CIT Group Inc., a provider of commercial lending and leasing services, announced the appointment of Kenneth Caffrey and Michael Cavounis as managing directors of the Sponsor Finance Group. In these positions, Caffrey and Cavounis will facilitate the growth of the Sponsor Finance Group's portfolio. They will report to CIT's Sponsor Finance Managing Director and Group Head, Jeffrey Kilrea.
 
"Ken and Michael bring significant experience and have a long history of working with private equity sponsors on middle market executions," said Kilrea. "They will be valuable resources to CIT as we work to grow our assets and expand our presence across the middle market leveraged finance segment."

Caffrey joins CIT from HSBC where he was a director for the Middle Market Financial Sponsors Group and helped establish the bank's US middle-market leveraged credit platform. Caffrey has over 15 years of experience in leveraged and middle market finance, and previously held positions at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Bear Stearns and Modern Bank. Cavounis joins CIT from American Capital where he was a principal responsible for managing capital market activities and structuring and coordinating debt financings for the firm's private equity buyouts. Cavounis has over 20 years of experience in middle market leveraged finance and previously held positions with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America, JH Whitney and Heller Financial.