Meet the Team
A boutique commercial finance company is only as good as the people structuring the deals. At LVRG, that means a team of career commercial lenders, bankers, and underwriters who have spent their lives inside this work, structuring credit facilities, underwriting complex transactions, and closing financing for established businesses.
Every member of this team sits on your side of the table. They analyze the full picture of a business before any lender sees it and build the structure that gets a complex deal approved at the right terms: conventional business loans, working capital lines of credit, SBA loans, asset-based lending, and owner-occupied commercial real estate financing, backed by deep relationships with the most active commercial lenders in Michigan and beyond. Senior expertise, institutional reach, and the personal attention of a firm that takes on a select number of clients and gives each one everything it has.
These are the people who structure and close the financing.
Charles M. Barr — Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Charles M. Barr founded LVRG and has spent two decades building it into one of Michigan's most respected boutique commercial finance companies. He has personally guided the financing behind billions in capital for Michigan businesses, earning a reputation among business owners, bankers, and referral partners as the person to call when a deal needs to get structured correctly and closed. Charles leads LVRG with a single conviction: that an established business deserves a capital partner who operates entirely on its side of the table, with the institutional relationships and the deal intelligence to make it matter. His full story is on the CEO of LVRG page.
Darlene Barbat — Chief Growth Officer
Darlene Barbat leads LVRG's growth and strategic initiatives, helping established business owners across Metro Detroit and beyond access the capital they need to scale. She began her career building deep relationships across Metro Detroit's business community, then spent eight years in mortgage banking, where she consistently ranked among the top 1% of loan officers in the nation and earned repeated recognition from the industry's largest lenders.
That combination of a relationship-first approach paired with a top-tier lending track record is what she brings to LVRG's clients every day. Darlene is also deeply connected to Metro Detroit's Chaldean business community and a regular presence at the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce, making her a trusted advisor to many family-owned and closely held businesses throughout the region. Business owners rely on her not only for her expertise, but for the genuine care she brings to every relationship.
Morgan Kennedy — Director of Client Relations
With 15 years at LVRG, Morgan Kennedy is one of the firm's most trusted advisors and a central figure in how clients experience working with LVRG. She guides business owners through every stage of a financing, from the first conversation through structuring, underwriting, and closing, ensuring each client receives the senior-level attention and clarity that complex commercial deals demand.
Morgan also works closely alongside Charles Barr on the firm's most involved transactions, helping coordinate the moving pieces of lender placement, underwriting, due diligence, and the third parties on every deal, so that financing closes cleanly and on time. Her command of commercial lending and her commitment to long-term relationships have made her a trusted resource to clients and colleagues alike.
Lilly Harper — Client Onboarding & Loan Processing Manager
Lilly Harper manages the critical early stages of every financing, ensuring each client moves from first conversation to underwriting smoothly and without friction. She oversees incoming files, gathers and organizes the financial documentation a commercial transaction requires, and packages each file to institutional standards before it advances to a lender.
It is precise, detail-driven work, and it is one of the reasons LVRG's deals move efficiently. By preparing every file completely and correctly from the outset, Lilly helps position each transaction for the fastest, cleanest path through underwriting, so business owners get to a closing without unnecessary delay.
Elizabeth Caldwell — Senior Commercial Finance Advisor
A 20-year veteran of commercial lending who honed her craft structuring middle-market credit facilities at a regional bank, Elizabeth brings that institutional rigor to a boutique setting, building tailored financing for growing companies on deals up to $25 million. She holds an MBA in Finance and is known for guiding borrowers through complex structures with a hands-on, relationship-first approach.
Jonathan Pierce — Commercial Real Estate Finance Advisor
With 15 years in commercial real estate financing and a background as a bank portfolio manager, Jonathan pairs big-institution underwriting discipline with the personalized attention of a boutique advisor. He helps clients secure construction and permanent financing across a range of property types, with a sharp eye for valuation and debt-service coverage that positions each deal for the best possible terms.
Katherine Bennett — Asset-Based Lending Advisor
Katherine brings more than a decade of asset-based lending expertise, built inside larger institutions, to a more personal, advisory-level practice. She works closely with growing companies to structure credit lines against receivables, inventory, and other collateral. A CPA by training, she combines rigorous financial analysis with the attentive service that helps clients fund working capital with confidence.
Andrew Collins — Senior Commercial Lending Advisor
A seasoned commercial banker with 18 years of institutional experience, Andrew applies that depth to a boutique practice, arranging customized credit facilities for established businesses and guiding them through even the most demanding financings. His traditional banking foundation and finance degree underpin a reputation for closing complex deals smoothly and on time.
Lauren Mitchell — SBA & Growth Capital Advisor
Lauren spent her early career as a credit analyst inside a traditional lending environment before moving into client-facing advisory. Today she guides small-to-mid-market companies through SBA loans, equipment financing, and growth capital. She is known for taking the time to understand each client's goals and translating them into financing that actually gets approved.
The Relationships Behind Every Deal
LVRG's network is built at the top. Over two decades, the firm has earned direct working relationships with the most active and respected commercial banks and lenders in the market, and not at the branch level. LVRG works directly with the CEOs, principals, and senior decision-makers at these institutions: the people with the authority to structure a deal, price it aggressively, and say yes.
That access is the entire difference. When a transaction calls for it, LVRG is not filing an application into a queue and waiting. It is placing a deal directly in front of the person who runs the institution, backed by twenty years of trust built one closing at a time. Relationships at that altitude are not bought or borrowed. They are earned over decades, and they are the reason LVRG delivers terms, structures, and certainty that businesses cannot reach on their own.
This is what a boutique firm with institutional relationships actually means. Not a wider list of lenders, but a higher level of access to the ones that matter, and the standing to bring a business straight to the top.
Work With the Team
Every engagement at LVRG starts with a conversation with a senior member of the team who listens first and structures second. If your business is ready to scale, acquire, expand, or own its building, this is where it starts.
Call LVRG directly: (855) 998-5874