Rosenthal & Rosenthal, Inc., the leading independent factoring, asset based lending and purchase order financing firm in the United States, today announced the appointment of Leigh Lones as Senior Vice President, Southeast Regional Sales Manager, and Al Foster as Vice President, Business Development Officer. Lones will be based in the Atlanta office and Foster will operate remotely out of Tennessee. Their appointments are effective November 12.

A seasoned financial services sales leader with more than 30 years of experience, Lones will be responsible for growing Rosenthal’s client portfolio across the Southeast as well as developing a dedicated sales team in the region. She has successfully delivered multi-million dollar factoring and asset based lending transactions in her previous roles at banks and independent finance companies. Most recently, Lones was a Director at Equiniti Riskfactor, responsible for selling risk management software to banks and finance companies. Her prior experience includes serving as CEO Americas of Bibby Financial Services and holding a variety of senior leadership roles at Citizens Business Credit, Congress Financial Corporation, Citibank and Bank South.

Foster brings more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the commercial lending industry to Rosenthal, where he will focus on business development across the Southeast. Most recently, Foster served as Vice President at Lighthouse Financial Corporation, where he covered key markets across Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. Previously, he held business development roles at a variety of commercial lending institutions, including Keltic Financial/Ares Commercial Finance, First Tennessee Bank, Bridge Business Bancorp and Wells Fargo Business Credit.

Lones and Foster join Rosenthal just less than two years after the firm acquired the domestic factoring portfolio of BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT), one of the largest financial holding corporations in the United States. As part of the deal, Rosenthal added BB&T’s 90 factoring clients to its portfolio, increasing the firm’s factored volume by $2 billion. Over the past two years, approximately 30 new factoring professionals, in Georgia and North Carolina, have joined the firm’s overall staff of 200 nationwide. Expanding the Southeast sales team, Lones and Foster will join senior Business Development Officer Mark Collins, already with the firm a year, and Shelly Head, a credit analyst who will now be moving into a sales and marketing role.

“We are thrilled to add Leigh and Al to the Rosenthal family and are confident they, along with our talented account management and credit teams in Atlanta and High Point, will make important contributions that will help to expand our presence across the Southeast,” said Ken Kleiner, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Rosenthal.