AmeriCatalyst LLC is an advisory firm specialized in corporate strategy, business development, market intelligence, and market positioning for companies engaged in all sectors of the residential real estate and housing finance industry in North American markets.

AmeriCatalyst is the sister company to EuroCatalyst BV, which was established in The Netherlands in 2000 and is focused on European markets.

Toni Moss, the founder and CEO of both firms, is one of an elite group of experts in global housing finance. She draws from more than 25 years of hands-on experience in 19 national markets around the world, with an unrivaled network of professional relationships and a unique talent for connecting people and ideas.

Privately, we are known for our specialized services. Publicly, we are known for the unparalleled content and caliber of our purpose-based events, which are curated and designed to either position or reposition crucial aspects of the housing market by improving its products, processes and practices.

Toni Moss is the founder and CEO of AmeriCatalyst LLC and EuroCatalyst BV, and is the Curator and Host of AMERICATALYST events. She is also the Director of the AmeriCatalyst Idea Lab, a non-profit think tank that generates solutions for the long-term sustainability of the housing ecosystem, and founder of Digital Ridge, a global property development and community of the future concept.

Toni is a unique force, visionary and outspoken leader in housing and residential real estate markets around the world. Her entrepreneurial background spans corporate intelligence, strategy and scenario planning, market positioning and trend forecasting. Frequently referred to as “a walking think tank”, Toni is a catalyst for launching industry-wide movements and advancing cutting-edge ideas. She is also a natural connector, building exclusive communities among visionaries and leaders. To date, she has hands-on operational and senior management experience in 23 national mortgage markets around the world, and is one of few experts with a truly global perspective on the industry.

Moss began her career as a corporate speechwriter and her first companies, IntellAgents and I Cubed Information Strategies, played important roles in the development of the corporate intelligence sector in the mid-80’s. In the early 90’s, she was the co-founder of a leading distressed asset due diligence firm, MAPS, which was chosen to perform seller due diligence on the HUD loan sales, which were the largest series of distressed loan sales in history.

In one of the most important roles of her career, from 1996 to 2001 Toni was the Director of Business Development for Bowfonds / STATER, which was owned by all of the municipalities in The Netherlands. She was instrumental in the first hybrid Structured Covered Bond in Continental Europe and was pivotal in expanding the first and largest third-party, cross-border servicer in Europe. STATER is known for creating the world’s first completely paperless and online originator and servicer in 1997. From 2001 to 2009, Moss was responsible for some of the most significant new market / cross-border entry strategies for investment banks; banks; mortgage insurers; title insurers, mortgage originators and servicers across the European Union.

Frequently among the first to identify upcoming trends and articulate their impact, Toni warned of the likelihood of a global economic collapse led by mortgage market failures, and established the revolutionary EUROCATALYST conference in 2002 to bring attention to early driving factors. Renowned for its vision, unparalleled content and “powerhouse” participants, the event continues in the U.S. as AMERICATALYST. It is widely considered the most influential and intellectually challenging event in the U.S. housing industry.

Toni was a professional tennis player in her teens whose career ended due to a devastating knee injury at 16 years old. She attended the University of Southern California on a Film (Screenwriting) and Journalism scholarship, later graduating from San Diego State University with degrees in Clinical Psychology and Women’s Studies.

Shirley Jackson was a founding partner in EuroCatalyst and AmeriCatalyst and was both firms’ chief creative officer, as well as chief operations officer for 21 years. There was nothing that Shirley could not do. She was responsible for the branding and staging and production of all EuroCatalyst and AmeriCatalyst events, all graphic design, music, and multimedia. She also oversaw all of the firm research for events and private mandates. News was Shirley’s true passion, with an additional zeal for data and information in any form, digital or analogue. She was deputy managing editor and head of electronic media for The Japan Times in Tokyo for 20 years, where she held a variety of positions including the head of business and politics desk, the foreign and domestic news desks, and head of international and domestic news weeklys. She was immortalized (and mortified) as “Sophie, the newsroom ringleader” in the 1994 book “About Face,” a sociological examination of business, politics and life in Japan. Shirley’s family history was fascinating: Her Japanese mother was of Samurai nobility descent, and her father, Russ Jackson, was a famous Canadian aviation pioneer and a colleague of Amelia Earhart. Shirley literally grew up all over the world, was fluent in English, Japanese and French, and could cross all cultural borders effortlessly.

Shirley studied Middle Eastern Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Political Science with a focus on Asian and Japanese history. She earned a graduate degree in International Relations, specializing in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Shirley was also passionate about music of all genres, and was an extremely talented and accomplished pianist and cellist, studying with Diana Krall at the British Columbia Conservatory of Music. 

Shirley passed away in Vancouver, Canada on March 17, 2021. Her former Japan Times colleague and BBC Producer Hugh Levinson memorialized her life in a very moving tribute on BBC Radio 4 on March 27, 2021.

Laurie Hawkes is the CEO of Hawkes Insites. She also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Broadstone Net Lease, Inc.. Laurie has held leadership positions as an investment banker, private real estate equity investor and successful principal and entrepreneur. Ms. Hawkes served as a Managing Director in Real Estate Investment Banking at CS First Boston Corp. from 1993 until 1995, and as Director of Real Estate Investment Banking at Salomon Brothers Inc. from 1979 until 1993. She has extensive expertise in raising capital in the public and private markets, executing real estate acquisition strategies to drive portfolio growth, developing strategic business plans and creating scalable operational platforms. Throughout her career, Laurie has structured and negotiated more than $25 billion in corporate finance and real estate transactions. Laurie has been a pioneer in bringing institutional capital to the single-family rental sector. In 2008, she co-founded American Residential Properties, LLC, ARP Phoenix Fund I, and American Residential Management, Inc., to acquire, operate and manage single-family rental housing.

In 2012, Laurie co-founded American Residential Properties, Inc., a REIT, and led the capital raising and operations from a start-up entity to a $2.4 billion enterprise. She co-led the company’s IPO, which was listed on the NYSE under the ticker ARPI in May 2013. Laurie served as President and Member of the Board of Directors of American Residential Properties, Inc. responsible for its financing, capital markets strategy and operational platform from the Company’s formation in May 2012. In March 2013, she was formally named API’s President and Chief Operating Officer. ARPI merged with American Homes 4 Rent in March 2016. The merger of these two publicly traded companies created an $8 billion enterprise with over 47,000 homes, which now trades under the ticker AMH on the NYSE. She holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.

Named “one of the world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by MIT, Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. His twenty books include the just-published Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, as well as the recent Team Human, based on his podcast, and the bestsellers Present Shock, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Program or Be Programmed, Life Inc, and Media Virus. He also made the PBS Frontline documentaries Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of Cool. His book Coercion won the Marshall McLuhan Award, and the Media Ecology Association honored him with the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

Rushkoff is Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens, where he founded the Laboratory for Digital Humanism. He is a research fellow of the Institute for the Future, a columnist for Medium, technology and media commentator for CNN, and a lecturer on media, technology, culture and economics around the world.

Rushkoff’s work explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and one another. He coined such concepts as “viral media,” “screenagers,” “fractalnoia”, “digiphrenia” and “social currency,” and has been a leading voice for applying digital media toward social and economic justice. 

Rushkoff earned his PhD in New Media and Digital Culture from Utrecht University with a dissertation entitled Monopoly Moneys: The media environment of corporatism and the player’s way out. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, received an MFA in Directing from California Institute of the Arts, a post-graduate fellowship (MFA) from The American Film Institute, a Fulbright award to lecture on narrative in New Zealand, and a Director’s Grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His many articles, features and essays can be read here.

Rick is the Founder & CEO of CJ Patrick Company, a market intelligence and advisory firm for companies in the real estate and mortgage industries. One of the country’s most frequently quoted sources on real estate, mortgage and foreclosure trends, Rick has appeared on CNBC, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, ABC News, FOX, Bloomberg, and NPR. Rick is a founding member of the Five Star National Mortgage Servicing Association, on the Board of Directors of the Asian Real Estate Association of America and the National Association of Default Professionals, and was twice named to the Inman News Inman 100, an annual list of the most influential real estate leaders.

Rick has over 20 years of experience in the real estate and mortgage industries, including roles as the EVP/Market Intelligence at ATTOM Data, EVP for Carrington Mortgage Holdings, EVP of Marketing at RealtyTrac, and Chief Marketing Officer of Ten-X and Auction.com.

Tim Skeet is a member of the Executive Management Committee and serves as the Chief Institutional Relationship Officer at the Bank of China Limited London Branch. Armed with a modern languages degree from Cambridge, Tim went on to a successful 35-year career in the City where he led teams and worked in three languages (English, French and German) across Europe and North America. He took a front row seat for the financial crises that have challenged the world since the early 1980s, including the Latin American debt crisis, Big Bang, Black Monday, the Russian Debt Crisis, the birth of the euro, the dot-com debacle, and most recently the Global Financial Crisis with its regulatory and political consequences.

Tim’s career has been marked by corporate drama. He’s endured two U.S. investment bank downfalls, a failed takeover, and the shutting down a department. As a result, Tim has seen the human fallout and the sourest of office politics in a sharp-elbowed industry. Despite all the disruption, he’s enjoyed a career rich in experience and populated by fascinating – if not always likeable – personalities. Tim has dealt extensively with regulators and served on the board of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA’) for over six years. As Chairman of ICMA’s Investor Working Group on Bail-In, Tim recently submitted comments to the CB and European Commission as to how their new regulations designed to deal with failing banks have very real impacts on investors.

Tim served as Chairman of an aviation museum, working for twenty years to ensure the preservation and flying of vintage British jet aircraft (including Europe’s biggest and most powerful privately owned jet fighter). Tim provided advice on dealing with multiple challenges including communication issues, enhanced regulation, technical breakdowns, and demanding sponsors.

A frequent speaker at industry events, conferences, seminars, and dinners, Tim has long experience of public speaking. Tim has contributed to the Financial Times, Guardian and is a frequent contributor to Financial News and other journals. Tim has done TV and radio work with multiple live appearances on CNBC and spoken on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He addressed a range of topics including the future of banking, regulation, communications issues and investor relations.

Tim was a speaker for Strongerln during the UK Referendum, and then interim Chairman of pressure group Britain for Europe. In 2016, Tim spoke at the IF Capital Conference and Euromoney’s Global Borrowers in London, a FinanceWatch event in Brussels, a European Covered Bond Council plenary in Dusseldorf, the SIBOS banking conference in Geneva. He chaired AMERICATALYST from 2009 to 2017 while it was held in Austin, Texas.

Tim currently teaches on the IMA Primary Markets Certificate course and has lectured for the London Stock Exchange and Henley Business School. He recently became a Visiting Fellow at Reading University. He has taught both technical issues and soft skills, addressing a range of topics including the future of banking, regulation, communications issues and investor relations.