Founding Fellows, including Lyndsay Town, Patrick Gouin, Sharon Butler, Paul Bartley, Charles Maddren and Christian Roelofs talked to Brian Rogerson at Asset Finance International recently. Here is some of what they said.
You can read the full text at www.assetfinanceinternational.com and share your views on our LinkedIn Group or @lsngfoundation
Patrick Gouin: a lack of research and development & training supporting the leasing industry in Europe.
There is an evolution that is taking place in the European banking and asset finance sector, but there is no specific research group to will provide the newly-evolving leasing industry with a series of new tools, and that is where the Foundation will play a crucial part.
Charles Maddren: development and training are crucial to the future of the industry.
If you are a graduate from university, where in your career planning and priorities would a job in the leasing industry lie? It’s a great industry, but we need to continue attracting first class talent into it. We ignore that responsibility at our peril. We have a wealth of experience in our industry but that must be matched by a succession of new entrants to provide rising stars and future leaders…we can’t simply carry on doing what we have been doing – we need new ways of structuring and delivering our product into the marketplace. Research will give us insight into potential new directions.
Andrew Denton: philanthropy can provide a massive step along the route to repairing the perception of lessors.
It is a touchstone of what we really care about and what we are capable of achieving for those less fortunate then ourselves. It’s really all about people in the various leasing sectors paying something back into the industry. We’ve all done rather well out of the industry and acknowledging this with philanthropic work is simply doing the right thing.
Christian Roelofs: fostering philanthropy, research and development & training will aid in the rehabilitation of leasing.
Philanthropy is about having a social conscience, development points towards it being time we started sharing information for the benefit the industry and identifying areas that require attention. Training is about planning for the next generation of talent to take the industry forward. There is little point instigating change if there is no one to follow through and maintain it.
Lindsay Town: we’ve never been really organised in what we’ve done for others.
We’ve contributed a little here and there. I believe it’s time to harness our endeavours and give them real focus. Get the industry known as a benefactor. In that way we should magnify both the impact and the quantum. The Foundation’s great advantage will be in its individual input into research rather than its corporate input, people need to remember that Foundation membership is wholly personal, which strongly differentiates it. It will allow its members to exercise their valuable experience in new research – which will, however, be complementary to other trade research.