Eric K. Foster is the Principal Founder, Chair and Managing Director of Rende Progress Capital (RPC), a Michigan Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), and the only racial equity focused loan fund in the nation. Foster founded RPC to provide loans, investments and services to Excluded Entrepreneurs of Color facing barriers to conventional small business financing because of racial bias and inequity.
Foster is responsible for RPC board governance, policy, operations and staff management, capitalization and relationship cultivation with investors, grantors, partners and customers. He also is responsible for ensuring that the loan consideration processes are administered through the proprietary tool he created, Financing Approval through Racial Equity (FARE)(sm). Foster works with lending staff to ensure that the RPC portfolio is managed with financial due diligence, social impact tracking, high-quality loan performance and culturally competent relationships with customers.
Foster completed CDFI certification 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, he is also founder and principal of Progress Strategies+, LLC, a Project Management company providing project management services 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.
His experience has also contributed to effective board service particularly in finance, business, and investing for economic and social impact. He is a board director of the Grand Rapids Economic Club and member of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation Investment Review Committee. Foster was previously Chair of the Meridian Township Corridor Improvement Authority. He has also served on boards with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, Varnum Law Diversity Advisory Council and former Vice Chair of the Grand Rapids Urban League Board of Directors and member of its Chief Executive Officer Search Committee.
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 Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams and the Corporate Diversity Counseling Group of the law firm Holland & Knight among other institutions. He has received awards for his work from the Grand Rapids Business Journal, West Michigan Urban League, Progressive Women’s Alliance, Corp! Magazine Diversity Award and Sustainability Champion from Grand Valley State University. He is also a former W.K. Kellogg Foundation Fellow of its prestigious inaugural Community Leadership Network cohort.