Hanna Robertson, Lending Coordinator
Champion Community Investment’s newest staff member is Hanna Robertson. Robertson, a Lending Coordinator, will partner with Robyn Russell as a go-to person for any of your lending needs and questions. She will assist you with information, applications, and business planning, and guide you through the loan process. She has been around the financial world for four years, where two of those four years she was doing the back-end processing work for a company processing UCC documents throughout the United States. Working with CCI will be her first time being involved in the front end business of lending and working with a not-for-profit company, but she is so excited to be able to learn this process with CCI and be able to help you with your lending needs!
Robertson started working in the financial world part time as a teller with Banterra Bank in 2019, later moving to Legence Bank in the same position full time. Due to Hanna’s husband’s job opportunity, she moved to Springfield, Illinois, where she took a position with Corporation Service Company (CSC) filling and processing UCC Financing Statements. During her time with CSC she also took on a training position and trained people in both the Springfield and Chicago offices and is very familiar with what goes on after you close on a loan. Her and her husband, Kolby, now reside with their son, Grayson, in Pope County, Illinois. Her desire to learn more about what it takes to lend money to small business owners to help them with their business startup or expansion needs is what brought her to CCI. Robertson’s initial thoughts about learning about CCI and the function they serve in the Southern Illinois region is that, “CCI does amazing work and everyone should know about it.”
Robyn Laur Russell, Executive Director
Champion Community Investments (CCI) is proud to announce the appointment of a new Executive Director, Robyn Laur Russell. Russell, a southern Illinois native, will represent the non-profit organization in promoting CCI and its programs, including offering business loans and technical assistance to advance business and job growth in our region. Serving CCI since its inception in 2002, Rex Duncan, Executive Director, has retired, and Jeff Ashauer, CFO/Loan Manager, is pursuing new opportunities.
Prior to joining Champion Community Investments, Russell worked 17 years at Southern Illinois University in the Office of Economic & Regional Development as the Director or Business Development & International Trade. She has consulted and trained thousands of business owner/entrepreneurs through the Illinois Small Business Development Center and the Entrepreneurship Center programs at SIU over this period of time. Russell is also a Certified Business Advisor and an International Trade Specialist from the Illinois Entrepreneurship & Small Business Growth Association, as well as a Certified Business Incubator Manager by the National Business Incubation Association. She is a graduate of the Delta Regional Authority Leadership Institute. Russell is a proud Saluki, a dual-degree graduate of Southern Illinois University in Journalism and Workforce Education & Development, and is Past President of the Du Quoin Chamber of Commerce.
In 2018, Russell became a Certified Business Intermediary and launched her own entrepreneurial consulting endeavor, Russell Business & Financial LLC, helping clients to buy and sell businesses. Additionally, Robyn has owned and operated a professional writing and resume building service company, My Resume Café, and a small, product-based business, Made in Southern Illinois, which focuses on compiling and promoting regional, mostly agriculture-based and artisan-crafted, southern Illinois products. Russell resides in Du Quoin with her husband, Leo, and her three daughters, Molly, Maya, and Malayna.