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4.18.19 – Eric Foster
April 18, 2019 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Eric K. Foster is the Co-founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Rende Progress Capital (RPC), an emerging Michigan Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), and the only racial equity focused not-for-profit loan fund. RPC was founded to provide loans, investments and services to Excluded Entrepreneurs who face barriers to conventional small business financing because of racial bias and inequity.
Foster is responsible for the management of RPC and relationship cultivation with investor supporters, partners and customers. He also is responsible for ensuring that the loan consideration and deployment processes are administered through the proprietary tool of Financing Approval through Racial Equity (FARE)(sm) that he created. Foster is also responsible for the RPC portfolio being managed with financial due diligence as well as authentic, open and culturally competent relationships with customers.
Foster completed his course work from the University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy and Opportunity Finance Network for his Certificate in Community Development Finance in the areas of loan approval, CDFI Capitalization, Lending Policies, CAMEL Analysis and Portfolio Management.
As a businessman and entrepreneur, he is also founder and principal of Progress Strategies+, LLC, a Project Management company providing high-impact project management for corporate, business and organization clients that also specializes in Diversity & Inclusion, Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Policy & Advocacy. Foster is a graduate of Hope College, and is certified in project management from the Northwestern University School of Professional Studies and Advanced Intercultural Management from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.
Foster has worked in the public and private sectors for U.S. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, U.S. Congressman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, former Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington, D.C., and the Corporate Diversity Counseling Group of the law firm Holland & Knight among other institutions. He has received awards for his work from the West Michigan Urban League, Progressive Women’s Alliance, Corp! Magazine