Jennifer Draffkorn

SVP, Portfolio Manager, Rosenthal & Rosenthal

Jennifer Draffkorn currently holds the position of senior vice president and portfolio manager for Rosenthal & Rosenthal and oversees a team focused on account management, operations and international trade services for their purchase order finance division. 

Jennifer has over 27 years in the financial services industry working for Transcap Trade Finance (acquired by Wells Fargo Bank), and Wells Fargo Capital Finance division. She joined Rosenthal in 2016 to help develop their newly created division, Rosenthal Trade Capital. 

Jennifer came into the finance industry after working several years in the wholesale apparel industry for an importer, design and distribution company. There she gained international expertise with a strong understanding of international trade and logistics, giving her a unique perspective on working with clients to put together lending facilities. Having that first-hand experience of what importers and distributors deal with in their daily businesses, she is able to apply that working knowledge to create a facility that works well for both the lender and the client. 

Jennifer is married and has enjoyed living in Denver, Colorado for the past eight years. For relaxation, she enjoys spending time in the mountains with family, baking and small gatherings with friends. 

What do you know now that you wish you knew in the beginning of your career?

Earlier in my career, I would dwell on a problem and not immediately focus on finding a solution. Through the years, my perspective has changed and each challenge that I have faced has been a learning experience. I no longer dwell on the problem; rather, my time is now focused on a solution to the issue at hand to keep moving forward. I’ve learned to challenge my team by having them not just bring a problem to my attention, but also to have a possible solution ready to discuss. Experience has taught me that this approach expands everyone’s thought process and usually, by working together, produces a solution in a timely fashion. Managing my time efficiently, as well as my team’s, has proven to be invaluable, especially at peak busy times. 

What do you enjoy most about your role? 

I have been focused on purchase order financing for the bulk of my commercial finance career, and I am happy to say it continues to interest and challenge me. The majority of our clients are importers, which means I must stay current on importing logistics, customs regulations and international trade news. Being able to assist my clients with these issues can be the difference between successfully navigating and completing an import transaction or having it fall apart due to circumstances outside of the financing piece of the transaction.  

I also enjoy building relationships and helping my clients succeed in their businesses. The roles I have held in my career have always included relationship management. Getting to know my clients, understanding what they need and assisting with modeling their opportunities has always been paramount. Seeing the value of the financial services I’ve been able to provide my clients time and time again and knowing I can make a real positive impact on a client’s success, has been especially important to me. Purchase order financing is not meant to be a long-term financing solution so, when we can provide clients with timely results of an improved financial position so they can move their business forward, we know we have done our part and that brings me and my team a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.  

What effect, if any, has working remotely had on your career and/or your industry? What have been the challenges and how have you worked to overcome them?

Since joining Rosenthal five years ago, I have been working remotely while building the Purchase Order Finance business division and team, so my perspective is a little different. I haven’t looked at this as a challenge, but rather as a model for change. Our business division serves a national client base, so a conventional office-centric team is not essential to our success. Communication is key and, since our team is spread out across multiple locations, we have daily morning calls for personal check-in’s and organizing daily work, assigning tasks and recapping successes and concerns on specific issues. We also utilize instant messaging and online chat programs to make it seem like the co-worker you are communicating with is in your office or right next door. Currently, it seems like people default to communication by email while working remotely and I feel communication by phone, is now more important than ever to retain that personal connection with clients and team members. Sometimes the written word can be misinterpreted so having that balance between electronic communication and phone conversation can be essential to a lender-client relationship as well as between co-workers.