The day was full of interaction with students, says UCR Business Executive Fellow Hilda Kennedy, about her recent visit to campus. She was impressed. 

“What surprised me most is the fact that the students leaned in and asked really great questions, even during the lecture,” she says. “I was surprised with the questions from student leaders dealing with conflict and their interest in accountability.” 

As one of three 2024-2025 UCR School of Business Executive Fellows, Kennedy is visiting the School of Business throughout the academic year to mentor students and share her expertise in finance: In 2005, Kennedy founded AmPac Business Capital, which is headquartered in Ontario, California. 

As AmPac’s president, she leads the firm in its mission to provide loans, coaching, and training resources to help small businesses. 

“Small businesses are the engine in our economy. It was clear to me that if the city did not support small businesses, especially in these black- and brown-dominated communities, those businesses would be closed,” says Kennedy about the reasons she launched AmPac, which was the Small Business Administration’s first faith-based certified lender in the nation. 

AmPac has made more than $1 billion in loans and served more than 700 businesses over two decades. In a March 19, 2025, Forbes article, Kennedy weighed in on the importance of community development financial institutions (CDFIs), like AmPac, as President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reduce the federal CDFI Fund, which provides grants to lenders who service clients who have a hard time acquiring financing from traditional lenders. “Quite frankly, banks and traditional lenders rely on CDFIs to provide that support to local small businesses,” said Kennedy in the Forbes interview. 
 

Providing a Financial Hand Up 

Kennedy previously worked in the public sector and focused on making loans and financing available to those in the community who had difficulty finding funding. “We need to provide for our own destiny by creating our own loan program and underwriting guidelines to support the ‘life happens’ of business,” she says. 

“This was particularly important to me because I had a developer tell me that they only go to towns with ‘soccer moms,’ and our town was not good enough. I know the small businesses in the community want to be here, and they want to thrive; with a financial hand up, we could make a difference.” 

At the time, Kennedy was the mother of four small children, and she commuted four hours a day to work. It was unsustainable, she says. “I created AmPac because I loved supporting small businesses, but I could no longer do so with my local city.” 

A mentor, Bill Loewenstein—the late founder of Community Initiatives Development Corporation—provided pivotal guidance: “He suggested I start my own firm, and here we are 20 years later serving small businesses from cradle to legacy.” 
 

Strong Relationship with UCR 

Kennedy generously pays that guidance forward as a mentor to UCR business students. “When I was in college, I was exposed to companies and potential ‘job’ opportunities as an employee. I was not exposed to entrepreneurship to become a job maker,” she says. “I want students to understand the possibilities and the resources available for small business.” 

During her recent campus lecture, she described “how the Small Business Administration and the state of California define small business and why it matters to support these economic generators for our local, state, and national economies,” she says. 

Part of Kennedy’s relationship with UCR includes her daughter: Evelyn Kennedy is a UCR alumna—she earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies in 2021 and was “highly engaged in campus life,” says Hilda Kennedy. 

“Two other women I respect a great deal asked me to serve as an Executive Fellow,” she says of 2023-2024 Executive Fellow Bansree Parikh, president of the Inland Empire market for Bank of America, and UCR Bournes College of Engineering Director of Development Gwen Thibeaux. “After prayer, I believed I was called to serve, lead, and learn in this esteemed environment,” says Kennedy. 

When asked how business leaders may benefit from mentoring college students, she says: “You will learn as much as you give. Students make you sharper; they provoke your curiosity; and they make you think. 

“It would behoove a committed leader in the community to learn from and share with our future thought leaders: college students.” 

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Within the UCR School of Business Executive Fellows program, business leaders are selected annually to interact and share their considerable knowledge with students and faculty. This year, Kennedy is joined by Executive Fellows Rod McDermott, CEO and co-founder of McDermott + Bull Executive Search, and Jeff Paul, senior vice president and head of global sales for WSO2 technology company.