About Lendistry

Everett K. Sands leverages his 20+ years of experience in banking to change the game for underserved small business owners who need access to responsible capital to reach the next level. Mr. Sands has shared his recommendations before Congressional committees and at conferences hosted by FORTUNE, the National Urban League and several industry-related events. He has appeared as a subject matter expert on national business media, including CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg. When Mr. Sands saw the accelerating trend of capital becoming less accessible and more expensive for small businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans and rural-dwellers, he recruited an experienced team of fellow banking professionals and founded Lendistry. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Sands is an Advisory Board member of The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), and a Board member of The Center by Lendistry. 

Kyle Funn brings over 12 years of business experience to Lendistry, both as a corporate attorney and in-house operator. Most recently, Mr. Funn was a senior corporate associate in the Los Angeles office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., where he advised private companies and venture capital and private equity funds in a variety of corporate and securities law matters. Prior to that, he was a corporate associate at Cypress LLP, where he provided broad-based corporate representation to start-up and private growth companies and private equity firms in a variety of industries, including technology, healthcare, financial services, entertainment and media, and manufacturing. Mr. Funn received his undergraduate degree at Howard University and law degree at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Desta has more than 25 years of banking experience with large banks focusing on Risk Management. She is strategic and analytical with proven success in Credit Risk Modeling, Risk Management and Reporting, Allowance for Credit Losses (ACLs), Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL), Advanced Internal Ratings Based (AIRB) methodologies and rules and project management. Her recent experience includes Managing Director and Head of Reserve Methodology Analytics responsible for overseeing the ACLs, Credit Budget Forecast and Credit Policy SME for MUFG Union Bank. As Lendistry’s Chief Risk Officer, she is responsible overseeing the activities related to measuring, monitoring, managing, and mitigating internal and external risks. Leads Enterprise-wide Risk Management activities and serves as liaison with the applicable regulators and auditors with respect to the various aspects of risk.

Clark Huang has over 15 years of experience in the risk and analytics sector of the financial industry. His specialties include marketing and risk analytics, strategy development and optimization, strategic planning and execution, risk management, portfolio and life cycle management, talent management and team building. Prior to joining Lendistry, Mr. Huang served as Chief Credit Analytics Officer at Community Loans of America, VP of Global Risk & CRO of North America at DFC Global Corp., and SVP/Senior Director of Risk Exposure Management & Analytics at Citi. He holds a BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.

Kanthi Muthiah leads Lendistry’s product development and risk management functions with a focus on the fintech’s current and potential partnerships with large ecommerce platforms where small businesses are frequently merchants. He most recently served as Chief Product Officer at Funding Circle US, where he established the lender’s product strategy, developed its SBA lending product, and spearheaded a new prequalification process which optimized embedded partnerships. Prior to his role at Funding Circle US, Muthiah served as VP of Platforms at FICO, Senior Director, Global Chief Product Officer/Merchant Lending at PayPal, and Risk Sr. Manager at J.P. Morgan Chase, Co. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

Clark Wen leads Lendistry’s financial and capital raising strategy as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Lendistry, he served as Managing Director at Crestline Investors where he made private credit and preferred equity investments through Crestline’s opportunistic credit platform. In this role, he spearheaded Crestline’s specialty finance strategy, investing over $800 million to support financing businesses in rapid growth cycles, dislocated markets, or underserved consumer segments. Other experience includes serving as Associate Director for the Private Equity Group at Black Diamond Capital Management, and as an analyst at EY Corporate Finance. Clark received a B.S. in Business Management from the Stern School of Business of New York University and is a Certified Public Accountant.