A Lender that
Shares Your Vision
Building Long-Term Partnerships Focused on Growth
When you work with Encore Finance, you’re working with a team that brings an unbeatable track record of experience, integrity, and trust. Our main focus is on building long-term relationships with our borrowers and helping them grow their businesses over the coming years and decades. Where other lenders may see your loan as a transaction to add to their balance sheet, we see each and every loan as an opportunity to help your business grow and to strengthen our partnership through trust and flawless execution.
Being a true partner also means that we stand by our borrowers through thick and thin. Even when the lending environment is murky, we will work with you to figure out a viable financing solution that works for both parties. With Encore on your side, you will have a partner that you can count on to help you find the lending solutions you need to take your business as far as you want to go.
Meet the Encore Leadership
Elizabeth O’Brien
Beth O’Brien has over 30 years of experience in almost every aspect of the mortgage industry, as both a principal and an advisor. She has overseen more than $20 billion in transactions and was named in Housing Wire’s 2014 Women of Influence and 2018 Women of Influence, as well as Mortgage Professionals America’s 2016 and 2017 Elite Women in Mortgage and 2016 GlobeSt.com Real Estate Forum Women of Influence.
Beth previously founded Colony American Finance (now CoreVest), serving as CEO and growing the company into the nation’s premier private real estate lender. Before that, Beth was Executive Vice President at Auction.com, where she ran residential capital markets, and was President and Co-Founder of AuctionFinance.com, where she ran the financing strategy for the platform in addition to the private lender. Beth also held prior positions in RMBS trading and securitization at Citigroup and in Real Estate Private Equity at Goldman Sachs. Beth holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University Law Center.
Robert Cestari
Michael Minck
Michael Minck is the Chief Legal Officer at Encore Finance, where he leads the Legal Department in providing comprehensive legal support to the company’s various business units. He also oversees internal legal and litigation matters.
Michael joined Encore in 2024, bringing with him 20 years of experience in legal and general counsel roles within the lending sector, spanning both commercial and residential capacities. His expertise includes supervising legal and compliance obligations for retail origination platforms. He holds a J.D. from Whittier Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine.
Brad Chmura
Brad Chmura is a highly accomplished, recognized leader in sales and operations who has worked in leadership positions within the mortgage and real estate investment industries since 2000. Brad has a long track record of driving revenue, exceeding goals and motivating internal stakeholders and business partners. He also brings extensive knowledge in innovative technology, with an established history of promoting sustainable growth, data integrity and operational efficiency through the application of appropriate technological advancements.
Prior to joining Encore, Brad held leadership positions at several mortgage lending and real estate investment companies, including CoreVest, First American Mortgage Solutions, ClosingCorp and CoreLogic. Brad holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
John Prins
John Prins has over 10 years of real estate experience and serves as Encore’s Chief Client Officer. Prior to joining Encore, John held senior loan originations positions with other private lenders specializing in SFR and multifamily assets, where he closed over $2.5 billion of permanent, bridge and construction debt across over 400 transactions. John holds a BS in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
