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. Townsend is passionate about assisting ECDI in meeting its strategic goal in our minority target market.

As Area President of FocusCFO, Darren provides CFO support to 500+ SMEs in the Midwest. Darren has more than 30 years of experience as a senior business leader and growth architect, helping catapult companies to the next level of profitability and performance. He joined the ECDI board in order to support underserved entrepreneurs, offering his talent and considerable experience in business growth strategies. Darren received his BS in Accounting from Purdue University and his 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.

James has more than two decades of relationship management and leadership experience in the financial industry. He currently works for Heartland Bank as Vice President, Commercial Relationship Manager and specializes in Commercial and Industrial Lending where he develops, manages and retains relationships with commercial banking clients in the greater Central Ohio Market. As an African American Male and entrepreneur, James is honored to have the opportunity to work with ECDI on their strategy to provide minorities with opportunities to gain access to capital.

With over 25 years of finance and management experience, Jeffrey Buller is a Vice President of Charter Communications Inc. He oversees the Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund, which invests in CDFIs and small businesses in underserved markets across Charter’s 41-state service footprint. In addition to his work on the Board of ECDI, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Urban Empowerment Fund and on the Board of Advisors for the National Asian American Coalition and the Financial Access Federal Credit Union. Jeffrey received his BS in Accounting from Binghamton University and his MBA from Columbus 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 work at Taft, Jeff volunteers with the Resurrecting Lives Foundation and Columbus Speech and Hearing.

John is a senior executive and President of JJH Consulting with 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.

John McCourt is the National Director of Field Management for Chase Business Banking, which provides deposit, credit and cash management services to small businesses. John is responsible for overseeing Business Banking’s seven U.S. divisions. Most recently, John was the head of Sales & Strategy Support in Business Banking. Over the last 35 years with Chase, John has held various Field, Client Experience and Operations roles supporting the Retail Bank. Before transitioning to the Business Banking in 2011, he was Chief Administrative Officer for Retail Operations and heavily involved in the merger conversions and systems integration for Washington Mutual, Bank of New York and Chase Manhattan. John holds a B.A. from SUNY Albany and an MBA from Hofstra University.

​Maggie is Senior Vice President and Business Banking Credit, SBA, and Operations Director for Huntington National Bank, a $180 billion-dollar regional bank based out of Columbus, Ohio. With a background in financial underwriting, commercial closing and due diligence, and SBA Program Eligibility, Maggie has built a career specializing in business lending and is very active as a small business advocate in the communities that Huntington serves. Maggie works closely with private and public segment leaders nationwide to communicate Huntington’s mission for small business. She is the business representative on the bank’s ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) Board, focusing on Huntington’s impact on our customers, colleagues, and community. Maggie earned her BSBA degree from Ohio Dominican University and is a graduate of the CBA Executive School of Banking at Furman University, SC.

Michelle Allen founded MMELO in 2015, a Columbus based, woman and minority owned business dedicated to all natural, modern artisanal confections, fine chocolates and pastries, including several options that are vegan or gluten-free. In May 2022, the Small Business Administration (SBA) named Michelle Allen the Small Business Person of the Year for the Central and Southern Ohio District. Allen is a 2021 graduate of SBA’s Emerging Leaders Executive Training program and has received support through organizations like ECDI Women’s Business Center of Central Ohio.

Ms. Spencer has 25+ years’ experience in banking and finance. She is currently a Senior Vice President at Advantage Capital, a growth equity firm founded in 1992, with over $3.6 billion AUM. The firm focuses on high growth and high wage business investing in communities where access to investment capital has historically been hard to find. As a member of the Investment team, Moniqua helps mid-sized companies access capital to facilitate growth and to create/retain jobs. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University and holds a BSBA with a major in marketing. She has continued studies through the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education series. She is committed to lending her expertise to carry out ECDI’s mission as a board member and chair of the loan committee.

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 Treasure 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 race.

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, with a focus on those within low-to-moderate-income communities and minority populations. 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.