The Macquarie Group late last month announced it had established an Office Technology Leasing Division in the United States. The division builds on the company’s deep experience in leasing IT equipment and its diverse group of leasing businesses globally. Macquarie, which has its headquarters in Australia, is a global financial services group operating in 31 markets in asset management, retail and business banking, wealth management, leasing and asset financing, market access, commodity trading, renewables development, investment banking and principal investment.
Macquarie hired a seven-person team of sales executives with extensive office technology leasing experience to form the core of the division’s new team, which is being led by Vice President Fred Carollo.

The new division, based in Jacksonville, FL, is part of Macquarie’s Specialised and Asset Finance (SAF) business, a unit of the firm’s Commodities and Global Markets group.

Equipment Finance Advisor interviewed Carollo and Kory Grant, Head of U.S. Sales at Macquarie SAF, to learn more about the plans for the division.

Equipment Finance Advisor: Please elaborate on the reasons for launching the Office Technology Leasing Division in the United States and how this division will differentiate itself from existing Office Technology Leasing offerings in the U.S.

Kory Grant and Fred Corollo: This is an expansion of Macquarie’s previous success in leasing IT equipment as well as a number of other leasing businesses globally. We have a strong knowledge of IT financing as well as a long history of Office Products leasing in Australia. We have a number of other leasing business in regions across the globe that all combine to give us world class systems and strong customer experiences.

We are very focused on the customer experience. We feel that is lacking in today’s market. We will combine a great customer experience with an industry-leading product mix and a very tenured sales staff that bring many years of relationships with them to Macquarie. Our sales staff provides a high level of added value to our customers. Combining an excellent customer experience, an industry-leading product mix, a robust technology offering, along with a commonsense approach to the business which make Macquarie a formidable competitor in this space.

Equipment Finance Advisor: Why is this a good time to launch the division?

Grant and Corollo:Our view is that there have been pockets of dislocation, as one might expect in times of market volatility, and changes to the way that people and organizations perform their work in the current business environment. We believe that the long-term demand drivers are still strong in Office Technology leasing, there are strong adjacencies to existing Macquarie leasing businesses and we have developed a strong client offering. We feel there is a void in the market that our product and approach to the business will be very relevant to customers now and in the near future.

Equipment Finance Advisor: What do you foresee as the biggest challenges and opportunities for the division?

Grant and Corollo: One of our challenges will be our lack of existing lease portfolio within the dealer and manufacturer channels. This industry focuses heavily on maintaining and upgrading their customer base and the incumbent lessor, at times, has an advantage financially over others. We will be focusing on providing a better upgrade solution for the market than their existing financing sources as well as net new business opportunities that the dealers and manufacturers obtain. We are confident in increased net new opportunities for our customers since the market offering is evolving past what they have marketed in the past. That will give us an even playing field on those transactions since the new solutions will be more than just an upgrade in technology.

Equipment Finance Advisor: The company selected Fred Carollo to lead the seven-person team. What experience and talents does he bring to the position as leader of this new division?

Grant: Fred Carollo is a well-respected industry veteran in the Office Technology leasing space with over 28 years sales and management experience. He has been in management for the last 20 years and successfully built and led lead teams in this space with unrivaled growth and success in each role. He leads a team that he has directly managed over the last 16 years that will be making up our initial Office Technology sales group. He has been a prominent industry spokesperson in many articles and venues over this time and has been named as top in his peer group. His ability to build teams, processes and true understanding of the market needs and direction makes him uniquely well-qualified for this role. We are very excited to have him lead us in our rollout of this group in the U.S.

Equipment Finance Advisor: The company has announced the team will focus on providing innovative lifecycle solutions. Can you elaborate on the importance of this for the division?

Grant and Corollo: We feel the changes that are taking place in the workplace environment will lead to increased demand for the solutions that our targeted Office Technology partners offer to the marketplace. The convergence of IT offerings as well as traditional Office Technology equipment is very exciting to us. The solutions offered into the market are more relevant and essential than ever with a workforce working remotely as well as in the office. The ability to meet, communicate and share information, as well as documents, effectively and securely is more important for organizations than ever. Our focus will be on solutions that include Office Technology equipment and IT products and services. We will be offering the ability to bundle pass-thru services along with financed assets in a total solution offering to help our partners acquire and keep their end-user customers in a very competitive marketplace.

Equipment Finance Advisor: Anything else you would like to add?

Grant and Corollo: Our intention is to establish a leadership position in Office Technology leasing, to deliver industry-leading service and build meaningful partnerships with our clients. If we do that, the business will thrive.