Executive 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.

Vice President | Director of Finance

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.

Vice President | Chief Credit Officer

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.

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.

Vice President | Strategy and Innovation | Market Manager – New York

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.

Vice President | Managing Director – Southeast Region & Director of Corporate Communications

As the Managing Director of TruFund’s Southeast Region, Kim Carter Evans is responsible for providing strategic leadership and management of market operations, lending, program implementation, and economic development community strategies. Ms. Carter Evans leads the lending and program teams with an emphasis on growing the portfolio while enhancing the entrepreneurial education and support culture as well as market expansion. In addition, Ms. Carter Evans oversees all corporate communications and marketing functions across TruFund’s national footprint, building brand awareness and advancing TruFund’s strategic agenda.

With over 15 years of experience as a business and economic development professional having worked in both the government and nonprofit sector, Ms. Carter Evans brings extensive experience in disaster recovery program implementation; municipal economic development strategy consulting, federal fund administration to include Community Development Block Grant funds (CDBG); strategic partnership and relationship management. Ms. Carter Evans 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, Ms. Carter Evans served as senior business and municipal strategist.

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.

Vice President | Director of Resource 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.