Executive & Senior Management

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.

Senior Vice President | Director of New Markets Tax Credit

Edwards brings exceptional industry expertise, deep networks, and a passion to the role.   Edwards joins TruFund from Community First Lending, a CDFI based in Richmond, California serving the San Francisco Bay area, with over 30 years’ experience in community development finance and structured lending to include private equity and real estate finance.

Ms. Edwards is the founder of structured finance consultancy, The Monarch Group. In addition to raising capital, her firm structured tax-enhanced transactions on behalf of private firms, and was responsible for the management and deployment of capital on behalf of institutional clients. Headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, The Monarch Group served a national footprint, and raised over $230 million in funding for small businesses and real estate development projects totaling over $1 billion in total project cost.

She has a passion for community development, and has made a personal and professional commitment to helping underserved markets access capital. Ms. Edwards has had the opportunity to assist in developing new community-focused private equity funds across the country, and won city citations for her efforts. First, as Chief Investment Officer for ICA Fund Good Jobs, and later as President of BRIDGE Impact Capital, she has led community development financial institutions in supporting small business and affordable housing in the Bay Area.

Ms. Edwards, serial entrepreneur, formed her own community development entity, which was awarded $20 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) to co-invest with churches in South Los Angeles. Ms. Edwards also assisted National New Markets Fund with the management and deployment of their $25 million GO Zone NMTC allocation. Prior to that engagement, Ms. Edwards spent five years as a private equity fund-of-funds manager for Citigroup, where she directly invested over $100 million in urban real estate private equity funds, and managed a $335 million portfolio of community-targeted investments.

Ms. Edwards received her Master’s degree in Business Administration from Clark Atlanta University, with an emphasis in Finance. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Princeton University, and also completed University of Southern California’s certificate program in Real Estate Development. She was also in the inaugural class of the Dr. Norman C. Francis Leadership Institute.

Her board commitments include Friends of the Urban Forest, Dudley Ventures (CDE), NewCorp Capital (CDFI), where she is Treasurer, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation, where she was chair of the Audit Committee for three years.

Senior Vice President | Chief Financial Officer

Foster’s exceptional experience spans more than 30 years in financial management, business, leadership, and corporate strategy.  Prior to joining TruFund, Foster has served in multiple leadership roles such as CFO for Prestige Management, Abyssinian Development Corporation and Abyssinian Baptist Church, Vice President of Finance for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and as Senior Manager at KPMG.

As a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant, Foster holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Saint John’s University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Baruch College.

Senior Vice President | Director of Resource Development

Matthew Shapiro has served as TruFund’s Senior 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.

Senior Vice President | Chief Credit & Compliance Officer

Michael Vaugh is Senior Vice President and Chief Credit & Compliance 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.

Senior Vice President | Director of National Lending

As Senior Vice President, Director of National Lending, 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.

Senior Vice President | Director of National Operations

As Senior Vice President – Director of National Operations, Dr. Kim Carter Evans is responsible for providing strategic leadership and management of market operations, program implementation, and economic development community strategies. Kim leads the market operations and program teams in community engagement, strategic partnership and market expansion while enhancing the entrepreneurial education and support culture. In addition, Kim oversees all corporate communications and marketing functions across TruFund’s national footprint, building brand awareness and advancing TruFund’s strategic agenda.

With over 20 years of experience as a business and economic development professional having worked in both the government and nonprofit sector, Kim has extensive experience in development strategy consulting, federal fund administration to include Community Development Block Grant funds (CDBG); strategic partnership and relationship management. Kim joined TruFund in 2012 and was responsible for resource development, strategic partnerships, and program implementation in the Louisiana market.

Prior to joining TruFund, she served in roles of increasing responsibility with the State of Louisiana Department of Economic Development; City of New Orleans Department of Economic Development; United States Department of Commerce–Minority Business Development Agency and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation–Urban Entrepreneur Partnership. As a management and strategy consultant with CCMG Management, Kim served as senior business and municipal strategist.

Kim is an active community volunteer currently serving on the board of directors of Jubilee Impact Fund (Chicago, IL), IGNITE (Birmingham, AL – Board President) and Center For Empowerment and Development (Atlanta, GA).  Kim holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Mass Communications–Public Relations (Xavier University); a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)–International Business Communication (University of Phoenix) and Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship. (PhD) – (Trinity International University).

Senior Vice President | Strategy & Innovation

Brian Gurski is Senior Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at TruFund Financial Services. In his role, he oversees strategic initiatives including the launch of new programs, products, and services, the development of operating systems and processes for data management, capital deployment, and advisory services, and, the measurement and evaluation of impact.

Brian has 20+ years of experience in economic development, financial inclusion, and small business development both domestically and internationally. He has worked as a strategy and change management consultant in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. He has also served as a director of a New York State Small Business Development Center and a lending team manager for a CDFI serving predominantly new immigrant communities in New York City. Brian teaches social enterprise in the Executive Master of Public Administration Program at SIPA/Columbia University and strategy at Parsons The New School for Design.

Brian completed an MBA at 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.

Senior Vice President | Director of Structured Lending & Investments

Seth 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, focusing on investments in BIPOC developers of affordable housing. Seth is knowledgeable in equity and real asset investments. He has over a decade of experience, having underwritten hundreds of transactions and managed a $250 million real asset portfolio prior to joining TruFund. He is a CFA charter holder and graduated magna cum laude from the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business at the University of Pennsylvania.