D. C. Wiggins

D. Craig Wiggins, Tooling Solutions

Mr. Wiggins completed his academic studies in 1989 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. After graduating and gaining a Bachelor’s of Commerce, he commenced work as mid-market commercial lender at Lloyds Bank Canada, which was subsequently acquired by HSBC.
 
During the mid 1990’s, the Vancouver area experienced an extensive real estate construction boom and HSBC was the leading lender in the market place. It is from structuring real estate construction financing that Mr. Wiggins developed a keen understanding of work-in-process financing for mass market and single purpose assets that is the foundation of T&E Capital’s tooling procurement solutions. During his last few years as a commercial lender in Vancouver, Mr. Wiggins’ HSBC Branch was the fastest growing commercial branch in the HSBC system.
 
In 1995, Mr. Wiggins took his considerable lending and marketing expertise to Export Development Canada (EDC), Canada’s official export credit agency. When Mr. Wiggins arrived he was asked to lead EDC’s automotive initiative. With no automotive industry manufacturing experience Mr. Wiggins set out to determine the segments of the Canadian market that were underserved or where "financing gaps" existed.
 
Through considerable research it was determined that the ability to access capital for tool and die financing was an area that was not well understood, nor well serviced (according to the prospects at the time), by the traditional debt markets.

Mr. Wiggins set EDC’s sights on developing financing structures that filled the financing gap during the tooling fabrication period. He also focused on the emerging issue of supplier owned tooling (SOT). With products in-hand but not yet market tested, Mr. Wiggins set out to operationalize these structures. The take-up commenced in 1996 with EDC financing tooling procurement and supplier owned tooling for a number of parts manufactures. The creative products, but almost more importantly the market knowledge and willingness to think outside the box, opened the door for EDC to many new opportunities including: project financing start-ups and large-scale expansions; debt syndications in various markets around the globe; and receivable purchasing.


The "automotive initiative" grew into the "automotive group" and then the "Automotive Team". Both business volume and clients served grew dramatically during Mr. Wiggins leadership tenure with volume growing from $54 million in 1995 and a dozen clients to $1.1 billion and in excess of 200 customers by 2001, his last full year at EDC.
 
With the "tooling structures" well developed and market tested, Mr. Wiggins left EDC in April 2002 to commence his own financial services company, T&E Capital. Via a services agreement, T&E Capital allied with a small minority owned investment bank, and Mr. Wiggins became the Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President. Using the structures developed during his tenure at EDC, Mr. Wiggins was able to launch these tooling solutions for this bank with EDC and a number of new lenders in the U.S. and Canada, and with several new clients.
 
In 2004, T&E Capital ended its exclusivity with the minority owned investment bank and quickly secured considerable investment to grow T&E Capital into a lean investment bank boutique. T&E Capital and Mr. Wiggins’ considerable reputation and industry knowledge allows T&E Capital to seamlessly access the international banking network and other low-cost finance sources for its "niche-tooling offering".