Wingspire Capital Holdings announced Ken Wendler has joined the firm as Chief Credit Officer. In this role, Wendler will lead Wingspire’s Investment Committee, work directly with the firm’s front-end team to thoughtfully structure senior secured loans, manage credit policies, direct risk management strategies and help to identify new products and asset categories for Wingspire’s growing portfolio.
Wendler joins Wingspire from a middle market debt fund where he served as the Chief Lending Officer and oversaw a multibillion-dollar portfolio of asset based, cash flow, factoring and lease products across many different industries and geographies.
“We are thrilled to have Ken join our team,” said David Wisen, Chief Executive Officer of Wingspire. “He is a proven leader in credit decision-making, having effectively structured senior secured commercial loans, led credit approval processes and managed loan portfolios through every credit cycle of the last three decades. This deep experience will add tremendous value as Wingspire continues to expand its portfolio of ABL and other secured loans.”
Wendler has had a long and distinguished career in middle market secured lending, principally for CIT, where he held roles of increasing responsibility and ultimately served as the firm’s Deputy Chief Credit Officer and Chief Credit Officer of its Corporate Finance unit. In these capacities, Wendler chaired the Corporate Credit Committee and the Corporate Finance Credit Committee and managed a portfolio of approximately $20 billion in middle market loan assets. Wendler also ran the Problem Loan Management team during the Great Recession. He has been a frequent lecturer at industry conferences throughout his career, served as an instructor in credit at NYU’s School of Continuing Education and has written articles for Forbes.com and The Secured Lender.
Wingspire Capital is a middle market focused specialty finance firm that provides senior secured debt solutions. With offices in New York, Atlanta and Chicago, Wingspire offers thoughtfully structured revolving credit lines and term loans ranging in size from $20 to $200 million. Its products include traditional ABL facilities, machinery and equipment term loans, real estate term loans, first-in/last-out (FILO) tranches, cash flow term loans and opportunistic / bridge financings. Wingspire’s customers are public and private businesses in an array of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, retail, logistics, automotive, energy, consumer products, hospitality and business services.