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David Adame

Executive

PPP
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Person
Role
Executive
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

President and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) from 2015 until his resignation in October 2023. CPLC is the parent of Prestamos CDFI, a PPP lender of record for the Blueacorn channel. No charge or enforcement action names him.

Identity and role

David Adame led Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC), a Phoenix-based nonprofit founded in 1969, as President and CEO from 2015 until his departure in October 2023. CPLC is the parent of Prestamos CDFI, LLC, the lending arm that became Blueacorn's original PPP lender in 2020 and, in 2021, the largest PPP lender in the United States by number of loans. Prestamos had its own president.

Biography

Adame was born and raised in South Central Phoenix. Public biographies tie him to Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business; his LinkedIn page is more specific, listing a master's degree in business administration and management from W. P. Carey, 1981-1985, and an honorary University of Arizona doctorate in humane letters/public health.

His first job out of college, around 1985, was at CPLC as director of economic development. He then spent roughly three years as a program officer at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation's Phoenix office and served as senior deputy director of Fannie Mae's Arizona Partnership Office, helping implement a multi-year affordable-housing plan. From 2003 to 2008 he was vice president of Arizona operations for the affordable-housing developer McCormack Baron Salazar, overseeing its part in a HOPE VI redevelopment in Phoenix. His bios also list leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase. In 2008 he returned to CPLC as chief operating and financial officer, and in 2015 he became its eighth chief executive.

By 2022 the organization described itself as running more than 30 programs across five states with roughly 1,200 employees; by 2024 its successor was describing a budget above $218 million and more than 2,000 employees. Adame has served on boards including the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, the AARP Foundation, NALCAB, the Arizona-Mexico Commission, UnidosUS, the Community Reinvestment Fund. He served on Senator Mark Kelly's 2020 transition team and Governor-elect Katie Hobbs's 2022 transition team. In 2016 he was appointed to the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco's Affordable Housing Advisory Council.

The company and its PPP/EIDL role

In 2020 Prestamos made 935 PPP loans. By the House Select Subcommittee's accounting, Prestamos had issued about $50 million in loans across its entire prior history. In 2021, per the Marshall complaint and press figures, it funded roughly 494,415 loans worth about $7.68 billion: first in the nation by loan count and third by dollars, behind only JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. The average loan was around $15,500. Per Blueacorn's cash-flow statement as published by the Subcommittee, Prestamos paid Blueacorn more than $700 million in fees.

The Biden administration's CDFI priority window let community lenders keep originating PPP loans through the program's May 31, 2021 close. Prestamos held the legal underwriting duty and relied on Blueacorn's intake.

Adame's own role in the PPP program is not documented in the public record. The lending was run through Prestamos CDFI, whose president, Jose Martinez, also CPLC's executive vice president for economic development, is the executive publicly tied to the program. No public statement by Adame personally about the PPP lending has been located.

Their own relief

Because CPLC is a nonprofit, there is no public-company financial record comparable to the one Crossroads produced for Capital Plus. No separate PPP or EIDL loan to Adame personally is established in the public record. The fee revenue is documented at the Prestamos/CPLC level, from SBA-derived data.

No criminal charge, civil fraud judgment, or government enforcement action against David Adame or Prestamos arising from the PPP exists in the public record.

The SBA posture on Prestamos. The SBA's December 8, 2022 public statement named Prestamos among the eight lenders against which it had "launched a full investigation" following the House report. There is no public SBA closure letter or determination clearing Prestamos in the record. After Adame's departure, Prestamos's outside counsel told the Arizona Republic that "there never was an investigation of Prestamos," only a compliance review that concluded the lender "were cleared," and CPLC produced an SBA email stating "Prestamos remains a lender in good standing with SBA." The SBA's December 2022 statement used the words "full investigation."

The October 2023 resignation. CPLC announced the week of October 4, 2023 that Adame had "resigned … to pursue other opportunities," in a statement attributed to board chair Delma Herrera. By the Friday of that week the board's framing had shifted to having "accepted Adame's resignation upon the expiration of his existing contract." No source reports a termination, a firing, or a "for cause" action. The CFO, Alicia Nuñez, was named interim head and, in April 2024, became the permanent President and CEO.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Bloomberg lists him as "Former President/CEO, Chicanos Por La Causa." His LinkedIn page lists: Independent Owner, self-employed, from November 2023 to March 2024; it also lists his CPLC Action Fund chair role as ending in November 2023. CPLC, under Alicia Nuñez, continued, including a $65 million New Markets Tax Credits award to Prestamos announced the same week as Adame's exit.

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Original source documents and archived captures

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