BusinessUS announced the hiring 27-year SBA lending veteran Stephanie Bitters as chief credit officer and COO. Ms. Bitters joins veteran small business lenders Norris Lozano, CEO; Antonio “AZ” Zate, managing director, SBA Lending; and Tara Johnson, chief legal officer on the operational team.

“We are extremely fortunate to have an experienced small business lending professional of Stephanie Bitters’ stature join our lending team,” says Lozano. “Her innate leadership, coupled with deep experience with some of the country’s most successful SBA lenders, will help us further develop the best-in-class systems we need to compete.”

Over her 27-year career, Bitters developed expertise in all operational aspects of SBA lending, including loan origination, credit, closing, servicing and liquidation processes. She has held executive roles and lending authority of up to $3.5 million with leading small business lenders such as Live Oak Banking Company, US Bancorp, Temecula Valley Bancorp, Transamerica and GE Capital.

BusinessUS is a non-bank lender delivering SBA 7(a) loans to American small businesses that cannot get credit elsewhere.