Charlie White has joined First Women’s Bank as a senior vice president business development officer.
July, describes itself as “the nation’s only bank with a strategic focus on supporting the women’s economy and closing the gender lending gap.”
White spent nearly seven years as a lender relations specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration before accepting President Donald Trump’s “deferred resignation” offer earlier this year. The Springfield branch office at 3330 Ginger Creek Drive was one of four federal offices locally that were closed as part of nationwide cuts by the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
“I saw the writing on the wall with the closing of the office, so I accepted the buyout,” White said. “Marianne Markowitz, the founder and CEO of First Women’s Bank, used to run the U.S. Small Business office out of Washington, D.C. And her lead business development guy is someone I used to work with in the SBA world. Together, they reached out to me.”
While First Women’s Bank is based out of Chicago, White said he will be based out of Jacksonville.
“I travel all over the Midwest – Kansas City, Indianapolis, Memphis,” he said. “And we have a particular interest in St. Louis, because Marianne was born and raised there.”
White said that he is able to utilize many of his previous contacts.
“I am reaching out to all of the lenders I used to work with through the Small Business Administration and letting them know if they have a project that is difficult for their particular institution, especially if it’s a woman-owned business, that’s something we’d be interested in taking a look at,” said White.
He said First Women’s Bank is able to provide financing for projects that aren’t always a good fit for smaller lending institutions.
“Most of the community banks love the $250,000 and under loans because there isn’t much risk,” he said. “Most of our loans are over $300,000, so we can handle more significant requests.”
