Welcome
Welcome to Keelson. You're inheriting Dave Lindqvist's book: 41 client relationships, several of them more than a decade old. That's a lot to take on in a first month, and I want you to have more to go on than a list of names in Salesforce.
Dave left on October 16. He wrote a handoff memo before he went, and the rest of the history is in Salesforce, in the credit files on SharePoint and in our Teams channels. This document pulls it together. Every statement links to the record it came from, so when a client tells you "Dave said," you can check what Dave wrote down.
THE ONE RULE Don't commit to pricing, structure or timing with anyone until credit has approved it in writing. Clients test this hardest when a new relationship manager arrives.
You were hired because you've managed a book like this before and you ask good questions about the credit. Keep asking them. Ruth and Ben will teach you more in a month than any procedure manual.
- Joint calls with your ten largest relationships, with me, in your first month
- Read Dave's handoff memo and the four items in flight before your first client call
- Compliance training and attestations in the learning portal in week one
- Salesforce, SharePoint credit file and loan servicing access on day one
My door is open, and our first 1:1 is Monday at 8:30. If anything here doesn't match what a client tells you, bring it to me. That's a gap in the record, not in you.
Your role
Dave Lindqvist spent fourteen years at Keelson and left on October 16 to join a regional bank. Elaine announced the reassignment the same day: the book moves to you effective November 2, client letters went out under her name on October 20, and questions about Dave's clients go through Elaine, not to Dave.
Dave's handoff memo is the place to start. It covers **41 relationships, $286M in commitments and $191M outstanding**, mostly asset-based revolvers to manufacturers and distributors in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Dave flags six relationships where the history lives mostly in his own email and calls rather than in Salesforce.
The transfer procedure requires joint calls with the managing director for the ten largest relationships within 30 days of reassignment. Elaine has scheduled them across your first four weeks. Three relationships need your attention before the rest.
OSTRANDER TOOL & DIE Your largest and oldest relationship: a $28M revolver that matures March 31, with the renewal opportunity open. On an October 22 call, the CFO, Renata Kowalczyk, asked whether the line could move to Dave's new bank. Elaine told her the facility stays with Keelson. Expect the question again at renewal.
**Aubertin Foods** has a pricing exception. In February 2025, Dave got credit approval to waive its unused line fee for 24 months in exchange for moving its equipment financing to Keelson. The approval says the waiver is not to be renewed automatically. Aubertin renews in February and will expect it to continue.
**Haskett Agricultural Equipment** has been on the watch list since April. Its inventory is concentrated in one slow-moving product line, so it reports its borrowing base monthly with a quarterly inventory appraisal, and any new money needs Ruth Achebe's approval first.
41 Client relationships in the book, with $286M in commitments
The people you'll work with
These are the people you'll work with most in your first ninety days.
- Elaine Okonkwo (Managing Director, Relationship Management) — Runs the Midwest relationship team and took Dave's client calls until you started. Will be on your first ten client calls. Your manager: weekly 1:1 on Mondays at 8:30.
- Ruth Achebe (Senior Credit Officer) — Recommends or approves every credit decision on your book, and chairs the Midwest credit committee. Reports to the Chief Credit Officer, not to Elaine. The person to ask whether a request is worth bringing to committee.
- Ben Tolliver (Portfolio Analyst) — Tracks covenants, borrowing base certificates and field exams for the Midwest book. Caught Wexcombe's covenant shortfall in its Q3 compliance certificate. The person to ask what a client's numbers actually say.
- Sean Whitaker (Senior Relationship Manager) — Has run a Midwest book for nine years and covered Dave's clients during his last two weeks. Your onboarding buddy, and the person to ask how things really work here.
- Carla Jimenez (Loan Operations Manager) — Runs advances, payoffs, wires and borrowing base processing. Her team is who your clients talk to most days. The person to call before you promise a client anything about timing.
- Imani Brooks (KYC and BSA Officer) — Owns client due diligence refreshes and flagged the Corliss ownership change in October. The person to loop in before you discuss any change in who owns a client.
- Victor Ames (Chief Lending Officer) — Leads relationship management across all three regions. Your skip-level. He meets every new relationship manager in their first month.
Sean covered Dave's clients during Dave's last two weeks and knows which of them called. Spend an hour with him before your first client call.
Reporting structure
You report to Elaine Okonkwo, Managing Director, Relationship Management. Elaine reports to Victor Ames, Chief Lending Officer.
Credit is independent of relationship management. Ruth Achebe reports to the Chief Credit Officer, not to Elaine, and the separation is deliberate: you represent the client's request, and credit decides it.
YOUR CREDIT AUTHORITY None for your first 90 days. After that, renewals within policy up to $2M in total exposure; everything else goes to Ruth or the Midwest credit committee.
- Weekly 1:1 with Elaine, Mondays at 8:30
- Midwest pipeline meeting, Tuesdays at 10
- Credit committee, Thursdays at 2, when you have an item on the agenda
- Monthly portfolio review with Ben, the week after borrowing base certificates come in
Escalations depend on what's at stake. Anything about a client's credit goes to Ruth. Anything about money movement goes to Carla's team, and anything that looks like fraud goes to Carla by phone, immediately. Anything about a client's ownership or identity goes to Imani.
Tools & systems
**Salesforce** is the record of every relationship: accounts, contacts, an opportunity for every renewal, increase, waiver and amendment, and the contact log. Opportunities carry the credit approval status, so check there before you tell a client where a request stands.
**SharePoint** holds the credit files, in the Commercial Lending site: credit memos, approvals, covenant compliance certificates, field exam reports and the watch list. Dave's handoff memo is in the Handoffs folder.
**Confluence** holds the operating procedures. Clients submit borrowing base certificates by the 20th of each month, and Loan Operations runs the eligibility calculations before an advance is funded. Advance requests that reach Loan Operations after 2pm Eastern fund the next business day, the most common source of client frustration.
- Salesforce: accounts, contacts, opportunities and the contact log
- SharePoint: credit memos, approvals, compliance certificates, field exams and the watch list
- Microsoft Teams: day-to-day coordination with credit, operations and compliance
- Confluence: operating procedures
- Loan servicing system: balances, advances and payments, read-only for relationship managers
- Commercial Lending · Midwest RMs (16 members): your team's home
- Credit · Committee (12 members): agendas and pre-reads
- Client Operations · Servicing (23 members): advances, payoffs and wires
- Compliance · KYC reviews (9 members): ownership changes and refreshes
Culture & norms
Internal audit samples relationship files against these three rules every quarter.
**Nothing is promised before credit approves it.** The credit policy is explicit: no commitment on amount, pricing, structure or timing, verbal or written, before credit approval. Saying you'll support a request isn't a commitment, but clients hear it as one.
No commitment as to amount, pricing, structure or timing may be made to a client, verbally or in writing, prior to credit approval.
Keelson credit policy, section 4.2
**If it isn't in Salesforce, it didn't happen.** Every substantive client contact is logged in Salesforce within one business day: who was on the call, what the client asked, what we said and the follow-up. Dave's six thin files are the ones that missed this standard.
**Wire instructions never change by email.** A request to change where Keelson sends a client's funds is verified by calling the client at a number already on file, and a second person in Loan Operations confirms the change. The procedure was tightened in May after two attempted email frauds.
- No commitments before written credit approval
- Every client contact logged in Salesforce within one business day
- Wire instruction changes verified by call-back to a number on file
- Anything about a client's ownership goes to Imani before it goes anywhere else
Active projects
Four items in your book are in flight right now. Each has a deadline that doesn't move because you're new.
**Wexcombe Cold Storage missed a covenant.** Its Q3 fixed charge coverage ratio came in at 1.04x against a 1.10x minimum, after higher energy costs and the loss of its largest customer in July. Dave told Wexcombe's CFO he would support a waiver. His draft credit memo recommends a one-time waiver with a 25 basis point fee and monthly reporting for two quarters.
YOUR THIRD WEEK You present the Wexcombe waiver at credit committee. Ruth has already said she wants a cash flow forecast through Q2 before she'll support it.
**Tallow Creek Packaging** wants its revolver increased from $15M to $22M to fund the acquisition of a smaller competitor in Dayton. The field exam is scheduled, and the credit memo is yours to write, due in your fifth week.
**Corliss Industrial Supply** has asked to extend its maturity by six months. It can't go forward yet: in August the founder transferred 30% of the company to his son, and Imani flagged the change in October. An ownership change of 25% or more triggers a full KYC refresh, and no amendment is approved while one is open.
- Week 1: read Dave's memo, the Wexcombe draft and Ruth's note on it; meet Ruth, Ben, Carla and Imani; first joint calls with Elaine.
- Week 2: get Wexcombe's cash flow forecast and walk the memo through with Ben's numbers. Agree the Corliss KYC refresh plan with Imani.
- Week 3: present the Wexcombe waiver at credit committee.
- Weeks 4 and 5: attend the Tallow Creek field exam close-out and write the line increase memo.
1.04x Wexcombe Cold Storage Q3 fixed charge coverage, against a 1.10x minimum
Ostrander's renewal is the one with the most at stake. Start that conversation on your joint call with Elaine this month, not in February. Welcome to Keelson.
Open questions
- Dave flagged six relationships whose history is mostly outside Salesforce: Ostrander, Aubertin, Brightmoor Castings, Garrity Fastener, Pellston Coil & Wire and Rourke Plastics. Which should we cover first on the joint calls?
- Did Dave ever discuss continuing Aubertin's unused fee waiver with the client? Nothing in Salesforce or the credit file records it.
- Is there appetite to sharpen pricing to keep Ostrander at renewal, and who would need to approve it?
- Has Wexcombe replaced any of the volume from the customer it lost in July?
- Who signs Corliss's KYC refresh on the client side, the founder or his son?
- When Tallow Creek's acquisition closes, are the acquired company's receivables eligible collateral right away, or only after a field exam?