SBA Hot Topic Tuesday – Kurt Chilcott to Serve as Board Chair of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance

March 30, 2021

Caity Roach
Editor

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday – Kurt Chilcott to Serve as Board Chair of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance

As of April 1, 2021, industry icon, Kurt Chilcott, who has served as CDC Small Business Finance’s President and CEO over the past 23 years, will transition to serve as Board Chair of both Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance, where he will continue to support his vision for advancing economic empowerment and equitable wealth creation in underserved communities nationwide. Capital Impact’s current President and Chief Executive Officer, Ellis Carr, will take over as CEO of both companies.

“Bringing together the broad capacities of CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners will allow us to impact communities in tremendous ways,” says Chilcott.  “Under Ellis’ leadership, we’ll be able to do things that nobody has ever done before, and really innovate and change the way things are done moving forward.” 

Capital Impact and CDC Small Business Finance announced the beginning of their combined efforts in August 2020 with the decision to launch three pilot projects in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. Lessons learned through that ongoing work have informed the broader strategy for aligning as a single team to advance high-touch solutions at scale and ensure that traditional and mainstream financial systems are equitably serving Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities.

As this strategy evolves, all current, ongoing work by CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners will remain unchanged. The organizations will continue to identify and address specific issues in disinvested communities at the state, county, and local levels. This includes targeted lending products, capacity-building programs, and investment capital strategically customized to address high-priority local issues.

“Harnessing our shared values, the power of CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners coming together is how well each organization’s business and unique skill sets complement the other,” says Carr. “Capital Impact Partners has a long track record of really understanding what’s needed in a community, and CDC Small Business Finance has a sustained and accomplished history of small business support in terms of lending and advising. Together we will be able to transform the system by rethinking how credit is evaluated and how capital flows into disinvested communities across the country.”