Star Hill Financial LLC announced the appointment of Keith Smith as President, Equipment Finance Division.
“Adding Keith Smith to our leadership team will help Star Hill expand our reach,” said Hollis Bufferd, Chief Executive Officer. “Keith has built a reputation as someone who can develop and lead a team to achieve outstanding results. He has worked with a wide range of credits from investment grade companies to start ups across diverse equipment types from heavy machinery to software, he will give us the ability to immediate create new product offerings.”
Smith has over 20 years of experience leading equipment finance and franchise teams. Prior to joining Star Hill, he held the dual roles of President of both the Equipment Finance and Franchise Finance Divisions for Sterling National Bank. In those roles, Smith led the divisions and grew the portfolio from $150 million to over $2 billion in outstanding’s. Under his direction, Sterling became a top 50 equipment finance company pursuant to the Monitor 100. Before Sterling, he held sales and credit leadership roles at Siemens Financial Services, CitiCapital/Copelco, Lakeland Bank and Orix. He received his BA from The College of Saint Rose.
"I am honored to join the leadership team of the equipment finance business," said Smith. "Taking care of customers is in our employees' DNA, and we work hard every day to earn our customers' business and their preference for our services. I am committed to maintaining that focus and investing for the future. We see a great opportunity to expand our services to additional vendors looking for a reliable partner."
Star Hill was founded by Hollis Bufferd in 2016 to provide advisory services and equipment financing. Since that time, the Equipment Finance Division has expanded through direct customer solutions, as well as partnerships with financial institutions and captive finance companies by providing them the ability to offer their customer base the option of using a minority lending partner. With a focus on creating personalized customer experiences, no two programs are alike.
As a certified WBE (Women Business Enterprise), Star Hill’s goal is to help customers meet their diversity spend requirements while providing solutions that work for their company.
“Keith’s combined experience in both independent specialty finance companies and banks makes him an ideal fit to lead our Equipment Finance Division,” Bufferd added. “Adding a leader of Keith’s caliber to lead our next phase of growth in the division is something that has been on our strategic plan for years, but the key was to find the right person. Keith is an incredibly strong cultural fit and will hit the ground running.”
Star Hill Financial is an independent equipment finance and solutions company based in Fairfield, CT. Star Hill’s business is divided into Equipment Finance and Advisory Services.