This is part of a continuing series profiling members of our Bridge Business Credit team.

Jim Kinnaird recently joined Bridge Business Credit as Senior Managing Director – Underwriting, a newly-created position in a move designed to help the asset-based lending firm in its commitment to commercial credit both locally as well as regionally.

Kinnaird brings more than 35 years of commercial credit experience to Bridge Business Credit. Jim was most recently Vice President – Special Asset Group at Independent Bank in Troy. He started his banking career at Comerica Bank, Detroit, holding increasingly responsible management positions in credit administration and special assets.

We caught up with Jim to learn more about his career influences, his business philosophy, and his approach to helping Bridge Business Credit clients.

“My very first job out of college was working as a credit analyst at Comerica Bank,” Jim recounts. “I learned the basics of commercial lending, as well as the importance of the ‘4 Cs’ of Credit. Those Cs are cashflow, condition, collateral, and character. It is fair to say that every day of my working life as a commercial lender, I have applied the concepts learned as a credit analyst over 38 years ago”

Over the course of his career, Jim encountered some interesting experiences in the sometimes-staid world of finance.

“One of the things that I have found most rewarding in my career is the variety of businesses I have been able to learn about,” he says. “I managed a relationship where the principal/guarantor was an NFL team owner. I’ve collaborated with suppliers whose products were used in the Space Shuttle Columbia. I have also worked with a lot of smaller businesses where they truly needed the advice of a trusted financial advisor.”

Kinnard describes his approach to client service and relationships as one focused on listening and paying attention to best understand how Bridge can assist.

“I think successful commercial lenders, like all financial services professionals must be good listeners. To be a superior trusted financial advisor, a relationship manager must take the time to fully understand a business, its strengths, its weaknesses, and of course its differentiators.

“Equally important,” he adds, “a successful relationship manager must be upfront, straightforward, and candid at all times with his or her customers.” Outside of his work at Bridge Business Credit, Jim is an active member of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University Alumni Associations, Knights of Columbus, Beta Theta Pi national fraternity, Turnaround Management Assn., and Risk Management Association.