BusinessUS has announced the hiring of 27-year SBA lending veteran Stephanie Bitters as Chief Credit Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Bitters joins veteran small business lenders Norris Lozano (CEO), Antonio “AZ” Zate, and Tara Johnson on the operational team of BusinessUS, a non-bank lender delivering SBA 7(a) loans to American small businesses that cannot get credit elsewhere.

“We are very fortunate to have an experienced small business lending professional of Stephanie Bitters’ stature join our lending team,” says Lozano. “She’s an experienced and intuitive operations officer, with deep knowledge of SBA lending gleaned from some of the country’s most successful SBA lenders. Stephanie will help us further develop the best-in-class systems we need to compete.”

Over her 27-year career, Bitters has 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 up to $3.5 million, with leading small business lenders Live Oak Banking Company (2nd largest originator of small business loans in the US), US Bancorp (5th largest US commercial bank), Temecula Valley Bancorp ($383 million in loans under her leadership in 2008), Transamerica, and GE Capital.