King is the president for Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives Micro Finance Group (CNIMFG), a non-for-profit, community development financial institution (CDFI) that works to provide lending capital up to $100,000 and business development support to small and underserved businesses throughout the metropolitan Chicago area. Since joining CNIMFG in 2014, King has played an integral role helping more than 150 neighborhood businesses gain access to over $3 million in capital to grow or keep their doors open, which has created hundreds of jobs and scores of new community amenities within Chicago's under-resourced neighborhoods.
King has also been responsible for CNIMFG’s role working to help reduce recidivism through the creation of Pathway to Enterprise for Returning Citizens (PERC), the innovative privately funded entrepreneurship training program for the formerly incarcerated. In conjunction with several agencies and organizations, CNIMFG provides loans for qualified individuals upon their successful completion of the multiphase training program designed to help launch their own business.
Under King's leadership, CNIMFG has become one of the leading small business lending organizations in the Midwest for its unparalleled support for growing small businesses, creating jobs and other economic opportunities that are essential to the well-being of the Chicago region and improving the quality of life for many people.
King, a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago with a major in finance, has nearly 20 years of experience in small business lending, credit underwriting, and portfolio managing. King’s career in lending included her work as a credit analyst, a commercial loan officer, and business banking officer at various community and national banks, including Pullman Bank, U.S. Bank, and Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan Association. During this time, she observed the capital challenges and barriers that many small and emerging businesses were faced with and decided that more was needed to empower and equip them with the tools necessary for business growth. This observation has fueled King’s passion for this industry.