Meet the New ELFA Members

New members add uniqueness to ELFA’s expanding community. Meet some of them here.

A new twist to an old saying could go something like this: “The more things change, the more… ELFA changes.” Indeed, as many industries fret about transformations affecting 21st century businesses, ELFA members can exult about one in particular: the diversity of companies joining the association. The five new member companies profiled here consistently apply their own brand of ingenuity to generate unique approaches to the business of financing equipment. Read on to learn more. 



If one word describes this independent, middle-market equipment finance company, it’s “entrepreneurial.” Starting in 2002 as an intermodal transporter of milk between California and Hawaii, the entity that is now Logix Capital went through several transitions to become the growing business it is today. Logix Capital finances and leases specialized intermodal and logistics equipment—such as bulk-liquid tank containers and dry and refrigerated containers and chassis—to transportation companies operating in the food-grade space.

Sister company TransChill, Inc., manufactures specialty transport refrigeration equipment such as truck-mounted chillers. Bahman Sadeghi, President of both companies, says that TransChill recently completed work with engineers at Utah State University to develop electric “gensets,” high-voltage battery-power that can be installed on chassis to provide emission-free power to refrigerated containers. “We’ve just received a patent for this product, so we’re gearing up to finance and lease these battery-operated systems,” says Sadeghi, adding, “We’re quite excited about it.”

To date, Sadeghi hasn’t found other ELFA-member companies resembling Logix Capital. “I recently attended the ELFA Funding Conference and noticed how different we were,” he says with a chuckle. “We’re not like many traditional lessors that finance various types of equipment and buy or sell portfolios, so we don’t fit into the normal stream of secondary market paper.”

That’s one reason Logix Capital may interest other ELFA members. As the company looks to the association for information and education on lease accounting and regulation, executives at other member companies might tap Logix Capital leaders for expertise and market knowledge pertaining to intermodal equipment and other niche transportation assets. 

Meanwhile, plans for growth at the company continue unabated. Logix Capital continues to focus on intermodal equipment and regularly considers companies and assets in the space for acquisition. “We might buy a portfolio of assets that are under true operating leases,” Sadeghi says by way of example. “But we still don’t fall into the category of conventional lessors,” he says. “Everything here is in-house. We haven’t sold anything yet.” 



Begun in 1998 as the syndication arm of Greater Community Bank—an institution later acquired by super-regional Valley National Bank, which serves New York, New Jersey, Florida and Alabama—Highland Capital Corporation invested early in talent and its budding experience to become the full-service equipment finance company it is today. Says Mary Smith, President and CEO, “We were already a niche player in the small-ticket healthcare space, primarily serving the dental and veterinary markets, when in 2003 we changed to a vendor model holding the paper.” That was the year Smith arrived, bringing with her several other leasing and finance professionals. The bank-owned company “did well in the space,” she says, establishing a strong foundation and growing steadily. Then last year Highland Capital Corp. moved into the industrial marketplace, covering machine tool, plastics, food processing and packaging. “We needed to diversify,” Smith explains. “Several of us had experience in packaging and machine tool, so these were natural choices for us.” Success has already shown its hand. Business volume and staff have both doubled, and ticket size now ranges from $10,000 to $2.5 million, healthcare equipment responsible for the larger transactions. “We’re still only about 55 people, keeping the organization very flat so we can make decisions quickly and remain nimble,” Smith says. “But we’re doing more than $200 million in annual business.” Highland Capital Corporation joined ELFA for “its host of resources, from industry education to legal and regulatory information, and to meet others in the industry,” Smith says. Continued growth is expected to bring the corporation a greater need for syndication and contacts in the funding arena. At the same time, Smith expects to share Highland Capital Corporation’s experience and expertise. “We have so much tenure, we absolutely have the potential to get involved in association committees and activities,” she says, adding, “We’ve already been to two ELFA symposiums where we listened, learned and met a lot of people. We look forward to doing more.” 



Decades of experience in audio-visual equipment, along with a desire to benefit the environment, produced the concept for the company operating as AVGear.com. Today this five-year-old service provider is a leader in the recovery and remarketing of AV equipment, refurbishing and repurposing used gear and shipping it to buyers around the world. Customers can elect to consign or trade in their used gear and receive credit toward new equipment in return. The company also performs valuations on new AV assets to determine future residual value and often purchases equipment from leasing and asset-management companies. 

“This is our specialty and it’s all we do,” says Scott Kase, National Director of Sales. “Due to the standardization of digital format, many audio-visual products used in the U.S. can now be used in other parts of the world. We work with production companies in Brazil as easily as with those in Germany.”

AVGear.com joined ELFA “because we felt there was a hole in the market,” says Kase. “We were getting calls from companies looking for evaluations, and no one was doing this for AV equipment. And since we deal with new equipment as well as used, we’re uniquely positioned to perform evaluations and forecast residual values.” 

Kase says projection technology is responsible for the biggest change in AV equipment today. “There’s no longer a projectionist in a booth behind you,” he says. “Digital files have replaced the reel-to-reel projector, and laser technology has replaced lamps. You can even steer your sound technology to produce the very same sound in row 5 as in row 50.” Jannet Davis, Director of Operations, says AVGear.com wants to take advantage of its ELFA membership to gain exposure to various levels of association activity. “When we attend trade shows, we only see a certain percentage of the industry, so we’re always looking for ways to become more involved,” she says.

Since AV equipment is changing rapidly, Davis and Kase hope to share their expertise with companies looking to learn more about the gear as a potential addition to portfolio. “You have to look ahead to understand the cycle of this equipment, because it’s much shorter today than just a few years ago,” says Kase. “We think we can help other ELFA member companies with this market, and we look forward to meeting more professionals in equipment finance.” 




Begun nearly 75 years ago in Tuttlingen, Germany, medical manufacturer KARL STORZ grew to become an international leader in reusable endoscope technology. “For a long time as the market expanded, we had ample opportunity to place our equipment with health care providers,” says Wynn Blieberg, Director of Medical Technology Finance Corporation (MTFC). But those opportunities dwindled when three trends combined to drastically alter the market. Says Blieberg, “Standardization of equipment, consolidation of the health care industry, and the reduction of insurance reimbursements made the method of paying for equipment as important to providers as acquiring it and using it.” 

In response, KARL STORZ formed MTFC in 2008. The captive would serve as an adjunct to the parent company’s U.S. sales force, providing sales professionals and customers with a choice for acquisition. “We’d always had the technology, but we didn’t have financial solutions,” says Blieberg. “So we embarked on this effort as the market changed and found we needed not only excellent talent, but access to information, training and others in the equipment finance industry. There’s no better place to get those needs met than at ELFA.”

Family-owned and privately held, KARL STORZ and MTFC deliver what Blieberg says is a degree of customer flexibility unparalleled in the industry “because we’re not reporting to Wall Street.” Instead both parent and captive are guided by a corporate mission to benefit humanity by advancing medical technology through innovation and education. Blieberg looks forward to discussing the advantages and benefits of that situation, but also hopes to learn from ELFA member companies in different circumstances. “The industry is always evolving, and what may have worked a few years ago for us may not work in the future,” he says. 

Today KARL STORZ manufactures endoscopic equipment used globally in surgical imaging, integration and instrumentation for system-wide patient care. Blieberg says a focus on the customer has also produced financial products that leave all options on the table. New customers can trade used equipment for credit on new, and any customer can turn in used equipment made by the manufacturer as part of its repair-exchange program. Leasing comes with the option for modular upgrades over time. 

“Because we can refurbish our equipment to ‘like new’ condition, we roll total solutions into our contracts, wanting to meet customer needs as they evolve and going forward,” says Blieberg. “We believe we offer customers the ultimate in what they’re seeking: a true partnership that keeps them current on technology and provides fiscal options for running their business with the best cash flow possible and maximum cost-effective use of their assets.”





American Samoa is a small U.S. territory of 60,000 people, sustained by tuna fishing and the processing and shipping that accompany it. Thanks to creative thinking by residents of this island located six hours by plane from Honolulu, American Samoa is also now home to the first U.S. public bank established in nearly a century.

Aligned with the Territorial Bank of American Samoa but separate from it is Dedicated Funding, an independent financer of small-ticket transactions based in Salt Lake City. Early in their careers, several of the professionals at Dedicated Funding worked together at a bank in Salt Lake City—thus the company’s location. Grant Finch, CEO and Managing Partner of Dedicated Funding, says both the bank and the equipment finance company are carefully crafted experiments, steadily producing success. 

“Dedicated Funding was created two years ago to meet the needs of the bank and bring in a line of business,” Finch says. “We underwrite, document, close and service transactions that are placed in the bank on its balance sheet as investments. It’s a smart way to add to the bank’s revenue base.” 

Types of equipment financed range from machinery/industrial and construction to computer hardware, medical, restaurant and commercial vehicle. Says Finch, “We wanted to start with as much diversity in asset, industry and geography as we could, so we chose small-ticket—anything under $250,000.” 

The company is self-funding and has already processed more than 2500 transactions, creating a portfolio Finch says is performing well. “But as the bank’s depository inflow grows, we need to grow,” he emphasizes. “We have the ability to be as much as 60% of the bank’s balance sheet, so we’re looking for more business. That’s one reason we joined ELFA.”

Dedicated Funding plans to expand into additional vertical markets, growing out vendor groups that aren’t yet fully deployed. “We’ve also added to our third-party originators and have the capacity to add more,” Finch says. Executives recently attended ELFA’s Funding Conference in Chicago to introduce the company and develop collaborative relationships. “That happened,” says Finch, “and since we do some portfolio sales and pruning, we look forward to meeting more members of ELFA’s funding community.”