Wells Fargo Capital Finance has created an originations team for its supply chain finance (SCF) group, following the acquisition of GE Capital’s commercial distribution finance business.

The SCF group’s offering includes channel finance, supplier finance and sales finance, all tailored working capital financing products to support buyers and sellers of products in technology, manufacturing, distribution, retail, consumer products, aerospace, automotive and energy.

The team is led by John Schmidt, who co-founded channel financing firm Castle Pines Capital before Wells Fargo acquired it in 2011. He reports to Scott Diehl, head of global capital solutions for Wells Fargo Capital Finance.

The rest of the team is organised as follows:

Daniel Pfeiffer, based in Weston, Florida, will lead and manage the supply chain finance sales team for the supplier finance and key accounts purchase programmes. He joins from Taulia, where he managed the team overseeing the existing customer portfolio and worked to grow Taulia’s SCF business. Before that, he worked as a director of treasury and trade solutions for Citibank, where he was responsible for the cash management and trade business in a number of countries across the Caribbean.

Steve Hopkins, based in Denver, will lead vendor originations for the channel finance team, the “technology vertical” for supply chain finance. Before joining Wells Fargo, Hopkins spent 13 years as the director of global channel financing for Cisco Systems, providing working capital solutions for Cisco’s partners across 166 countries.

Mike Marcolina, based in Atlanta, will lead business development for the channel finance team, focusing on IT solution providers. He previously led the sales team for GE’s commercial distribution finance technology team (now part of Wells Fargo Capital Finance).

Diehl says: “The new vendor and business development structures will improve our ability to serve our customers and prospects with their financial needs with a goal to become their trusted advisor. With John and these focused teams, we have the ability to deepen our relationships with our customers and prospects and while ensuring a seamless and integrated approach to how we work with them across our platform.”