ECDI Leadership

With more than 30 years of leadership and management experience, Alicia is Vice President and Regional Community Affairs Manager at U.S. Bank. Townsend is an accomplished CRA officer responsible for the state of Ohio and Indiana with an emphasis on the Cincinnati market. She collaborates with Community Leaders throughout Ohio and Indiana.

Darren is an Area President for FocusCFO, a national Fractional CFO and Exit Strategy Advisory Firm that services lower middle market businesses. He is a hands-on industry-leading exit advisor, C-level executive, and entrepreneur with a 35+ year track record of growing, scaling, buying, and selling businesses. Darren uses his deep experience to help owners visualize their business from the eyes of buyers so they can transform and grow their value. In the past decade, he has helped entrepreneurs put an additional $50 million in their pockets. He joined the ECDI board to offer his talent and considerable experience in business growth strategies. Darren received his BS in Accounting from Purdue University and MBA from The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business.

As a leader in the CDFI industry, Inna maintains a local and national network of partners, enabling ECDI to continually better its products and services to meet target market needs and fulfill its strategic goal of increasing loan volume to meet the needs of its underserved clients. With three decades of experience in economic and community development, Inna’s organizational responsibilities center on supporting ECDI’s strategic direction and planning, fundraising, fiscal oversight, and education of policy makers.

Jeffrey Buller joined Charter Communications in 2017 as a Vice President, working with corporate business units on financial operations, budgeting, as well as on special projects. Mr. Buller is responsible for the oversight and management of the Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund, an impact fund of Charter Communications focused on investing in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and small businesses in underserved markets across Charter’s 41-state service footprint. Prior to joining Charter, Mr. Buller spent 14 years with Spectrum Group Management, a NY-based hedge fund, investing in the distressed debt of communications, transportation and energy companies. He served as Managing Director and a Senior Analyst responsible for identifying investments, as well as all aspects of due diligence and portfolio management. Prior to this, Mr. Buller was the VP-Finance and Treasurer of Eureka Broadband, a venture capital backed internet service provider based in NY and LA. He also worked at GE Equity, the venture investing arm of GE Capital. He began his Wall Street career as an investment banking analyst at Salomon Brothers. Mr. Buller is a member of the Board of Directors of the Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI), an Ohio-based CDFI, and the Urban Empowerment Fund (UEF), the small business lending arm of the National Urban League. Mr. Buller holds a BS in Accounting from Binghamton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Jeff is an experienced business attorney focusing primarily on business transactions, business services, and mergers and acquisitions. Throughout his career, he has represented businesses of all sizes and negotiated numerous multimillion dollar sales and acquisitions of corporate entities. Jeff is also an experienced employment and labor law attorney representing businesses in all aspects of employment law. In addition to his legal services work, Jeff has been a volunteer with the Resurrecting Lives Foundation and has served as a Board Member and Chair of the Board with the Columbus Speech and Hearing Center.

John was President of JJH Consulting until he sold his business in September 2024. He now is Managing Director of Synexis Consulting and has more than three decades of proven business, nonprofit and higher education experience in providing leadership, developing relationships, and organizing and implementing organizational, business process and information technology change. John has helped organizations become best in class through increased service delivery, application of business and industry best practices, improved customer satisfaction, and effective utilization of resources.

With more than three decades of banking experience and currently with First Commonwealth Bank, Reggie is a proven team leader with a track record in leading and managing Community Development and CRA activities. As Vice President and Community Development Manager, Reggie has been a representative of the Central Ohio market for community and economic development activities and initiatives. Known for his relationships with the community, Reggie has maintained relationships with neighborhood groups, community agencies, not-for-profits, schools and government officials and entities.

Roddell is Senior Vice President, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for First Financial Bank in Cincinnati, OH. In his current role, Roddell has responsibility for the bank’s Corporate Responsibility functions including Community Development, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Supplier Diversity, and Environmental Social Governance (ESG) framework. Roddell also serves as Secretary for the First Financial Foundation, and is a staunch supporter of ECDI’s mission to assist every entrepreneur – regardless of where they came from, where they live, their gender or their lineage.

With three decades of management and legal services experience, Steve provides programmatic and legal oversight for ECDI, oversees all legal and regulatory matters, and steers the lawful development and implementation of ECDI’s business strategies. He leads the organization’s efforts to continually increase levels of support to entrepreneurs. Steve also devotes time to providing one-on-one support to ECDI clients.

With over two decades of community development and banking experience, Tara is a Vice President – Director of Community Development Strategies at Fifth Third Bank. In this role, her primary responsibilities include management and oversight of regional and national lending/investment programs that focus on utilizing innovative product solutions to reach underestimated communities and entrepreneurs. Tara has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Economics from Denison University, completed the McKinsey & Company Black Management Accelerator Program, received her Certification as an Economic Development Finance Professional from the National Development Council and completed the Citi Leadership Program through the Opportunity Finance Network. Tara is honored to provide ongoing support of the organization's mission of investing in people to create measurable and enduring social and economic change as an ECDI board member.

Todd has worked more than 35 years banking world, and currently is Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking Market Leader at CF Bank. Todd has decades of experience attracting and retaining profitable relationships and managing a team of commercial bankers. He brings that knowledge and passion to the ECDI board, and is committed to the organization's mission to assist new and small business owners.