CIT Group Inc. has announced that its capital equipment finance business has hired three new business development leaders to support clients and growth in the equipment finance market.

Thomas Linebarger, Scott Ryan and Erick Berreondo have joined CIT's Capital Equipment Finance (CEF) group as business development directors. Linebarger's territory covers the Great Lakes region, Ryan is responsible for the Northeast and Berreondo will join the indirect originations sales channel. All will be responsible for developing, maintaining, and expanding client and prospect relationships within their respective areas.

"CIT has an excellent reputation as an industry leader in leasing and financing of capital equipment," said David Harnisch, president of commercial and real estate finance, CIT. "These additions and promotions demonstrate CIT's commitment to supporting our clients and continued growth in this vital industry sector."

"The addition of Tom, Scott and Erick will further drive CEF's growth in 2022 and beyond," said Kevin Ronan, senior vice president and national sales director for CEF, CIT Group. "All three are well-respected, customer-centric sales executives within the equipment finance industry. I am excited to welcome Tom, Scott and Erick to our CEF sales team and look forward to celebrating their long-term success at CIT."

Linebarger joins CIT with more than 30 years of commercial equipment sales experience, a majority of which has been focused on middle-market companies in the upper Midwest region. He has broad expertise in the transportation, automotive, construction and manufacturing industries.

With 35 years of equipment finance experience, Ryan joins CIT after most recently serving as a director in the equipment finance group at Citizens Bank. Earlier in his career, he spent more than 20 years with the equipment finance group at GE Capital and GE Antares.

Berreondo, who joined CIT in 2014 as senior credit underwriter, is being promoted to director of originations covering banks, captives and independents. Prior to CIT, he worked at AlixPartners as a turnaround advisor and previously held positions of increasing responsibility at GE Capital in credit and new business development.