NH&RA Annual Meeting & Symposium (2019)
Speakers
Mahesh Aiyer
Mahesh Aiyer
Mahesh Aiyer joined Citi Community Capital as a Director in 2015. Prior joining CCC, Mahesh was an Executive Vice President with CommunityBank of Texas, a $3 billion local Texas bank. Prior to joining CommunityBank of Texas, Mahesh held various positions with a number larger regional and national banks in the area of community development and affordable housing. Mahesh has originated over $2 billion of affordable housing debt in the past ten years. Mahesh received his BBA and MBA from the University of Houston. Additionally, Mahesh has been a TAAHP Board member since 2009 and lives in Sugar Land, Texas
Thom Amdur
Thom Amdur
Thom joined National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NH&RA) in 2004 and currently serves as its as Executive Vice-President and Executive Director. NH&RA is a national trade association and peer-network for affordable housing and tax credit developers and related professionals including: investors, lenders, public agencies and professional advisers. Thom directs the association’s day-to-day operations including legislative and regulatory advocacy, committee activities, conferences and events, publications, financial management and strategic planning.
Thom also serves as the Executive Director of the Tennessee Developers Council, a state-wide trade association for affordable housing developers and professionals active in Tennessee. In 2013 he spearheaded the launch of NH&RA's Preservation through Energy Efficiency Project, a major educational initiative supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Thom also serves on the Board of Directors for International Center for Appropriate & Sustainable Technology (iCAST) as well as the Advisory Board for its ResourceSmart program, a turn-key, cost-effective, green rehab provider for multifamily affordable and market-rate housing communities and nonprofit facilities.
Thom is a frequent speaker at affordable housing, sustainable development and tax credit industry events and has been published in a variety of industry journals including Tax Credit Advisor, Independent Banker, and the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credit Housing. Thom also serves as the Associate Publisher of Tax Credit Advisor, a monthly magazine for tax credit and affordable housing professionals and is an Executive Vice-President at Dworbell Inc., a boutique association management and communications firm in Washington, DC.
Thom was previously employed at a national lobbying firm focusing on financial services and technology issues. Prior to moving to Washington, Thom worked in media relations in the New York State Assembly and as a research assistant for New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen. Thom graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tufts University with a double major in Political Science and History.
Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson serves as Managing Director of Cohen-Esrey Development Group, the development unit for Cohen-Esrey, a mid-west based owner and operator of market rate and affordable multifamily housing. In his role, Tom oversees a growing team of development, design, and construction professionals dedicated to creating effective public-private partnerships focused on solving the most challenging housing challenges confronted by communities of all sizes. The team's primary financing tools include Section 42 and 47 of the IRS code involving low income and historic tax credits as well as Community Development Block Grants, Federal Home Loan Bank grants; and other debt, equity, and grant sources. CEDG is currently active in the states of Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Ben Applegate
Ben Applegate
A founding member of Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, Ben has been actively involved in the development and finance of affordable housing throughout his career. He has significant experience with various federal, state and local loan and grant programs utilized for the rehabilitation or new construction of multi-family housing, including housing for families, the elderly, the homeless and individuals with special needs.
Ben’s practice includes the representation of profit and non-profit developers, syndicators and direct investors involved with projects utilizing the syndication of low-income housing tax credits. He is a frequent speaker throughout the country on the structuring and negotiation of affordable housing development transactions. In 2009, Ben, along with Tom Thorne-Thomsen, was recognized by Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI) as one of BPI’s “40 Who’ve Made a Difference” for the people of the Chicago Region.
Chris Barnes
Chris Barnes
As Vice President and Senior Project Partner of Dominium, Chris Barnes is responsible for supervising multiple business units within the Development department, leading a team of staff and monitoring all aspects of the development and acquisition process.
Mr. Barnes is responsible for identifying new sites and projects, overseeing construction, determining project feasibility and lease-up dates on new developments, and managing the disposition of certain assets.
Since joining Dominium in 2000, Mr. Barnes has been involved with over 100 new construction, re-syndication and rehabilitation projects totaling more than 16,000 units in 15 states.
Casey Baumann
Casey Baumann
Casey Baumann is the Underwriting Manager in the Multifamily Finance section of Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS). Casey manages the underwriting staff who are responsible for the 9% and 4% LIHTCs, Tax Exempt Bond financing and multiple other State of Oregon and federal funding sources used for the construction and preservation of affordable multifamily housing. Prior to joining OHCS, Casey worked for a national FHA mortgage lender, focusing on multifamily and senior housing financing.
Casey also serves on the Transit-Oriented Development Steering Committee for the Portland Metropolitan area regional government, providing guidance, review and recommendations for TOD investments.
Dana Boole
Dana Boole
Created in 1992 to help finance the development of affordable rental housing in North Carolina, CAHEC today is a nonprofit equity provider operating in ten southeastern and mid Atlantic states. Since the company's founding, CAHEC has raised and committed $2 billion toward the development of 29,000 units of affordable housing. Its core business is to provide tax credit capital to a variety of low-income housing, preservation, community revitalization, and renewable energy projects.
Dana Boole is the President and CEO and has been with CAHEC since 2001. His management responsibilities include (i) guiding CAHEC’s overall strategy and operations, (ii) accountability for CAHEC’s growth, furtherance of its non-profit mission and oversight of its financial condition, and (iii) provision of the leadership, vision and resources necessary to maintain the company’s strategic competitive advantage. His fund development responsibilities include (i) managing the company’s activities for low income, historic, new markets, and renewable energy tax credit investing, (ii) coordinating efforts to include multi investor and private label funds, and (iii) sourcing investors through a combination direct originations and broker relationships.
Mr. Boole received his bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Vermont and his M.B.A. in finance and strategy from the F. W. Olin School of Business at Babson College. He:
• currently serves as a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council where he is (i) Chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory Council and (ii) Co-Chair of the Legislative and Public Policy subcommittee, which provides advice to the Board of Directors regarding ways in which the Bank can enhance the effectiveness of its housing finance and community lending mission.
• recently served as a Class B Director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and was a standing member of its Human Resources and (Chair) Audit Committees.
• recently served as President of National Association of State and Local Equity Funds which has worked since 1994 to promote the efficient management of equity funds under the auspices of the low-income housing and new market tax credit programs.
Jerome A. Breed
Jerome A. Breed
Jerry Breed focuses his practice on tax planning and the structuring of low-income housing tax credit, historic rehabilitation tax credit, new markets tax credit and renewable energy transactions.
Mr. Breed has closed many low-income housing, historic rehabilitation, new markets tax credit and renewable energy transactions that permit his clients to maximize tax benefits and investment returns, all within the framework of the client's business goals. He has substantial experience in the taxation of community development and new markets credit investments. Mr. Breed also has represented clients with respect to audits of tax credit investments.
Clients of Mr. Breed include syndicators and investors in low-income housing, historic rehabilitation, new markets tax credit and renewable energy transactions as well as developers of these credit projects. In the New Markets Tax Credits area, Mr. Breed represents the owners of qualified active low-income community businesses and community development entities. Mr. Breed also represents state housing authorities that allocate low-income housing tax credits. Frequently, these federal credits include state credits and other federal, state and local subsidies.
Mr. Breed has given presentations at numerous seminars and conferences on the low-income housing, historic rehabilitation, new markets tax credits and renewable energy credits including presentations on partnership taxation, and real estate tax issues. He also is author of a number of articles on tax credits and other federal income tax matters.
Geoffrey C. Brown
Geoffrey C. Brown
Geoffrey C. Brown joined USA Properties Fund in 1989 and became President and Chief Executive Officer of USA Properties Fund in 1997. USA Properties Fund develops, through construction or acquisition and rehabilitation, affordable housing for families and seniors in California and Nevada. In addition, its subsidiary, USA Multifamily Management, manages its own projects in a portfolio consisting of approximately 11,000 units.
Before joining USA in 1989, Mr. Brown was employed at Sanwa Bank California in the Real Estate Industries Division. During his tenure at Sanwa Bank as Vice President and Manager of the Pasadena Real Estate Office, he oversaw the construction lending activity for residential and commercial loans. Mr. Brown earned a BA in Economics from Willamette University and an MBA degree in Finance from the University of Washington. Mr. Brown is a licensed Real Estate Broker and Contractor in California and currently serves on the boards of California Housing Consortium, California Council of Affordable Housing, the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association and the National Multi Housing Council.
Campbell Brown
Campbell Brown
Campbell Brown is the Senior Vice President of Operations at Greystone Affordable Development, an affiliate of Greystone & Co., Inc. His primary focus is to work with Greystone’s clients to maximize the process and economics of preservation transactions, utilizing various financing tools such as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Tax-Exempt Bonds, RHS Direct-Loans, FNMA, FMAC, FHA, and USDA debt. Since joining Greystone in 2012, he has overseen or played various roles in preservation transactions consisting of 220 properties and over 9,200 units.
Rodger L. Brown, Jr.
Rodger L. Brown, Jr.
Rodger Brown, Managing Director for Real Estate Development, brings 30 years of experience producing affordable housing to his role and has been a part of the POAH organization since 2004. During his tenure at the organization he has participated in the growth of POAH’s portfolio to more than 10,000 units.
He is responsible for overseeing the activities of all real estate development staff, managing resource allocation, department budgets, establishing strategic initiatives and providing direction on the most complex real estate transactions. He directed the award winning, $42 million transformation of the United Front Homes into the Temple Landing neighborhood in downtown New Bedford. This innovative project involved the complete reconstruction of 5 new city blocks and public infrastructure while incorporating substantial rehabilitation and new construction of 173 units of affordable housing and a community center into a new neighborhood.
Rodger also led the team responsible for structuring and executing one of the largest single transactions in the history of MassHousing, the acquisition and rehabilitation of the 841 Boston/Cape Cod/Hudson portfolio. This $290 million transaction involved 6 properties, financed utilizing privately placed tax-exempt bonds, 4% low income housing tax credits and Massachusetts State Low Income Housing tax credits.
He has also directed POAH projects in several new geographies, including Washington, D.C., Maryland, Illinois and most notably Florida where he coordinated the acquisition and rehabilitation of a troubled 825-unit, 5 property portfolio and is working with local officials to develop public policies which promote the preservation of affordable housing.
Prior to joining POAH, Rodger operated a real estate consultancy providing project structuring and development consulting services to a range of for-profit, non-profit and governmental entities.
He is a graduate of Boston College and held a two-year HUD fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Urban Planning.
Nick Chitwood
Nick Chitwood
Nick is a Development Manager with LDG Development, LLC. He joined LDG in early 2015 and has worked in the industry (in varying capacities) for over 8 years. At LDG Nick is responsible for sourcing debt/equity capital for LDG’s projects, managing deal closings and assisting the team with corporate strategy. Nick holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance with a minor in International Business from the University of Kentucky and dual graduate degrees in Business/Finance from Indiana University-Southeast. He lives in Louisville, KY with his wife and three children.
Russ Condas
Russ Condas
Russ is a Developer with Dominium Development and Acquisition. Russ joined Dominium’s development team in 2011 and is responsible for managing multiple teams in sourcing, financing, acquiring and developing various forms of affordable multifamily rental housing throughout the United States. In 2016 Russ relocated from Dominium’s corporate office in Plymouth, MN to aid in the opening of a second development office in Denver, CO. Russ holds bachelor’s degrees in both Finance and Real estate from the University of San Diego as well as a master’s degree in Real Estate and Construction Management from the University of Denver.
Thomas R Davis
Thomas R Davis
Tom Davis is the Director of the Office of Recapitalization, within HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs. The Office of Recapitalization oversees the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, the Mark to Market (M2M) program, the Post-Mark to Market program (PM2M), the Senior Preservation Rental Assistance Contracts (SPRAC) program and other housing preservation programs as needed. In 2017, Tom and the RAD Team were selected as a finalist for the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (“Sammies”) in the Management Excellence category. Tom joined HUD in June 2015.
Immediately prior to joining HUD, Tom was Senior Vice President of Recap Real Estate Advisors, a Boston-based affordable housing consulting firm, where he led the firm’s affordable housing consulting practice. At Recap, Tom’s work on behalf of public, private and non-profit clients included structuring and project managing recapitalization transactions and strategic business planning with a focus on HUD’s RAD Program. Examples of his business strategy engagements include the development of a model to use “social impact bonds” to finance service enriched housing for elders, design of a credit enhancement product to benefit public housing authorities seeking to participate in the low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) market and development of a pilot program to reduce LIHTC transaction costs for small properties.
Tom began his career in private practice as an attorney at Morrison & Foerster, specializing in affordable housing, LIHTC, real estate and environmental issues. He subsequently joined The Community Builders, Inc., managing large multi-phase HOPE VI neighborhood revitalization efforts and spearheading a strategic redesign of The Community Builders’ resident services and economic development programs. Subsequent to The Community Builders, Tom joined Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc. (POAH) where he built the organization’s asset management systems to appropriately steward a multi-jurisdiction real estate portfolio.
Throughout his career, Tom has integrated his experience in transactional legal work, development project management, affordable housing finance, asset management, resident services and property operations in an effort to maximize the value of affordable housing – as homes and as a platform from which to offer resources which families can access to achieve their own success.
Tom has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Urban Edge Housing Corporation and served on the Board of the Boston Public Market Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University, his Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and his JD from the New York University School of Law.
Kelly DeJoy
Kelly DeJoy
Kelly DeJoy acts as Vice President of Finance at The Michaels Organization. Her responsibilities include assessing and determining the feasibility and optimal financing structure for proposed developments across the Michaels footprint as well as coordinating the loan closing process and negotiation of financing agreements. Kelly is also charged with managing the existing Michaels portfolio and will head up the refinance/reposition opportunities for an existing asset.
Prior to joining Michaels, Ms. DeJoy spent 15 years at TD Bank, North America, as Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Lending with a concentration in commercial and affordable finance. In her time at TD, Kelly originated and managed a portfolio of real estate well in excess of $500M in Pennsylvania, NJ, NY, Delaware, Florida, and Texas.
Kelly is a 2005 graduate of Temple University with a BBA in Finance. She is currently a member of ULI Philadelphia and a past ULI Philadelphia Advisory Board Member.
Ivy Dench-Carter
Ivy Dench-Carter
As Regional Vice President, Ivy is responsible for all phases of Pennrose’s development projects in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington D.C. Ivy brings nearly 30 years of management and real estate development experience to the role, with expertise in stand-alone affordable housing development deals, affordable housing preservation, HOPE VI development, complex mixed-income, mixed finance, and multi-phase redevelopment projects.
Ivy started her career at Pennrose Management Company in 1990 as a Property Manager for two properties before earning a promotion to Regional Property Manager, which gave her oversight of 21 affordable housing properties. In 1995, Ivy joined Pennrose Properties, expanding her career into the arena of affordable housing development.
Ivy currently serves as President of the Maryland Affordable Housing Commission and is on the Board of Directors of Anne Arundel County Affordable Housing Coalition. She is an active member of the community and a recent graduate of Leadership Maryland, an independent statewide program designed to expand the capacity of Maryland’s leaders. Ivy attended Spelman College in Atlanta, GA.
Jennifer Erixon
Jennifer Erixon
Jennifer Erixon, Senior Vice President of Originations for Alliant Capital, has been involved in affordable housing finance and development since 1997. Prior to joining Alliant, Ms. Erixon had leadership roles for two national LIHTC syndicators as well as the community lending division of a national bank. Ms. Erixon previously worked for Mercy Housing as the President of its 6-state Mountain Plains region and also established a national asset management platform for its $2 billion portfolio. Ms. Erixon was named a Young Leader by Affordable Housing Magazine and a recipient of the Denver Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.
Robert U. Fein
Robert U. Fein
Bob Fein is Principal and Chief Operating Officer for Red Stone Equity Partners, LLC and assists Mr. McClelland with the day-to-day operations of Red Stone Equity Partners’ investment activity. Bob works closely with outside counsel in overseeing the acquisition of LIHTC projects, is directly involved in all investor closings, and actively participates in various facets of asset management.
Bob has over 30 years of real estate experience and 20 years of LIHTC syndication experience and has participated in the acquisition and syndication of approximately $6 billion of tax credit equity. Prior to joining Red Stone, Bob served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of a national tax-credit syndication firm and prior to that, Bob practiced law for over 12 years and was a partner with Kahn Kleinman.
Bob is an active panelist at tax credit conferences and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association and is also serving on NHRA’s policy leadership committee. Bob is a member of the Steering Committee of the Housing Credit Group of the National Association of Home Builders, and is a member of the Illinois Housing Council. Bob also participates with the Housing Advisory Group and the American Bar Association’s Forum on Affordable Housing.
Helen Feinberg
Helen Feinberg
Helen Hough Feinberg serves as manager of RBC Capital Market’s Florida Municipal Finance office and Multifamily sector leader nationally. Ms. Feinberg has approximately 30 years’ experience in the affordable housing sector having served as underwriter or placement agent on a wide range of single family and multifamily transactions. Her client base includes state and local housing finance agencies, public housing authorities, developer and non-profits.
Ms. Feinberg graduated from Wake Forest University where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in both Economics and Spanish. She is a licensed General Securities Representative, Municipal Securities Principal and General Securities Principal. Ms. Feinberg currently serves as an advisory council member for the Florida Housing Coalition and a board member of the Coalition of Affordable Housing Providers. Ms. Feinberg was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to serve as Chair of the Affordable Housing Study Commission from 2004 through 2007 and previously served as a member of Fannie Mae’s National Advisory Council for a two year term.
David Fournier
David Fournier
David Fournier is founder and currently Executive Managing Director of ARA Newmark’s Affordable Housing Advisory division. A pioneer in the brokerage of affordable housing, David has been involved in affordable housing brokerage for 20+ years. Over this period, he has evaluated, consulted, or brokered over $10 billion in affordable housing properties nationally. This includes the sale of Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties, partnership interests, bond-financed communities and Section 8/HAP properties.
David holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Real Estate Finance from the University of New Orleans and earned the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute. He is a board member for the National Housing & Re¬habilitation Association, is actively involved with Housing Works Austin and continues to be a featured panelist for various affordable housing conferences.
John W. Gahan III
John W. Gahan III
For over 35 years, John has concentrated his practice in the development of real estate projects. While his clients have come from a broad range of diverse industries, most of John’s day-to-day representation involves housing. John’s clients have built, owned and/or managed hundreds of thousands of multi-family housing units, including housing for the men and women who serve in our armed forces. John has extensive experience in complicated financing structures including syndication of State and Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits, State and Federal Historic Credits, New Market Tax Credits, Brownfields Credits, energy-related credits and other state credits.
Working with owners, lenders investors, industry groups, as well as municipal, state, federal, governmental and regulatory agencies to obtain approvals and support for proposed developments, John’s skills and experience have earned him the reputation as a lawyer who “gets the deal done.”
John currently serves on the Board of Directors of Preservation Massachusetts and the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NH&RA). He assisted in drafting laws and regulations dealing with affordable housing properties to better facilitate the advancement of his clients’ projects, including the preservation law, enacted in 2009, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Chapter 40T – An Act Preserving Publicly-Assisted Affordable Housing). John continues to serve on the advisory committee which provides advice and recommendations relative to the implementation of Chapter 40T. He also serves, or has served, on the boards of a number of local community banks, hospitals and other social organizations.
Matt Gross
Matt Gross
Matt is an Executive at Lettire Construction and Partner at Urban Builders Collaborative. Currently, Matt is responsible for $700 million of development in all phases, consisting of 1,200 apartments. Previously he was a Vice President at Citibank underwriting, structuring and closing $400 million of debt to finance the new construction and rehabilitation of 1,500 affordable and mixed income apartments. Prior to Citibank, Matt was with The Richman Group, syndicating $500 million of tax credit equity, financing construction of over 4,500 apartments. He received a Master’s from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture and a Bachelor’s from NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Frank Hogan
Frank Hogan
Frank Hogan is a Senior Vice President at Dougherty & Company LLC. Mr. Hogan provides investment banking services to the firm’s state and local governmental, non-profit and corporate clients. He has over 25 years of experience serving as investment banker on financings for multifamily housing, senior housing, infrastructure and structured finance projects. These financings incorporate a variety of tax-exempt and taxable bond and loan structures that often incorporate FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan programs.
Mr. Hogan is a graduate of Carleton College and also received a Master of Management degree from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Alysse Hollis
Alysse Hollis
Alysse Hollis is a Director in the Cincinnati Office of Coats Rose, P. C. Alysse focuses her practice on the representation of clients in the development and financing of affordable housing. Her practice includes the structuring and documentation of complex public and private housing finance transactions involving taxable and tax-exempt obligations, federal low-income housing tax credits, state tax credits, and various federal and state subsidies. She routinely serves as bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel on such transactions. Alysse has worked with local governments, underwriters, mortgage bankers, affordable housing developers, nonprofits organizations, HUD officials, GSE’s, and banks across the country.
Alysse has experience with all of the major multifamily housing bond programs, structures and credit enhancements. These transactions include FHA mortgage insurance, GNMA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Home Loan Bank, letters of credit, bond insurance, direct purchase structures and rated/unenhanced transactions. She has experience structuring and documenting multi-layered transactions that include federal and state subsidies such as Section 8, Section 236, Section 202, federal low-income housing tax credits and state tax credits.
Alysse has more than a decade of experience in public finance serving as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, issuer’s counsel, trustee’s counsel, bank counsel, and developer’s counsel. In addition to her work on affordable housing transactions, she has represented public universities, nonprofit organizations, local governments, and private developers in connection with infrastructure, municipal finance, and economic development transactions.
Alysse has been named to the 2018 Best Lawyers in America® list, published by Woodward White Inc., in the area of public finance law.
Alysse received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Colorado State University and her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she served as symposium editor for the Hastings Women’s Law Journal.
Admitted
• Ohio, 2005
• Colorado, 2000
Education
• J.D., 2000, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
• B.A., 1994, Colorado State University
Affiliations
• American Bar Association
• National Housing & Rehabilitation Association
Joan Hoover
Joan Hoover
Joan Hoover is Executive Vice President and a principal of Conifer Realty, LLC where she is responsible for the overall performance of the development company managing a talented multidisciplinary team of development, legal and finance staff. Over the next few months, Ms. Hoover will be preparing for her transition to the role of President, as of July 1, 2019.
Prior to assuming responsibility for the development company, Ms. Hoover was responsible for the closing and due diligence functions of the company as well as equity and debt financing of Conifer’s affordable housing portfolio. Ms. Hoover is also involved in asset management, acquisition, and disposition of real estate and business interests.
From 2003 through 2006, Ms. Hoover served as Deputy Commissioner for Community Development at the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal and President of the New York State Housing Trust Fund where she managed New York State’s housing and community development programs. Previously, as the Controller of the Affordable Housing Division at Home Properties, she supervised the financial, development, disposition and investor relation functions for a portfolio of 10,000 units of affordable housing.
Ms. Hoover has over 25 years of experience in the financial management and development of affordable housing. A certified public accountant by training, Ms. Hoover has held a number of positions with a variety of prestigious financial consulting and real estate development firms where she gained extensive experience in the use of low-income housing credits for the development of affordable housing.
Ms. Hoover has been an active member of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing since 2001, where she served as Vice President. She currently serves as a member of the Community Leadership Council of PathStone Corporation and most recently served on the Housing Work Group for the Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative. Ms. Hoover is a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association and has served on the Developers Council Year 15 working group.
Steven Hydinger
Steven Hydinger
Steven earned a B.S. from the University of Alabama with a major in Finance and a minor in Spanish. Mr Hydinger started BREC Development, LLC in 2004 in conjunction with the Welden Field companies. Since that time, BREC has refinanced and renovated over 50 properties consisting of over 3,000 units in both the affordable and conventional markets. He leads acquisitions, dispositions and is involved in developing new conventional apartments focusing in the southeast.
Michael Jacobs
Michael Jacobs
Mike Jacobs is an SVP and head of National Equity Fund’s originations group. With more than 20 years’ experience, he most recently served as VP at The Alliant Company. Prior, he was the Midwest regional VP of acquisitions for NEF, where he worked for more than 11 years before returning in 2012. He was director of property and asset management at Chicago’s Heartland Housing from 1994-1999 and earlier acted as policy liaison for the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission.
He graduated with a B.S. from Eastern Michigan University and holds a M.S. of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan.
Darcy Jameson
Darcy Jameson
Darcy L. Jameson is a Senior Development Director at Beacon Communities Development, a Boston-based multi-family development and management company. Darcy has been involved in multi-family development since 1999 and is actively involved in affordable housing policy and development. Darcy joined Beacon in 2004 and has managed the permitting, design, closing, and construction of numerous complex developments. In addition, Darcy is overseeing the implementation of a new asset management business system to help Beacon manage its 18,000 unit portfolio. Prior to joining Beacon, Darcy served as the Director of Housing for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Before working in Cambridge, Darcy was an associate at Stockard Engler Brigham, a private consulting firm dedicated to housing development and neighborhood revitalization. Earlier in her career, Darcy worked in the field of international community development and education. Darcy holds a BA in environmental studies from the University of Vermont and an MA in public policy from Tufts University. Darcy is Co-Chair of the Program Oversight Committee for the Urban Land Institute’s Boston Chapter and serves on the national Multi-Family Council. When she’s not working, Darcy is usually traveling, skiing or fly fishing.
James Keefe
James Keefe
Jim Keefe is a principal at Trinity Financial, Inc., a New England based real estate development company with offices in Boston and New York. Having just celebrated 30 years of successful development, Trinity has specialized in ground-up construction and historic restoration in urban infill locations. The company has developed and manages 9,000 units of mixed income rental and for-sale housing and over 800,000 square feet of neighborhood office and retail. With $3 billion in total development, the company’s portfolio includes supportive housing, student housing, transit oriented development, HOPE VI/CNI public housing redevelopments, live/work space for artists, and most recently, Passive House technology. The company has won numerous local and national awards, with transformative development work in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. Prior to joining Trinity, Mr. Keefe was Vice President for Development at Renaissance Properties in Boston, and prior to that he was a Commercial Loan Officer for the Bank of Boston. He is a former member of the Boston Landmarks Commission, a founding member of the Codman Square Housing Development Corporation (now NDC), and has taught at Tufts University in the Urban and Environmental Policy Department. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Boston University.
David F. Leon
David F. Leon
David F. Leon is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Affordable Housing and Tax Credit Practice Group.
Leon holds an AV Preeminent® rating with the Martindale Hubbell publication, a rating denoting the highest accolade an attorney can receive for his “legal ability” and “adherence to professional standards of conduct, ethics, reliability and diligence.” In addition to affordable housing matters, Leon handles corporate law, municipal financing, EB-5 transactions, VA housing programs, state and local taxation, USDA loans, HUD financing, new market tax credit and historic tax credit transactions. Leon is also deeply involved in micro-finance and capital raise transactions, and works to create programs for clients who are seeking crowd source, Reg. A Plus, or other types of funding utilizing programs similar to the Florida Intrastate Crowdfunding Exemption.
Leon is a Certified Public Accountant. Before joining Broad and Cassel, Leon was a Senior Tax Associate with Coopers and Lybrand’s multi-state tax department in Orlando. Leon and his team close several hundred million dollars in tax credit and tax exempt financial transactions annually. He is a member of the USA Today Money Panel. Leon is a member of the Florida Bar. He is active in the community and is a staunch supporter of Sound of Grace and the Providence Theological Seminary. Leon has also served as an adjunct professor at Florida A&M University College of Law. He is married and has two daughters.
Timothy Leonhard
Timothy Leonhard
Managing Dircetor
Specialties: Multifamily, Debt & Investment Sales
Timothy Leonhard has been involved in the development and financing of affordable housing since 1998. To date Tim has closed more than $8.0 billion of affordable housing financing and investment sales in more than 40 states.
Tim has extensive experience with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD loan programs having financed properties that have combined a variety of subsidies including, federal low income tax credits, state low income tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, federal historic tax credits, state historic tax credits and various forms of subsidy financing from local, state, and federal sources such as IRP decoupling, Tax Increment Financing, various HUD community redevelopment funding sources, tax abatements, tax exemptions, and PILOTs. Additionally, Tim has leveraged this experience to help maximize the value of and has successfully participated in the acquisition financing and sale of several hundred affordable housing assets at or near the end of their initial compliance period.
Tim’s tenure includes managing director at MMA Financial, vice president at Glaser Financial Group, vice president at Charter Mac, and project manager at HRI Properties.
Michael Liu
Michael Liu
Michael Liu leads Miami-Dade County’s Public Housing and Community Development Dept. of Miami-Dade County, the sixth largest PHA in the country and Florida’s largest housing agency, with an annual budget of $500 million, oversight of over 50,000 units, and annual loan volume of $30 million. He has served as HUD Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing; US Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Small Community and Rural Development; SVP Dutko/Grayling; SVP FHLB of Chicago; VP Bank of America (FSB); and member of Hawaii’s State House and Senate. He is a graduate of Stanford and University of Hawaii’s Richardson School of Law.
Joseph Manning
Joseph Manning
Joe Manning is the Director of Project Management, managing a team responsible for the underwriting of affordable housing investments and community lending projects.
He joined USBCDC in 2008 as a Project Manager after working in affordable housing development, construction and property management. During his first four years with U.S. Bank, Joe closed direct investments in affordable housing communities totaling nearly $450 million. He specializes in utilizing various types of financing – including LIHTCs, HTCs, state tax credits, tax exempt bonds, and FHA and USDA financing – on complex affordable housing investments, public housing, and HUD Choice Neighborhood and Hope IV redevelopments.
Joe holds a M.B.A from St. Ambrose University and a B.S. in computer science from Truman State University. He is a member of the Affordable Housing Investors Council, Urban Land Institute Affordable and Workforce Housing Product Council, Urban Land Institute – St. Louis district and an active member of the affordable housing community.
Michael Molinari
Michael Molinari
Michael Molinari began his career in affordable housing in 2007. He holds the position of Senior Vice President with Southport Financial Services. During Michael’s tenure with Southport, the Southport east coast portfolio has grown by 8,500 units. Michael’s role within Southport is in the Florida Tax Credit Division where the team has executed on 50 LIHTC transactions since 2007. Michael’s development experience includes the use of 4% and 9% LIHTCs to rehabilitate HUD and non-HUD financed housing units in most cases with FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or private placement tax exempt debt structures.
Beth Mullen
Beth Mullen
Beth Mullen, CPA, is the National Director of the Firm’s Affordable Housing Industry Practice and a member of the Firm’s Tax Practice Executive Committee. She has more than 30 years of experience providing consulting, tax, and accounting services to real estate owners and developers. A significant portion of Beth’s time is devoted to helping clients to facilitate transactions by structuring public/private partnerships that are financed in part by Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the federal and state historic tax credit programs, the New Markets Tax Credit Program, and energy tax credits.
Beth teaches internal and external courses on these tax credits and has published articles in affordable housing and not-for-profit trade magazines. Her extensive knowledge of partnership tax law has been invaluable in resolving allocation, at-risk, exit tax, residual value, and other common partnership problems.
Beth is an industry spokesperson and is a frequently invited speaker at national and local industry trade conferences. She teaches internal and external courses on low-income, New Markets, and historic tax credits and has published articles in several trade magazines.
Nancy Muller
Nancy Muller
Nancy Muller is Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s Director of Policy and Special Programs. She manages research on and development of policy and program initiatives across a wide range of affordable housing issues, including preservation, asset management and supportive housing for special needs populations. Nancy works on program development, legislative issues, data management and oversees Florida Housing’s special programs related to supportive housing and capacity building for local governments and community based organizations. Most recently she led Florida Housing’s efforts to develop a strategic approach to recapitalize properties in the Corporation’s rental portfolio.
Kenneth Naylor
Kenneth Naylor
Kenneth Naylor, LEED AP, oversees the strategy and operations of Atlantic | Pacific Communities. Mr. Naylor has authored urban planning articles for a variety of regional and national publications, serves as a Director for Florida’s Coalition of Affordable Housing Providers, and serves one of the nation’s most challenged affordable housing markets – the Florida Keys – in his role as a member of the Monroe County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.
In 2011 he was named one of the four “Young Leaders” in the industry by Affordable Housing Finance magazine, and he was named Multifamily Executive magazine’s Rising Star of the Year.
Naylor has overseen affordable and market rate multifamily developments since 2000, when he graduated with Honors from the University of Miami.
Kent Neumann
Kent Neumann
Kent Neumann has been in the affordable housing and healthcare business for almost 20 years. Mr. Neumann has served as underwriter’s counsel, purchaser’s counsel, bond counsel, lender’s counsel and borrower’s counsel and has also advised issuers and other clients on the legal and financial aspects of a wide range of tax-exempt and taxable financings around the country. These include publicly offered and privately placed financings using credit enhancement provided by FHA, Ginnie Mae (GNMA), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Bank, municipal bond insurance, bank letters of credit, insurance company guaranties, as well as unrated and/or uncredit-enhanced bond deals. Many of these transactions have involved multiple-tier financings utilizing senior/subordinated and other complex structures designed to achieve optimal efficiency and savings. These include “50% test” and cash-collateralized bonds as well as loans from Rural Development and HUD / FHA under various programs including 515, 538, 202, 221, 223, 236, 242, Section 8, HOPE VI, etc.
Mr. Neumann has been one of the most innovating attorneys in his field creating and developing many of the financial structured used today in both housing and healthcare industries. Many of these structures have created millions of dollars in savings while simultaneously providing efficiency in the execution. In addition, Mr. Neumann has a unique level of experience in and knowledge of cashflow modeling, rating agency requirements, credit enhancement programs, financial structures and other critical variables affecting bond financings.
Mr. Neumann graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, San Diego, where he received a B.A. degree in Psychology in 1995. He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School in May of 1998 and is a member of both the California and the District of Columbia Bars. He is also a member of the American Bar Association and the National Association of Bond Lawyers.
R. Wade Norris
R. Wade Norris
R. Wade Norris is a partner at Norris George & Ostrow PLLC. Mr. Norris is widely recognized as one of the country’s leading experts in the field of multifamily housing bond finance. Mr. Norris has over four decades’ experience in over 3,500 tax-exempt multifamily housing and other bond financings totaling over five billion dollars, primarily as Underwriter’s or Purchaser’s Counsel or Special Bond Matters Counsel to the Borrower. Mr. Norris has often played a major role in developing new financing techniques in this area of finance. In the past 10 years, these include development of, among other products, the Country’s largest tax-exempt bond and loan bank private placement program; short-term cash-backed tax-exempt bonds used with FHA, RD and other low-rate taxable loans; the Freddie Tax-Exempt Loan or “TEL” structure; and, most recently, Fannie Mae’s M.TEBs tax-exempt monthly MBS pass-through structure. Mr. Norris’ paper entitled “Introduction to Tax Exempt Multifamily Housing Bonds” is widely regarded as the industry’s leading introductory article on tax exempt multifamily housing bond finance. Mr. Norris is a member of the Georgia State Bar and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Bar of the District of Columbia and the American College of Bond Counsel.
Ricky Novak
Ricky Novak
Ricky B. Novak serves as a Co-Managing Partner of the Strategic Group of
Companies (Strategic Group), an Atlanta-based firm built on a platform of delivering
tax efficiency through business solutions and private equity capital. As such, Mr. Novak
leads Strategic 1031 Exchange Advisors (SEA). SEA is a boutique advisory and qualified
intermediary firm specializing in the structuring and facilitation of Section 1031 taxdeferred
like-kind exchanges for real estate, including reverse, construction, non-safe harbor,
and international exchanges for many sophisticated real estate investors and developers.
Further, Mr. Novak leads Strategic Group affiliate Strategic Capital Partners (SCP), a
boutique investment bank focused on federal and state tax mitigation strategies. Mr. Novak's
expertise includes structuring Opportunity Zone investments, conservation easements,
historic preservation, low-income housing and entertainment tax credit transactions.
Mr. Novak is also active with Strategic Group affiliate, SageStone Partners, which
provides a platform for real estate private equity investment with other family
offices. Mr. Novak serves on the investment committees for all families of funds
managed by the Strategic Group including, the Strategic Real Estate Opportunity
Fund, the Strategic Investment Fund, and the Strategic Opportunity Zone Fund.
Mr. Novak is also a registered representative and General Securities Principal of
Bridge Capital Associates, Inc, a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority (FINRA) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).
Mr. Novak has spoken nationally on various real estate topics, and has served as
a guest lecturer at Emory University School of Law. His writings have been published
in a varying array of periodicals, including Commercial Investment Real Estate (the
magazine of the CCIM Institute), Shopping Center Business, and the Scotsman Guide.
Mr. Novak was honored by his legal peers by his selection as a Georgia
SuperLawyer® Rising Star, an honor bestowed upon only the top 2.5% of attorney’s
under 40 years old. His peers have also selected him as one of Georgia Trend Magazine’s
Legal Elite. Additionally, Mr. Novak was the recipient of both the Atlanta Bar
Association’s Distinguished Service Award and the Atlanta Bar Association Real Estate
Section’s Member of Distinction Award.
Mr. Novak obtained his undergraduate degree from the Georgia Institute of
Technology, graduating magna cum laude, majoring in International Affairs with
Certificates in International Business Management and Spanish. He is credited with
studying at both the European Union and NATO in Brussels, Belgium. Mr.
Novak received his Juris Doctorate from Emory University’s School of Law,
with a concentration in tax, real estate, and international law. He also
attended the Jagiellonian University School of Law in Krakow, Poland,
concentrating in Eastern and Central European business law.
At the beginning of his career, Mr. Novak joined Arthur Andersen’s Global Tax
practice, where he assisted clients with global tax strategies, corporate
restructurings, and mergers & acquisitions. He later joined Deloitte & Touche’s
Atlanta Real Estate Tax practice, where he furthered his tax expertise by
structuring complex real estate transactions for major national and international
real estate investors, REITs, and companies.
Mr. Novak lives in the metro Atlanta area with his wife, Lisa, and their son. He is an
active member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Buckhead Club and the Robb Report
Club. Mr. Novak has served on the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Bar Association
and is a past President of both the Atlanta Bar Association’s Real Estate Section
Board and the Real Estate Group of Atlanta’s Board of Directors. He and his family
continue to be active philanthropists through their private family foundation.
Milton Pratt, Jr.
Milton Pratt, Jr.
As Senior Vice President, Milton R. Pratt Jr. leads a team of developers involved in the revitalization of communities and the creation and preservation of affordable housing along the East coast from Philadelphia to Florida as well as several Gulf States, California, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prior to joining The Michaels Organization in 2005, Mr. Pratt served as the Region III Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was the Department’s principal liaison to Congressional members, mayors, city managers, state and local elected officials, and a wide cross section of HUD clients in the Mid-Atlantic region, for five states and the District of Columbia.
Mr. Pratt earned his BA in Public Administration with a concentration in Urban Planning from West Chester University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association and is a past officer of the MARC NAHRO chapter of The National Association of Housing and Rehabilitation Officials. He has also served on various other boards, including for the Philadelphia Chapters of the National Association of Home Builders, the Cheyney University Foundation and the Kappa Alpha Psi Alumni Fraternity. He was also a member of Neighborhoods Now and served on the Board of Trustees for West Chester University Foundation. He has received a Public Housing Managers Certification from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.
Charles Rhuda
Charles Rhuda
Charles A. Rhuda III, CPA, is a partner in the Boston, Mass. office of Novogradac & Company LLP. He has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate industry, predominately in tax advantaged real estate transactions. Mr. Rhuda works with tax credit developers, managers, syndicators and investors on structuring, financing and syndication of low-income and historic rehabilitation tax credits, in addition to providing traditional audit and tax services. He is a frequent speaker at regional and national seminars on topics in the affordable housing and historic tax credit industries and has published numerous articles in the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits. Mr. Rhuda graduated from Pace University with a Bachelors degree in public accounting. He is licensed as a CPA in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland.
Daniel Rosen
Daniel Rosen
Dan Rosen is a housing and community development lawyer. He has helped public, private, nonprofit and for-profit clients build, buy, preserve and finance affordable, mixed-income and mixed-use housing developments across the country. Dan specializes in LIHTC, public housing redevelopment and other HUD assistance programs. He has worked with these and numerous other Federal, state, local and private funding sources to finance innovative, high-impact projects. Dan was a founding partner of Klein Hornig in 2002, and previously served as Associate General Counsel at The Community Builders, Inc., a national nonprofit developer.
Binyamin Rosenbaum
Binyamin Rosenbaum
Ben Rosenbaum is a Senior Originator in the South Region at Bank of America. He covers the southeast portion of the country, from southern New Jersey down south to Florida. Ben has worked on many successful projects in the tax credit landscape utilizing various programs such as: LIHTC, HTC, and NMTC—and his current focus is LIHTC Equity. Ben has also worked on some of the largest and high-profile LIHTC transactions in recent years—such as the redevelopment of the public housing stock in the City of San Francisco (aka “San Francisco RAD”)—which closed in 2015 and 2016. Based out of the bank’s Fort Lauderdale office, Ben works with his colleagues in the Community Development Group to provide seamless, one-stop-shop financing solutions for his clients.
John B. Rucker III
John B. Rucker III
Mr. Rucker has been an investment banker since 1977. Mr. Rucker graduated from The University of Mississippi in 1973 and The University of Mississippi School of Law in 1976 and is a member of the Alabama and Mississippi Bar Association. Mr. Rucker was a founding partner of Merchant Capital, L.L.C. In January of 2015, Merchant Capital merged with Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated. He manages the firm’s affordable housing business and has a very active national practice. Through his leadership Stifel has become the leading affordable housing bond underwriter in the country, ranking number one nationally the last four years in the number of negotiated multi-family bond issues closed in the country.
Mr. Rucker is a regular speaker at various Affordable Housing conferences throughout the country. He has recently served on panels and spoken at conferences including The American Bar Association, Cohn Reznick, AHF Live, Novogradac and numerous State Housing Coalition functions, including Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. His relationships in the industry include private developers, 501(c) 3 corporations, issuers, tax-credit syndicators and many others who are actively engaged in affordable housing.
He has been a member of Fannie Mae’s Southeast Regional Housing Advisory Council and Fannie Mae’s National Housing Impact Advisory Council. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association. Mr. Rucker is also a registered municipal advisor.
In addition, Mr. Rucker is on the Board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and serves on the Bank’s Credit and Member Services, Governance and Compensation, and is Vice Chair of Housing and Community Investment Committee.
Edward Seiler
Edward Seiler
Edward Seiler, Ph.D. is the VP, Research and Economic Analysis of the Washington D.C.-based Dworbell, Inc., a trade association management firm providing public policy analysis and advocacy. In this capacity, Seiler will lead economic research for the organizations that Dworbell manages, including the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NH&RA), the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA), and the National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC).
Seiler was previously Chief Housing Economist and Director at Summit Consulting, an analytics firm with expertise in applied economics and mortgage finance. Prior to joining Summit, Dr. Seiler was Director of Economics at Fannie Mae, where he directed the development and implementation of analytical models used to guide credit loss management decisions. He has lectured graduate-level micro-econometrics at Johns Hopkins University and published several peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Seiler was previously employed as a manager at Bates White (an economics litigation consulting firm) and as a post-doctoral fellow at The Hebrew University.
He earned his Ph.D. in economics from The University of Chicago, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
Monica Hilton Sussman
Monica Hilton Sussman
Monica Hilton Sussman is a former deputy general counsel for HUD. She brings nearly 30 years of experience in affordable housing, Section 8 and FHA multifamily programs. Monica represents developers in all types of affordable housing transactions and continues her strong relationship with HUD headquarters and regionally.
Much of her work involves helping clients preserve their properties to bring more value to the owners and the tenants. Owners and purchasers of older HUD-assisted or insured properties turn to Monica for advice on transactional and regulatory matters.
Monica is in close contact with HUD officials as they work together to develop new policies to get deals done. These issues take her to Capitol Hill, state agencies and industry trade groups as well.
Speaking and networking at industry events and educating developers, investors, lenders and other industry participants is also a priority for Monica. She enjoys connecting with others who are passionate about this work and meeting new entrants to the market.
Pete TenEyck
Pete TenEyck
Pete TenEyck is a Principal with PGIM Real Estate Finance. In this role, he is responsible for originating and structuring multifamily loans through the company’s full range of lending products, including Fannie Mae; Freddie Mac; FHA; and the life company portfolio. Pete is located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Pete is an established professional with considerable experience in the commercial real estate finance industry. He has closed approximately $2 billion in debt and tax credit equity over his career. Prior to joining the company in 2014, Pete served as a director at Red Capital Markets LLC. His experience includes roles as director in Wachovia’s Tax Credit Investment Group and as vice president at NationsBank (now Bank of America).
Pete received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Pete is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association, and is a member of the Urban Land Institute. He is a former member of National Association of Home Builders' Housing Credit Group.
Evan Williams, CFA
Evan Williams, CFA
Evan Williams is a Senior Vice President, Originations in Capital One’s Multifamily Finance Group. He is based in Capital One’s New York office and focuses on affordable housing and the origination of Fannie Mae DUS, Freddie Mac Targeted Affordable Housing and FHA loans nationally.
Evan joined Capital One in January, 2017 from Prudential Mortgage Capital Company, where he worked on originating multifamily financing through agency loan programs. He was previously a vice president at Hunt Mortgage Group (formerly Centerline Capital Group) and has focused on originating loans for affordable housing since 2006.
He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the Affordable/Workforce Housing Council and is a CFA charterholder.
Evan graduated from Georgetown University with a BS in Economics.