Get to know the EPIC Finance Team, led by Managing Director Charlie Zitnik and Senior Vice President Steve Goehl.
The public finance bankers give insight into the energy performance landscape and stress the importance of cultivating face-to-face relationships.
1. What is the EPIC Finance Team at D.A. Davidson?
EPIC is the acronym for our Energy Performance and Infrastructure Construction Finance Team. Our team members are subject matter experts in the energy savings, performance contracting, and renewables space. Simply put, we structure financings that are paid for through savings from energy efficiency.
2. What motivated you to pursue a career in energy performance and infrastructure construction financing, and what makes your group different?
Our EPIC Finance Team leaders Steve Goehl and Charlie Zitnik have been partners for over 25 years. What began as an essential purpose infrastructure financial practice focusing on local governments morphed into the energy efficiency finance space over a 15-year period.
We are both “old school” as far as customer interaction. As society and businesses go higher tech, we go higher touch. The development of an energy performance contract financing calls on creativity and expertise for our clients, but building a trusted relationship is equally important, and that only comes over time with personal interactions. Our team slogan, “Don’t call the bank, call us,” sums it up. Banks sell products; we provide solutions.
3. How has the industry evolved since you started?
The energy performance contracting industry is always reinventing itself. What began as an industry doing lighting retrofits in government buildings is now an industry focused on solar, renewables, geothermal, wind, electric vehicle battery charging, etc.
4. What skills do you believe are essential for success in your field?
Our success is driven by our willingness to spend as much face-to-face time with the client as they desire to assure that they understand and are comfortable with the financing. Being constantly client-facing in person, and handling the financing process from concept to completion, requires an entire team to keep the operation running smoothly. The support professionals in our office, as well as the resources from the D.A. Davidson mothership, are critical to our business.
5. Can you share a memorable project or deal the EPIC team has done and what made it stand out?
It’s not the huge projects that come to mind, rather the most challenging. One of the first projects we were called in on was a rural, 25-bed critical access hospital. The project scope was approximately $2,100,000. The performance contractor had a binding obligation for financing and had proceeded with final design and the ordering of some materials. The performance contractor was in for approximately $240,000. The binding commitment for financing evaporated. We were asked to resurrect the financing.
Working with the contractor, the hospital, and a regional bank, we were able to secure a funding for the full amount, wrapped by a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development 90% loan guarantee. It was small and time consuming (taking over a year), but it demonstrated to our clients we NEVER quit. It mattered to the contractor, it mattered to the hospital, and most of all, it mattered to the community.
6. How do you balance the demands of your job with your personal life?
For over 25 years, we each have averaged three nights per week on the road in pursuit of success. In both our cases, it has always been this way, and our family life has been built around it.
The people who succeed long term in the public finance banking space at D.A. Davidson (and D.A. Davidson has a lot of them) don’t find the work stressful, even though there is a great deal of pressure. The pressure is a good thing. It makes you stronger and more resilient. Also, we have a riot together.
7. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in your field?
Subject matter expertise is important, but ultimately it is a sales position. If someone was starting today, we would bring massive, relentless persistence and unreasonable focus to learning the space, but just as important is being in front of the client — not emailing, not texting, not virtual calling — in person and eye to eye. And NEVER, ever, letting up on the gas. The first six months are critical; it will be exhausting, and it will be frustrating. It will be a wild ride, but it is so worth it.
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