NH&RA Spring Developers Forum (2018)
Speaker Bios
Andrew Agetstein
Andrew Agetstein
In 2012, Andrew Agetstein formed American Preservation Partners, LLC (“APP”) with the objective of serving for-profit and non-profit owners of affordable housing communities in their furtherance of developing and operating multifamily housing for low-income families. Previously, Mr. Agetstein served as Vice President of Transactions for Apartment Investment and Management Company (AIMCO) from 2002 to 2012. In this capacity, Mr. Agetstein was responsible for redeveloping AIMCO’s affordable housing portfolio utilizing LIHTCs and creative financing structures. Mr. Agetstein earned a graduate degree in Real Estate Development from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from The George Washington University.
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.
Laura E. Burns
Laura E. Burns
Laura E. Burns has 31 years’ experience in the affordable housing development business. She is a nationally recognized expert in the affordable housing finance business. As CEO and a founding Partner of the Eagle Point Companies, Ms. Burns has acquired and renovated affordable housing properties and raised and invested private equity in existing housing across the country. In addition, Ms. Burns directed the strategic startup of Eagle Point’s property management division which now oversees over 5,000 apartments. She continues to oversee the 20 year old consulting division – The Signal Group – whose clients include federal agencies and private sector owners, lenders and managers. Ms. Burns continues to be actively engaged in acquiring additional assets and ensuring that all new acquisitions and Eagle Point’s existing portfolio perform at the highest possible levels.
Ms. Burns worked at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) from 1985 until 1992 where she coordinated neighborhood development projects using low income housing tax credits. From 1992 to 1995, she assisted in the set-up of a nationwide asset management company, based in Portland, Maine, that liquidated affordable housing under contract to the Resolution Trust Corporation (a federal agency) and was subsequently named Chief Operating Officer of its affiliated development company.
Ms. Burns serves on the Board of the National Leased Housing Association, the Editorial Advisory Board of Affordable Housing Finance and is a frequent speaker at the national industry conferences. Her role in helping to develop housing policy includes testifying before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services and participating in policy development working groups with HUD/GSE’s and Treasury. Ms. Burns has a BA degree from Lehigh University.
Orlando J. Cabrera
Orlando J. Cabrera
Orlando Cabrera advises clients including financial institutions, investors, syndicators, developers, public housing authorities, housing
finance agencies, community development agencies, cities and counties on successfully navigating complex affordable housing
matters. Mr. Cabrera has significant experience with United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulatory
matters (including Native American housing issues), housing finance agency issues, low-income housing tax credits, private activity bonds,
debt financing, non-federal state financing programs, tribal financing programs, and general real estate.
After his Senate confirmation in late 2005, he served as Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing at HUD until 2008. As Assistant
Secretary, Mr. Cabrera oversaw the administration of a US$24 billion program, which included public housing, Section 8 vouchers,
moderate rehabilitation (Mod Rehab) and most federal housing programs for Native American tribes nationwide. He is one of three
recipients of the Office of Inspector General’s Golden Eagle Award for Public Integrity.
Prior to his role at HUD, Mr. Cabrera served as Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation,
the nation’s fourth largest housing finance agency, where he developed policies for managing the allocation of the low-income housing tax
credit, private activity bonds, HOME Investment Partnership Fund, State Housing Trust Fund and Local Government Housing Trust Fund.
During his tenure at Florida Housing, he also served on the Board of the National Council of State Housing Agencies.
Mr. Cabrera’s prior experience includes serving as the president and chief executive officer of a major affordable housing developer that
operated in six states where he led the company through the 2008 economic downturn and planned, disposed of, financed, constructed or
rehabilitated approximately 2,200 affordable housing units.
Mr. Cabrera also has extensive experience in the area of disaster recovery, having worked closely through more than a dozen natural
disasters with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and various state disaster recovery agencies during his time at HUD and
Florida Housing.
Prior to heading Florida Housing, Mr. Cabrera was the chair and vice chair of Florida Housing’s Board of Directors and a partner in the real
estate department of a major Florida-based law firm. He has acted as developer’s, investor’s or lender’s counsel for hundreds of real estate
transactions throughout his career. Mr. Cabrera has extensive experience in most areas of real estate law including airport, office,
commercial, and single and multifamily residential development.
He has been a frequent speaker and presenter before various committees in the United States Congress, the Florida legislature, many
state and local governments, and many affordable housing and real estate industry trade groups. He has served, and still serves, on the
board of directors for a variety of industry-related groups.
Representative Experience
Successfully advised affordable housing developers involved in criminal and civil actions undertaken by the United States Department of
Justice and United States Attorneys in various Districts
Successfully advised project based contract administrators seeking to compel the United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) to comply with federal procurement law and keep HUD from unlawfully awarding PBCA contracts
Jessica Cometa
Jessica Cometa
Ms. Cometa oversees WNC’s origination efforts in the Western United States. Prior to joining WNC, she worked for a community lending banker and an affordable housing development company. Ms. Cometa earned a bachelor of science in business administration with a concentration in finance from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Michael Costa
Michael Costa
Mr. Costa is responsible for overseeing all activities at Highridge Costa Companies, which include Highridge Costa Housing Partners, LLC (“HCHP”) and Highridge Costa Investors, LLC (“HCI”). The companies specialize in the development, financing, construction, syndication and asset management of affordable and mixed-income housing for families and seniors throughout the U.S., utilizing low-income housing tax credits, as well as other types of public and private financing.
The companies were created in 1994 by Mr. Costa initially under the flag of KBHome (Kaufman and Broad Multihousing Group, Inc.) then were sold to Simpson Housing (Simpson Housing Solutions, LLC) in 2000 where Mr. Costa became a partial owner and continued to run the companies. In 2010 in a joint venture between Mr. Costa, President and CEO of the companies, and Highridge Partners, a diversified, privately held investment firm, they acquired the companies from Simpson Housing.
Over the past 22 years, Mr. Costa and his team have been responsible for developing and growing a portfolio of over 27,000 housing units in more than 275 communities throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, all of which were financed using tax credits. In addition, Mr. Costa is known as a pioneer in the development of affordable independent senior apartments having overseen the development of over 19,000 units since the early 1980’s. Currently HCI/HCHP owns and operates approximately 8,400 units (84 communities) of affordable independent senior apartments making HCI/HCHP one of, if not the largest owner in the U.S. of independent senior apartment communities.
Throughout a career spanning nearly four decades, Mr. Costa has supervised the development and financing of nearly 40,000 units of multifamily affordable and market-rate housing through such programs as Section 42 Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Tax Exempt Bond Financing, 501(c)3 Tax Exempt Bonds, Tax Increment Bonds, and numerous state and local financing programs.
Through his extensive utilization of both federal and various state tax credit programs over the years, Mr. Costa has gained a wealth of specialized knowledge of the intricacies of tax credit financing and syndication. He is considered an industry expert in tax credit-based development, syndication and asset management, including the myriad of compliance issues associated with owning and operating tax credit properties.
Mr. Costa was named the Freddie Mac Multifamily Builder of the Year in 2000 and the 1999 Builder of the Year by Multifamily Executive magazine. He currently serves as a member of the Board of the NAHB Multifamily Leadership Board, the California Housing Consortium, the California Council for Affordable Housing and recently completed a term of seven years as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Community Financial Resource Center of Los Angeles (now R.I.S.E. Financial Pathways), one of California’s most active nonprofit CDFIs. He also holds the CAASH (Certified Active Adult Specialist in Housing) designation from the NAHB.
Mr. Costa earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and also holds a general contractor's license from the State of California.
Kristin Dekuiper
Kristin Dekuiper
Kristin A. DeKuiper is a transactional attorney with broad experience in structuring partnerships, limited liability companies and joint ventures and with the tax and structuring issues that arise in tax credit transactions. She represents developers, community development entities (CDEs), investors and lenders in transactions nationwide involving low-income housing tax credits, historic tax credits and new markets tax credits. Project types include commercial and residential real estate, assisted living projects, healthcare centers, schools, performing art centers and other community facilities.
In addition, Ms. DeKuiper has significant experience in tax and business issues related to limited liability companies. She was a principal draftsperson of Rhode Island’s LLC statute and the regulations for Rhode Island’s first state historic tax credit program.
Irena R Edwards
Irena R Edwards
Irena Edwards is currently a Senior Vice President with KeyBank’s CDLI group. She has over 15 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, with emphasis on affordable housing.
James R. Gillespie
James R. Gillespie
Jim Gillespie is Senior Vice President of Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC where he focuses on loan origination and management of developer relationships for the firm. Jim has extensive experience in affordable housing and structuring debt and direct equity investments having worked in these areas for over 20 years. Before joining Bellwether, Jim was Managing Director at Hunt Mortgage Group, a national real estate financial services firm. Prior to Hunt, Jim was founding Managing Director of Red Stone Partners where he helped build and manage their proprietary tax-exempt bond fund(s) and before that, Senior Vice President at Related Companies, a New York based real estate development firm where he was involved in the financing and acquisition of over $2.0 Billion in properties nationwide. Preceding his career in commercial real estate, Jim was a city planner for a public development authority in Louisville, Kentucky.
Jim is active on a number of civic, philanthropic and industry organizations and serves on the boards of NYSAFAH, Citizen’s Housing and Planning Council and National Housing & Rehabilitation Association. Jim holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Hanover College, a Master of Public Administration in Urban and Regional Planning and Development from the University of Louisville, and a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University.
Gary Gorman
Gary Gorman
After completing his B.A. in Economics and Law Degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Mr. Gorman began his career as a practicing attorney focusing on representation of developers and real estate syndicators. In 1984 Mr. Gorman formed Gorman & Company for the purpose of developing and syndicating multifamily real estate projects. After the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Mr. Gorman specialized in the development of affordable multifamily rental communities utilizing the tax credit created by Section 42 of the 1986 Tax Reform Act.
Gorman & Company is now a major developer of affordable rental housing as well as historic renovations. The firm has offices in Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, and Florida. Gorman & Company has in-house design, construction, and development divisions that have successfully completed over $1 billion new construction and major renovations. Its affiliated property management firm manages and oversees over 6,000 units.
Mr. Gorman serves as a board member for Northern Bankshares, Inc. (holding company for McFarland State Bank). Mr. Gorman previously served as a member of the Steering Committee for the Housing Credit Group of National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB), the Advisory Board for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, the Board of Directors for Catholic Charities, Madison Area Apartment Association, Credit Bureau of Madison, and the South Madison Community Development Corporation.
Education: 1977 - B.A., Economics, University of Wisconsin - Madison
1980 - Juris Doctorate, University of Wisconsin - Madison Law School
Lefeba Gougis
Lefeba Gougis
Lefeba J Gougis, Jr. is the General Counsel of APEC International, LLC. Mr. Gougis began his professional career as an attorney practicing real estate and corporate law in Downtown Los Angeles. Mr. Gougis’ real estate practice consisted of representing developers in transactions including housing development (both affordable and market rate), commercial development, financing, acquisition, and leasing. His corporate practice emphasized a variety of corporate and business transactions. During his career Mr. Gougis has participated as legal counsel, developer, or consultant in the acquisition, planning, entitlement, and development of over 4,000 units of affordable housing and approximately 300,000 square feet of retail space. Mr. Gougis has negotiated the syndication of well over well $200,000,000 of low income housing tax credit based equity, and has been actively involved in the development of housing projects with budgets totaling more than $400,000,000. Additionally, Mr. Gougis has accessed and implemented a wide range of public financing mechanisms including redevelopment agency tax increment funds, locally administered HOME Funds, State Grants, and tax exempt bond proceeds.
Mr. Gougis received his Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law in 1989 and was admitted to the California Bar that same year. He graduated with honors from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.
Matt Grosz
Matt Grosz
Matt is Senior Vice President of Acquisitions for Red Stone Equity Partners on the west coast. He is responsible for the origination, acquisition, financial underwriting, partnership structuring, and syndication of affordable housing and historic tax credit investments. Matt has over thirteen years of experience in real estate investment, development, and LIHTC syndication. Prior to joining Red Stone, Matt operated as the chief investment officer for Chelsea Investment Corporation; a Southern California based affordable housing development company. In that capacity Matt was responsible for structuring and securing financing of more than 1,300 housing units with total development costs approaching $500 million. Matt’s development experience includes high density urban infill mixed use, suburban garden apartments, acquisition rehab, HUD preservation, rural development and farm labor housing, seniors housing and housing for special needs, veterans and homeless populations.
Kim Herman
Kim Herman
Kim Herman has served as the Executive Director of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission since being appointed in 1984.
Mr. Herman is a native of Washington State and has served as a member of the Commission, as Washington Project Director of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rural Assistance Initiative Program, as Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Yakima, and as Manager of Single-Family Housing for the Portland Development Commission.
From 1988 through 2010 Mr. Herman served on the Board of Directors of the National Council of State Housing Agencies and served as President of the Council from 2006-2008. In 2012 Mr. Herman was re-elected to the board of NCSHA for a two year term and also served a one-year term on the Executive Committee through 2013.
From 2008 through 2011, Mr. Herman served on the board of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition. Most recently Mr. Herman served on the boards of The Housing Partnership, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Sound Families Steering Committee, and the Greater Seattle YMCA Public Policy Committee.
Mr. Herman was a founding member of the WA Low Income Housing Congress/WA Low Income Housing Alliance and served on the Board from 1988 to 2013.
Mr. Herman continues to serve on the Boards of Impact Capital, the National Rural Housing Coalition and Friends of the Dominican Republic. He is also a member of the Governor’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board and the Washington State Department of Commerce Bond Cap Advisory Group. Also in 2012, Mr. Herman served on the Attorney General’s Blue Ribbon Consumer Foreclosure Remedies Fund Committee to determine how to use the proceeds of the national bank settlement in Washington.
Mr. Herman is a Graduate of Washington State University (B.A. 1967).
Jeffrey Jaeger
Jeffrey Jaeger
Jeffrey Jaeger is a co-founder and co-owner of Standard Property Company, a full-service multi-family real estate investment and management firm. Mr. Jaeger specializes in acquisition, repositioning and preservation of affordable housing and maintains the in-house construction management team. Since starting the company in 2008, he has taken an active role in acquiring undervalued market rate and affordable, tax credit, and multifamily properties. The firm partners with institutional investors and to date has acquired 4,000 units, 60% affordable/40% conventional, in its focus markets of Northern & Southern California, the greater New York City metropolitan area, Washington, DC and Chicago.
Prior to founding Standard Property, Mr. Jaeger was the co-founder and former Chief Operating Officer of Jackson Square Properties, a value-added investment company that oversees over 10,000 apartments and 1,000 mobile home park units. While at JSP, he established departments for acquisitions, general contracting, property management, asset management and accounting as well as invested over $100 million in institutional capital. Previous to joining JSP, Mr. Jaeger worked in the capital transactions department at Lend Lease Real Estate Investments.
Mr. Jaeger is an active member on the Board of Directors of Inner-City Arts, a skid row center that provides free arts education to underprivileged youth as well as a board member and co-founder of Housing on Merit, which focuses on providing transitional housing for female veterans, and is active in the affordable housing space. Mr. Jaeger is a licensed California Real Estate Broker and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
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.
Ravi Malhotra
Ravi Malhotra
Ravi has 29 years of experience as a social entrepreneur and engineer. He has led award-winning R&D efforts and has successfully launched eight new social ventures. Ravi is currently focused on providing turn-key solutions for the green retrofit of multifamily properties through two nonprofit ventures: Triple Bottom Line Foundation (www.tblfund.org) – a CDFI that provides energy financing, and ICAST (www.icastusa.org), which provides design, development, planning and construction services.
Ravi holds a B.S in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, India, and a Masters in Engineering and Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
Aaron Mandel
Aaron Mandel
Mr. Mandel co-manages Meta’s real estate development division. Responsibilities include property acquisition and business development, structuring of project financing, determining corporate strategic direction and risk management, and oversight of all of Meta’s developments and project management teams. Mr. Mandel has extensive experience in urban infill, mixed use, and transit-oriented developments, developing communities for families, seniors, and special needs populations. Mr. Mandel also has deep expertise leveraging tax credits and other public subsidies, and in complex layered financing. While at Meta Mr. Mandel has supervised the financing and development of over 3,000 apartment units at cost of more than $1.25 billion.
Linda Mandolini
Linda Mandolini
Linda Mandolini has served as President of Eden Housing since 2001. Eden Housing is California's second oldest non-profit housing development companies and has developed or acquired more than 10,500 units throughout California. Linda oversees affordable housing production, resident support services, and property management components of the organization, and a staff of more than 340 employees. She is guided in her work by Eden's active volunteer board of directors.
Under her strong leadership, Eden Housing has become one of the most productive and successful nonprofit affordable housing developers in California. To date, Eden has developed or acquired more than 10,500 affordable rental apartments throughout California, providing homes for nearly 100,000 low-income families, seniors, and persons with disabilities.
Linda has received a number of awards including being inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017 and named to the San Francisco Business Times' Forever Influential Honor Roll in 2016.
Linda is a leader in housing policy on the local, state and national level. She serves or has served on the Boards: Make Room, National Housing Conference, California Housing Consortium, Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, Housing Trust of Silicon Valley, Enterprise Communities' Community Leadership Council, and International Housing Policy Exchange.
In her free time, Linda is an avid bicyclist and frequently rides for charitable causes including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation in support of research for cures to Parkinson's disease.
Ben Metcalf
Ben Metcalf
Mr. Metcalf directs the department responsible for the state’s affordable housing loan and grant portfolio as well as for housing policy development and oversight at both the state and local level. Recent accomplishments include collaborating with the state legislature to secure passage of the landmark 2017 Legislative Housing Package for which HCD is now implementing key bills that: provide more than $250 million annually for affordable housing; greatly expand oversight of local zoning and permitting; and position HCD as a key technical resource for streamlining construction of new housing.
Prior to HCD, Mr. Metcalf worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs. He also previously developed affordable housing at BRIDGE Housing Corporation, a California-based nonprofit. He earned his BA from Amherst College and his Master in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Harvard Kennedy School.
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.
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.
Michael Novogradac
Michael Novogradac
Michael Novogradac is the managing partner of Novogradac & Company LLP. He has more than 30 years of experience specializing in affordable housing, community development, historic preservation and renewable energy. Mr. Novogradac’s focus is in real estate taxation and accounting. He is the author of numerous real estate-related tax and accounting articles and books, including the New Markets Tax Credit Handbook and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Handbook. A frequent speaker at tax credit conferences and forums throughout the country, Mr. Novogradac is very active in advocating for the inclusion of affordable housing, historic, new markets and renewable energy tax credits in federal and state policy and broadcasts a weekly podcast that focuses on tax credit issues. In addition, he serves as advisor on industry and governmental affairs for the NMTC Working Group and the LIHTC Working Group. Mr. Novogradac also serves on the executive committee of the Housing Advisory Group and the boards of directors of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, the National Housing Conference, the NMTC Coalition and Historic Tax Credit Coalition, as well as being an original member of the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Affordable Housing Committee. Mr. Novogradac graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He is licensed in California, Oregon, Maryland and Texas as a certified public accountant. You can follow Michael on twitter @novogradac and his blog at www.novoco.com/blog.
Tia Boatman Patterson
Tia Boatman Patterson
Tia Boatman Patterson has been Executive Director of the California Housing Finance Agency since 2014. Under her direction, CalHFA has increased its single family lending from essentially zero to nearly $2 billion per year, and closed multifamily loans worth more than $1 billion.
She previously served on the CalHFA Board of Directors, was general counsel for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and a special assistant to the Speaker of the California State Assembly.
She currently serves on the NCSHA Board of Directors and Board Executive Committee, the Fannie Mae Affordable Housing Advisory Council and the BBVA Compass Bank Community Advisory Board.
Michael Potter
Michael Potter
Michael Potter is Managing Director of Align Finance Partners, LLC (“Align Finance”), a private real estate finance company that facilitates for qualified borrowers secondary bond financing in connection with the acquisition, renovation and development of affordable housing communities. Michael has over 27 years of experience in commercial real estate, with a background in real estate investment, affordable housing, private equity, fund formation, operation and management, portfolio management and law. Mr. Potter has represented clients and investors in the acquisition and disposition of real property with an aggregate value of over $4 billion.
In addition to role at Align Finance, Michael serves as a Director of Regis Metro Associates, Inc. (“RMA”). RMA is a private real estate investment firm with over $1.1 billion of investor equity commitments. RMA has been investing in affordable housing since 2011 and is a registered investment adviser with the SEC. Prior to RMA, Michael was a Principal of Metropolitan Real Estate Advisors and Stonegate Partners, both of which were real estate investment and advisory firms. From 1990 to 2000, Mr. Potter was a Partner at the San Francisco law firm of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP where he specialized in real estate finance, investment, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing and development.
Mr. Potter earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and holds a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law School. Mr. Potter is a member of the California State Bar and a licensed California real estate broker.
Caleb Roope
Caleb Roope
A graduate of Azusa Pacific University in southern California and a former state scholar-athlete of the year, Caleb has devoted his entire 25+ year business career to the production of real estate assets. He founded The Pacific Companies in 1998 which has primarily focused on the production of multi-family housing for working families and senior citizens. With over 165 projects developed and 150 assets under current ownership consisting of approximately 10,000 apartment units, charter school facilities and commercial space, Caleb and his team have recurrently designed, developed, constructed and operated properties in over a dozen states to a standard that has repeatedly and consistently produced lender and investor satisfaction. With no defaults, foreclosures, bankruptcies or unanticipated investor capital calls in the firm’s history and over $2 billion in asset value produced, The Pacific Companies remains an industry favorite among the providers of debt and equity. The Eagle, Idaho based company is consistently rated among the Top 10 in the nation as measured by the annual production of affordable multi-family units.
Over the past 20 years, Caleb has personally designed and built multiple companies that are organized around the core offer of real estate development. Pacific West Communities, Inc. serves as the development, finance and asset management arm of The Pacific Companies. Its 25-member team annually produces 12 to 15 new projects which are constructed by Pacific West Builder’s 20-member organization. Pacific West Architecture provides most of the design services for the group while TPC Insurance Services, Inc. provides a unique hedge against general liability and worker’s compensation risk through use of a captive insurance and wrap policy program. The Pacific Companies has maintained positive net income and cash flow year over year since inception, including through the real estate collapse and recession that began in 2008, which saw the firm actually make additions to its workforce.
On a personal level, Caleb is active in supporting various charities and ministries, including the Idaho Food Bank, UCSF Medical Foundation, Focus on the Family, and the Boise Rescue Mission which is Idaho’s largest homeless shelter. He enjoys playing golf, basketball, tennis, vacationing with his family, and exploring wilderness areas throughout the west. Caleb currently resides in southwest Idaho’s community of Eagle with his wife Andrea and young daughters Georgia, Parker and Simone.
Margaret Salazar
Margaret Salazar
Margaret Salazar is Director of Oregon Housing and Community Services, which is Oregon’s Housing Finance Agency. OHCS provides financial and program support to create and preserve opportunities for quality, affordable housing for Oregonians of low and moderate incomes, and leads statewide programs to prevent and end homelessness and to build housing stability.
Prior to joining OHCS, Margaret served in various leadership roles over a 10 year career at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. She led Multifamily housing production in the San Francisco HUD office, financing the development and preservation of thousands of affordable homes. Margaret later served as Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary in HUD Headquarters, where she led the Department’s Rental Assistance Demonstration and other national initiatives to revitalize and preserve affordable rental housing. As HUD Oregon Field Office Director, Margaret led partners to develop a toolkit for local communities to prevent and address the closures of manufactured home parks and supported communities working to end veteran homelessness.
Margaret began her career as a foundation program officer and housing advocate working with community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she led a successful grassroots campaign for just cause eviction in Oakland, California in 2002.
A native Oregonian, Margaret holds a Bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University and a Master of Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
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.
Sean Spear
Sean Spear
Sean's distinguished public service career includes more than ten years as a top local and state government leader, serving successively in community development roles in the cities of New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and in Sacramento for the State of California. At the Los Angeles Housing & Community Investment Department, Sean is responsible for managing and directing the operations of its Housing Development Bureau. The Bureau facilitates the financing of housing development projects with its business and community partners, leveraging its resources to the maximum benefit of the City’s residents and neighborhoods.
Prior to joining HCIDLA, Sean was a Managing Director with Hunt Mortgage Group where he consulted on the acquisition, development, financing and execution of affordable housing development transactions, and originated new debt and equity executions. He also most notably served as the Executive Director of the California Debt Allocation Committee (CDLAC) from 2009-2015, administering the $3.8 Billion private activity bond program for California. Sean brings additional private sector experience from his time with Fannie Mae; then providing housing development and public financing resources across the Western United States. Throughout his career he has developed both new project financing structures (especially for affordable housing preservation), as well as designed and implemented billion dollar governmental programs with the goal of building better communities for those in greatest need.
Mark Stivers
Mark Stivers
Mark Stivers is the Executive Director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC), which facilitates the investment of private capital into the development of affordable rental housing through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program. Prior to joining TCAC in January of 2015, Mr. Stivers served the California Legislature for 18 years, including 16 years as the lead housing staffer for the Senate. Mr. Stivers began his career as a fair housing counselor with two non-profit agencies in the Bay Area.
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.
Ronne Lynn Thielen
Ronne Lynn Thielen
Ronne Lynn Thielen is an Executive Vice President of R4 Capital LLC. She is based in the Newport Beach, CA office, where she is responsible for running west coast operations as well as acquiring housing tax-credit and bond-financed properties throughout the US. Ms. Thielen has spent her 39-year real estate finance and investment career as an affordable housing advocate and has been a LIHTC industry leader since inception of the program in 1986. Immediately prior to joining R4 Capital, Ms. Thielen formed the Housing Resource Connection, a consultancy based in Southern California to assist those working in the low-income housing tax- credit industry. Before that, from 1994 to 2011, she was a Managing Director in the Affordable Housing Group at Centerline Capital Group, where she managed its California office and grew its LIHTC portfolio into the largest segment of the company’s tax-credit portfolio. Preceding her 17-year tenure at Centerline, Ms. Thielen was executive director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee from 1991 to 1994. Prior to that she was deputy director for program and policy development at the National Council of State Housing Agencies and, before that, served at the Vermont Housing Finance Agency in the multifamily finance and asset management arenas. Ms. Thielen is a past president and current President Emeritus on the board of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition and is an active member of several national and state associations that address affordable housing issues, including serving as a past chairman and current board member of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association, member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Tax Credit Advisor and Affordable Housing Finance Magazine and member of the California Housing Consortium Board of Governors. She is also on the board of Abode Communities, a nonprofit LIHTC developer in Los Angeles. She was inducted into the Affordable Housing Finance Hall of Fame in 2014. Ms. Thielen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University.
Armand Tiberio
Armand Tiberio
Mr. Tiberio is a Vice Chairman at CBRE Affordable Housing. Prior to joining CBRE, Mr. Tiberio was a senior vice president at Marcus & Millichap and a partner and national director at Tax Credit Group, where he was involved in executing over $10 billion in sales and financing transactions. With over 15 years in investment real estate, his primary focuses are client service delivery, transaction execution, and business development.
Education: Pepperdine University, Bachelor of Arts; Business and Finance