Happy Birthday, Gibraltar Business Capital! We are proud to have achieved ten years of serving middle-market companies in transition with the responsiveness, innovation and flexibility to access liquidity they need to thrive.
Gibraltar’s long history began in 1951, when its predecessor Gibraltar Financial Corporation was founded in Chicago. In 1995, a rookie account executive named Scott Winicour joined the firm. Working his way from the ground floor up — learning the sales, credit, operations and underwriting processes — Scott took over operations in 2005. Then in 2010, Scott led a management buyout of Gibraltar Financial Corporation and established the company we are today — Gibraltar Business Capital.
These past ten years have been busy at GBC. Since 2010, we’ve supported more than 200 borrowers with $500 million in funding commitments. We’ve been able to do this by fulfilling three important goals:
- Increasing our own access to capital.
- Expanding our expert team.
- Investing in our culture and preparing our team to deliver first-in-class service.
More Funds to Invest in Our Clients
In 2010, GBC secured a $15 million credit facility from Wells Fargo Capital Finance. That credit line has now reached $150 million. Our 2018 acquisition by Hercules Capital (NYSE: HTGC), a $2.5 billion dollar specialty finance company, also strengthened our ability to grow.
Our Team is Our Biggest Source of Strength
Since 2010, we have also more than doubled the size of our team and added offices across the country.
Under the leadership of Anthony DiChiara, GBC Executive Vice President of Sales, our business development team has expanded into five offices covering the East, West, Northeast, Midwest and Southeast regions.
Our credit team has also been significantly expanded under Chief Credit Officer Mark Stoeberl and our Operations team, led by VP Agnes Falconer, has been growing to efficiently serve our growing client base.
Between experienced new hires and fresh leadership promoted from within, we are building a team that is ready and uniquely able to help our clients gain innovative, flexible solutions to their financial needs.
Strengthening Our Team’s Ability to Serve
We have been working to make Gibraltar the best possible partner in the challenging circumstances our clients are often experiencing, including the 2020 pandemic. Because we deal with companies in transition, our people have to be exceptionally diligent about the way we talk to and treat our clients. Establishing a supportive relationship helps us to have productive discussions and better understanding.
We are encouraging our staff to practice and develop their service skills through:
- Investing in our employees’ personal development and the information and tools they need to be both self-aware and effective in dealing with others.
- Role playing with common customer issues.
We are proud of the recent work our team has done with companies like Bentek during the lockdown phase of this pandemic. We also applaud team members for adjusting to meet customer needs with non-traditional solutions like a recent two-part funding solution developed for a manufacturing client, and for meeting the need for speed when a family office required quick delivery on an $18MM facility.
And when sponsors like Alerion Partners look to Gibraltar multiple times for help with their companies, we know that our flexible and knowledgeable approach is working for our clients.
At Gibraltar, we are looking forward to the next 10 years; to more new ventures, new clients and new team members. We will continue to devote our efforts to providing our clients best-in-class service and innovative financing. Judging by the past 10 years, that is a path that leads to success for our clients and our company.
