Andrew Pace
Welcome back to ACS Portfolio Perspective. I’m your host, Andrew Pace, Chief Client Experience Officer at ACS. Today I’m joined by Erik Eddington, Chief Operating Officer at CH Brown Equipment Finance, a Platte Valley company based in Wheatland, Wyoming.

Erik brings a unique and refreshing perspective to equipment finance with over a decade of experience in commercial and agricultural banking before stepping into the small ticket equipment finance world. Since joining CH Brown in May of 2025, Erik has made a culture a cornerstone of the organization. Double deal conversion rates, and helped drive the company to record-breaking performance in 25 and into 2026. He’s also in the midst of a significant technology transformation, including a new loan origination system and AI-driven document processing, all while leading a lean, high-performing team. Erik, welcome to the show.

Erik  Eddington
Thank you, Andrew. Happy to be here. 

Andrew Pace
So Erik, your path into equipment finance is not a traditional one. And I think that outsider perspective is part of what makes your story so interesting. Let’s start with your transition from banking into this business and what it was like seeing equipment finance through a fresh lens. So you came from a world where you understood everything in the building. Every job. So what was it like walking into a business where, at least initially, you didn’t know anything?

Erik Eddington
Yeah, intimidating and exciting all at the same time. 

In the leadership aspect side of it, walking into a building where people are coming to you with their problems or questions and being unsure how to answer, at least initially, was the intimidating part. Prior in banking, if someone had a question, I’ve been in multiple roles could jump in, show them how to do something and help that way. The exciting part though was learning the process and actually being able to help from that perspective. So not knowing maybe how it was done in the past or why they did it that way was the exciting side and able to jump in and basically solve the problem with them instead of me just saying, this is how we do it and go do it this way.

Andrew Pace
Yeah, you know, you’ve said your instinct was to ask why things were done a certain way without assuming anything was broken. What did you discover by taking that approach?

Erik Eddington
Yeah, just the biggest reason was in this, that I learned quickly in this business is it’s extremely fast-paced. In the banking world, you have your initial meeting, you gain financials. I mean, the turnaround time is nothing like, and this is equipment space. So by sitting in and asking why employees did stuff a certain way was strictly on an efficiency standpoint. Why do you do it this way? Can we streamline this? Can it be faster? Or is this something that this is the process and this is how we have to do it? Not on the aspect that they were doing it incorrectly, just on the aspect of how do we make it better or more efficient.

Andrew Pace
So what surprised you most about small ticket equipment finance compared to commercial banking? You know, you mentioned a little earlier about whether it was pace, relationships, or even how the risk is even managed 

Erik Eddington
Pace, at first, this is Pace. Risk. The risk, though, I would say is probably coming from a commercial bank setting where a 1% past due is a big number.
In this space, a 1% past due is a very good number. So the risk side of it, obviously pricing is risk-based. So there’s a reason that we have that. There’s a little more of a net interest margin on this side of the business than in the normal conversion or commercial banking side. But pace, I would say, is the number one difference. And the industry continues to push and push to become faster and faster. So that’s probably our biggest focus.

Andrew Pace
So the broker dependent model is nearly foreign to traditional banking. So what did that learning curve look like for you?

Erik Eddington
It’s still relationship-based. Instead of the relationship maybe with the customer, our relationship is with that broker. So big relationship person, I think basically just retraining that aspect of it. Technically, the customer is our end product. We’re not out there going to get the customer. The broker is our true customer, and then we gain a customer that we technically put on the books. But let’s be honest, our perfect customer here at CHB, if everything goes as planned, we never speak to them, which is way different than the commercial base or commercial banking. But yeah, so just strictly building that relationship with brokers as they’re your sales team. They’re out there doing, bringing the business to you. So the deeper you can build that relationship with them, the better we’re going to be here.

Andrew Pace
So, looking back, what did your banking background give you that someone who grew up entirely in equipment finance might not have had?

Erik Eddington
Ohh, that’s a good question.
I would say understanding processes. In baking, there are certain things that you do a certain way. So coming in and asking why things are done a certain way, I think was eye-opening to me in whether we changed the process or enhance the process.

Andrew Pace
Great. So one of the most impressive parts, I think, of your story is how quickly you moved the needle operationally, not by loosening standards, but, you know, by fixing some of the bottlenecks. So let’s talk about conversion rates, speed, what it really takes to fund more deals with the same resources.

So when you arrived, you were seeing hundreds of applications a month, strong approval numbers, but far fewer funded deals. What was happening to all of that approved volume?

Erik Eddington
Yeah, basically it just sat out there and was kind of spinning. So that’s been a focus, but let’s be very clear that the team is the one that fixed conversion, not me. I just maybe put a little more emphasis on why it was there.
Conversion rates, when I first started, were in the 30 percentile. Actually, last month in February, we were at 61% conversion on approved loans to funded loans, which is a new record for us. Our goal is 75%. Strictly basically using that model is we’re doing the work for these deals to be on our books. Let’s make sure we’re doing that. And the way that we’re able to do that is be very intentional with those approved deals. 

Why weren’t they funded? What happened? Whether that’s more broker communication, whether that’s strictly speed from pre-credit to underwriting to funded. And we found it’s a mix of those things. But if we’re backlogged in pre-credit, we’ve brought in more team members to maybe help speed that process up. We’re in the process of implementing a new LOS system and then some AI software to help with the data entry side of that.
So just focusing on basically that, how do we become more efficient without begging more brokers to send us deals or expanding our credit box?

We know what we know and let’s just become better at it. And then as time goes, yeah, if more brokers come on, that’s great. If we expand our credit box into different collateral types, that’s great too, but that’s become efficient in what we’re doing now.

Andrew Pace
And you’ve described this as perhaps a timing problem rather than a credit problem. Why does speed matter so much in a broker-driven environment?

Erik Eddington
Strictly if no response time, speed is, it’s, I, not coming from the small ticket equipment deal, I basically, when people ask what we do, I compare it to buying a car at a car dealership. You walk in, whether you’re financing it, writing a check, whatever, you walk in and want to drive that car away. You don’t want to come back a week later and pick up the car. Essentially, in a lot of what we do is transportation. It’s just commercial transportation. These guys don’t want to wait a week to go pick up a truck if they’re trading trucks or getting a trailer or whatever that may be.
It needs to be a day or two process and that’s it.

Andrew Pace
So the LOS implementation has been a big lever for you. What does a modern loan origination system unlock that your previous platform could not?

Erik Eddington
Two things. The current system, we’re bank owned. The current system does not talk to the back end of the bank. So we have people doing data entry into the current system we’re using and then entering the same data into the bank system. So strictly software communication between systems is 1.
The second thing will just be the efficiencies. The software and technology side of this business is drastically changing. I’m sure a year from now we could do the same podcast and there would be something else out there that we’re moving into because it is crazy how quick that is changing. But strictly efficiency and communication between system to system. 

Andrew Pace
And you’ve also introduced AI into document processing and data entry. How did you think about rolling that out in a way that built trust rather than fear internally?

Erik Eddington
Honestly, the staff was very eager to enter a new product. They knew the challenges with the current product. They knew the goal of where the company wanted to head, and they knew it was not going to happen without some changes. So I didn’t have to do a lot of motivation staff-wise to push into a new product, which is a huge help. Usually that’s a big challenge, but staff here was ready for a change and knew that it was going to help them eventually, once we got it implemented.

Andrew Pace
And, you know, we talked before, you mentioned same day funding is still the goal. How close are you today and what still needs to happen to get there?

Erik Eddington
So yeah, so I would tell you we’re getting closer. There are a couple challenges with that, especially in the transportation sector side, as far as titling, making sure that we’re perfected, those type of things. So is a true same day funding fully realistic on all collateral types? No, no it is not. But there are some collateral types that we are able to do that. Strictly with that same day funding, I think it’s broker education. If brokers know what our credit box is, know what we need to underwrite the deal, that drastically changes the speed and time of which a deal is sitting in our system. If we get everything up front that we need, I mean, our decision time can be as basically as quick as we can get it through the system. If we’re emailing them back and say, hey, we need this or hey, we need that, that’s truly what sells this process down. So broker education, I would say, is almost as important as the technology side. That way we’re getting a full packet of what we need to make the decision instead of the communication going back and forth.

Andrew Pace
And what are some of those, what are some of those asset classes that you could potentially fund in a day. 

Erik Eddington
So we do some yellow iron self-construction equipment that would be non-titled, strictly be an EFA that would be able to probably be a little quicker. Any of the titled stuff with perfection makes that a little bit tougher. The second challenge would be GPS. We do some GPS tracking on some of that stuff. With the GPS tracking, it would be difficult to have GPS obviously installed same day and do that as we have some dealerships that we partnered with with GPS, some brokers that we’ve actually partnered with with GPS that install it, but most of the time it’s a third party performing that service for us. 

Andrew Pace
Thank you. Thank you. So let’s shift into managing a transportation-heavy portfolio. So, you know, operational efficiency is only half the battle. The other half is navigating risk, especially when a large portion of your portfolio sits in, you know, a volatile asset class.
So the next couple of questions, we’ll talk about transportation and how CH Brown has managed through those challenging cycles. 

So you’ve been transportation focused for over 30 years. What makes that asset class attractive and challenging for a lender like you guys?

Erik Eddington
Attractive is pricing. As we are bank owned, this is definitely a higher risk business than normal bank portfolio. But it has also been something that we’re good at and what we know. So the ag and transportation industry is kind of what built CH Brown to start. And we didn’t want to lose sight of what got us where we are. Yes, of course, we want to continue to grow and whether that means new asset classes or whatever, that is all well and good. But we want to also continue to be good at what we know.

Andrew Pace
So, you know, with over the road trucking, it’s been difficult. How has CH Brown managed delinquencies and volatility during that difficult time period in the transportation space?

Erik Eddington
Right, yeah. So as everyone knows, two years ago, transportation was tough, tough, tough. And there was a lot of people that exited the industry strictly because of how tough it got.

With that being said, we’ve implemented some stuff internally and externally with other partnerships such as yourself on how to mitigate some of that risk. Whether that’s some underwriting standards being changed, whether that’s our collection process being a little more aggressive. All of those things combined kind of is how we’re mitigating the risk of the transportation of that industry. But as much as it can be a struggle, it can also be extremely good business. Another area we focus is smaller businesses. We don’t have a lot of big fleet customers, 50, 100 fleet customers. We have a lot of single truck to 10 truck owners. So we’ve kind of stayed in that smaller business cycle. We don’t have as much risk with drivers that way. It’s more of a smaller business. So these guys know the drivers. It’s not a huge company that’s putting 100 drivers in seats. So I think that’s also helped our portfolio as well as more small business mindset and helping these guys go from one to two trucks or two to three instead of 50 to 100 trucks.

Andrew Pace
Share with us what the strategic thinking was, you know, that you guys chose to stay in transportation where others exited entirely. Can you talk a little bit about that decision?

Erik Eddington
Yeah, reason to stay is it’s truly what got us here. That’s the, as much as we’re excited about the future, the past can teach you some lessons too. So when you look at a 10-year number for this place, yes, there 2024 was very difficult. But 2025 was a record funding year for us in the same space, same industry. And 2026, we’re continuing into that. With that also being said, if you look at the 10-year picture of this place, transportation has drastically been a large contributor to income numbers since existence. We’re celebrating 31 years of business this year. 30 years, Platte Valley Companies is 30 years, we’re 31. The banks owned us since 2008. So basically, refining what we know and being good at what we know. We know that there’s risk involved and basically just trying to help the transportation industry continue to succeed because they’ve helped us succeed for 31 years.

Andrew Pace
No, that’s great. There’s that symbiotic, you know, relationship that you have. So you’ve, you know, you’ve actually picked up business as others pulled back. How do you think about pricing risk when conditions change so quickly?

Erik Eddington
Yeah, so strictly, we’re in a very unique economic condition, I would say. Past due numbers, we drastically look at that as past due numbers rise, we try to tighten our credit box, whether that be more down or restrict assets or whatever that may be.
But a lot of it is truly how the business is run and if we think it’s a fit for our credit box. So I have a great team here that has lots of industry experience that’s basically able to talk through with a broker, does this customer fit what we’re trying to do here? So with people exiting, we’ve had some opportunity to increase some of that. But to be honest, the majority of it is that we’re roughly receiving the same applications we were two, three, four, five years ago. We’ve just become more efficient in the process.

Andrew Pace
Thank you. And, you know, beyond, you know, you touched on it a little bit, you know, so beyond trucking, what other collateral types are meaningful in your portfolio today and where are you actively leaning in or pulling back? 

Erik Eddington
Yeah, so trucking, over the road trucking and trailers are probably 50% of our business that we do here. In the transportation world, we also do some other stuff related to trucking. We have some towing stuff, we have some waste stuff such as hook trucks or trash trucks. Which technically fall into that transportation area. But we’ve seen they’re drastically different assets as far as it’s a way more competitive market. We have to be a little more aggressive with rate. But with that being said, there’s a little less risk because they’re a cash flow heavy business. So we’re expanding into those areas.

Our Yellow Iron program construction equipment has definitely been a large contributor as we continue to diversify this portfolio. I would say it’s 15 to 20 percent of what we do. Lots of smaller business construction stuff, skid loaders, small telehandlers, mini X’s, stuff like that, landscaping type like companies. So that’s been another piece of really good business. And then we, in the last couple of years, we expanded into small piston-driven aircraft. Commercial use only, but it has been a very, very interesting market. We kind of found a niche market. Our average ticket size for that would be 150,000 up to kind of 1,000,000 bucks. We feel like there’s not a lot of people in that space. So it’s kind of, it’s been a really good market for us to be in, and historically, it’s performed very well, even in the small time we’ve been in it. So those are kind of where we’re at. I would tell you that we do anything and everything, as there’s not a, there’s another 10% out there that is completely randomized, and from software to, I mean, all sorts of different equipment, as you’ve been in this space a long time. There’s always someone looking to figure out a way, and if we think the business is going to be good, we’re willing to look at it. 

Andrew Pace
So you write in 49 states while operating from Wheeland, Wyoming. How do you manage a national broker-based portfolio with a relatively small team? 

Erik Eddington
Yeah, so 26 people in building today. Writing in 49 states, we used to write in all 50. California changed some licensing requirements. So for the last two years, we have not done any new loans in California. But managing basically broker relationships is how we continue to have a national presence.
A lot of that is broker driven through broker to broker relations as that broker community is very tight knit. They might come across a collateral class that we do talk to another broker and a lot of our business is broker referred from another broker. So basically managing that broker relationship to deepen those relationships is in turn what gives us more and more business. 

Andrew Pace
Great, thank you. So we’ve talked about operations, risk, growth. What really ties this together is leadership and culture, which you’ve been very intentional about since day one. I want to close by digging into how you think about building teams and what that equipment finance community means to you.

So you said culture was your top priority even before you fully understood the business. Why did you choose to lead with that?

Erik Eddington
Yeah, I think culture is super important. It’s not only important in this business, but it’s important to the bank as well. Look, we’re in office. Everyone at CH Brown is in office every day. So we’re spending a lot of time with all associates in building. So if you don’t like coming to work, you’re not going to continue to be here. So I thought that that needed to be emphasized as I spend a lot of my time with these guys and they spend a lot of their time with me.

So we focus on that strictly because of the time we spend together. And if you like your job, you stay at your job. Turnover is as much a business risk as any. It costs a lot of money to train people. So, we really focused on building building the team together, and and that is that has kind of been one of my main focuses. 

Andrew Pace
That’s awesome. So you still meet one-on-one monthly with all 26 employees?

Erik Eddington
Not monthly. Very open door policy though. I would say that we can meet whenever. I met one-on-one with everyone when I started strictly to understand what they do. And then as far as that goes, we still have a staff meeting every Monday where everyone goes to. But yeah, one-on-one, not as much as at the beginning. But, would still do it if I have a question about a certain area.

Andrew Pace
And you talked, you talked about how expensive training is. Let’s talk a little bit more about how turnover has reversed under your leadership. What do you think changed most materially for the team?

Erik Eddington
Communication. Allowing an easier way to communicate between teams. Obviously we have a production team, we have our lending and underwriting team, and then we have kind of a collection team. It was very siloed prior to me and let’s be honest, this business works with all of us working together. So just kind of breaking some of those communication and silos down, making everyone understand that we’re one team first, and then yes, you might work in production or underwriting or lending or whatever. But CHP is 1 team before we are different departments.

Andrew Pace
So you use personality testing across the organization. How does that actually show up in day-to-day collaboration with your team?

Erik  Eddington
Yeah, so this was partly bank driven as the bank continues to enhance employees, growth, all those things. HR actually implemented the CliftonStrengths. So everyone company-wide now, over 400 associates, take the CliftonStrengths test. And then you go over it with your department and then with your whole team. So it just kind of fit because it was kind of me starting and it was new. But it also helps you understand how you can talk to someone. If you have someone that comes in every day and closes their door and gets straight to work and does that, they’re not maybe the person that wants to hear about your weekend or do that, but you can be way more direct with an assignment or something. But if you have someone that wants to have the first 2 minutes be very casual and very conversational. It’s easier to be more productive with how you assign things and how you approach them as an employee strictly because you understand them on a deeper level.

Andrew Pace
So, what would be your top five CliftonStrengths?

Erik Eddington
So ‘competitor’ was my number one strength. Very competitive. We do our financials against all branches. The CHB is basically treated as another branch. So I’m very competitive in those numbers. 

‘Positivity’ was another one of my strengths. I’m a very positive person and think that that also helps with culture and all things. 

‘Woo’ was another one of my strengths. It says people that are exceptionally talented and woo, love a challenge of meeting new people and winning them over, which I did. I basically come in here, I knew a few of the associates, but had to get to know the team and they had to get to know me and see where my leadership direction was going to take us. 

‘Communication’ was one. I like to talk maybe too much sometimes, but I think that’s super important, obviously, on a team aspect. The more that you communicate, the more that people understand, the better off you as an organization are going to be. 

And then ‘relater’ was my last strength. So basically me being able to relate to maybe a challenge or something positive that happened to encourage. So those were my 5.

Andrew Pace
Nice. Well, we share a few. It’s probably been 15, 10, 15 years since I’ve done a CliftonStrength Finder assessment. I know ‘woo’ and ‘achiever’ for me are were two of my top themes. You know, it was a great exercise to go through. You know, my mentor that I worked with during that time period that I met with once a month, you know, used an example of like Tiger Woods. You know, his heading out of the sand wasn’t a strength of his. So why would he go practice you know, spend hours and hours a day trying to learn how to get better at hitting on the sand when he’s, when that’s just, he’s never, you know, he’s never going to be better than what he is, right? So what is he good at though? He’s great at hitting his driver. That’s one of his strengths. So work on being more accurate with your driver so you don’t end up in the bunker, right? You know, to bring that golf analogy into our discussion. So before we wrap up, just a couple more questions. If you could give one piece of advice to a COO or senior leader in equipment finance about building a high performing team, what would it be. 

Erik Eddington
Listen to the team strictly on how I came into this business. I relied heavily on the team to give me the knowledge to try to help make some of those decisions on where we’re headed. So listening to the people that are actually sitting there doing the day-to-day job drastically changes on the decision-making process for how efficient you can make that team. I tried to truly understand what they do to improve how they do it. If I don’t know what they’re doing every day and how they’re using the technology or the system, me making a decision and what LOS to go with or what data entry we need to change basically does nothing except maybe add to their plate instead of enhance or make them more efficient.

Andrew Pace
Thank you. And you mentioned that the equipment finance industry feels more open and collaborative than banking. What does that community mean to you now. 

Erik Eddington
Yeah, so now that I feel like I’ve got to know a few people through the conferences, through brokers, through these relationships that you build, it is drastically different and way more open. Even other funding sources, there’s stuff that we do that some other funding sources don’t do or do do. So there’s almost a referral basis back and forth between funding, between brokers, between all sorts of different people in this community. So that part has been extremely eye-opening. The commercial and ag banking world, we all offer the same products. So it’s always competition, it’s always kind of you either go here or here, but, but in this equipment finance world, there’s so much diversity that we all kind of have our own piece of the pie.

Andrew Pace
All right, so let’s get to the fun part of our discussion today. Let’s debate it. Scramble format versus match play in golf. Two different ways to play the same game, two different philosophies about what a round’s supposed to be. What’s your preference?

Erik Eddington
So, preference personally is match play, but I think that comes into a handicap scenario on what your level of golf is. So I think the better you are at golf, the more likely you are to want to play your own ball. If you’re not as advanced, it’s easier to get around the course with two or three or four of your buddies all hitting shots.

Andrew Pace
I’ll, for the sake of the argument, I’ll take the scramble side. I agree, as my game has improved over the years, I obviously enjoy match play. Scramble, you know, is to me about the experience, where match play is more about individual result. It, you know, it’s fun. It’s a little bit more loose. You know, you hit a bad shot, you can, it’s not going to it’s not going to ruin your the hole because you got three other guys that you know you can rely on that can that can put a good ball in play or that can put it on the green. So that’s the part I like just in case you happen to be off that day, it’s not going to impact your handicap or anything like that. You know, it’s just, you know, there’s competition, you’re competing against other teams. It’s not just, you know, one person. It’s, you know, it’s a team effort. It’s kind of like a relay, right? It’s like a relay. You know, everyone has their job, right, versus a sprint, right? So, that’s my take on the scramble side. You mentioned something earlier about you know, big match play event that you have.

Erik  Eddington
Yeah, so this is year five. We call it the Cowboy Derby. So I kind of bring in all aspects of the argument. So it started as a true match play event. Year one, we had 10 flights, 40 teams, four teams of flight and you played a nine hole match against everyone in your flight. We were basically flighted by team handicap. So flight one, I think the first year I had a plus three team, all the way to flight 10, which was a 72 handicap team, both 36 max out handicaps. 

Fun part about it is basically you’re kind of playing like golfers in your flight, but then we do a horse race at the end where we bring all flights together and it’s an alternate shot, but it’s fully handicapped. So if you were flight 10 winner, you’re probably getting 2 strokes a hole. And if you’re flight one winner, you’re playing straight up. 

So it’s become something bigger than we ever thought it would be. Our goal was to help youth golf in small town Wheatland, Wyoming. And we have a ton of support from local businesses that has greatly exceeded our expectations. We’ve raised over $20,000 in the first four years of this tournament. All proceeds go to youth golf from our high school team all the way down to a small youth golf tournament that we put on at no cost to the kids. So yeah, the match play format is how it got started. But year five, we are modifying that a little bit. My first 10 flights will be match play. But flight 11 and 12, due to handicap, they’re actually going to scramble as a team. And then when they get to their horse race, they will play alternate shot. But strictly for a pace of play and keep them interested, we found that… a lot harder for a 10 or 11 to, uh, on a score. It’s a lot more fun to, to play bogey golf in a scramble than it is to shoot a 10 and that may be winning a hole. So we’re modifying it for the first year for those two higher flights to see if that helps.

Andrew Pace
Awesome. Well, it’s great that you found something you enjoy to do, and obviously the benefit from that is for a great cause, youth sports. You know, if you have any room, send me the dates. Perhaps I could, I could make it out. I’d love to participate.

Erik Eddington
Yeah, we’ll talk more about that. This year, I am, we filled up. So the first year, I felt like we had to kind of beg participants to happen, but we put it out on Facebook and our website this year. And we have 12 flights, which is the most flights I’ve ever done. And we filled up in about 7 days. It’s been, which is kudos to my wife. She does a lot of the work, but it’s really cool that we’ve had that much success in a short, short time. So, but definitely I will, I’ll get you some information and we’ll see if we can get you out to Wheatland.

Andrew Pace
For sure, absolutely.

So, Erik, this has been a fantastic conversation. You brought a thoughtful, practical perspective on leadership, operations, and growth that I think will resonate with lenders and brokers alike.
To me, what stands out most is how intentional you’ve been about culture and process, proving that performance is often the result of how people work together, not just how fast, you know, a system can run. So thank you so much for joining us and sharing your experience with the ACS and equipment finance community.

And everyone listening, thank you for tuning in to the ACS Portfolio Perspective. If you found value in today’s episode, please subscribe and share it with someone in your network. We look forward to continuing the conversation next time. Thank you for being on, Erik. I appreciate it.