Legacy team
Your partners
We have a shared history of working across the ABL spectrum from the largest national and international financial institutions to regional lenders and entrepreneurial startups.
We don't focus on us or what we're like—we just know how to help businesses turn their assets and ideas into powerful, attractive opportunities for liquidity, to make the most of the resources they've built up, and to accomplish their goals.
Meet Legacy leadership
Clark D. Griffith
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
- 22 years ABL experience
- GE Capital, Hana Business Capital (founder), Encina Business Credit (now Eclipse Business Capital), White Oak ABL
- San Diego State and Columbia University
Paul E. Martin
Co-founder & Chief Investment Officer
- 25 years ABL experience
- Core/NewStar Business Credit (co-founder), Rise Line Business Credit (co-founder), HSBC, Shawmut Bank ABL, Bank of Boston ABL
- Babson College BSBA and MBA
Lawrence E. Ridgway
Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer
- 28 Years ABL experience
- GE Capital, Morgan Stanley, US Bank, Citizens Commercial Banking
- Northeastern University
Clark D. Griffith
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Clark started his ABL career in 2000 when he joined GE Capital out of Columbia University, where he'd earned an MA in international finance and banking. He progressed from Global Risk Management at GE Capital's head office in Stamford, CT to the firm's Capital Markets Group in both Stamford and Tokyo, then to a portfolio and underwriting role at GE Commercial Finance and an ABL sales originations position, both in California. Flash forward to 2013, and Clark, who studied Japanese language as both an undergrad and graduate student, had become head of structured finance at GE Capital Japan and an officer of General Electric Japan.
With GE's later disposition of most of its financial service businesses worldwide, Clark supported the wind-down of GE Japan’s Structured Finance unit, then returned to Los Angeles as founder and president of Hana Business Capital, the ABL division of top-10 US factoring lender Hana Financial. Clark later joined Encina Business Credit (now Eclipse Business Capital) as head of west coast originations and then White Oak Global Advisors, where he executed special-situation asset-based loans for White Oak ABL. Clark has especially deep expertise in asset-based lending, leveraged finance, mergers & acquisitions, and real estate.
Clark and his family relocated to Texas in 2020, and the founding of Legacy Corporate Lending in 2022 is the culmination of Clark's global journey as an innovator and leader in asset-based lending—where Clark and his co-founders are applying all they've learned about what makes transactions successful for both lenders and borrowers in middle-market ABL.
In those rare moments when Clark is not working to fund and support Legacy borrowers, he works his spread in east Texas, where he is developing new breeds of Wagyu cattle.
Paul E. Martin
Co-founder & Chief Investment Officer
Paul is one of the most experienced asset-based lenders in the country not only in his record of crafting thousands of loans for businesses of all sizes—but also in innovating lending platforms that are tailored for the needs of borrowers. He was co-founder and senior managing director of credit for Rise Line Business Credit, a lower-middle-market ABL firm based in New York City, and co-founder and chief credit officer of Core Business Credit, a middle-market ABL platform based in Dallas that later became NewStar Business Credit and subsequently was acquired by Sterling Bancorp.
Paul was also chief credit officer at HSBC Bank USA and, earlier, head of credit, portfolio and operations for Shawmut Bank of Boston’s ABL unit and division head of asset-based lending at Old Stone Bank in Providence, RI. He began his lending career as a field examiner at Bank of Boston after earning his MBA at Babson College in Massachusetts.
Paul has been an active member of the Turnaround Management Association, Secured Finance Network (formerly the Commercial Finance Association), and the Association for Corporate Growth. Paul’s expertise has made him a sought-after expert witness in cases relating to credit and the ABL industry.
Lawrence E. Ridgway
Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer
Lawrence is a seasoned financing partner for middle-market companies who has closed hundreds of transactions and billions in lending commitments in support of refinancing, growth, recapitalization, acquisitions, turnarounds and other purposes for borrowers in dozens of industries. He is an especially adept risk manager who knows how to explore the true value of borrower assets that cookie-cutter lenders often can’t or won’t fully recognize.
Lawrence began his lending career with GE Capital in Connecticut, Northern California, and Chicago, progressing from roles in back-office operations and field audit staff through strategic planning and analysis to risk management and business development in the Commercial Finance division. He then served as an executive director at Morgan Stanley in New York, building a new private bank for that firm in asset-based and securities-based lending, then as a senior underwriter and portfolio manager at US Bank, where he helped grow the asset-based lending business across the Midwest.
Before co-founding Legacy Corporate Lending, Lawrence served for nearly a decade at Citizens Commercial Banking, where he originated and structured asset-based and cash flow loans and provided capital markets advisory, credit and currency hedging, and treasury management services to a wide variety of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and business service providers.
Lawrence is a graduate in business administration from Northeastern University. He holds a North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) Series 63 license, is a FINRA Series 79 Investment Banking Representative, and is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charterholder.