Advantage Funding, a subsidiary of Marubeni America Corporation since 2006, recently announced an ownership transition agreement. The agreement gave Marubeni, a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar Japanese trading company, full ownership of the company and moved Advantage Funding’s CFO Alvaro (Al) Damiani into the position of president. Don Coolbaugh assumed the position of Chief Sales Officer.

Marubeni America executives had long expressed an interest in assuming full ownership of Advantage Funding, and a recent agreement reached with Advantage Funding’s principals made this possible.

Al Damiani has more than 25 years of experience in the leasing and finance industry, and served as Advantage Funding’s CFO for the last two and a half years.  Prior to joining Advantage Funding, Damiani served as CFO of Vendor Finance for CIT in the U.S., leading the finance function for CIT’s largest segment, providing leases and loans to direct customers as well as dealers and resellers through equipment manufacturing programs.

“With the full backing of Marubeni America Corporation and its resources, Advantage Funding remains committed to its very high levels of personal service in commercial and vocational equipment financing and support to partners in captive finance,” said Damiani.

Don Coolbaugh has been with Advantage Funding since the company’s inception, bringing more than 20 years of experience in sales and business development. “Our team has the same strong integrity and desire to help that our customers have come to expect,” said Coolbaugh. “We look forward to growing our many valuable relationships, and to entering new ones.”

Advantage Funding, based in Lake Success, New York, founded in 1997, is dedicated to providing equipment financing and leasing solutions for ground transportation  to support vehicle dealers, distributors, manufacturers, and end users nationwide.