Your Partners for Equitable Prosperity

As President and CEO, Amir Kirkwood leads the organization in its mission to promote an enhanced quality of life for the communities Locus serves. Amir has more than 20 years of banking and economic development finance experience. Prior to joining Locus, he served Opportunity Finance Network as Chief Investment and Network Officer. Amir was also responsible for management of all membership related operations including investment portfolio management, membership services, peer learning and programs and research. Amir helped the firm raise capital to support long term financing needs of the CDFI industry and was responsible for management of OFN’s $900 million of investments in CDFIs. He was a member of the Investment Committee and Credit Review Committee where he assisted the firm in risk and portfolio management.

Prior to OFN, Amir was First Vice President, Business Development where he was responsible for originations supporting Amalgamated Bank’s mission and impact banking goals. Internally, Amir worked across departments to develop Amalgamated Bank’s first Board approved credit policy for mission lending. Prior to Amalgamated Bank, Amir served as Partner at Next Street, playing various roles to support business development and client management, with a focus on financial services and financial intermediaries. Before Next Street, Amir was a Director in Citigroup’s Municipal Securities Division working as a relationship banker for Citi Community Capital. He managed origination with municipal agencies, CDFIs, intermediary lenders, Community Development Corporations, and nonprofits within target markets across the United States.

Amir is actively engaged in several volunteer activities that support community and economic development. He sits on several boards, including the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Hot Bread Kitchen, ROC USA, Pacific Community Ventures and the Community Fund Board for Habitat for Humanity New York.

Amir holds a B.A. in Political Science from Aurora University and completed graduate studies in economic policy management at Columbia University.

Mr. Cornett served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer from 2008 to 2015, and he now serves as CFO for Locus.

Prior to joining Locus, he was a Senior Manager at a public accounting and consulting firm, working almost exclusively with community banks ranging in assets size from $100 million to over $1 billion. His work with community banks included relationship management and supervision of audits of financial statements, SEC reporting, credit reviews, internal audit assistance, and compliance and operational consulting services.

He currently serves on the board of directors for Appalachian Community Capital Corporation and Appalachian Community Capital Development Foundation. Mr. Cornett has participated in the Center for Community Investment’s Connect Capital initiative working to help create Invest Appalachia, a social impact fund for Central Appalachia. He also serves as an advisor on the New River Valley Development Corporation’s revolving loan fund. In addition, he served on the Virginia Bankers Association’s CFO Committee and was named Virginia Business Magazine’s Small Nonprofit CFO of the year in 2014, and again in 2023.

Mr. Cornett received his B.A. in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Virginia’s College at Wise and is licensed as a CPA in Virginia.

Tammy Jackson has over 25 years of consulting, coaching, training design, and facilitation experience. Her areas of expertise include organizational assessment and development, strategic planning, leadership and supervisory skills, diversity awareness and management, conflict resolution and facilitating collaborative efforts among corporations, non-profit organizations and public agencies.

Before joining Locus, she was a Human Resources program manager at Virginia Commonwealth University where she was part of a seven-member HR Redesign team responsible for the complete overhaul of all aspects of employee benefits, compensation and performance management processes and systems. She is the owner of Positive Impact Consulting LLC a Human Resources, Training and Organizational Development firm in Richmond, Virginia.

She holds a B.S. in Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently a board member of the Memorial Foundation for Children. She has served on the Board of Governors for St. Christopher’s School and as a trustee for the Church Schools of the Diocese of Virginia. Ms. Jackson is the former chairperson of the Board of Directors for Communities in Schools of Richmond, and she has served as a board member for ART 180, and the Peter Paul Development Center.

Peter Taylor joined Locus in 2020 as Chief Technology Officer and took on the additional responsibilities of Chief Information Officer in 2022. In this role, Mr. Taylor is responsible for information technology and security supporting all Locus business lines and administrative functions.

Prior to joining Locus, Mr. Taylor served as the senior technology executive at Stafford County Public Schools, the Universal Service Administrative Company, and Henrico County Public Schools, and he held management roles at Federal Reserve National IT, Capital One, and the University of Florida’s College of Pharmacy. With over thirty years working in information technology, Mr. Taylor has led IT operations, application development, information security, and enterprise architecture in public, corporate, and non-profit settings.

Mr. Taylor graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Geography and the University of Virginia with a master’s degree in Management of Information Technology.

Caroline Nowery has more than 18 years of experience in fund development. Her previous experience in the organization includes program development and evaluation, leading our B-Corp certification, overseeing relationship with the CDFI fund including all compliance reporting as well as maintaining certification of our CDFI status on an annual basis. Most recently Ms. Nowery led the Investor Relations team where she was responsible for fund development and oversight of investments into Locus including public, private and philanthropic. Prior to joining Locus, Ms. Nowery was the Director of the Women’s Business Center in Richmond fostering entrepreneurship for women and minority owned businesses. Currently, Ms. Nowery oversees External Affairs for Locus. In this role, Ms. Nowery is responsible for building and executing the organization’s brand, marketing, and communications. Her role also oversees strategic private and public partnerships to further the mission of Locus. Ms Nowery also oversees measurement and reporting of our overall social impact in the communities we serve.

Angela Zenon is Chief Growth & Strategy Officer of Locus. Angela brings an extensive background in banking, community development finance, and entrepreneurship. Her career has included CDFI leadership positions at the National Development Council and Carver Federal Savings Bank.

Angela has a proven track record of not only identifying the key services and businesses that result in a region’s economic growth, but in nurturing those businesses. She has completed over $100 million of various equity and debt transactions including lending to small businesses and small business loan funds, lending to funds utilizing New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC), and investing in private equity and real estate funds.

Angels most recently led Impact Investing for The National Development Council (NDC) and prior served as a Vice President and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Officer for Carver Federal Savings Bank. Prior to joining Carver, Angela was an Assistant Vice President in the Merrill Lynch Community Development Company where she focused on the execution of deal underwritings and assisted in managing a portfolio of more than $400 million in loans and equity investments.

Prior to her roles in finance, Ms. Zenon had a distinguished career in Engineering and Enterprise Sales in the telecom industry at Nortel Networks. She led cross-functional teams and closed $360 million on strategic proposals for new and existing clients over six years. She was the Lead Engineer and an intricate part of a deal team that closed a single $100 million contract resulting in her winning the Nortel Pinnacle Program General Manager Award, the highest honor in the company at that time.

Angela currently serves on the Carver Community Development Corporation Advisory Board and previously served on The Reinvestment Fund’s NMTC Advisory Board, and others. Outside of work, Angela is active in her local community and serves in volunteer DEI leadership roles at The Elisabeth Morrow School in New Jersey as well as managing her son’s baseball team along with her husband. Angela is a 30-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has served as the Manhattan Chapter President providing scholarship and programs to women and girls in underserved New York City neighborhoods. Angela earned an MBA in Finance and Real Estate from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.