Santa Cruz County Bank launched an asset-based lending division. Lee Shodiss will serve as senior vice president and director of the division, while Shelly Medina will serve as senior vice president and ABL operations manager for the division.

The division will specialize in serving business clients and emerging growth companies requiring asset liquidity and flexible lines of credit in addition to full banking services. The division will be based at the bank’s Cupertino, CA, office.

“We experienced firsthand the pandemic’s profound impact on working capital needs of many businesses,” Krista Snelling, president and CEO of Santa Cruz County Bank, said. “Our new asset-based lending division complements the bank’s significant growth and ability to provide capital to businesses through specialty financing solutions. We see great opportunity, particularly in serving the high concentration of businesses centered in technology and innovation in Silicon Valley. The hiring of Lee and Shelly, both well-known experts in ABL, expands our team at the bank’s Cupertino branch and positions us advantageously to serve the market, grow our portfolio and support our existing client relationships.”

Shodiss joined the bank as senior vice president and director of asset-based lending in April. Shodiss’ 30-year career in the financial services industry includes experience in technology-focused asset-based factoring, structured finance and commercial banking, including supporting emerging growth companies in securing debt, providing restructuring and providing collateral exams to lenders.

Shodiss previously founded and managed the technology and bridge capital finance divisions at Bridge Bank. He held the position of founder, executive vice president, regional director/product line director and was responsible for all aspects of operations of the two divisions, including sales, personnel, budgeting and credit. Before Bridge Bank, Shodiss held multiple roles at Silicon Valley Bank from 1994 to 2002, with roles increasing in responsibility from assistant vice president to senior vice president and co-group manager for the bank’s specialty finance division. Early in his career as budget analyst and cost controller at Lockheed Missiles & Space, Shodiss monitored and administered contract costs associated with defense contracts ranging in size from $25 million to $500 million.

Medina has a 34-year history in banking and extensive experience in asset-based lending, factoring and loan operations with major regional and national financial institutions. She is well respected as a team leader and specialist in the area of loan documentation and commercial loan operations.

Medina was the founding operations manager of the bridge capital finance group at Bridge Bank and more recently held the title of divisional loan production manager and senior vice president for Western Alliance Bank, where she implemented factoring and ABL platforms, wrote loan operations policies, and managed a loan documentation and operations unit as well as a factoring operations unit. Earlier in her career, she worked at Silicon Valley Bank, where she served as team leader for specialty finance loan documentation and operations specialists.