TRUFUND FINANCIAL SERVICES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Executive Vice President
- Executive Vice President - Chief Operating Officer / Finance
Aisha Benson, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, is responsible for directing, managing, and integrating multi-disciplined team functions related to the delivery of lending services, tax credit deployment, and technical assistance programs across TruFund's footprint. She also oversees program design and implementation, resource partner selection and management, and the coordination of outreach and business development efforts for TruFund's programs. During her tenure, numerous multimillion-dollar capital access, guaranty, and grant programs have fallen under her direct management.
Prior to TruFund, Ms. Benson served as VP of Business Lending at Carver Federal Savings, and as VP of Commercial Lending at JP Morgan Chase. She has 24 years of experience deploying capital to low income communities, including acquisition, construction, and permanent finance projects. She has deployed $89 million in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) funding and $172 million of capital to low-income communities, including $72 million in loans to small businesses and nonprofits financed through TruFund's Small Business Loan Fund.
Based on her vast experience, Ms. Benson serves on several key industry boards, including the NMTC Coalition (Executive Committee member) and New York CDFI Coalition (founding member). She also serves on the advisory boards of the Community Development Entities of US Bank and Coastal Enterprises. Ms. Benson holds a B.A. in Psychology, Cum Laude from Columbia University and a certificate through a Citi/OFN-Sponsored Leadership Training Program for CDFI Executives at Wharton University.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President Managing Director - Structured Lending and Investments
Andre is responsible for the building and execution of TruFund's equity investment platform. He leads fund management, capital initiatives, relationship management, underwriting, and portfolio support. Andre is versed in debt, equity, and tax credit structures within the private and public sector focusing on real estate and small businesses.
Job Titles:
- Resource Development Manager
Job Titles:
- Vice President - Director of Strategy & Innovation
- Vice President Strategy and Innovation Market Manager - New York
- Vice President, Strategy and Innovation
As TruFund's Vice President, Strategy and Innovation, Brian Gurski oversees lending, technical assistance, and economic development initiatives for the New York and New Jersey markets. Mr. Gurski has extensive experience in small- and medium-size enterprise and economic and community development.
Prior to joining TruFund, Mr. Gurski was a management consultant with a firm he co-founded and led engagements in strategy, change management, and turnaround in predominantly the public and nonprofit sectors nationwide. A dedicated educator, he has trained hundreds of counselors serving diverse and low-income communities on financial literacy and empowerment in New York City and in more than 15 cities nationwide through programs supported by the NYC Office of Financial Empowerment, Cities for Financial Empowerment and Bloomberg Philanthropies. He also currently teaches strategic design and management at Parsons The New School for Design.
Mr. Gurski is a former regional director of the New York State Small Business Development Center at LaGuardia Community College/City University of New York (CUNY) where he helped launch the national pilot of the Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative. He has also served as a loan officer and lending team manager with another Community Development Financial Institution serving microenterprises in predominantly minority, new immigrant, and low-income communities in New York City.
Mr. Gurski completed an MBA with a concentration in finance from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY, a bachelor's degree from Lewis & Clark College, and executive training in value innovation from The Aresty Institute for Executive Education at The Wharton School.
Job Titles:
- Chief
- Senior Vice President
Job Titles:
- Deputy General Counsel
- Vice President
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Senior Vice President
Job Titles:
- Customer and Business Services - CSR I
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President - Credit and Compliance
Douglas Jackson - Chief Compliance Officer, EVP
Job Titles:
- Chief Compliance Officer
- Executive Vice President
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President - Loan Portfolio Program and Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- President
- Vice Chair
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Financial Executive
- President
- Ex - Officio, Non - Voting Member / President & CEO
- President - Chief Executive Officer
James H. Bason sets and refines the broad strategic direction for the organization and leads a highly collaborative team in the execution of all programs and services. Mr. Bason provides tactical oversight for all aspects of our programs, staffing, operations, monitoring and reporting of social impact outcomes.
James H. Bason is an experienced financial executive with a history of providing comprehensive lending management expertise. Prior to joining TruFund Financial, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Lending Officer at Carver Bancorp, a nationally recognized community banking organization where he served in various executive roles during his nine-year tenure. During this time, he successfully drove organizational growth to build the loan portfolio from $250 million to $675 million and developed and implemented policies and procedures to enhance financial controls and to improve lending and loan servicing operations.
Previously, Mr. Bason served in positions of increasing responsibility at The Bank of New York, formerly as Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Lending and Community Development. Prior to that, Mr. Bason was the Community Reinvestment Act Officer at Barclays Bank in New York.
He earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Oswego and a Banking Diploma in Finance from the American Institute of Banking. He recently completed a Citi/Opportunity Finance Network (OFN)-sponsored leadership training program for Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) executives at Wharton University. He completed his Formal Bank Credit Training Program at the Bank of New York.
Job Titles:
- Business Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Business Development Team
Job Titles:
- Consultant - Business Advisor
Job Titles:
- Business Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Director of Finance
- Vice President
- Vice President - Director of Finance
- Vice President, Director of Finance for Tru
Ken Harvey is Vice President, Director of Finance for TruFund Financial Services. In this role, he manages and directs all financial and accounting practices, procedures, and systems, and provides management and oversight of TruFund's liquidity, treasury functions, budgetary process, forecasting, and financial reporting and controls.
Prior to joining TruFund, he served as Assistant Manager of Corporate Accounting at Altria Corporate Services (previously Philip Morris). Mr. Harvey earned a bachelor's degree in Accounting and Economics from Queens College and a master's degree in Finance from Adelphi University.
Job Titles:
- Vice President Market Manager - Texas
As the Texas Market Manager, LaShaunda P. René manages and oversees all of TruFund's economic development activities in the Texas market.
LaShaunda has over 17 years professional experience working in the nonprofit and government sectors; in the areas of community and economic development as well as program development and management, business and resource development, training and facilitation, special events, strategic thought, and community engagement. Over the past three years LaShaunda has been focused on supporting small, rural, minority and women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs to recover from disaster and to become more resilient. LaShaunda has also received training in community development finance, fund development, facilitation, and racial equity.
She is a graduate of International Business and French Studies from Dillard University and of Public Administration from Walden University. LaShaunda is a Charter School Board Member of New Harmony High School, a Housing Nola Leadership Board and Lender's Roundtable Member, a Women's Leadership Academy Member and an Executive Mentor at Loyola University. She is also a member of the Houston Minority and Women Business Task Force.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Professional, Accounting & Audit Executive / Entrepreneur / New York, NY
Job Titles:
- Member of the Business Development Team
- Assistant Vice President - Business Development Officer New York / New Jersey
Job Titles:
- Director of Resource Development
- Vice President
- Vice President - Director of Development
Matthew Shapiro has served as TruFund's Vice President, Director of Resource Development since January 2020. Mr. Shapiro has more than 20 years of experience generating revenue and social and environmental impact in leading fundraising teams for United Way of New York City, New York Restoration Project, and Accion US Network and managing consumer brands such as Lysol, Electrasol, NaVy perfume, and Lender's bagels.
He has raised over $70 million by drawing on expertise in prospect research and management tools, aligning organization assets with funder needs, working with board members and staff to cultivate their contacts, and creating and presenting pitches. Mr. Shapiro has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.A. from Williams College.
Job Titles:
- Chief Credit Officer
- Vice President
- Commercial Credit Manager
- Credit
- Vice President - Chief Credit Officer
- Vice President, Credit Officer for Tru
Michael Vaugh is Vice President, Credit Officer for TruFund Financial Services, Inc. Mr. Vaugh is responsible for TruFund's credit risk management division, which includes underwriting and approval, credit administration, portfolio analytics, credit risk rating methodologies, counterparty risk, and problem loan management.
Mr. Vaugh is an experienced commercial credit manager with formal credit training from Omega Performance. Mr. Vaugh has management and underwriting experience with Commercial Real Estate, Small Business Lending, and C&I Lending. Over his 14 years of industry experience, he has worked with a variety of businesses such as Fortune 500 financial institutions, federal credit unions and nonprofit Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Mr. Vaugh holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Business Administration from East Stroudsburg University.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Corporate Communications & Marketing
- Managing Director of TruFund 's Southeast Region
- Vice President Managing Director - Southeast Region & Director of Corporate Communications
Ms. Carter Evans is an active community volunteer currently serving on the board of directors of Jubilee Impact Fund (Chicago, IL) and Center For Empowerment and Development (Atlanta, GA). Ms. Carter Evans holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Mass Communications-Public Relations from Xavier University of Louisiana and a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)-International Business Communication.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President - Program Operations and Compliance Manager
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President - Financial Planning and Analysis
Job Titles:
- Business Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Business Development Team
- Vice President - Director of Lending
- Vice President, National Director of Lending Originations
As Vice President, National Director of Lending Originations, Robert Benitez leads TruFund's team of business development officers (BDOs). With his direction and guidance, TruFund's BDOs are able to provide financial support and affordable, low-interest loans to small-business clients throughout our service areas.
Robert started his career working at the repo desk of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in the early 80s after completing his education at the New York Institute of Finance. After two years at DLJ, he went to work at a boutique investment banking firm where he raised capital for early-stage tech and biotech firms. It was at the investment banking firm that he learned about commodities. He transitioned into trading commodities at the firm-managing client funds and trading grains, metals, and financial derivatives. He eventually worked his way up to full equity partner.
He left the firm to start his own hedge fund that specialized in trading currencies for large wealthy families, primarily in Asia. His company was located at Tower II of the World Trade Center. Although he survived the attacks of 9/11, the company was lost. It was at that point that he transitioned into commercial lending where he has spent the last 20 years facilitating financing for businesses and real estate projects throughout the U.S. He has worked as a Director for JP Morgan Chase as well as several private funds.
Prior to coming to TruFund, Robert was the Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer for a private bank in New Jersey. When the bank was sold, at the end of 2020, Robert accepted an offer to work for TruFund, as the VP National Director of Lending Originations.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director / Raven Capital Management / New York, NY
Job Titles:
- Business Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Impact Investment Officer - Structured Lending & Investments
Job Titles:
- Member of the Business Development Team
- Assistant Vice President - Business Development Officer New York / New Jersey
Job Titles:
- Business Development Officer