Sharon Butler, Sales Director EMEA for NetApp Capital Solutions, hosted the first of the Leasing Foundation Future Leaders one-day development meetings in London on 6 March 2014.
The session allowed the Future leaders to explore EMEA funding strategies, to understand the need for different business models, and to appreciate the context in which one captive finance business in EMEA operates.
Peter Thomas, Foundation COO, says “NetApp have been incredibly generous in sharing their time and expertise and the Leasing Foundation is grateful for their support. The ability to understand the broad sweep of the industry is an essential part of the leadership development process, and the participants in the Future Leaders programme were able to get insights into how NetApp Capital Solutions operate, an opportunity that they could never have accessed elsewhere.”
Ryan Brodley (CHP Consulting) one of the Future Leaders in the first cohort says: “Sharon Butler and the team at NetApp provided a fascinating overview of their captive finance business and the product types that have supported its substantial growth to a $6.3bn revenue. Themes included the creation of a company committed to innovation, its core values and the development of industry partnerships to ensure success for all of its customers. From my point of view, as a software provider and business consultant for the industry, it was exciting to see that NetApp not only continue to evolve and innovate with their technology solutions, but also with their financing solutions; providing maximum flexibility during the sales process.”
The leasing Foundation Future Leaders programme is based on an action learning approach which uses group-based discussion to explore real problems, and develop solutions, which can then be applied in practice. A learning set comprises a group of people who have shared experiences or challenges and who meet on a regular basis.
The Leasing Foundation Future Leaders 2013-2014 are
Ryan Brodley, CHP
Carl Daufer, Bibby Leasing
David Darmoulin, ING
Carolyn Harding, Lombard
Christian Roelofs, Grant Thornton
Martin Ward, Shoosmiths
Chris Watts, CAT Financial
Rachael Woods, CIT
The programme is supported by NetApp Capital Solutions, Société Générale Equipment Finance and Bibby Leasing.
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