Financing Business Growth: Navigating the Current Financing Landscape

Nicole Callam is the Corporate Banking Market Executive for PNC Bank in Columbus Ohio.  She has a passion for helping people and companies achieve their goals.  Her banking experience across various industries, companies and institutions has given her insight into the many and varied approaches to financing, structuring and supporting growth.  Her current team supports middle market and large corporate clients in the Central Ohio region in a wide range of transactions.  The team leverages PNC’s national franchise to bring expertise in partnership with a local delivery model to execute solutions that solve problems for our clients.

I am an accomplished and results-driven professional with over a decade of leadership in financial operations within the global industrial products sector. I excel at steering strategic budgeting, capital allocation, and business performance management. I have a proven track record in overseeing financial operations for multi-billion-dollar divisions across EMEA, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and North America. My expertise includes capital allocation, mergers and acquisitions, and finance transformation, with successful integration of large-scale acquisitions under my belt.

I am proficient in optimizing working capital, executing major financing deals, and implementing cost-saving measures that yield substantial annual savings. I am adept at modernizing financial processes using advanced accounting technologies, centralizing operations for greater efficiency, and ensuring regulatory compliance. I am known for building and mentoring high-performance finance teams, driving sustainable growth, and maintaining financial stability in dynamic and competitive markets.

Michel Vermette is CEO America's Floor Source in Columbus. AFS operates 10 locations in the Midwest providing flooring and installation to the residential and commercial markets. Over his 35-year career he has extensive experience in growth strategy, acquisitions and Intergrations. These transactions total over $7 billion in investment and covered over 20 countries.

Nici is a partner in the Vorys Columbus office and chair of the firm’s finance practice. Her practice focuses on commercial and structured finance matters, representing national and regional banks and public company and other large corporate borrowers in a wide range of financing transactions including syndicated and multi-currency credit facilities, asset-based lending facilities, acquisition financings, leveraged ESOPs, mezzanine financings, mortgage warehousing facilities and securitizations. In addition, Nici regularly represents financial institutions and corporate end-users, including public companies, energy companies, manufacturing companies and retailers, in connection with derivative transactions under the ISDA Master Agreement and its related suite of documents, including drafting and negotiating related Schedules and Credit Support Annexes, and related regulatory matters under Title VII of Dodd-Frank, including the negotiation of Futures and Options Agreements and Cleared Derivatives Transactions Addenda with FCMs in connection with mandatory derivatives clearing under Dodd-Frank.

Nici has been recognized multiple times by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in banking and finance and has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America as a Banking and Finance Law “Lawyer of the Year” for 2024. Nici is also a member of the ESOP Association.

In addition to her finance practice, Nici is the immediate past chair of the Vorys Women's Network and, in 2019, was one of only 15 attorneys nationally to be included on the shortlist for the Chambers Gender Diversity Lawyer of the Year award.

Nici is Chairperson of Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX) and a Member of the Board of Trustees, for The Wexner Center Foundation.

Nici received her J.D. cum laude from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she was a member of the Moot Court Board, and her B.A. summa cum laude in economics from Capital University.