Board of Directors and Executive Officers
Barry Sloane
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Sloane is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Newtek Bank. He is also the President, Chairman and CEO of NewtekOne. Prior to joining NewtekOne, Mr. Sloane was a Managing Director of Smith Barney, Inc. where he directed the Commercial and Residential Real Estate Securitization Unit and, prior to that, he was national sales manager for institutional mortgage and asset backed securities sales. Mr. Sloane was founder and President of Aegis Capital Markets, a consumer loan origination and securitization business. Additionally, he was Senior Vice President of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, where he was responsible for directing sales of mortgage-backed securities and was a senior mortgage security salesperson and trader for Bear Stearns, L.F. Rothschild, E.F. Hutton and Paine Webber.
Peter Downs
Chief Lending Officer
Mr. Downs is our Chief Lending Officer and Director and President of Newtek Small Business Finance. He joined NewtekOne in 2003 and has been the President of Newtek Small Business Finance and a member of the Risk committee for the company. He has had primary responsibility for the development of the company’s lending policies and procedures, portfolio and marketing, from its inception. In 2008, Mr. Downs took on the additional responsibility as the Chief Credit Officer of Newtek Business Credit, with the primary responsibility to grow and manage the company’s accounts receivable finance and management business. In addition he has been a member of the credit committee for each of the Company's Capcos. Prior to joining NewtekOne in 2003, Mr. Downs spent sixteen years in various small business lending roles within the banking industry. From 1990 to 2001, he was employed with European American Bank (“EAB”), where he held various positions including New Business Development Officer for Small Business Lending and Group Manager of Retail Small Business Lending which encompassed the underwriting and servicing of the bank’s small business loan portfolio. With EAB’s acquisition by Citibank, Mr. Downs was asked to run the bank’s SBA lending portfolio in New York, eventually named the National Director of SBA lending, coordinating the bank’s SBA underwriting and sales efforts in all Citibank markets across the country. In addition to his banking experience, he has been involved in several non-profit small business advisory boards, and has been a member of the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders (NAGGL) Regional Technical Issues Committee.
Thomas Cestare
Independent Director
Mr. Cestare is chief operating officer of Patriot Financial Partners and has over 30 years of experience in banking. Prior to joining Patriot, Mr. Cestare served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 2010-2020 at Beneficial Bancorp, a $6 billion bank based in Philadelphia. At Beneficial, Mr. Cestare was responsible for corporate finance and accounting, risk management, investor relations, capital deployment and optimization, corporate planning/budgeting/forecasting, profitability analysis, interest rate risk and liquidity management, and investor relations. Prior to Beneficial, Mr. Cestare was the Executive Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., a $92 billion Philadelphia bank. At Sovereign, Mr. Cestare was responsible for corporate accounting, management reporting, external financial reporting with regulatory agencies, including both Securities and Exchange Commission and Office of Thrift Supervision reporting, taxes, corporate planning/budgeting/forecasting and business line financial management. Prior to joining Sovereign in 2005, Cestare was a Partner with the public accounting firm of KPMG LLP focusing on banks and other financial service companies.
Sal Mulia
Independent Director
Mr. Mulia began his career in Finance in 1980 with General Electric’s Financial Services Division, GE Capital. In various assignments he was responsible for developing new businesses as well as creating innovative loan and lease products. In the capacity of lead banker, Mr. Mulia led the acquisition and syndication of $4.0 billion of loan/lease receivables, and was instrumental in developing the business plan for GE Capital’s entry into SBA lending. Since 1993 Sal has been a principal in RTM Financial Services Inc. (“RTM”), an investment and advisory firm dedicated to helping small businesses. In an advisory role, he created Pitney Bowes SBA Lending Unit, and was responsible for loan portfolio acquisitions. RTM is a principal and equity investor in leasing/lending companies and R.E. partnerships and maintains close relationships within the banking community. Mr Mulia also serves as a board member for the holding company, NewtekOne.
Ed Petrosky
Independent Director
Ed Petrosky is a seasoned Executive with over 40 years’ experience in financial services with money center (Chemical Bank credit trained), regional and community banks and thrifts. Over his career he has been a President /CEO of four Community banks and has 15 years’ experience as a Chief Credit and Chief Lending Officer, receiving multiple Regulatory approvals from Federal Regulators and State Banking Departments. He also managed lending units at Bankers Trust servicing large Real Estate developers and the small business lending activities of National Westminster Bank for all of Long Island and Queens NY. He has an in-depth knowledge of diverse areas of banking especially credit and risk management and internal audit. He has directed the creation of the entire infrastructure of banks, successfully positioned banks for sale/recapitalization, devised and implemented business development programs which resulted in loan, deposit and fee income growth and has directed the successful remediation of troubled institutions. He has served on five community bank boards. He has also served Newtek as its Chief Risk/Credit Officer. He possesses a M.S. Degree in Accounting.
Nicolas Young
President and Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Young comes from NewtekOne, the holding company of NewtekBank, where he held the title of Chief Risk Officer. He came to the holding company with over 20 years’ experience in credit risk management and mergers and acquisitions, and has held both managerial and executive roles in the banking industry throughout his career. Mr. Young is a career C-level credit officer who, prior to joining NewtekOne, was Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer for IBERIABANK. Earlier in his career, Mr. Young held the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer Americas for Banco Sabadell Group, based in Miami, Florida.
Michael A. Schwartz
Chief Legal Officer
Mr. Schwartz has been the Chief Compliance Officer of NewtekOne since October 2015, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of NewtekOne since January 2015, and a member of the Company’s executive committee since November 2014. Prior to that, Mr. Schwartz was Senior Counsel to the Company, representing the Company and its subsidiaries, with a focus on the origination, closing, sale, servicing and securitization of SBA loans to qualifying small businesses. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Schwartz spent twenty-two years in private practice specializing in complex litigation in the fields of securities (Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934), mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, commercial law, unfair employment practices, consumer protection and antitrust. Mr. Schwartz served on the Company’s Board of Directors from 2005 through 2009.
Richard J. Salute
CPA, Independent Director
A veteran accounting and audit executive, with over 40 years’ of experience, Mr. Salute will serve on the Board and as Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Salute served as a Managing Partner of the Long Island office of CohnReznick, where he was the Capital Markets and SEC Practice Director until his retirement in April of 2012. Additionally, during his tenure at CohnReznick, he was the engagement partner on NewtekOne’s account for approximately 5 years through 2010 Prior to CohnReznick, Mr. Salute spent nearly 30 years at Arthur Anderson, a global accounting firm, managing complex audits for medium- and large-sized public and private companies, and was responsible for providing his clients with strategic planning services as well as consultation in areas of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and process evaluation. Throughout his career, Mr. Salute has been the key accounting and finance professional in numerous initial public offerings and had an integral role in raising capital in the public markets for many of his clients. During his career, he has represented a multitude of publicly traded clients.
Gregory L. Zink
Independent Director
Mr. Zink is a Partner at Newport LLC, a national strategic advisory firm that specializes in helping owners and CEOs of lower middle market, privately held, growth stage companies accelerate growth and significantly improve the value of their businesses. Since 1998 Mr. Zink has been the principal of the Lowell Group, LLC, a management consulting firm which provides strategic, operational, marketing and financial consulting assistance to start-up, small and medium size businesses. From 1988 through 2018, Mr. Zink served as the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Director of NGJ Brand Solutions, a distributor of commercial fitness equipment and health and wellness solutions provider in Japan. Mr. Zink was also previously employed by Newtek as an Executive Vice President from 2000-2005, Touche Ross/Deloitte Consulting, AT&T, and is a graduate of the General Electric Financial Management Program. Mr. Zink graduated from Penn State University with a BS in Finance and with a MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Fernando Perez-Hickman
Independent Director
Mr. Perez-Hickman is an experienced executive with a proven track record in management, mergers & acquisitions, and value creation at financial services businesses. Mr. Perez-Hickman previously served as Vice Chairman, Director of Corporate Strategy and member of IBERIABANK’s Planning Group Committee from August 2017 until its merger with First Horizon Bank in July 2020. In this role, Mr. Perez-Hickman was responsible for Corporate Strategy and Mergers and Acquisitions, supervising the Consumer and Retail Banking Division, reporting to the CEO. From June 2007 to August 2017, Mr. Hickman served as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sabadell United Bank, and from June 1998 to June 2007 served as Managing Director of Santander Private Banking International. Mr. Perez-Hickman also serves as a board member for the holding company, NewtekOne.
