BHI added two new industry verticals – Food & Beverage and Specialty & Sponsor Finance – to its New Jersey Representative Office in response to a surge in business activity across these industries.

Leading the Food & Beverage team will be Senior Vice President Thomas Vigna, who has over 25 years of middle market commercial banking experience. Senior Vice president Carl Giordano will lead the Specialty & Sponsor Finance team and focus on transactions involving commercial & industrial loans and the private equity segment.

Both leaders have actively recruited industry experts from money center banks to accommodate this growth and will report directly to John Yoler, the division executive responsible for launching the BHI New Jersey Representative Office.

In an interview, Yoler commented, “These are dynamic times for BHI and its targeted strategy to meet our clients’ financing needs within the food and beverage sector and partner with the private equity community. We are excited and confident to have Tom and Carl help broaden our share of this market. It is BHI’s commitment to provide its clients with an unparalleled level of professional and personal service that has fueled it growth.”

Gabriel Hamani, CEO of BHI, added, “The addition of these two new specialty teams is a testament to BHI’s vision of growth and ongoing commitment to strengthening relationships with our middle market customers. BHI has had much success within food and beverage and the sponsor finance community.”

In addition to the new verticals, Yoler’s division also provides financing solutions to retailers, distributors, manufacturers and other middle market and large corporate clientele. BHI’s team of commercial lending professionals have experience providing financial solutions that include working capital lines of credit, capital expenditures, growth financing, dividend recapitalizations, and leverage buyouts.

BHI is the U.S. division of Bank Hapoalim, an Israeli financial institution with $123 billion in assets. It provides commercial lending solutions to Middle Market clients in the following sectors: commercial real estate, food and beverage, entertainment, apparel, healthcare and high-tech.