Summit on Affordable Housing Market Trends & Innovations (2018)

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.

Peter Bell

Peter Bell is President and CEO of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association, a 46 year old organization of real estate developers, lenders, equity investors, attorneys, accountants, nonprofit and public officials who are involved in the development, financing and operation of affordable housing under various federal, state and local housing programs. Mr. Bell has served as NH&RA's President and CEO since 1976. Mr. Bell is the owner and publisher of Tax Credit Advisor, a monthly magazine focused on real estate development utilizing various federal tax credits, including the low income housing tax credit, historic rehabilitation tax credit and the New Markets Tax Credit. Mr. Bell is also executive director of the Telluride Society for Jazz, a Colorado nonprofit organization that hosts the Telluride Jazz Festival, August 4-6 in 2017.

Roger Berliner

Before joining the Montgomery County Council in 2006, Roger served as:
• Legislative Director for Howard Metzenbaum;
• Senior Policy Advisor for Congressman Henry Waxman;
• Legislative staff to the California State Assembly;
• Director of Congressional Liaison for a federal agency during the Carter Administration;
• Legal Counsel to the largest county in the country, Los Angeles County.

Roger started a small business, build a law firm that gained national recognition in the field of energy and consumer protection. Roger then became a partner at Manatt,Phelps & Phillips LLP before elected to the Montgomery County Council where he has worked on a host of affordable housing issues.

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.

Catherine Califano

Catherine Califano serves as the First Deputy Director for the Department of Planning and Development. The City’s Department of Planning and Development was newly created to combine and align the planning, policy, program and development functions of the city. Her responsibilities include coordinating with key personnel in identifying, measuring and assessing departmental performance goals and metrics; overseeing support functions of the Department; working with other governmental agencies and partner stakeholders around key legislative initiatives; identifying and securing additional resources to attract and promote development within the City.

Paul Connolly

Paul Connolly is an Executive Vice President of R4 Capital responsible for acquiring LIHTC properties in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest for the firm. Before joining R4, Paul was Vice President of Acquisitions at PNC Real Estate. Prior to that, he was an acquisitions officer with National Equity Fund. Paul earned a BS in Economics and East Asian studies from New York University and an MA in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kelan Craig

Kelan Craig is the Director Planning, Preservation and Development (PP&D) at the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), leading administration of the state’s low-income housing tax credit program, multifamily bond program and several gap financing programs. Prior to joining OHFA as Business and Project Administration Manager, he served as a Community Development Analyst at the Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA), working on compliance for several federal programs, including CDBG, HOME, CHIP, ESG, HOPWA, etc. Kelan also served as Housing Preservation Coordinator at the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO), undertaking housing preservation program planning, implementation and evaluation as part of the Ohio Preservation Compact, a collaborative effort to preserve thousands of affordable housing units across the state. Before moving to Columbus, Kelan worked as a housing specialist at Freedom House, a homeless veteran's shelter in Portage County, Ohio and for the Portage County Regional Planning Commission. He completed two years of AmeriCorps service working closely with individuals served by the Portage County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Kelan earned a dual degree in Political Science and Economics from Kent State University and also holds Masters Degrees from Ohio State University in City and Regional Planning (MCRP) and Public Policy and Management (MPPM).

Neal Drobenare

Neal Drobenare joined The Foundation in 2010. He is responsible for acquisitions. During his time at The Foundation, Mr. Drobenare been involved in investments such as the acquisitions of Cleme Manor, Benning Heights, Parkchester, Takoma Place Apartments, Woodmont, The Roundtree Residents, and the Kahn portfolio. Throughout his career, Mr. Drobenare has developed, acquired or financed over 20,000 units of affordable housing and raised over $60 million for nonprofits. Additionally he has been responsible for increasing annual multifamily private activity new bond issues exponentially year over year.

Prior to working with The Foundation, Mr. Drobenare was a principal of North Star Development providing advisory and real estate development services to nonprofits and governmental entities doing affordable and public private partnership development.
Currently Mr. Drobenare serves on the board of Stewards of Affordable Housing (SAHF), National Affordable Housing Trust (NAHT) and Housing Partnership Equity Trust (HPET).

Additionally, he serves on NAHT's investment committee, is chair of HPET's Investment Committee, and is the founder of HPET. Earlier in his career, Mr. Drobenare worked for the Washington, DC Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development as special assistant, the DC Department of Housing and Community Development as Chief Operating Officer, and the DC Housing Finance Agency as Bond Finance Director. He has a B.A. from S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook University and received his J.D. Cum Laude from S.U.N.Y. Buffalo School of Law.

David Evans

Dave Evans, Director of Affordable Housing for the firm’s east region, joined Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP in 2015. Leveraging more than thirty-eight years of experience and success, Dave provides advisory services to affordable housing developers to ensure continued development and preservation of multifamily and mixed-use housing throughout Pennsylvania and the entire east region.

Prior to joining Baker Tilly, Dave spent nearly thirty-three years in various roles within the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA), primarily as the Assistant Executive Director of Multifamily Housing. At PHFA, he built a solid record of achievement and advancement through increasing responsible positions at one of the most highly regarded state housing finance agencies in the country. In addition, he served as Executive Director of the Commonwealth Cornerstone Group, a community development entity established by PHFA to bring New Markets Tax Credits into low-income community projects to support economic development.

Steven Gladman

Steve is the President of the Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County. The Trust is a private non-profit that is uniquely funded by two dedicated local funding sources. The Trust’s mission is to facilitate the development and preservation of affordable housing by providing specialized financing to affordable housing developers.

Previously Steve represented owners and managers of multi-family rental housing on public policy issues and has served on numerous boards and commissions that focus on various housing policy issues at the local, state and national levels.

Steve earned his B.A. in Political Science and M.A. in Adult Education from The Ohio State University.

Anne Hamlin

Anne Hamlin has been with the Tax Credit Services Division at New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency since 2008. As Director of Tax Credit Services, she administers the 4% and 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program for the State of New Jersey on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service. Ms. Hamlin has over 15 years of experience in the affordable multifamily housing industry and has a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

Sam Leone

Sam Leone joined Conifer in January 2007 and currently serves as Regional Vice President of Conifer Realty. In his tenure at Conifer, Mr. Leone has held a critical role in the development of over 40 Conifer communities. Presently, he leads the development activities in the Maryland region. Corporate responsibilities also include overseeing the Plan Review functions, ensuring development quality and consistency through the Conifer Standards, and providing continued mentorship to development team members in all regions.

As a member of the Executive Committee, he serves as a liaison between Conifer and its valued construction partnership, Conifer-LeChase Construction (CLC). He is an expert speaker on numerous topics in the fields of affordable and mixed-income housing, real estate development and construction. Mr. Leone has participated as a featured panelist or guest speaker at major industry conferences nationally as well as in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania, including Affordable Housing Finance (AHF) Live!, New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), and the Maryland Housing Conference.

Mr. Leone is a member of Conifer’s Senior Leadership Team, a diverse team of experts who focus on establishing Conifer’s global strategic initiatives and creating a collaborative culture that encourages leaders to rise at every level of the Company. He is also a member of the Development Leadership Team. He was honored by his co-workers in 2008 and received the Outstanding Achievement Award.

Prior to joining Conifer, Mr. Leone served as a Finance Officer for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA). In this role, he was responsible for financing numerous community and business development projects in Southern New Jersey.

Prior to his employment at NJEDA, Mr. Leone served as Director of Business Development for the Borough of Glassboro, where he was responsible for the Community and Economic Development activities of the Borough. In this role, Mr. Leone worked hands-on with the Borough of Glassboro, Rowan University, planners and developers to help shape the future of what would eventually become Rowan Boulevard, a $350 million makeover of the historic downtown, connecting the downtown with Rowan University for a true town and gown dynamic. It was in this position that Mr. Leone developed his passion for combining a sense of public purpose and creativity with real estate development.

Gayle Manganello Ellis

Bryce Maretzki

In 2013, Mr. Maretzki was appointed Director of Policy and Planning for the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency where he leads all of the agency’s long-range planning while continuing to direct a number of policy initiatives. In addition, he supervises the implementation of the Office of Financial Education that was transferred to PHFA from the Department of Banking.

Prior to joining PHFA Mr. Maretzki was with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development as Deputy Secretary for Administration and Director of Legislative Affairs for the department having joined the department in 2004 as Director of Policy. While there he was charged with creating a complete revision of the “silos” attached to economic and community development, to create a coordinated, comprehensive approach to rebuild and revitalize Pennsylvania communities.

He graduated with a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988 and received his Bachelor of Political Science and Urban Studies from Pennsylvania State University in 1986.

Harry Moody

Harry Moody joined Pennrose in 2011. As a member of the real estate development team, he is responsible for all phases of the development process, from concept to completion. He has experience structuring complex real estate transactions, particularly those that combine tax credits with state, local, and private financing sources. He has expertise in working with Housing Authorities, public and private sector, and 501(c)(3) non-profit partners including Community Development Groups.

Prior to starting at Pennrose, Mr. Moody worked for several years as a Developer for a large affordable housing development company. In addition to his experience in the affordable housing development industry, Mr. Moody has extensive experience in the property management field having worked for one of the largest affordable housing management firms in the country for over 14 years. Additionally, Mr. Moody spent 13 years in the non-profit industry serving as Director of Property Management and Executive Director for a large Community Development Corporation in the Philadelphia area.

Mr. Moody has served as the Assistant Director for a community development collaborative that pooled resources from numerous stakeholders in the private market including the area’s largest regional/national banks, corporate partners and charitable institutions and distributed those resources to community development groups whose focus was community improvement from every aspect including residential, commercial and economic development in the Philadelphia area.

Mr. Moody has had a long standing commitment to providing decent affordable housing for low- to moderate-income families. This is evidenced by his participation in this industry for over 25 years. His current position allows him to benefit from his past experiences by allowing him to understand the needs of the families that will eventually populate the developments we build, as well as to help integrate good design into the development process, which serves to maximize the efficiency, durability, and livability of our new developments.

Mr. Moody holds a BA from Millersville University with a concentration in management.

Christine Paul

Christine (Chris) Paul, Esq., Executive Vice President of Development, has worked in affordable housing and community development since 1999. Chris joined Diamond and Associates in 2014, where she has advised for profit and nonprofit developers primarily within Pennsylvania. Her LIHTC transactions have ranged in size from $9 to $50 million, with 31 to 225 units, and have included 9% transactions and tax-exempt bond transactions. She has also worked on owner-occupied projects in Philadelphia. She has successfully secured multiple Affordable Housing Program funding awards from various Federal Home Loan Banks to assist in bringing various projects to fruition.

Prior to joining Diamond, Chris served as a Wholesale Loan Administrator in Wells Fargo Bank’s Community Lending and Investment division, working with the construction debt platform for low income housing tax credit (“LIHTC”) transactions as well as assisting with restructuring workout transactions. While at Wells Fargo, she closed deals in multiple jurisdictions, including New York City, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida. The loan facilities she originated ranged from $4MM to $30MM in size and included construction loans for 9% LIHTC deals, letters of credit to credit enhance bond issuances in 4% LIHTC deals, private placement bond purchases in 4% LIHTC deals, a New Market Tax Credit (“NMTC”) origination and the refinancing of an NMTC facility.

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 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.

Corine Sheridan

Corine Sheridan, with 28 years of multifamily housing finance experience, directs the strategic growth of Boston Capital’s LIHTC equity transactions nationwide. In this capacity, Ms. Sheridan acquires and manages new client relationships and assists team members in delivering the firm’s full suite of financial products and services. In collaboration with senior management, she interacts with the firm’s investors, leveraging relationships between LIHTC developers and the investor community. She serves as the spokesperson for the company in the LIHTC marketplace, with frequent speaking engagements at industry forums nationally and on the local level. Prior to joining Boston Capital in early 2003, Ms. Sheridan served as Director of Business Development for The Reznick Group (now CohnReznick), one of the nation’s largest real estate advisory and multifamily housing accounting firms, and with Dynex Capital, a nationwide affordable housing lender, responsible for originating and underwriting construction and permanent debt for affordable and market rate transactions. She has served on advisory teams with state Housing Finance Agencies nationally, is a member of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, the National Association of Home Builders, and numerous state housing coalitions. Board positions include the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association and the Maryland Affordable Housing Coalition. On the local level, Ms. Sheridan is on the Board of the Friends of the Light House Shelter in Annapolis, Maryland. She attended the University of Maryland.