Penn Ritter
President and Chief Executive Officer
Penn Ritter, President & CEO. Penn Ritter, his father, George Ritter, and local attorney Thomas Kellogg, determined to provide senior long-term financing to entrepreneurs founded Business Lenders in 1994. Previously, as House Clerk to the Connecticut House of Representatives over a thirteen year period, Mr. Ritter served five House Speakers, including his brother Thomas, three governors and numerous Majority and Minority leaders, including Moira Lyons, the current House Speaker. He chaired the Connecticut Small Business Leaders for Clinton-Gore in 1996. He was instrumental in creating a National Franchise Lending Program at Business Lenders and plays a key role in supporting and promoting small business development both in Connecticut and around the country. Mr. Ritter serves as chairperson for the Connecticut Small Business Administration (SBA) Advisory Council, and also as Chair of the Connecticut SBA's Key to the Future, the SBA's non-profit LLC. He is a member of the Government Affairs Committee of the Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce and was a major player in bringing the U.S. Government's Welfare-to-Work program, through the SBA, to fruition in New England. He was invited by the SBA to testify on its New Markets Initiative. He was also invited to Washington by former Vice President Gore to speak on small business issues and by Jere Glover, SBA's Chief Counsel for Advocacy, to participate in a panel discussion on lending in enterprise zones. Recently, Mr. Ritter was named leadership council chairman of NFIB/Connecticut, the largest small-business advocacy group in Connecticut and nationwide. In that role he will help shape NFIB's state and national efforts on behalf of small-business owners. Mr. Ritter graduated from Loomis Chaffee and Lawrence University (Summa cum Laude) in Appleton, Wisconsin.
