Dan Duffy

Vice President, BMO Harris Bank N.A.

40 Under 40 Category: Portfolio Management

Biography:

Dan joined BMO’s Asset-Based Lending Group in 2008. Under the leadership of BMO’s ABL Group head, Michael Scolaro, and team lead and managing director, Andy Pappas, he was able to become one of the team’s lead underwriters, closing and managing a number of commodity metals deals over the past several years. He manages a significant portfolio of lead transactions for the group and has experience in underwriting, negotiating and closing new deals.

Any success achieved has been made possible by the support of Dan’s wife, Stacy, and their four children who are the biggest source of pride and accomplishment in Dan’s life.

Dan has a BA in political science from the University of Illinois and an MBA through Northern Illinois University.

What role has mentoring played in your career?

Mentoring has played a significant role in my career. It’s important to have role models and examples to seek advice from and whose leadership you can follow. My father has always provided that for me. When I was younger, I saw not only how hard he worked, but how he treated people who worked for him, and how he balanced hard work with making time for myself and my four brothers.

Since I began work in BMO’s ABL Group, Mike Scolaro has provided a similar support system and provided an example on how to be a professional. Specifically, the advice I have received included how to set career goals and seek out new opportunities that allowed me to differentiate myself as an individual within the group. This guidance has proved invaluable over the years.

Growing as a professional requires not only building off your own experiences, but learning from the knowledge and experience of others. Having excellent mentors provides for not just a great resource and sounding board, but a road map to success.

How do you think the commercial finance industry can attract more young professionals?

I believe attracting the top young professionals to a career in commercial finance has become an increasingly difficult challenge. The current group of young professionals has placed an increasing premium on flexibility at work and the value of their time away from work.

We have to find a balance in recruiting and job placement allowing for flexibility and valuing the time of young professionals without sacrificing productivity.

I find the current generation of young professionals to be a dynamic group, one focused on hard work and willing to challenge the inefficiency of the status quo. Employers have to demonstrate a willingness to be open-minded and flexible to attract top talent from this group.

In my career, BMO has provided this flexibility and it was one of the reasons I joined the team nearly a decade ago. Our group head and our individual team leads have placed a focus on execution and efficiency while acknowledging a need for an appropriate work life balance that has created a tremendous work atmosphere with limited turnover in growing our business during my time here.

How did you wind up in the industry? We know most kids don’t say “I want to be in commercial finance when I grow up.”

At Illinois, I was a pre-law political science major with a minor in English literature. While reading Dickens and Shakespeare certainly prepared me for interpreting credit agreements, it wasn’t the most conventional background for a career in commercial lending.

After deciding I didn’t want to go to law school towards the end of my senior year, I got a job selling fixed annuities at a local retail bank before going back to school for my MBA and applying to BMO’s Credit Training Program. The experience gained through my MBA and the training program at BMO allowed me to enter into this field on the right footing.

While not the easiest road into commercial lending, I believe having a broader background has helped my development and served me well over the years.

I believe diversity of thought, background and perspective is integral to industry growth and should be sought out when hiring in this field.