Tae Chung Amplifies New Business Development for Republic Business Credit

Networking is one of the most important parts of business development and sometimes something as simple as an informal business lunch can lead to a major career change. Such is the case with Tae Chung, the new senior vice president of business development at Republic Business Credit. Chung shares why he decided to join the company, the challenges of doing so during a global pandemic and how he is leveraging his experience to drive new business.

BY PHIL NEUFFER

One of the last in-person business lunches Tae Chung had in 2020 turned out to be an important one. In late February, right before the first round of COVID-19 shelter in place orders changed how restaurants served customers, Chung broke bread in Los Angeles with Robert Meyers, president of Republic Business Credit. Although Chung was gainfully employed by Hana Financial at the time, the conversation eventually made its way to a potential future for Chung with RBC.

“That’s how we started the dialogue,” Chung says. “Rob made it clear that he remained very interested in working with me at some point should it ever make sense, At the time, I wasn’t really interested, but it is always flattering to be courted and it was a fun, open discussion.”

Although Chung left that lunch in February without any plans of joining another company, the thought of joining RBC stuck in the back of his head. After all, the company employed some of his oldest friends in the finance industry, including Jason Carmona (EVP, western regional manager) and Matt Begley (chief operating officer).

People can greatly influence how you think about a company, but Chung also was intrigued by the growth plans of RBC as a business overall.

“It made a lot of sense,” Chung says. “The approach they take to building a business, their go to market approach, their culture … it meshed very well with where I would enjoy adding value.”

PERFECT TIMING IN AN IMPERFECT TIME

In March, when shelter-in-place orders began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chung’s prior employer faced many challenges, leaving Chung in a precarious position and one that ultimately opened the opportunity to join RBC. Although changing companies in the midst of a global pandemic was not his planned course of action, Chung was fortunate enough to have the option.

“I think timing and a bit of luck were a few key reasons that determined how everything played out in the end,” Chung, who now works as a senior vice president of business development for RBC, says. “It was just a perfect timing in the midst of a very uncertain economic environment.”

Speaking of timing, RBC didn’t waste a single second getting Chung on board officially. According to both Chung and Meyers, after Chung informed the company he was interested in joining, it took fewer than 48 hours before an offer sheet was sitting on his desk. “It was a wonderful way to end a crazy week,” Chung says.

“As you’re building and growing a business, you identify key people in key markets. And, as anything, timing is not always at your discretion,” Meyers says. “Once Tae told us that he became available, it was a no brainer.”

It’s easy to see why Meyers and RBC were so interested in Chung, who first entered the factoring industry in 2002 at Finance One, a factoring company in Los Angeles. Chung started in operations with Finance One and eventually moved into a business development role in 2007.

“During that time in the industry, often people were employed in a hybrid account executive and business development role,” Chung says. “But I was one of the first tasked into a pure new business role within the organization.”

In addition to changing departments, Chung also began to scale the corporate ladder while with Finance One, rising from assistant vice president to vice president to senior vice president and marketing director. By the time he joined Hana Financial in 2018, Chung had amassed an impressive resume and accumulated numerous experiences across the finance industry. In 2020, RBC was excited about adding Chung given his depth of experience in the traditional factoring industry.

In fact, Meyers says that the 48-hour period between Chung’s expression of interest and the delivery of the offer sheet was only that long due to the realities of the pandemic. Those realities created challenges beyond just getting the offer sheet into Chung’s hands, as it necessitated an executive team meeting to confirm that the company had the resources, time and ideas to reward its investment in Chung. It also impacted Chung’s onboarding, from introductions of policies and products to creating a bond with colleagues over a computer screen. That meant multiple Zoom calls, digital interactions and phone calls at all hours of the day to help accelerate personal connections without traditional means of in-person communication. Those personal connections are especially important for someone like Chung, who puts a real emphasis on trust and interacts with people across the business. Losing the celebratory onboarding cocktail remains a huge disappointment for Meyers as well.

“It’s a bummer because we really pride ourselves on having that true human connection with people that only comes from time investing in a person,” Meyers says. “For all that video conferencing and phone calls work as a substitute for, it doesn’t give you that extra conversation or random chat that happens when you are sitting around without an agenda.”

FINDING BUSINESS DURING A PANDEMIC

Upon joining RBC and navigating a less traditional onboarding process, Chung got straight to work, leveraging his experience in factoring to the retail industry and other areas to help RBC add new business immediately.

“Right now, current position wise, I am purely doing marketing and business development. My main focus: originate new clients and help onboard them,” Chung says, while giving a great deal of credit to RBC’s underwriting team for winning deals. “Our underwriters are a big help in supporting that aspect. Underwriting the accounts, getting those to the finish line in the midst of a pandemic and arming our [staff] with the ability to focus [on] adding new clients while working in tandem to fund the new deals.”

As Chung has been working to accelerate deal flow, there is no way to ignore the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, even on the healthiest of companies.

“Throughout the years, I always believed the previous economic downturn was the worst, but COVID-19 is by far the worst economic downturn that I faced in my career,” Chung says, noting that to remain successful, he has been forced to adapt, pivot and proactively anticipate what lies ahead for both RBC and its clients.

Looking at retail in particular, he is going beyond the established narratives of the decline of brick-and-mortar and the rise of e-commerce to find solutions for potential clients. For example, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chung believes that budget discounters like TJ Maxx and Ross are better positioned to ride out the storm, particularly as consumers exhibit more conservative spending behaviors. Chung also anticipates a continued increase in interest in factoring as a means of gaining liquidity.

“During pandemics or recessions, it typically broadens the interest in factoring by companies that have never factored before or sought credit protection for their receivables,” Chung says. “There’s going to be a lot of pull back in the bank credit market, and I believe more clients will seek factoring as an alternative to banking, or those banks will encourage their clients to add on credit protection to the receivables to support their loan.”

In addition to adaptability and a forward-looking mindset, Chung believes RBC’s willingness to go all out to find the right deals is the key to the business’ ability to remain active during the pandemic.

“We have been very aggressive in the market during the pandemic in terms of adding new accounts, structuring deals and finding a partnership with clients to help them grow,” Chung says.

By helping to pursue business, Chung has helped with that aggressive approach, proving that Meyers was right to seek him out.

“[He’s] overwhelmingly exceeded expectations in the midst of what is an obviously crazy time.” Meyers says. “But I think that it comes down to something very simple: Tae is the right person. We knew Tae was the right person before this, and we got lucky that Tae was available.”

Meyers isn’t alone in valuing Chung and his ability to get things done. According to Chung, his ability to be direct and honest with clients is what has led to his success and what should continue to aid him in the future.

“I have clients that have been with me for the past 15 years that have trusted me because of [my] upfront and straightforward approach to solutions,” Chung says. “I don’t sugarcoat everything. At the time that something needs to be addressed, we address it together and move forward on the same path.” •