Crestmark Chairman and CEO Dave Tull announced that Vice Chairman Barry Essig is retiring in December 2016. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to Crestmark and to the financial services industry, over a long and impressive career, Crestmark’s Board of Directors has named Essig vice chairman emeritus.

“Barry’s contributions to Crestmark’s success are many,” Tull said.” “Chief among them is that he cares deeply about Crestmark’s clients and employees, and about a great workplace culture. He provided invaluable insight and expertise. I am deeply grateful to Barry for all that he helped Crestmark achieve, and also for his wisdom and friendship,” Tull added.

Essig joined Crestmark in 2001 with the company’s acquisition of Spectrum Financial Corporation, an established traditional factoring company with expertise in the apparel, footwear, and home furnishings industries. Essig was the president and CEO of Spectrum, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Wachovia Bank.

Essig’s career in finance and banking includes the following: senior vice president of The CIT Group/Commercial Services, where he was responsible for the unit’s northeast traditional factoring portfolio; senior vice president and manager of Barclays Commercial Corporation in New York – the factoring subsidiary of Barclays Bank; and director, executive vice president and chief operating officer of National Westminster Bank’s factoring operation in the United States.

Active in the industry, Essig served as a director of the Commercial Finance Association, and was a member of its executive committee, and is a past chairperson of The Entrepreneurial Finance and Factoring Committee, The International Trade Services Committee, and the Factoring Committee.

Essig attended the College of the City of New York and the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College. He is a frequent speaker at industry events on a variety of finance-related subjects, and he has been a contributor to industry publications on the topics of domestic and international factoring and finance.