2023 Annual Gala Man of the Year

Carl Giordano Senior Vice President, Head of Specialty & Sponsor Finance

BHI USA

Carl Giordano is a Senior Vice President, and Head of the Specialty & Sponsor Finance and Domestic Commercial & Industrial Teams at BHI, the US operation of Bank Hapoalim headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Mr. Giordano joined BHI in 2016 and has led the strategic development of the Sponsor Finance lending initiative not only in New York City but for the entire metropolitan area. As a result of Mr. Giordano’s leadership and depth of knowledge, BHI has experienced a high level of transactional success, expansion of the platform to a national level as well as significant revenue increases. In addition to his banking responsibilities, in 2020, Mr. Giordano became the Head the New York Middle Market Commercial Banking business.

Mr. Giordano began his career in commercial finance in 1992 as a field examiner at Bank of New York Financial Corporation. He went on to hold a variety of roles in the areas of portfolio management, underwriting, and business development. Mr. Giordano spent approximately 10 years at Bank of New York before broadening his lending skills in Leverage Finance and Asset Based Lending at IBJ Whitehall where he became active in the Private Equity focused structured finance sector.

Mr. Giordano then joined CIT in 2004, where he was a key contributor to the success of the organization’ s Loan Purchasing Group and the CIT Save Campaign. At CIT, Mr. Giordano’s experience resulted in the company being awarded a $575 million Senior Secured Asset Based Credit Facility mandate for the Esmark / Wheeling Pittsburgh merger, a significant transaction at the time.

After his tenure at CIT, and amidst the market uncertainty relating to the crisis of 2008, Mr. Giordano was offered an entrepreneurial opportunity to support a start-up Asset Based Lending platform for TD Bank. It was there that Mr. Giordano enjoyed using his innovative skills and expertise in the field to grow a platform from bottom-up. It was this experience and a bit of the stars aligning that contributed to Mr. Giordano being offered a position at BHI to replicate his success at TD. After an unexpected lunch meeting, Mr. Giordano was offered the opportunity to grow BHI in the United States into a successful multi-faceted lending platform.

Mr. Giordano’s passion is not only his business but contributing to the community. He is actively involved in fund raising for various charitable causes and has acted as an Executive member of the New York Chapter of the Secured Finance Network for over 20 years. He is also active with notable charities, including Friends of Jon, Wounded Warriors Foundation, Tunnel to Towers Foundation, American Cancer Foundation, Needlers Foundation, National Jewish Health Foundation, and the Mosholu Montifiore Community Center under the BHI Cares initiative.

Mr. Giordano is a graduate of Iona University, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, Finance and Financial Management Services. In his free time, Mr. Giordano enjoys spending time with his family: sharing his passions for outdoor grilling, golf, motorsports, and constructing with his two teen sons and loving wife Andrenaia.