1. 82 • monitor • 2015 MONITOR 100
D
avid Drury is thrilled. His office is buzzing with
the activity of a rebrand: new signs are going up
and he is excited to be representing the industry
under the newly named MB Equipment Finance. Two
years ago, Drury left a perfectly good job at the biggest
finance company in the world to work at a start-up, Cole
Taylor Equipment Finance. Today he is stepping into
the big shoes of industry icon, Ed Dahlka, who recently
retired as the company’s president.
MB Equipment Finance has come a long way since
Dahlka founded the subsidiary in 2012. This year, on
the power of a nearly 40% year-over-year increase in
net investment, the company has risen 13 spots to be
ranked #72 in the Monitor 100. “My goal is to continue
to build upon the foundation Ed started and to position
our organization as a national force in the industry,”
Drury says. “I’ve always held the belief that I work for
the individuals employed by the company. My role is
to shape the vision and provide the tools and frame-
work necessary to facilitate the team’s ability to achieve
our goals. As a small company, no one here is just a
manager; we all roll up our sleeves to get the job done
for our customers. That’s my style and I think everyone
here is excited about it.”
Gaining Mastery Amid Mergers
Like many others in the industry, Drury didn’t go to
college planning on a career in equipment finance. “I
think most of us fell into this business,” he says with
a laugh. “My first job out of college was with a small
community bank in Pittsburgh where the loan officer training program
involved rotation through all sorts of ‘glamorous’ positions — working
behind the teller line, opening new accounts, processing and approving
car loans and mortgage applications. I even had to repossess a car at
one point!”
Drury continued to hone his trade in his next position with a leasing
company that eventually became Banc of America Leasing through a
series of mergers. “I worked for and with so many smart people during
that time period and I held a number of positions, ranging from credit
analyst to operations manager and, ultimately, to sales professional,”
he explains. “Many people from that organization have very senior
positions throughout the industry today.”
After a Nations Bank/Bank of America merger resulted in a change
to Drury’s role, he decided to join Mellon U.S. Leasing which was
acquired by GE Capital after two years. “GE ultimately positioned me
well for my current role,” he says. “I had an opportunity to lead sales
teams, as well as the company’s intermediary funding business unit.
GE does such a nice job developing talent. I really can’t say enough
about how much I learned in the various roles and the leadership
development programs,” he says, recalling a management development
course that included a public speaking program where he had to stand
before a room of 50+ people who critiqued every stutter of the tongue
or flail of the hand. “We will miss this type of institutional personnel
development in the industry over the long haul,” he adds.
After 12 years, Drury made the tough decision to leave GE. “The
opportunity to work for an industry icon like Ed Dahlka was too good
to pass up,” he recalls. “The plan was to be Ed’s #2. I’m not sure even
Ed really knew at that time how long he would work. Ed was the
primary reason I left GE and the opportunity to succeed an industry
icon like him is really an honor.”
Aligning with MB Financial Bank
The vision of MB Equipment Finance is aligned with that of the parent
bank, MB Financial Bank, which seeks to be the pre-eminent middle
market bank in the markets it serves. With offices in six states, MB
Shifting to the Direct Channel:
DruryLeadsMBEquipmentFinance
intotheMiddleMarket
BY RITA E. GARWOOD
As he takes the reins from industry legend Ed Dahlka, newly appointed president of MB Equipment
Finance David M. Drury discusses his vision for the company formerly known as Cole Taylor Equipment
Finance. He looks back on the 12 years he spent with GE Capital and envisions what the future may hold
for the industry when the “800 pound gorilla” is gone for good.
DAVID M. DRURY
President,
MB Equipment Finance
“My goal is to continue to build upon the foundation Ed started and
to position our organization as a national force in the industry.”
RANK: ASSETS: VOLUME:
72 $374.2 $231.8
SEGMENT: EMPLOYEES: WEB:
USB 25 mbfinancial.com
EXECUTIVE PROFILE: NEW LEADERSHIP

2. 2015 MONITOR 100 • monitor • 83
administrative responsibilities. “All of this really impacts a successful
salesperson’s ability to effectively manage the client relationship and
sometimes it creates bureaucracy that bogs down the deal process,”
he says. “We take a throw-back approach as a generalist; offering
our sales teams large territories, no verticals and a packager model
that permits sales teams to do what they enjoy most, and that’s hunt,
develop relationships and sell. In general, our sales team is targeting
public and private companies with revenues between $50 million and
$2 billion, but our sweet-spot is somewhere in the $75 million to $500
million revenue range,” Drury says.
While Drury describes the competitive environment as “brutal,” he
says MB Equipment Finance is still able to stand out. “We can do all
the things that a big financial institution can do without the functional
dysfunction so common in larger, more bureaucratic organizations,”
he explains. “The people here have all worked for the largest finan-
cial institutions in the country, so from that standpoint we have the
same level of expertise, but we’re a small group that can make quick
decisions and our customer service is top-notch. We pride ourselves
on the ability to often fund transactions the same day the customer
requests us to. Many big institutions can’t be responsive as quickly
as we can be.”
Envisioning the Industry’s Future
Drury says he is cautiously optimistic about the economy this year.
“We had pretty slow GDP growth in the first few months of the year,”
explains. “If it bounces back I hope to see more capex spending help
create more finance and leasing opportunities.” Like many Monitor
100 participants this year, Drury is wary of continued margin pres-
sure. “There remains a seemingly endless supply of capital chasing
the opportunities that are out there,” he says. “Margin compression
has really made us smarter about the types of transactions and the
customer profile we pursue.
When he envisions the industry without his former employer, GE
Capital, Drury sees both possibilities and a void in the market. “I never
thought I’d see the day when GE would exit the market entirely and
remain only with its captive operations,” he says. “There are a ton of
really good people and businesses there and I expect some of that will
create new entrants in the market and perhaps even expand the size
of some of the current participants in the market. It might also create a
reduction in some of the capital market purchasing activity that’s out
there just because they’re such a big syndicator of assets. I suspect
that anyone who’s going to buy parts of the business will likely desire
to hold a fair amount of what they do. It may also create somewhat of a
finance company void in the market because GE did so many acquisi-
tions of its competition in the ‘finco’ space over the last 10-15 years and
the customers who need reliable financing in that market may be more
challenged to find suitable options. That being said, our industry is
opportunistic, and I’m confident both MB Equipment Finance and our
competition will find ways to serve many of those markets.” m
RITA E. GARWOOD is editor of Monitor.
Equipment Finance has a national footprint, having
financed and leased equipment assets in 48 states. “At
the end of the day, the bank’s strategy of focusing on
middle market clients on a direct basis exactly aligns
with our strategy,” Drury says. “The long-term plan is
to accelerate growth and become a significant profit
contributor to the bank. We want to hold up our share
of the bargain.”
Drury continues by explaining that rebranding of
his business unit to MB Equipment Finance simply
aligns the name with MB Financial Bank and does not
indicate other changes in the structure of MB Financial
Bank’s family of leasing businesses. Along with Celtic
Commercial Finance, LaSalle Solutions and MB’s Lessor
Finance division, MB is able to provide the market with
comprehensive equipment finance and leasing services.
“The rebrand just made sense,” he says. “MB Equipment
Finance is a bank leasing company. I expect the bank
will continually evaluate opportunities to leverage best
practices among all the MB leasing businesses, but no
significant, impending changes are currently contem-
plated to the businesses themselves.”
Blossoming Direct Channel
In the past, MB Equipment Finance was largely focused
on building a portfolio through its buy desk, which
represented 94% of total 2013 volume. However, a 389%
increase in company’s 2014 direct origination sources
indicates that efforts are now being concentrated toward
direct channel growth. “When you start a company de
novo you have no assets so the quickest way to build
assets is to buy them,” Drury explains. “For the first two
years in business, as we were building out our direct
sales team; this was the quickest way to basically pay
the electric bill.” Coming off the finalization of the
company’s three-year strategic plan, Drury says the
primary focus will be continued emphasize of the direct
channel in 2015 and beyond. “We’d really like the direct
channel to represent 70%+ of our new business volume
on a going-forward basis and it’s an exciting time for us,”
he says. “We’ve planted a lot of seeds and we’re starting
to see those seeds start to sprout, grow and blossom. It
really inspires me to see our hard work paying off and
the team starting to have some real success.”
Despite the shift toward direct originations, the buy
desk will not be forgotten. “I’ve spent a fair amount of
my career in this channel and I remain committed to
the strategic importance of building and growing recip-
rocal capital markets relationships, and this will be our
approach,” Drury says. “We’ll continue to buy assets;
but, we’ll do it strategically and work with those who are
syndication partners for us as well.”
Much of 2014 was spent trying to build a sales team,
and Drury says this will continue. “We’ve done a great
job recruiting top talent that have been frustrated by
our larger peers in the industry,” he says, explaining
that smaller territories and verticals force sales teams to
occasionally abandon long-term relationships to others
while also having to become increasingly involved with
“We’d really like the direct channel to represent 70%+ of
our new business volume on a going-forward basis and it’s an
exciting time for us. We’ve planted a lot of seeds and we’re
starting to see those seeds start to sprout, grow and blossom.”