5 Minutes with the Service Provider Chair

What’s happening in the service provider sector of the equipment finance space? Equipment Leasing & Finance magazine caught up with Jon Gerson, Chair of the Service Providers Business Council Steering Committee (BCSC), to take the pulse of this sector. Gerson, President of Executive Solutions for Leasing and Finance, Inc., is currently serving his first year as Chair of the committee, which is composed of a diverse mix of industry specialists who provide a variety of services to the members of the other four Business Councils.

From your perspective, what hot topics is the Service Provider sector focused on this year? 

I’m very excited by what the SPBCSC has accomplished in this challenging year, and proud of how our members are responding to the ongoing challenge of the pandemic. Across all segments of the Service Provider community, they have worked hard to respond to and help their clients adapt to the pandemic, providing tools to handle remote work, remote selling, adjustments to risk and forecasting, legal support and countless other areas. 

To that end, the committee has put together two webinars, “The Future of Remote Work” and “Technology & Digitalization.” Both received more than 60 attendees and are available to stream on the ELFA website at https://www.elfaonline.org/events/elearning/web-seminars. 

We’re also pleased to be sending out a survey to the broader ELFA membership, building on a project the committee did in the mid teens, so that we can get an idea of what the membership is looking for in terms of service and support. Since this is a multi-year project, we’re hoping to build a data set that assists service providers across the community and that stays current with the changing times, including COVID. Please keep an eye out for it and be sure to fill it out.

How did you get involved with the BCSC? Would you recommend it to others? 

We have always viewed ELFA as an essential and valuable guide and contributor to our industry. Like most volunteer organizations, you get out of it what you put into it. I believe I first joined the BCSC in 2015, and this is my fifth (nonconsecutive) year and first as Chair. I have also volunteered with the Membership Committee and Emerging Talent Advisory Council. I strongly recommend getting involved—it’s a great way to network and meet people you might not otherwise meet, support your peers as their representative and, most of all, support the industry.

About the BCSCs

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