Susan Seagren

Susan Seagren is President of AMCREF Community Capital, LLC, a New Orleans–based, mission-driven specialty finance firm that provides flexible, below-market-rate financing to manufacturing and industrial businesses creating jobs in underserved communities. She joined AMCREF in 2007 and has sourced, underwritten, and closed the majority of the firm's New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investments. AMCREF has received fourteen federal NMTC allocations totaling roughly $787.5 million and over $170 million in state-targeted NMTCs, and has facilitated approximately $1.5 billion in transactions.

Seagren brings more than 20 years of corporate and specialty finance experience spanning tax credit finance, venture capital/private equity, and investment banking. Before AMCREF, she worked at Silicon Valley Bank Alliant, raising private capital in the cleantech, technology, and healthcare sectors. Earlier in her career she worked at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in account management and at Hambrecht & Quist, the San Francisco investment bank specializing in the technology industry.

She holds a BS in Finance, awarded with highest honors, from the University of Colorado. Seagren is a regular presenter at industry events such as the Novogradac New Markets Tax Credit conferences, speaking on using NMTCs to accelerate sustainable economic development.

Note on the stub: AMCREF is a Community Development Entity deploying tax-credit-enhanced growth capital, not a seed-stage angel fund. The "Angel Investors / Seed Round" labels in the source stub appear to be misclassifications and are corrected above based on primary sources.

• Deploys NMTC-enhanced capital and non-conventional debt to operating manufacturing/industrial businesses, typically in the ~$2M–$10M per-deal range.
• Prioritizes companies that create quality jobs, environmental benefits, and economic opportunity in low-income and rural communities, especially across the Southern U.S.
• Favors tangible, job-creating projects — new or expanding plants, equipment, and facilities — over pure early-stage startups.
• Her own stated rationale during the COVID-era small-business fund: "Given many small businesses are being adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we consider it a particularly compelling time to utilize NMTC capital to quickly support small rural businesses."