Mitch Drucker joined Ares Commercial Finance as a partner. Drucker will join Mitch Goldstein, Ryan Cascade, John Nooney and Oleh Szczupakbe as part of Ares Commercial Finance’s leadership team. He also will sit on the investment committee for the company and be involved in all aspects of the business from origination to portfolio management.

Drucker joined Ares Commercial Finance from Garrison Investment Group, where he was responsible for corporate finance investments in Garrison’s Opportunity and Direct Lending Funds and was a member of the firm’s management and investment committees. His breadth of experience includes distressed investing and middle market leveraged finance for acquisitions, growth and restructurings, with an emphasis on asset-based, cash flow and enterprise value financing.

Prior to joining Garrison in 2007, Drucker spent the previous 23 years in various capacities with the CIT Group, including leading CIT’s hedge fund coverage and national restructuring groups. He also held the role of co-president of CIT Business Capital, where he presided over a team of 200 professionals consisting of leverage and asset finance originators, three distinct industry coverage teams, and the risk and credit policy committees.

“Mitch brings to Ares decades of ABL and leveraged finance experience and has delivered financing solutions through numerous economic cycles,” Goldstein, who is a partner and co-head of the Ares Credit Group, said. “With Mitch’s strong relationships in the restructuring community and his experience in rescue and restructuring finance, we believe we are well positioned to assist companies and sponsors with their liquidity needs for years to come and especially during the current extraordinary period.”

Ares Commercial Finance is the asset-based lending team of Ares Management.