Twenty years ago, Cornell law student Bill Verhelle, along with business partner Guy Klinger, founded First American Commercial Bancorp, Inc. (d/b/a First American Equipment Finance^TM). They became experts at running a national commercial lending business, serving the interests of some of the largest and most sophisticated borrowers in America. First American continues to be one of the largest commercial equipment finance businesses operating in the U.S. ¹ In 2012, Bill and Guy sold First American Equipment Finance to City National Bank^TM.  Three years later, in 2015, Bill resigned from City National as CEO of First American. Innovation Finance was founded in 2018. During 2018, several top officers from First American joined Innovation Finance. The team from First American included Mark Tomaselli (President), formerly the Chief Technology Officer of First American, Mike Ziegelmann (Chief Financial Officer), formerly the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Credit Officer of First American, and Nathan Gibbons (Chief Operating Officer) previously an operations officer at First American.