone’s daily routine upside down almost overnight,” says Cable, Director, Lender Finance for CIT Business Capital and a member of ELFA’s Emerging Talent Advisory Council (ETAC). “Working parents suddenly had to become IT experts, schoolteachers and principals while also working full-time as equipment finance professionals.”  

From inhabiting a workspace just steps away from a virtual fourth-grade class to enduring the extreme stress of social isolation and in some cases single parenthood, many of these men and women changed fundamentals of their lives to be able to keep working during the past year. 

“It’s amazing how the pandemic turned everyone’s daily routine upside down almost overnight. Working parents suddenly had to become IT experts, schoolteachers and principals while also working full-time as equipment finance professionals.”  

Eric Cable, CIT Business Capital



Cable works out of his family’s guest room and knows others who are working from bedrooms, sharing small spaces and hitting the desk—if they have one—at weird hours so they can share the responsibilities of childcare. But Cable says a positive has been getting to know teammates on a different level. “Whether a dog is barking in the background, a kid is jumping on to say hi or a roommate walks by not realizing your camera is on during a video call, it’s important to view these interruptions as a positive,” he says with a chuckle. “They help us know more about each other.” 

On an Island

Cable is probably right—but many of the changes have been hard, and the sacrifices, painful. “Being a working mother during COVID-19 has probably been the most challenging part of my life,” says Kaitlin Bonner, ETAC member and Relationship Manager at Farm Credit Leasing. Being a working mother is always challenging, she adds, but has been especially so as distance learning changed her schedule and social distancing limited support from family and friends.  “In some ways it’s been fun, but I’ve learned a lot about grace,” she says. “And as for learning to balance it all? There is no way to do that.”

A single parent who has both children full-time or not at all, Bonner says at first she felt she was on an island. “I really struggled to get my standard eight hours in, and it did not work,” she recalls. “I learned that if I have to take a call while I’m sitting in the school drop-off line, or work at 9 p.m. to get in my hours, that’s what I do.”

Bonner also needed to find healthy ways to cope with the on-again, off-again isolation. She began taking walks with the family’s two dogs and varying her route to see more people. She also pulled back from personal use of social media and became a fan of snail mail. “You get tired of texting and emailing, and you need to unplug—especially when your office is only steps away,” she says. She sent out paper holiday cards this year and began mailing packages to her grandmother and friends. “I’ve also started making all the pizza dough recipes I can find,” she says with a laugh. “It’s a hobby I wouldn’t have had time for before.”

"Being a working mother during COVID-19 has probably been the most challenging part of my life. In some ways it’s been fun, but I’ve learned a lot about grace.” 

Kaitlin Bonner, Farm Credit Leasing

To the Breaking Point

Alexandra (“Lexie”) Dressman went on maternity leave to have the family’s second child during the pandemic, and she hasn’t been able to return physically to her company since then. “I didn’t prepare for a pandemic, so I didn’t have equipment at home or an office,” quips Dressman, Counsel at Huntington Equipment Finance and Chair of ETAC. She quickly set up shop in a doorless room off the kitchen of their 1923 house. Then she and her husband pulled their four-year-old daughter from daycare and kept their infant son at home, too. “We tried to trade off schedules so that I had the morning to work and my husband had the afternoon,” she says. “But we never felt we were giving anything 100%, and we had a lot of late nights trying to make up the difference. We came to a breaking point where one of us was going to have to quit our job or we were going to have to figure something out.”

Dressman says she did a risk-benefit analysis to weigh the health and safety of their children against not having a job and a changed lifestyle. The solution came when she asked extended family for help, and four of them agreed to form and maintain a pod of isolation to care for the kids. “That was the bargain I had to make to be able to sleep at night,” she says. “But as difficult as things have been, I’m grateful, because I haven’t been asked to go to war or be away from my family; I’m just being asked to stay at home and be with them.”

Getting to Know You—Remotely

In the weeks before employees were asked to start working from home, Xiang Ji learned she would be getting a new boss. “He was from another Toyota entity, and we had two weeks to get to know each other before we began working together—from our homes,” says Ji, Commercial Risk Manager at Toyota Industries Commercial Finance, Inc. and a member of ETAC.

“If your company has Employee Business Resource Groups, invest in them—and if you don’t have them, create them.”  

Ford Clark, PNC Equipment Finance LLC 




The challenges didn’t end there, however. Ji then onboarded two new associates to become members of the Risk team, which also includes another senior member. “In Risk, we now have a team of five, and we’re still getting to know each other,” she says. “The biggest challenges have been building trust and learning to collaborate remotely,” she adds. “Communication has to be very intentional, and I try to over-communicate rather than under-communicate to make sure all of us are on the same page. We ask people to turn on their video almost all the time now. It allows us to be more engaged and connected during the conference call.”

In the meantime, after researching the risks of young children contracting the virus and children’s need for social interaction, Ji and her husband decided to keep their 3-year-old son in daycare. “I feel very fortunate that he has been able to continue his routine while both my husband and I work at home,” she says. “My company has been so supportive, not only ordering new monitors and headsets to help us set up a home working environment, but also sending care packages and thank-you notes.” Last summer Toyota sent beach towels, sunscreen and sunglasses as encouragement to spend some time outside. Says Ji, “They really stay in close touch and thank us regularly for our contributions during this tough time.”

“Communication has to be very intentional, and I try to over-communicate rather than under-communicate to make sure all of us are on the same page.” 

Xiang Ji, Toyota Industries Commercial Finance, Inc.

Home Alone

Ford Clark wasn’t sure what to expect when the pandemic began, but the longer he worked from home, the more he missed human connections. “Many of us are single and were used to attending events after work,” says Clark, Equipment Specialist at PNC Equipment Finance LLC and a member of ELFA’s Equality Committee. Suddenly stopping that, as well as working in an office, was tough. “It takes a toll on mental health,” he says.

Not only did Clark start working from home while his roommate of three years continued working outside; he also watched as the non-profit arts organizations he volunteered for shut down. “Cincinnati had curfews and capacity limits, and the arts were the first and hardest hit,” he says. “I’m just fortunate that PNC has so many resources to support us.”

Already involved in the company’s Employee Business Resource Groups (EBRGs), Clark began relying on them for the interaction as well as the subject matter. “One just had a program for Black History Month, and the book club in our market focused on diversity and inclusion,” he says. Time for attendees to talk among themselves at the start of virtual meetings is also helpful. 

“If you don’t stay connected, you really lose out,” he says. “If your company has EBRGs, invest in them—and if you don’t have them, create them,” he suggests. “And if you need it, get help from therapists or counselors, which our company provides. Advocate for that work-life balance—especially now, when we all need it so much.”

“We want the companies we work for not only to talk the talk, but walk the walk. I’m lucky enough to work for one that does that, since Huntington does a great job focusing on colleague well-being.” 

Lexie Dressman, Huntington Equipment Finance 

ETAC’s 2021 Goals and Priorities 

Lexie Dressman likes to say ETAC is talking about what the news media is talking about, and the Committee’s strategic priorities for this year do that. Along with enabling the advancement and development of emerging talent and promoting its engagement in ELFA and the larger industry, ETAC is adding a drive for diversity and inclusion within the equipment finance industry. Says Dressman, “We want to look at this very broadly: not just at gender and ethnicity, but at age and current life situation.” 

As a working mother, Dressman has become passionate about the issue. “We want the companies we work for not only to talk the talk, but walk the walk,” she says. “I’m lucky enough to work for one that does that, since Huntington does a great job focusing on colleague well-being.”

Providing flexible work hours and mental health support, Huntington “wants to be welcoming to everyone, and that’s what we’re trying to do in ETAC and in ELFA as a whole,” says Dressman. Just as members of ELFA’s emerging talent have shared their stories here, “We know that everyone has a story, and we want to focus on them so we can better reflect our customer base,” she says.

Xiang Ji is proud to be part of the effort. Because she was born and raised in China, issues of diversity in the U.S. were hard for her to comprehend at first. “China is a very homogeneous society, so I hadn’t experienced racial discrimination there,” she explains. By offering training on the subject, her company helped create context. “I think Toyota is doing a really good job with this,” she says. “As a result of the training, I have a higher awareness and have been watching documentaries and reading about Jim Crow to further educate myself. Now I’m learning about injustices experienced by Asians and other races. Maybe the conversations we’re having about it will raise people’s awareness and help us overcome these biases.”