Laura Witow, CLFP

Laura Witow, an executive in broker relations at Madison Capital, earned the Certified Lease & Finance Professional (CLFP) designation after completing the educational program last month.

She is now among 615 active CLFP designees, according to an announcement issued by the CLFP foundation in early September. This is the only professional certification program in the Equipment Finance Industry and it is widely recognized as a differentiator.

According to the foundation’s executive director, there’s been an increasing interest in certifications mostly among executives working in banks or at service companies. There were only 160 who achieved this recognition in 2012. Reid Raykovich said she expects there may be as many as 1,000 people certified by 2020.

Witow began working at Madison Capital in April 2006, beginning in credit processing, then advancing to help coordinate broker transactions. She has been the executive assistant to Madison Capital President Nancy Pistorio and active in sales and broker relations for the past 10 years. She also has experience in credit processing, documentation and funding.

Still there were parts of the equipment financing business she learned while taking the CLFP coursework. “I would highly recommend this program,” she said. “It was hard but there was such a sense of accomplishment when I learned that I passed the test.

“Not everyone passes.” She said 16 people were in the most recent class, 12 took the test and 8 passed.”

Pistorio said her company is currently hiring sales executives to strengthen the business development team, and she is encouraging other employees to achieve this certification to learn more and realize their full potential as a professional in the industry.

Prior to Madison, Witow worked in real estate and banking. She graduated from York College of Pennsylvania in December 2001 with a B.S. in Economics and Finance