Bruce is a former California state politician with nearly four decades of legislative and government experience. He was appointed by President George W. Bush as the Region IX Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2001 to 2009. Since Bruce joined American Lending Center in 2011, he has led this non-bank lender to be one of the most productive and successful SBA 504 first loan lenders in the U.S.

John founded American Lending Center in June 2009. As a passionate small business advocate, John spearheaded the effort of the organization to build a successful lending practice primarily based on the SBA 504 program. In October 2017, John received the Coleman Report’s “SBA 504 Lender of the Year Award” for his outstanding leadership and contributions to small business community.

Stella Zhang is the Chief Operating Officer of American Lending Center Holdings Group and a cofounder of Sunstone Management, a private capital firm investing in private credit and early-stage technology startups. She graduated with an MBA from the University of California, Irvine, in 2005, and has been instrumental in driving ALC’s nationwide growth and success, with both companies recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S.

Queena Zhao, CFO of American Lending Center, has played a pivotal role in growing the company into one of the nation’s leading nonbank small business lenders. Under her leadership, ALC has driven job creation and economic development in rural communities across sectors like energy, agriculture, healthcare, and manufacturing. A founding partner of Sunstone Management, she also supports early-stage tech ventures through innovative public-private partnerships. Queena is committed to nonprofit education initiatives, cultural engagement, and volunteers with her daughter’s dance team.

Scott has been an advocate for small business owners for over 15 years. As Chief Lending Officer at American Lending Center, Scott plays an active role in managing the origination, underwriting and servicing of small business loans. This includes ALC’s extensive portfolio of over 28,000 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans across all 50 states.

As the founding member and partner of Blackhall, P.C., Justin joined American Lending Center in 2015. His experience in handling complex financing transactions, risk management, and lending compliance has made him a solid leader in small business lending industry. His efforts significantly streamlined the efficiency and improved the profitability of American Lending Center and turned it into a true pioneer of lending with a creative capital structure.

Scott is an economist with 15 years of experience working with consulting, research, and financial institutions. Scott joined American Lending Center in 2014, where he has overseen rapid growth of the loan portfolio while ensuring strict regulatory and lending requirements. Prior, Scott worked with the US Department of Homeland Security to modernize its EB-5 investment-for-immigration program. Scott is also the founding member of Wagner Consulting Group, an economic advisory firm.

Jim serves as the lender service provider for ALC assisting them with their government guaranteed lending. Jim is the president of sbfdoc.org, the Small Business Development Corporation of Orange County, which provides loan guarantees through the state of California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank. In 1984 Jim started doing SBA loans and now owns sbapro.com which helps banks and borrowers participate in the SBA 7(a) loan program. In 2015 Jim was recognized by the US Small Business Administration as their Financial Services Champion of the Year.