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posted by Heller Reunion @ 7:12 AM
24 comments
Heller Reunion
Hosted by Triton Capital Partners
24 Comments:
Ok, someone needs to get this comment section going....Who remembers the LFG conference in Palm Springs in February of 1990? The theme was "A Vision of the 1990's" One night was an Arabian nights theme party and the guys wore sheperd-like head gear and the gals wore little veils. There were female belly dancers for entertainment (VERY politically correct!). One of my fondest memories was of Bob Koe tying up his shirt and belly dancing right along with the ladies...quite hilarious for the Vice Chairman of the company! Interestingly enough, Bob came to Heller from GE. I am now at GE and I can tell you that the mold was broken long ago! P.S. I still have pictures of several of you in your Arabian nights headgear including you Dave Asman, Mark Bounds, John Goense, Pat Pesch, Ken Leonard, Brian Boorstein, John Underwood... Perhaps I will bring said photos to the reunion....
Better yet, can you send the photos to our hosts to include in their slide show presentation.
I was not part of the Heller era when we spent money on offsites for ourselves. I was in the eras when cost containment was in order to either offset credit cost or to mitigate the loss of business when our primary source of loans (the banks) started competing with us instead of referring business. I did participate in one clandestine little trip with about 100 of my Heller co-workers. We left our luggage tags and Heller Financial branded briefcases behind, we tried not to wear our Heller golf shirts (some of us were wardrobe lite - as there were a couple) so that when all 100 arrived in the desert no one could guess the company we 100 were descending upon to potentially acquire. We crowded into conference rooms, compared notes, shared laughs, (be nice if responding - our colleagues worked there) shared dinners, built comradery. And left all 100 of us in the manner in which we arrived, with a Heller corporate credit card trail for those who might care to know. We never acquired but shortly thereafter was acquired .... as you all know
"Well they're going to die anyway". Credits response to our watch list meeting report that our exit strategy Borrower took possession of a shipment of baby chicks without having the funds to buy food or medicine. Of course we being the only source of capital the Borrower came to us to help them with their problem. And of course they had no availability under their Borrowing Base to draw upon. After careful consideration we broke under the pressure of potential local paper headlines "Heller Financial Starves Baby Chicks" and provided the funds required to care for the chicks until such time as they could be disposed of in a humane way (i.e sold to someone who could feed them). This situation further supported another favorite Hellerism "if you have to feed it, it ain't suitable collateral". There are more caveats to that hellerism but I will let someone else post it to the favorite hellerism section of this site.
Do you remember the "play to win watches"? I do think they would have gone down better had they worked. There must be one somewhere that kept time!
Today, I still refer to hacking up a good lugy as a "Wilming." Whenever he didn't like a deal, you always got a few good "Wilmings" and the "accumulation of issues speach."
I cannot believe that we're 6 comments deep and nobody has mentioned anything about Project Bust.
C'mon if that is not the punch line on one of the biggest JOKES pitched by the blue and gray, I do not know what is....it is hard to believe that any strategic initiative could of pushed Workplace Envisioning completely out of the running.
"Sometimes you have to play the cards you've been dealt". (sic deal with it). Senior manager response to complaint about position assigned as a result of Project Best.
I just want to add that the advise I got about "playing the cards you were dealt" was some of the best advise I have received. I have been playing all kinds of hands since and have done just fine.
But that GE hand was a little tricky. Thought I would not get through that.
Heller Trivia: In the earlier years fathers brought their sons into the Heller business - some notable father/son teams included:
Ray and Shelly
Steve and his father in law (forgot his name)
Frank and Peter
Burt and Randy
Did I forget any?
There must be someone in HREF who still has a "Play to Win" watch. I remember one being passed down the ranks in the 90's.
How about the Golf outings during 1978-1983. I remenber the one at Cog Hill where a couple a guys from IT drive the golf cart into the pond and Cog asked that Heller not have another outing there. Or the wild Christmas Parties. They really had some great Christmas Parties.
does anyone remember the first xmas party held shortly after Mike Blum became CEO? Following the "charisma" of Norm Blake was tough, so Mike had the FIRST AND LAST OPEN BAR! the bar tab was larger than the food bill. And many a 24-hr relationship was started. I remember at one holiday party, not sure if its the same one, a certain tall LFG exec hooked up with another HFI staffer. Although not married, their relationship was eventually revealed when after they were both being offered relocation packages the HR department realized they were sending letters to the same exact address! Darn, they could only get reimbursed for one relocation. But are they still together?
Heller Trivia: What was the slogan behind the old business unit ABACUS?
Whatever happened to the original Syndication team members--Kenworthy, Marron, Jacob, Georgis, Perkins, Leonard, Frank?
Heller was a great company, I loved working there and all the people I worked with in the SBA Department. If it wasn;t for GE I believe I would still be working there today.
Just found this site, and its a roar. Of course, I'm still "near" the industry, as an appraiser (BUT living out West with 25 animals). Ok Ok, the reason for this...
I remember that my daughter (who is now 28, but then 6) presented me with a picture of three teddy bears slumped over a stack of paper. They were next to a window where the sun was coming up. I asked her " What is this a picture of?" She immediately said,
"DAD, that's YOU and X and X finishing your work early in the morning for Mr. XXX. So much for our days as Heller underwriters....
How about the night of the Media Business Division cocktail party at the NAB Radio convention in New Orleans in Fall of 1992. With only 140 or so invitees, over 300 people showed up. This was because Heller was the only company in the industry still doing deals. That night Shemancik got the call from Chicago that Litwin and Vernick were switching jobs and that MBD was being "shut down". The whole team went out and drank Hurricanes until we couldn't walk. I think it was during this same convention that one of the members of the team, while attending a party in the hotel suite of a controversial customer and prominent media executive, relieved himself in the customer's laundry basket (story confirmed five years later by a trustworthy witness to the event).
But in Swanson's defense, he really had to go.
IT headcount before Project BUST: ~220
IT headcount after Project BUST: ~230
Project BUST IT staff reduction: 2
Project BUST net IT headcount reduction: -10
Someone asked whatever happened to the original Syndications Team. Checked using Linked-In., etc--
Mike Kenworthy--unknown
Steve Marron-last heard was with Allstate Investments
Chuck Georgis-last heard was with Wachovia Capital
Tom Jacob-hit w/multiple sclerosis after years working in executive search
Ken Leonard-Managing Director of Dymas Capital
Tracy Perkins- Partner at Grayrock Capital
Kristin Frank-SVP at MTV
Don Wilkinson, Jr. '72-'82 factoring. Father sons, do you mean Steven Diamond and father-in-law Norman Schreiber former board of director member and company president? My father Don Wilkinson,Sr. is 81 and worked at Heller from '63-'86 He knew Mr. Heller and I believe hired and trained Mike Litwin. He also has a lot of company history for anyone interested? I would like to bring him and some of his older Heller Cohorts to the reunion? Any older Hellerites out there remember him? Read this please contact me at email reneewilkinson@comcast.net Thanks, Don
Don. It is very kind of you to convey your message and that too with great spirit. I am sure some would be there. I know him as I was there from 1979-1991. Do bring your father if you can. Pradeep Berry of Financial and Auditing Consulting Services Inc at faacs@sbcglobal.net
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