Executive Team

Mr. Crystal has over 30 years of experience in private equity, investment banking, hedge funds and wealth management.

From 2013 to 2019, as a Managing Director at Tricadia Capital Management (now Corvid Peak Capital Management), Jim was the portfolio manager principally responsible for Tricadia’s private equity investments in the financial services sector, overseeing funds with over $450 million in commitments and serving on various portfolio company boards.  In this capacity, he identified and structured Tricadia’s investment in CV Holdings in 2015 and has been a director of the company since that time.

Prior to joining Tricadia, Jim was a Managing Director at Rockefeller & Co., one of the largest multi-family offices and a predecessor firm to Rockefeller Capital Management, where he designed custom alternative investment portfolios for large clients and served as portfolio manager of the firm’s proprietary alternative investment vehicles from 2008 to 2013.  Prior to joining Rockefeller, he was a Senior Managing Director and a Portfolio Manager of a hedge fund at Bear Stearns Asset Management.

From 1997 to 2004, Jim was a Senior Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co., serving approximately five years in the Investment Banking Department and two years in the Asset-Backed Investments Group.  Before joining Bear Stearns, he was a Director at predecessor companies to UBS Investment Bank from 1988 to 1997.

Mr. Crystal received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale College and an A.M. from Harvard University.

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In 1983, John received a degree in Economics and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (which he attended on a soccer scholarship), and in late 1984, he started and developed Pioneer Capital Corporation. In 1998, Pioneer signed its first large credit facility - a $20 million structured finance facility.  At that time, John was one of the youngest individuals in the industry to sign a structured finance agreement of this size.  In 2004, IFC Credit Corporation purchased Pioneer Capital.

In 2004, John started Centra Financial Corporation as an investment vehicle.  In 2008 another corporate entity - Centra Leasing, Inc was created to handle all leasing activities.   In 2014, Centra introduced the equipment financing industry’s first truly all-electronic signing process.  In minutes, Centra can now approve and fund a transaction over a customer’s cell phone.

Personal Achievements: 

• Annual Conference Chairman of the National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers (NAELB) in 2006 and 2018.
• Started Pioneer Capital Corporation and built it into a $40 million firm (in yearly new originations).
• Over 29 years experience in the leasing industry.
• Had complete credit authority during his tenure at Pioneer and has personally approved over $700,000,000 in small ticket transactions.
• Has extensive experience in credit, sales, collections and portfolio management.
• Has been a lecturer at numerous conferences regarding anti-fraud credit techniques.

 

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Mr. Libowitz has over 10 years of finance experience. He supported the CRO of ORIX USA, a middle market financial services company, by analyzing new debt and equity investments for multifamily real estate, technology finance, municipal finance, private equity, and leveraged finance lines of business. Mr. Libowitz started his career at Wells Fargo Corporate Banking, underwriting unsecured credit facilities for clients with revenues exceeding $1.0B and cross-selling various bank product solutions, including capital markets and treasury management. He later moved to Wells Fargo Lender Finance to manage a portfolio of secured credit facilities for independent finance companies in the equipment finance, accounts receivable factoring, and asset-based lending sectors. Mr. Libowitz earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from the University of Illinois.

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Mr. De Mata has over 17 years of accounting, audit, tax, and financial reporting experience with focus on real estate Prior to joining CVH, he was an Assurance Senior Manager at Ernst Young LLP serving various types and sizes of public and private clients including consumer products, technology, manufacturing, private equity, real estate, hospitality, and construction companies He has experience with SEC reporting and corporate accounting issues such as debt, equity, consolidations, fair values, and revenue recognition Mr De Mata graduated magna cum laude from California State University, Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant with the California Board of Accountancy.

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Mike Wissink began his equipment financing and leasing career in the initial building out of a new branch office for Balboa Capital Corporation in Phoenix, Arizona After 5 years with Balboa Capital, he founded his own finance company, Paramount Financial Services, LLC in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he remained for over ten years While at Paramount Financial Services, Mike cultivated a seasoned sales team, built his own portfolio of lease transactions, wrote transactions and maintained relationships with multiple banking sources He sold his company in 2010 and purchased an awards and recognition company that had been in business for over 25 years Mike owned and operated Arizona’s largest distributor of team and corporate awards for two years and sold the company in 2013 to reenter the equipment financing industry.  He started his new company, Trio Capital, LLC while also co founding an Arizona telemedicine company, Direct 2 MD, LLC He ran Trio Capital for four years until he arrived at Centra Funding, LLC at the beginning of 2017 Currently, Mike’s primary role with Centra Funding, LLC is to attract and develop an experienced equipment finance sales team throughout the US and grow internal originations.  Mike received his B S from the University of Arizona.

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Ms. Lyca Bognot has over 17 years of accounting and auditing experience including from Big 4 firms PwC and KPMG as well as BDO. Lyca has very diverse public accounting and industry experience including financial institutions, manufacturing and distribution, healthcare, hospitality, retail, technology, educational and not for profit Lyca has a solid background and experience with US GAAP and IFRS.  Lyca has strong financial accounting and reporting experience including financial statement preparation and analysis, bookkeeping, budgeting, tax return preparation and internal control review/SOX compliance. She has held various positions while in the industry from Financial Analyst to Controller.  She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from University of the East in the Philippines and is a Certified Public Accountant (Inactive) with the State of California

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