CEO
Gerber Finance
Gerber Finance has been exceptionally busy in 2020. In addition to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the company installed Jennifer Palmer as its new CEO and launched two divisions to better serve existing and prospective clients. Through it all, the company has maintained its dedication to service while keeping an eye on the future.
Gerber Finance has certainly experienced its fair share of unexpected changes due to the pandemic, but the more than two decades old asset-based lending company has made a larger impact with the changes it planned and executed internally. Starting in the very beginning of the year, Jennifer Palmer, the former president of the company, took over as CEO. From there, the business has grown and expanded its offerings, launching Naturally Gerber Finance, a division focused on lending to natural products companies, and Gerber+, which allows the company to provide larger sized deals. However, as much as things have changed, Gerber is committed to holding true to the principals that have built its success since company founder Gerald Joseph launched the business in 1995.
Founder and Chairman
Gerber Finance
A New Leader
“With a credit committee that was mostly non-U.S. based, it meant no face time in presenting a transaction — it all had to be based on a well executed and well written credit memo,” Joseph says. “And, of course, with her legal background, Jennifer could present a case really well.”
“As anyone at Gerber will tell you, she has an incredible work ethic, appetite for work and a strong need to understand everything about the business. And she is personable and well liked in the industry,” Joseph says. “It was therefore a natural progression for me, as she developed, for her to become my sounding board in managing Gerber Finance and ultimately an equal partner in decision making.”
Senior Vice President of Operations
Gerber Finance
“I am of the belief that at some point in time, management, after doing the same job for years, start to become stale and need to get out of the way and allow for the next generation to take over,” Joseph says. “After being in commercial finance since 1982, I have seen all the problems, dealt with all the possible questions and of course ‘know’ all the answers — or so one would think. But … it is the answers that change, and I realized that unless I too could change, I needed to get out of the way. And I am of the strong opinion it is better to leave early than leave late.”
Palmer officially took over as CEO on Jan. 1, 2020, with Joseph taking an advisory role as chairman. Palmer’s first year has delivered more challenges than she might have expected, but she has expertly led Gerber forward, spearheading new business initiatives, infusing a greater focus on partnering with woman-owned businesses, maintaining the company’s dedication to service and fostering a tight-knit culture despite a pandemic that keeps employees apart.
Senior Vice President/West Coast Regional Manager
Gerber Finance
Palmer’s efforts have not gone unnoticed by Joseph, whom Palmer credits with continually challenging and advising her throughout her career, this year included.
“Certainly not an easy year for the team and not an easy year for Jenn to take the helm. But she and the team have done a remarkable job,” Joseph says.
Palmer wasn’t the only person in a new role at Gerber Finance when 2020 started. Andrew Hollingsworth, the former CFO of Numi Organic Tea, officially joined Gerber in January, ultimately helping the company launch its natural products division this fall. However, Hollingsworth had been working with Gerber long before 2020, just on the other side of the table.
“The moment I did the debt deal with Numi, I sort of sat at that table and realized that it would be interesting to be on either side,” Hollingsworth says, noting that he left Numi at the end of 2019, leading to discussions with Gerber and, eventually, a new job. “I was kind of itching for a professional change and wanted to continue to be in the national natural products space but leverage my broader skills of finance and accounting and the client side again.”
“They were literally always there when we needed them from the very beginning of the relationship,” Hollingsworth says. “And they really fostered a very direct, open relationship between clients and an ABL lender.”
“We’ve been very successful in this category. We’ve worked with companies in the natural product space for 10 years now,” Palmer says. “And with the referrals from the past and current clients and the trajectory of this industry, we only expect this division to continue to grow.”
Keep Growing
“Jenn and I had a conversation about me taking a bigger role in the company around the same time as the company started talking about launching Gerber+, so it seemed to both of us the natural next step,” Semini says.
Semini expects Gerber+ to serve two different types of clients: existing ones with larger financing requirements and new ones that may have been out of reach previously.
Onward
“eCapital really trusts our portfolio companies to do what they do best,” Palmer says. “They are great partners. They’ve supported us in launching Gerber+ and we’re working closely together to be able to support the growth of companies needing higher levels of funding.”
“We want to continue to be a leader in this space, valued for our consultative approach,” Palmer says. “We want to continue to be leaders in the industry and we want to continue to hire the best team in the business. And we see a future where we may be larger in size but continue to deliver exceptional partner support service with a personal touch.” •
Phil Neuffer is the managing editor of ABF Journal.
