Briar Capital Real Estate Fund announced its expansion into the Midwest market with the hiring of Jill Kirshenbaum as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Based in Chicago, Kirshenbaum is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with those in the lending community (asset-based lenders, factors, banks, turnaround professionals, brokers, etc.) to generate asset-based commercial real estate loan opportunities.
 
“We couldn’t be happier to have Jill join us,“ said Jeff Van Sickle, President of Briar Capital Real Estate Fund. “Jill prides herself on bringing collaborative solutions to the table to help businesses in need of working capital. Her deep connections in the Midwest are a tremendous fit as most of our real estate loans are closed in conjunction with other asset based lenders who finance receivables, inventory, and/or machinery and equipment.”  
 
Kirshenbaum brings a vast amount of experience to the Briar team as a successful asset-based lending sales professional. Prior to joining Briar, Kirshenbaum was most recently responsible for creating collaborative alliances and new financing opportunities for Franklin Capital, a Midwest factoring and purchase order finance company. Kirshenbaum currently serves on the Turnaround Management Association Midwest Board of Directors and as the Co-Chair of the women’s board (the TMANow). Kirshenbaum also has a rich history in training and coaching sales professionals for nearly 15 years and is an active Board member of the Israeli Cancer Research Foundation (ICRF.org) helping to find cures for cancer.
 
“I am pleased to join Briar Capital and excited to be on a team with such a unique product offering,” commented Jill.  “Briar’s sole focus on owner-occupied real estate is non-competitive to the majority of the asset-based lending community and utilizes an asset often overlooked as an opportunity to enhance the working capital position of the borrower.”