“Listen more. Everybody likes to be heard… I think listening is a big part of leadership.”

We’re pleased to spotlight…

Donald Wampler, CLFP, our Managing Director of Equipment Finance.

How long have you worked at Apex? Can you describe your experience working for the company?

18 years. I was originally hired as the credit manager for equipment finance.  Senior Management at the time actually switched the role on me the Friday before I was supposed to start and asked me to head up the broker department. It was all new to me as I had never worked on the sales side of equipment finance prior to joining Apex, which was Firstlease at the time. I had a lending background; prior to joining the company I worked for several community banks doing business development through the branches. It was all new for me, and it was a great learning experience because these are broker relationships that we still do business with today.

In 2008, after the financial crisis, and like most lenders in the equipment financer space, Apex tightened up and chose to focus only on our vendor direct business, and discontinued working with brokers. I started managing our direct sales team, as well as focusing on new business development. In 2012, we once again started lending through brokers and I went back to managing our broker relationships, while also managing our direct sales team. For the four years prior to Firstlease and Apex merging, I was the President of Firstlease. After we merged, I managed the account executives for both the equipment finance and commercial mortgage business lines, and now I’m back to focusing solely on equipment finance. I currently oversee sales, credit, our docs team, and assisting with the marketing we do for Apex.

Did you work anywhere prior to Apex, and can you tell us a bit about that? Is there any job you had that you feel really prepared you for your time here?

My first actual financial job was working at a local community bank where I started in their maintenance department. I was introduced a woman who worked for the bank through my job at a local used car dealership that I worked at while in college, and she told me about a credit training program the bank had for individuals looking to get into banking. There were no openings in the program at the time, so they offered me an entry level job in their maintenance/purchasing department. I bided my time and until the next round of training started. That set me up for my whole career in finance because it gave me a good sense of the entire world of banking. I was able to learn credit, while also learning about all the different department functions through internships in each department, so I could decide which direction I wanted to take my career.

Tell us about your role. What are your responsibilities?

I am heavily involved in sales and credit – working with our broker relationships, working with some of the key people in our long-term vendor relationships – so I’m in the weeds there. Day-to-day I’m looking at complex transactions that maybe got turned down and how we could properly structure them and make a deal of it. Our docs team runs efficiently, so I’m not quite as involved in the day-to-day; I’m there when they need me. I do a lot of work with collections as well, looking at trends and making sure we’re not seeing any trends that should change the way we’re underwriting long term.

Describe your leadership style. How do you motivate your team?

I’d say I’m hands on. I try to practice what I preach. You know even when I was still involved with the commercial real estate sales team, I never felt like I was managing from the top. I was trying to sell along with them. I do the same for our equipment finance team.  I want any account executive I manage to hopefully learn from how I interact with our relationships, and I hope I can help them move along in their career path and build their book of business.

What are your current goals?

We just went through a year and a half of some portfolio performance turbulence, so the goal right now is to rebuild our equipment finance portfolio with good producing loans. We went through a few years where we were doing a lot of volume at very low rates, and then rates increased dramatically, which significantly impacted the profitability of our portfolio. Its been a challenge, but we’re lucky to have a good parent company in Firstrust Bank that allows to navigate these bumps in the road. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel due to our ability to rebuild the portfolio with better yielding loans, while the lower yielding loans continue to runoff.

Who do you look to for inspiration and advice/mentorship?

I have a conference coming up in the first week of March with industry peers that are in similar job roles at much larger companies.  I lean a lot on the interactions I have with my industry peers. A lot of their problems are the same problems we have here, just on a different scale, so it gives me the opportunity to learn from their experience.

What advice do you have for people in leadership positions?

Listen more. I think I do a fairly good job of listening to the people that work for me, and I hope they appreciate it. Everybody likes to be heard. The ability to be able to listen and find out what I can do to assist them when they’re struggling, when they’re doing well, I think that’s important. Anything I can do to be involved. I think listening is a big part of leadership.

What are the most important traits you look for when hiring a new employee?

We’re always trying to find people who truly want to be here, who want to do the work, and who are engaged. We’ve had a lot of great new hires recently who are really hard workers, and they’re bringing in fresh ideas. So, we’re looking for that engagement.

What’s the most important risk you’ve taken throughout your career and why?

I think the biggest risk for me was going from being behind the scenes credit to out in front selling. Twenty years ago, sales scared me.  The industry and the companies I worked for paid very small salaries but with huge income potential.  The unknown of what a paycheck would look like on regular basis was a scary concept to me.  I honestly didn’t have confidence in myself. I kind of got pushed into it a few times before joining Apex and again when I started my career here, but I’m glad it worked out because I really do enjoy it.  I enjoy the business relationships that I have built over the years.  We all sell for this company in one way or another. It wasn’t who I thought I was, but it somehow has gotten me a pretty long career here.

What are some of your favorite things to do outside of work?

I love playing Softball. Growing up, I was obsessed with baseball. I loved watching baseball; I loved playing baseball. I started playing softball shortly after graduating high school, and I still play to this day.  My love for the game of softball has grown even more over the past few years, as my daughter is now involved in the game as well.  She started playing travel ball last year and honestly, I enjoy watching her play more than playing the game itself.  My son plays flag football.  Sports were a huge part of my childhood, and it is so much fun watching them enjoy playing their sports.

What’s one thing are you most proud of?

My kids. They are both uniquely amazing in their own way.  My daughter is thriving in her advanced classes as school, and recently achieved advanced honor roll, while also balancing all the time it takes for her to train weekly for her travel softball team.  My son also made honor roll this past marking period.  The things that come so easily to my son amaze me, because unlike his sister that is obsessed with being perfect, he coasts through life with minimal effort and success in school just comes so easy for him.