CTCIC Staff

When you partner with CTCIC you receive all the benefits of working with our team of lending professionals; each staff member is uniquely qualified, through their education and experience, to perform in their position at the highest standards of the industry. We each bring our talents here because we enjoy working together to support the long term success of our borrowers and lending partners.

Mark Cousineau – President

After earning his Juris Doctorate at the University Of Connecticut School Of Law, Mark served as outside council to CTCIC as an associate with the law firm Hogan, Rini and Mednick, PC. He joined the staff here as Deputy Director and General Counsel in 1994 and became President of CTCIC in 1999. Mark is a member of both the Connecticut and Rhode Island bars. He is a past president and former member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Economic Development Association, receiving the group’s President’s Award in 2008 for achievement in the field of economic development. Mark was also named the 2006 Financial Service Champion by the CT District of the US Small Business Administration. Of his professional accomplishments, Mark is most proud of the team of highly skilled and motivated individuals he’s assembled at CTCIC to advance the company’s economic development mission.

Gary Toole – Vice President & Loan Officer

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Gary has been a loan officer with various banking institutions since 1971. Gary claims to have “hit every speed bump and pothole in the process.” His many years of industry experience and his tenacious, never quit, approach to lending, make him an excellent partner to both businesses and lenders. As a 504 Loan Officer since 2002, Gary can be counted on to fully support our partners through the SBA process, from loan application to closing.

Carolyn Welch – Vice President & Loan Officer

Carolyn joined us in 2008 and she brings more than 25 years of commercial lending and bank management experience to CTCIC. She received her formal credit training through JP Morgan Chase. As the driving force behind the MicroLoan program, and a loan officer for both the MicroLoan and 504 Loan Programs, Carolyn may seem like an overachiever, but her dedication to teamwork has been an enzyme for the growth of both programs. Throughout her career, Carolyn has been very active in civic affairs and has served in a number of volunteer leadership capacities for various organizations. She speaks at numerous venues around the state, sharing her passion for entrepreneurship and her expertise in lending.

Dennis Brown – VP of Business Counseling

Dennis brings over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience to CTCIC and he’s been supporting economic development through the MicroLoan Program at our company since 2000. A Marketing graduate from the University of Toledo, Dennis’ forte is matching entrepreneurs with the resources they need to succeed. He teaches business all over the state and works with other resource partners to create programs that aid small business. Dennis’ community involvement includes volunteering for the CCA shelters in New Haven since 1988, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of Beth-el Shelter in Milford. He was named SBA’s Financial Services Champion for Connecticut in 2005. Dennis is a veteran who gets special satisfaction from helping other veterans become successful entrepreneurs.

Buck Harris – VP of Business Counseling

Buck brings more than 25 years of mixed entrepreneurial and corporate management experience to CTCIC. Determined to jump start a career as a teacher, he returned to school full time in 2007 and came to us as an intern while working toward an MBA at Quinnipiac University. Now he satisfies his desire to teach by putting his experience and education to work counseling prospective entrepreneurs and helping them design successful business models. He is also an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac where he teaches Business Communications.

Jim Roche – Commercial Resources / Rhode Island Community Investment Corporation (RICIC)

Jim Roche is the principal and founder of Commercial Resources, a company that provides SBA 504 loan services for RICIC. He has over 20 years experience in banking, commercial real estate lending, credit analysis, and operations business consulting. During his 16 year banking career, Jim successfully started and managed commercial loan departments for several lending institutions throughout New England. Visit Commericial Resources website for more information.

Margie Slater – Loan Processor & Office Manager

Prior to joining CTCIC, Margie worked as Administrator/Paralegal with the law firm of Hogan, Rini & Mednick, P.C. for 15 years and as Real Estate Paralegal with the firm of Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C. With this extensive legal experience in commercial lending and real estate closings, Margie has the background to effectively manage our office and assist the Loan Officers in packaging, closing and servicing loans from any of our loan programs. We consider ourselves fortunate to have Margie managing our office as she has done much, since joining our firm in 2006, to promote a culture of teamwork within which this diverse group of professionals can thrive.

Debbie Maiorana – Loan Closing & Servicing Specialist

Debbie has over 22 years of diversified experience in both residential and commercial lending. To quote Deb she has “underwritten, processed, serviced, closed and managed” for the likes of American Residential Mortgage and Chase Mortgage services. Her 360 degrees of experience are extraordinarily important in support of providing a seamless process from loan approval to loan closing. She has the savvy to work with lawyers, the knowledge to streamline processes and the sensitivity to work with budding entrepreneurs as she helps build the economy in Connecticut – one entrepreneur at a time.

Diana Meyer – Credit Manager

Diana, who oversees all credit functions for CTCIC, received her formal credit training from NationsBank of Atlanta. Prior to joining our company, she was the East Coast Credit Manager for Debis Financial Services, a division of Daimler Chrysler Capital Services. She came to CTCIC in 2002 because she wanted a more personal experience with the projects she was analyzing. Diana, a skilled underwriter with both national and international level experience, brings a thoughtful balance to the underwriting process by giving careful consideration to the person behind the application. She underwrites for both the MicroLoan and the 504 Loan Programs.

Rosa G. Rubbo – Credit Analyst / Loan Servicing  

A multilingual financial professional, Rosa is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.  She brings over 25 years of successful experience in Financial Analysis and Assessment, Business Development and Technical Consulting.  Prior to joining CTCIC Rosa worked for BankBoston, Fleet, and Hartford Community Loan Fund, Inc where she was responsible for promoting small and large business loan programs.Rosa believes that “helping a small business understand the importance of credit in order to achieve its financial goals is the greatest reward a credit officer could get”.  Rosa works in underwriting and in loan servicing and is a member of the Microloan Team.

Mariana Calderon – Administrative Assistant

Dedication defines this hard working and newly appointed individual. Mariana is our full time Administrative Assistant and she is also a dual major at Southern Connecticut State University where she is earning a B.S. in Bilingual Elementary Education and a B.A. in Spanish. She brings a needed bilingual component to our office. She will eventually be working on her Master’s in Education, which is great news for us as she will be here to provide support for our office for a few more years before we lose her to her true passion; teaching.

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