Terry M. Keating is managing partner of Donald J. Keating & Sons.

Donald J. Keating & Sons provides broad-based consulting and advisory services to middle market companies and private equity with orientation to the financial services industry. Terry has over 30 years of leadership and operational experience knowledge and expertise developing “best practices” necessary for success serving as the leader | advisor within the financial services sector. Terry is currently serving as an independent member of the Board of Directors of a private equity owned commercial finance company and serving as a special advisor to an independent private equity sponsor.

From March of 2014 through June of 2021 Terry led Accord Financials’ US asset based lending and factoring business.  Prior to his time with Accord he spent 5 years with Amherst Partners providing strategic and growth consulting, mergers/acquisitions and capital formation services to mid-sized non-bank financial companies. From 1990 to 2005, Mr. Keating established a business unit for LaSalle Bank in Chicago, providing credit and other bank products to non-bank lenders, growing the unit to a $1bln in loan commitments over the years of his leadership.

Mr. Keating has served on numerous professional and non-profit boards of directors throughout his career and remains active in the leadership of several organizations.  He is currently active with local, regional and national industry organizations including the Secured Finance Network, Turnaround Management Association, Association for Corporate Growth and others.

Terry can be reached at tkeating@djksholdings.com.

Please provide a bit of background. How did you get into the industry and explain more about your current role.

My involvement with SFNet has been a journey. It’s first phase, or iteration began in 1991 when I started a finance company lending division for LaSalle Bank. At the time, SFNet (then Commercial Finance Association) was a primary means for me to get to know companies and executives who were potential borrowers.  It also was a source of overall industry metrics we used in building our business case. Then, in 2005, I left banking and spent the next 10 years providing consulting and investment banking services to non-bank finance companies. Again, the SFNet was an important networking, prospecting, and data resource for my practice.  In 2014, I joined Accord Financial to lead its US Asset Finance business, which I did through June of 2021. Over this seven-year period, SFNet became a different, but more important, part of my professional experience.  Being new to leading an actual finance company, SFNet was an important source of education on best practices, regulatory issues, and industry trends. It also became an important source of industry peer group relationships, in particular the Independent Finance & Factoring Roundtable was key to my development as a senior executive within the industry.  Since leaving the Accord family in 2021, I have taken an assignment as an independent director of a commercial finance entity in a wind-down, am doing some advisory work for two small private equity sponsors and considering other senior leadership opportunities.

Why did you join the DEI Committee?

First, in general, given all I have gotten from the Association over many years, it is important to me that I give back. Without reciprocity, industry associations are not viable.

As to this Committee, I asked to be included because DEI is the most important issue facing our industry, country, and world.  There are two primary dimensions to this imperative for me. 

First, it is the right/moral/ethical thing to do – all people deserve an equal footing/opportunity to achieve and live the life they’d like to live.

Second, in the United States, according to the 2020 census, 48% of the population is identified as non-white, and in so far as some or all of that portion of the population is held back from achieving their full economic potential, by various forms of overt or covert, direct and indirect discrimination, then those individuals are earning less, consuming less, paying less taxes, etc. – the overall economic wealth of the whole community is lessened. I am sure there are economic statistics that can quantify this impact, but just to illustrate what I mean: let’s say that 48% of the population achieves only 50% of what they might otherwise achieve – the math is that our society only achieves 76% of its full potential. How is that possibly a good outcome? Enabling disenfranchised members of society does not take away from the overall economic pie. Of course, there can be an element of investment, education, and the like, but it is just that, an investment. And in many, perhaps most, cases there is no investment, just the removal of barriers. Certainly, there are a lot of factors that impact the math in the real world, but there is no escaping the conclusion that all of us are better off when everyone in our society is unimpeded from reaching their full potential.

The last reason I wanted to be part of this committee is that it is critically important that there be top-down and bottom-up commitment – and not just commitment, but action. As a Caucasian male who has been fortunate to achieve a level of success, it is important to address these issues with more than support and/or endorsement – it means being an active part of the discussion and taking direct actions to address the issue. If I am not part of the solution, then I am still contributing to the problem. It takes people up and down the success ladder, across the spectrum of gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. to actively participate, leading by example and personal everyday actions – sometimes as simple as a smile to the grocery cashier, noticing their name tag, using their name in a sincere “how is your day today?” and genuinely listening to the response. Industry and corporate initiatives, community action, etc. are important too, but until the changes permeate our everyday, grass roots interactions, we’ll not achieve the goal of a truly equal society.

I have been fortunate in my life. First, to be born a white male. But also, and I think more importantly, to have had the many individuals who contributed to my rise and achievement through the years. The parents who adopted me, the educational and professional teachers, and mentors – formal and informal I have had – the immigrant family that accepted me as the husband of their first daughter………. how can I not repay that in-kind?

What do you think the industry can do to increase diversity, equity and inclusiveness?

As I noted above, it takes everyone to contribute in many different ways, – leveraging their personal and professional platforms to listen and educate themselves – and others, take a clear-eyed look at how they behave and interact, adjust their behavior, speak out, change and instigate change.  But specifically, as an association and within member companies we need to have:

• Clear commitment from the Board & Management – commitment in the form of policy, goals, expectations, and focused resources.

   

• Participation from all levels of association management, board, committees, members, with shared resources, educational forums, peer-to-peer exchanges and persistent conversations.

   

• Data – To chart a course, we need to know where we are starting from. Data will also facilitate identification of areas for opportunity and setting of goals.Ongoing data collection then facilitates tracking progress and indicating where adjustments need to be made. Finally, this data needs to be fully transparent and available to all.

   

• Lead with action – ensuring that we have diversity and inclusion in our governance, that we proactively work to increase the diversity and inclusiveness of our membership.

   

• Curate opportunities and resources to learn that can be tailored to various sized groups, varied backgrounds, and circumstances.

That sounds like a lot, but from my perspective I see the Secured Finance Network acting affirmatively on all five of the elements above.