Previewing the 2023 Presidents & Senior Executives Meeting

With the 2023 Presidents & Senior Executives Meeting fewer than two months away, Cole Harmonson of Dare Capital and Ryan Jaskiewicz of 12five Capital, who will moderate the event, provide a brief glimpse at what attendees can expect.

Running a factoring company is not for the faint of heart and one of the best ways to help with strategic planning is meeting with other leaders in the industry. The International Factoring Association will provide an opportunity for executives to do just that at its annual Presidents & Senior Executives Meeting in Napa, CA, from Feb. 2 to Feb. 3. The two-day event will cover a host of industry topics, including marketing, credit, human resources, funding options, regulations and more, with Cole Harmonson, CEO and founder of Dare Capital, and Ryan Jaskiewicz, CEO of 12five Capital, serving as moderators for the event. Harmonson and Jaskiewicz took a few minutes to give a brief glimpse at what attendees can expect at the event.

What can you tell us about this event, both in how it will be structured and in terms of what it will cover and provide attendees?

Cole Harmonson: Our mission for this event is to focus on areas of valuation for each owner, whether its in operational, credit, marketing, sales and how you relate to the employee of the future. For every attendee, we want them to pick up at least one particular area in which they wanted to change for the future because the future is the question we are trying to answer.

Ryan Jaskiewicz: Focusing on giving everybody something tangible to take away with them is really important since that doesn’t always happen at every conference. We want people to come away with something they can bring back to make real change in their business for the better.

Who do you think this event will be most beneficial for? Why?

Harmonson: Factoring is unforgiving, and the reason that we like to do it is because it's unforgiving. It puts you in contact with reality very quickly. Ryan and I both love factoring and what it does for our customers, our economic situation and all the people that we're involved with.

This event will be great for anyone who's running a portfolio. If you're responsible for P&L, if you're responsible for make or break, if you're responsible for putting your own money on the line, you're going to like this event.

Networking is a key component of this event. What networking opportunities will there be and what advice would you give to people to best utilize the event for networking?

Jaskiewicz: Creating connection is one of the missions of this meeting, so we’re optimizing the event for networking opportunities and making that a major focus.

Harmonson: The networking is important and connections are real. Ryan and I actually met at this conference 15 or so years ago and we’ve become close friends since.

Broadly speaking, what are some of the most important topics that will be covered during the event?

Harmonson: We're excited that Tim Stute, managing director and head of specialty finance at Hovde Group, will be at this event. Roughly 20 years ago, he showed this same group of factoring executives the strategic drivers of valuation for a factoring business and if you're not focusing on optimizing each one of these areas, then you're really not going to maximize the value of your organization. So, whether you're a bank, whether you're an independent factor or whether you're a small factor, if you're not focusing on these areas, you may be missing out on maximizing value for your organization. And that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about portfolio management. We're going to talk about workouts. We're going to talk about underwriting. We're going to talk about pretty much every aspect of the business that's going to drive value.

From an executive’s perspective, how have things like rising interest rates, higher inflation, supply chain disruption, etc. affected factors today?

Harmonson: If you're not battening down the hatches in some way, you may want to consider doing so. Maybe that's overly cautious, but in the uncertain world that we're in, it pays to be overly cautious. There is an old saying in this business that made an impact on me many years ago: One can be bold in factoring or one can be old in factoring but probably not both.