The Team

President  Dean Landis

Dean has been lending to small and mid sized businesses since joining United Credit Corporation in 1990. United Credit was founded by Dean’s Grandfather in 1937 and was subsequently managed by Dean’s Father and Uncle. He represents the third generation in his family to own and manage an independent finance company. Dean sold the family business to Finova Capital in 1998 and managed their Growth Capital division. In 2001, he started Entrepreneur Growth Capital by repurchasing some of the assets sold to Finova. Dean has been involved in every aspect of asset based lending (business development, operations, account and portfolio management, workouts, field exams, accounting and treasury). Using this knowledge, he started Credit Cash and has taken merchant financing to a new level of sophistication.

Prior to starting his lending career, Dean was an associate at Bear Stearns and an analyst at Merrill Lynch. Dean holds an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Duke University.

Senior Counsel  James Ricchiuti

James has extensive experience as a transactional attorney. James began his legal career in 1991 as a factoring attorney with Heller Financial. His responsibilities expanded to include providing legal services to a wide variety of business divisions, including corporate finance and equipment finance. In 1997 James joined Finova Capital as Group Counsel, supporting the factoring and business credit divisions, and became Associate General Counsel in 2000. Among his accomplishments were selling two divisions, restructuring many of Finova’s distressed loans and liquidating many of Finova’s assets. James joined Entrepreneur Growth Capital in 2003 and continues to provide legal services to the Company in all areas of business. James received his law degree from DePaul University School of Law.

Director of Sales  Matthew Arfin

For the past four years Matthew has been one of the top sales producers in the Credit Card lending industry. From 1999 to 2002 Matthew was Vice President in charge of business development and sales for a successful internet based business. Matthew’s innovative ideas propelled the internet company to be bought by a publicly traded company.

Portfolio Manager  Maria Espinel

Maria has spent her entire professional career in asset based lending. Maria began her career in ABL at Abrams & Company in 1973. Maria joined United Credit Corporation in 1975 and became a Vice President. She worked in many areas of the business, including operations and portfolio management. Maria transitioned to Finova Capital in 1999 as Vice President and senior portfolio manager. Maria joined Entrepreneur Growth Capital in 2002 as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Account Executive  Charles Bert

Charles has spent his entire professional career in commercial lending and has extensive experience in both operations management and client servicing. Charles began his career in 1971 with UM&M Credit Corp where his focus was on equipment financing and leasing. In 1981 Charles switched to asset based lending by joining Ambassador Factors as operations manager for asset based loans and senior account executive. Charles joined Entrepreneur Growth Capital as Vice President and Senior Account Executive.

Collection Manager  Fred Loayza

Fred has over fifteen years of experience working in financial institutions. Prior to joining Entrepreneur Growth Capital, Fred worked for the credit departments of CIT and HSBC Business Credit. He studied at Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz Bolivia as well as Baruch College in New York City.