Gary left his co-CEO role at Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust (ticker: SWAY) in April of 2015 to co-found ROOFSTOCK (formerly DwellConnect), a technology-enabled Internet marketplace designed to dramatically improve transactional liquidity in the SFR sector. In 2009 he joined the board of single-family rental (SFR) pioneer Waypoint Homes and began investing in SFR, eventually joining full-time in 2011 to help raise the first significant institutional capital into the sector. In the fall of 2013 Gary helped orchestrate Waypoint’s merger with Starwood Capital Group, forming SWAY and taking the company public on the NYSE in early 2014.
Gary has spent the majority of his career in operationally-intensive and technology-driven companies with a significant real estate component to their businesses. Prior to joining Waypoint, Gary served as CEO of boutique hotel company Joie de Vivre Hospitality and award-winning solar technology start-up Greenvolts. Between 2001 and 2007 Gary was an operating executive with ZipRealty, where as its CFO he led the innovative Internet-based residential brokerage through its successful IPO before eventually being named its President. Gary also spent six years with KSL Resorts where he was instrumental in acquiring and integrating over $800 MM of resort properties. Earlier in his career, Gary worked for leading real estate industry firms LaSalle Partners (now Jones Lang LaSalle) and Security Capital Group.
Gary earned a BA in Economics from Northwestern University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Alan Boyce is Co-Founder and an active member of the board of directors of Adecoagro(NYSE:AGRO), a food and renewable energy-producing company that owns and operates highly productive land throughout Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Adecoagro owns 285,000 hectares of highly productive farmland, leases another 175,000 hectares and has 8,000 employees. Alan is also Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Materra, LLC, a California and Arizona based agricultural production company. Materra was formed in 2010 and is currently the owner and operator of 25,000 acres of farmland where it grows alfalfa, cannery tomatoes, pistachios, dates, citrus, organic vegetables, jalapenos, melons, cotton and wheat.
Boyce was Senior Managing Director at Countrywide Financial, responsible for management and leadership of the bank’s investment, hedging and funding strategies. He oversaw secondary markets, securities and loan purchase activities, commercial mortgage origination, hedging and managing a large mortgage servicing book, reinsurance, as well compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act. He was at Countrywide from March 2007 to July 2008. Prior to joining Countrywide, Boyce served as Director of Special Situations at Soros Fund Management LLC. During his tenure with Soros, he managed a portfolio of assets of the Quantum Funds with a focus on mortgage backed securities and reinsurance. He also had principal operational responsibilities for the bulk of Soros’ investments in Latin America. Boyce was a full time employee at Soros from August 1999 to March 2007 and has continued as a consultant since then. Before joining Soros Fund Management, Boyce served as Managing Director at Bankers Trust. He was in charge of Fixed Income Arbitrage, the bank’s mortgage portfolio and compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act. He was with Bankers Trust for 14 years. Prior to that, he worked for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.
Boyce holds an MBA degree from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Pomona College, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Bringing more than 20 years of mortgage and software industry experience to Docutech, Amy is responsible for leading all aspects of Docutech daily operations, including sales, customer support, marketing and product development. Amy most recently served as President of Originations and Corporate Technology at New Penn Financial. At New Penn Financial, she oversaw all origination channels, including direct-to-consumer products, third party originations and retail. Prior to New Penn Financial, Amy served as Chief Operations Officer of Prospect Mortgage, where she enhanced day-to-day operations and transformed the lender’s technology infrastructure.
In addition to her executive career, Amy is currently a Board Member of Sun to Water Technologies, and she is a Scholar Rescue Fund Advisory Board Member with the Institute of International Education. She is a former Board Member with Source Corp Inc. and a former Board Member and Capital Founder with Bluebeam Software Inc. Amy is also the former Chair of Your Music America and was a Federal Housing Policy Council Member with the Financial Services Roundtable. Amy holds a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Southern California.
Jay Bray is Chief Executive Officer for Nationstar Mortgage, and also serves on the company’s Board of Directors. Jay led Nationstar through a successful initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, and oversaw the company’s doubling in size and value in the months to follow. He tirelessly emphasizes quality customer experiences, process improvement and strategic execution. Before his CEO appointment in early 2011, Jay served as Chief Financial Officer for 12 years. Previously, he held key leadership positions with Arthur Andersen and Bank of America. Jay earned his Bachelor’s in Accounting from Auburn University, and is a certified public accountant.
Doug Brien is endlessly curious about property management innovation and passionately committed to building solutions for the real estate arena.
Prior to being Co-Founder & CEO of Mynd, he was CEO of Starwood Waypoint Homes, (NYSE: SWAY), and grew the company to 500+ staff members, managing over $3 billion in rental properties across the country.
He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014, and Goldman Sachs Top 100 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs in 2012.
Doug is a former NFL placekicker who won the Super Bowl XXIX championship as part of the San Francisco 49ers in 1994.
When Doug’s not obsessing over real estate and challenging traditional, ineffective ways of managing properties at scale, he’s an avid meditator and philanthropist who enjoys tackling the slopes, off-roading on a mountain bike, or spending time with his wife and three children.
A specialist in leading strategic initiatives and achieving mission critical priorities, Ms. Charles was the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Housing and Deputy Commissioner for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In this role she oversaw the operations of the FHA and advised on policy and regulatory development, portfolio management, legislative affairs and communications in the areas of Housing Counseling and Single Family, Multifamily and Healthcare mortgage insurance and finance. Previously, Genger served as a Senior Policy Advisor and the first ever Chief of Staff to the FHA Commissioner.
Ms. Charles has led multiple high priority initiatives impacting primary and secondary mortgage markets, FHA insurance funds, and affordable housing, including FHA’s Blueprint for Access, the sale of mortgage notes through the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) and the Multifamily Small Buildings Risk Share Initiative. Genger has also served as a key decision maker in the establishment of FHA mortgage insurance premiums, enforcement policies and organizational change management through the Multifamily for Tomorrow Transformation Initiative and institutionalizing the FHA Office of Risk Management.
A frequent media contributor, speaker and guest lecturer, Genger earned a Bachelor of Science in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University and is a graduate of The George Washington University Law School. During law school she worked as a law clerk for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, the Senate Judiciary Committee and at the government affairs and public relations firm Dutko Grayling (formerly Dutko Worldwide).
In 2013, Ms. Charles was selected for the inaugural class of the President's Leadership Workshop, a highly selective leadership training course created by President Obama to prepare the next generation of Senior Administration Officials by offering participants an opportunity to refine management, communications and leadership skills.
From assisting in the development and implementation of strategy on operational, legislative, legal and regulatory issues, to securing the passage of legislation in multiple sessions of Congress, Ms. Charles has a breadth of experience in multiple facets of the affordable housing and housing finance industries.
Kevin is a member of BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory Group within BlackRock Solutions.
With extensive experience focused on the mortgage capital markets and housing policy in both the public and private sectors, Kevin provides advisory services focusing on housing and mortgage finance to clients and serves as BlackRock's senior coverage officer for the principal federal housing and mortgage related entities. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2011, Kevinwas a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he served as a senior relationship manager with coverage responsibilities for federal government and government related clients. He previously headed the global mortgage operating businesses of Morgan Stanley and led their strategic repositioning. He also led strategy, execution and banking for the mortgage principal finance team within the Securitized Products Group.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was a vice president in the Mortgage Securities Department at Goldman Sachs & Co. Kevin served as the President of Ginnie Mae in the Clinton Administration. He also formerly served as Majority Staff Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He began his career in the corporate real estate group at the law firm of Milbank, Tweed Hadley and McCloy in New York.
Kevin is a graduate of Harvard Law School (1987) and earned a Bachelors in City Planning from the University Of Virginia School Of Architecture (1984). He currently serves on the boards of directors of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, the Architectural League of New York, the Friends of Education of the Museum of Modern Art, the University of Virginia School of Architectural Foundation and the Ridley Scholarship Fund at the University of Virginia. He is a former member of the boards of the Municipal Arts Society and the Appleseed Foundation. Kevin is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dennis Cisterna III is the Chief Executive Officer of Investability Solutions, an Altisource business unit focused on providing a comprehensive suite of services to the SFR investment sector. He was appointed CEO in July after spending the previous 18 months as the firm's Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to Investability he served as Managing Director of FirstKey Lending, a portfolio company of Cerberus Capital Management.
Dennis, an AmeriCatalyst speaker and host since 2013, has held a wide variety of management positions within the real estate investment sector including key roles at notable firms such as Johnson Capital, Lennar, and Toll Brothers. Throughout his career, he has been completed more than $3 billion worth of real estate transactions across the U.S. and Europe.
A requested speaker at economic and real estate conferences across the nation, Dennis also serves as a contributor for U.S. News & World Report and hosts The Investability podcast. He is a Licensed Real Estate Broker in California and has a B.A. in Political Science from San Diego State University.
Mr. Corr has served as the Company’s chief executive officer (CEO) since February 2015 and president since February 2013. Mr. Corr has also served as a member of Ellie Mae’s Board of Directors since February 2015. Previously, Mr. Corr served as the Company’s chief operating officer from November 2011 to February 2015, executive vice president and chief strategy officer from November 2009 to November 2011, as chief strategy officer from August 2005 to November 2009 and as the Company’s senior vice president of product management from October 2002 to August 2005. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Corr served in executive and management positions at PeopleSoft, Inc., Netscape Communications Corporation and Kana/Broadbase Software/Rubric, a number of software companies that combined through acquisition. Mr. Corr holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University.
Dr. Chitra Dorai is an IBM Fellow and a Master Inventor, and is responsible for Cognitive Solutions and Services in IBM's Global Business Services as its CTO.
Chitra has received numerous awards and recognition both externally and at IBM for her groundbreaking research and client-facing work in Banking, Financial Markets and Media & Entertainment industries over the last twenty-five years. She was a recipient of IBM’s highest honor in 2011, the Gerstner Award for Client Excellence, was recognized as an IBM Distinguished Engineer in 2012, and was appointed by the IBM CEO as an IBM Fellow, the company's highest technical honor in 2015.
Her work on customer focused analytics in mortgage servicing helped thousands of struggling home owners through home ownership retention programs and alternative workout options during one of the most challenging times in the history of the U.S. housing market.
In 2014, Chitra received the Tamil American Pioneer Award for Excellence in Finance and Business from the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America. In 2016, Chitra was profiled as a “Societal Innovator” in the IBM headquarters that showcase IBMers and the impact they have on the world.
Chitra graduated from IIT Madras with an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and received her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Michigan State University with the Distinguished Academic Achievement Award.
She has co-authored 100+ technical papers in IEEE and ACM conferences and journals, edited a book and received 5 best paper awards at international conferences.
She is also the co-inventor of more than 45 patents, receiving high-value patent awards and has been recognized as a Master Inventor thrice. She has presented keynote addresses and technical talks at academic research conferences, industry symposia and panels, and has served on committees at the International Conferences of IEEE and ACM for more than two decades.
Chitra is frequently interviewed or cited in press, web articles and YouTube video on a wide variety of topics from Cognitive Computing, Big Data, to mortgage industry transformation. Her 2015 interview by HfS Research touched on a variety of topics including the future of analytics. The 2016 profile, The Voices & View from FemTech Leaders... Chitra Dorai discusses her work in cognitive computing. Some of her key invited presentations at recent events and conferences include 2017 Watson Summit in Australia, MBA Tech 2017, The 2017 Richey May Mortgage Banking Roundtable for CEOS and Presidents of independent mortgage banks, The Hackett Group’s 2017 Best Practices Conference, World of Watson 2016, Everest Group’s “On Point | Summit Series 2016,” and HfS’s 2016 Service Buyers Convention.
For a description of Chitra’s Big Data work, see Big Data Profile: Chitra Dorai, IBM and about her appointment to IBM Fellow by the IBM CEO, check out 2015 IBM Fellows. IBM’s marketing video, http://bit.ly/2fqSzCZ features Chitra discussing a recipe for digital reinvention.
Sheida Elmi is a senior associate with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ family financial security and mobility project. The project conducts original research on the balance sheets of diverse U.S. households to assess the degree to which short-term financial security relates to longer-term economic mobility. Elmi leads quantitative analyses, interviews, and focus groups to explore how families fare across different measures of financial health and synthesizes the findings for a variety of audiences, including the public and policymakers. Before joining Pew, she was a research analyst at MEF Associates where she helped evaluate federal programs aimed at promoting family self-sufficiency. Elmi has a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies from Northwestern University.
Mr. Fiorillo is a founding member of DoubleLine. He is the head of Global Sales. Prior to joining DoubleLine in 2009, Mr. Fiorillo was previously a Managing Director at TCW for the previous four years, where he oversaw ABS and CMBS trading. Mr. Fiorillo was an Executive Director with Morgan Stanley. Responsibilities at Morgan Stanley included developing mortgage origination providers into the Morgan Stanley Conduit and expanding the Firm's activity in both the Asset-Backed and Commercial Mortgage Backed securities markets. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Fiorillo was the Co-Head, Managing Director of the Mortgage-Backed Securities Group at Smith Barney. Before being recruited to Smith Barney, he was the head of marketing and sales of the Mortgage-Backed Securities Group at Merrill Lynch. He brings over thirty years of mortgage, asset-backed and commercial mortgage experience to our team. Mr. Fiorillo attended the City University of New York and Marist College.
Mr. Flahive joined Amherst Holdings as President of Single Family Equity in May of 2015. Prior to Amherst, Drew worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. At Goldman Sachs Drew most recently served as a managing director and head of the Real Estate Equity Capital Markets group. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2004 and led more than 150 transactions valued at more than $90 billion, including offerings for real estate investment trusts in the single family rental sector.
A recovering investment banker, Rich deserves the Single-Family Rental Lifetime Achievement Award... for being one of the first to embrace the Single-Family Rental sector as an institutional asset class during his time at Jefferies. Having previously spent time at Lehman and Bank of America, Rich is embracing startup life and only wonders why he waited this long to dive in! Being Canadian, of course Rich put himself through college rappelling out of helicopters to fight forest fires. Don’t they all?
Laurie Goodman is the director of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. The center is dedicated to providing policymakers with data-driven analyses of housing finance policy issues that they can depend on for relevance, accuracy, and independence. Before joining Urban in 2013, Goodman spent 30 years as an analyst and research department manager at a number of Wall Street firms. From 2008 to 2013, she was a senior managing director at Amherst Securities Group, LP, a boutique broker/dealer specializing in securitized products, where her strategy effort became known for its analysis of housing policy issues. From 1993 to 2008, Goodman was head of global fixed income research and manager of US securitized products research at UBS and predecessor firms, which were ranked first by Institutional Investor for 11 straight years. Before that, she was a senior fixed income analyst, a mortgage portfolio manager, and a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Goodman was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Hall of Fame in 2009.
Laurie currently serves on the board of directors of MFA Financial, a Real Estate Investment Trust, is an advisor to Amherst Capital Management (ACaM), and is a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Financial Advisory Roundtable, and the New York State Mortgage Relief Incentive Fund Advisory Committee. She has published more than 200 journal articles and has co-authored and co-edited five books.
Goodman has a BA in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA and PhD in economics from Stanford University.
Richard K. Green, Ph.D., is the Director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. He holds the Lusk Chair in Real Estate and is Professor in the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and the Marshall School of Business.
Prior to joining the USC faculty, Dr. Green spent four years as the Oliver T. Carr, Jr., Chair of Real Estate Finance at The George Washington University School of Business. He was Director of the Center for Washington Area Studies and the Center for Real Estate and Urban Studies at that institution. Dr. Green also taught real estate finance and economics courses for 12 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was Wangard Faculty Scholar and Chair of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics. He also has been principal economist and director of financial strategy and policy analysis at Freddie Mac. More recently, he was a visiting professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and he continues to retain an affiliation with Wharton. He is or has been involved with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Conference of Business Economists, the Center for Urban Land Economics Research, and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. Dr. Green also is a Weimer Fellow at the Homer Hoyt Institute, and a member of the faculty of the Selden Institute for Advanced Studies in Real Estate. He was recently President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.
Dr. Green earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his A.B. in economics from Harvard University.
His research addresses housing markets, housing policy, tax policy, transportation, mortgage finance and urban growth. He is a member of two academic journal editorial boards, and a reviewer for several others. His work is published in a number of journals including the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Land Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Real Estate Economics, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Housing Economics, and Urban Studies. His book with Stephen Malpezzi, A Primer on U.S. Housing Markets and Housing Policy, is used at universities throughout the country. His work has been cited or he has been quoted in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and the Economist, as well as other outlets. He recently gave a presentation at the 31st annual Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium, where his work was cited by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The National Association of REALTORS, the Ford Foundation, and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy have funded grants to support some of Dr. Green’s research. He consults for the World Bank.
In 1995, Dr. Green was honored as “Teacher of the Year” by the University of Wisconsin Graduate Business Association, and soon thereafter was inducted into that University’s Teaching Academy.
Laurie Hawkes is the former co-founder of American Residential Properties, which is one of the top-five fastest-growing companies in the housing industry. In the past year, she has taken ARPI public as a REIT, and overseen its first rental-backed securitization, backed by 2,876 single-family homes in the company’s portfolio. Ms. Hawkes co-founded the Phoenix Fund and ARM in early 2010, as well as ARP LLC in October 2008. From 1995 to 2007 Ms. Hawkes worked at U.S. Realty Advisors, a $3 billion real estate private equity firm, becoming a Partner in 1997 and serving as President of the firm from 2003 to 2007. In the seventeen years prior to joining U.S. Realty Advisors, Ms. Hawkes was a Wall Street investment banker specializing in real estate and mortgage finance. From 1993 to 1995, Ms. Hawkes was a Managing Director in the Real Estate Investment Banking Division at CS First Boston Corp., and from 1979 to 1993 was a Director in the Real Estate Investment and Mortgage Banking Departments at Salomon Brothers Inc. During her investment banking career, she structured and negotiated more than $16 billion in real estate acquisitions and securitized mortgage debt transactions for all property types utilizing many types of financing, including private equity, capital markets financial institutions and institutional investors. She holds a BA Degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA from Cornell University.
Carl G. Hedde oversees corporate accumulation issues at Munich Re including the use of catastrophe risk models, client catastrophe risk consulting services, and portfolio management and optimization. Additionally, he manages a group of scientists that provide seismological and meteorological expertise and research capabilities to Munich Re clients.
Carl received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the State University of New York – Albany, and holds the CPCU Designation. He has 25 years experience at Munich Re, holding various positions within the company.
Christopher Herbert is Managing Director of the Joint Center. Dr. Herbert has extensive experience conducting research related to housing policy and urban development, both in the U.S. and abroad. A key focus of his research has been on the financial and demographic dimensions of homeownership, and the implications for homeownership policy of the recession, housing bust, and foreclosure crisis. Having previously worked at the Joint Center in the 1990s, Herbert rejoined the Center in 2010 from Abt Associates, to serve as the Director of Research. In this role, Dr. Herbert led the team responsible for producing the Center’s annual State of the Nation’s Housing and its biannual America’s Rental Housing reports, essential resources for both public and private decision makers in the housing industry.
Dr. Herbert was named managing director of the Joint Center in 2015, and oversees the Center’s diverse sponsored research programs, its local and national conferences and symposia, as well as its student fellowship programs, designed to help train and inspire the next generation of housing leaders. He is also a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the Department of Urban Planning and Design.
Dr. Herbert is co-editor of Homeownership Built to Last: Balancing Access, Affordability, and Risk After the Housing Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2014), and a member of the Board of Directors of the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Development Research Advisory Council, and the Center for Responsible Lending Research Advisory Council. He holds a PhD and Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a BA in History from Dartmouth College.
Andrew Jakabovics is vice president, policy development at Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit organization that creates opportunity for low- and moderate-income people through fit, affordable housing in diverse, thriving communities. Andrew oversees the Policy Development & Research team, researching issues related to affordable housing, housing and community development, housing finance, foreclosures and neighborhood stabilization, and broader housing supply and demand concerns. Recent publications include "Staying in Place to Get Ahead: Creating Renter Stability through Master Leases with Built-in Savings Accounts", "Projecting Trends in Severely Cost-Burdened Renters: 2015-2025," "Bending the Cost Curve: Solutions to Expand the Supply of Affordable Rentals", and white papers on housing finance reform and mortgage settlements. He has also been analyzing small multifamily properties, neighborhood change, and the demographics and socioeconomics of renter households in the United States.
Prior to joining Enterprise, he served as senior policy advisor to the assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. His primary focus was on housing finance reform, with a particular eye toward issues of access and affordability. In addition, he devoted attention to foreclosure prevention through improving opportunities for modifications and to mitigating foreclosure impacts on neighborhoods and communities. Prior to joining HUD, Andrew served as associate director for Housing and Economics at the Center for American Progress, where he authored some of the earliest policy responses to the foreclosure crisis, including proposals for mortgage restructuring, foreclosure mediation and REO rental. Andrew has testified before Congress and appears frequently in the media. He currently serves on the Board of Managers of the National Community Stabilization Trust.
Andrew holds degrees from Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Katrina, as Vice President of Single-Family Business Solutions at Fannie Mae, leads the company’s vendor and lender solution teams in collaborating to bring the voice of Fannie Mae’s customers and vendors into the front-end of re-engineering efforts. Previously, as Vice President – Customer Management in the Eastern Regional Office, Katrina was responsible for the creation and management of Fannie Mae’s value proposition for her assigned customers. She led a team of account managers working to maximize the value of existing customer relationships, drive customer satisfaction, support development of new customers, and provide a holistic view to managing customer relationships. Prior to that, Katrina was Vice President – Loan Quality Strategy and Business Implementation, with responsibility for overall internal program administration. Earlier, as Director – Lender Channel, Katrina supported customer pricing strategies, and as Director – Single-Family Product Development, she oversaw product development and management of various Fannie Mae signature products. Katrina also spearheaded the design and implementation of key operational initiatives in the Single-Family Operations area and was a consultant on Fannie Mae’s International Housing Finance Team, where she led a myriad of international secondary marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Fannie Mae in 1996, Katrina held various leadership positions at Wells Fargo, where she was responsible for all aspects of regional operations and management of niche product offerings. Katrina has a bachelor of science in business management from Potomac College and a master of business administration from The George Washington University.
Jon Lebkowsky has been managing technology projects and companies for over 25 years. He has been cofounder and CEO of three companies, and has been CEO of Polycot Associates (which was recently transformed into a worker-owned web development cooperative) for ten years, and before that, its precursor Polycot Consulting for six years. He is currently focused on strategic digital consulting and development, as well as business vision and management. He is also known as an activist and writer/blogger focused on the future of the Internet, digital culture, cyber liberties, media, and society.
Fred founded The Dominion Group in 2001. The group is comprised of Dominion Properties, a fix/flip renovation company, RE entities containing about 600 single family rental units in the Baltimore area, Dominion Financial, a private lender that will originate over 100M in the 2017 calendar year, and Dominion Management, a specialized property manager that manages over 700 SFHs in the Baltimore area. Fred provides daily strategic oversight in all The Dominion Group companies with a special focus on operations and fundraising. Fred subscribes to the philosophy that in order to be successful long term, you must provide real value to your clients. For Dominion, this includes their private lending borrower, their fix/flip homeowner buyers, and their residents (tenants).
Richard has over 30 years of experience in mortgage banking and property management including managing all aspects of mortgage banking including originations, servicing, and secondary marketing. His prior experience includes SVP of Executive Administration for Lomas Mortgage USA, President of Winstar Mortgage Partners, and 11 years with Guaranty Residential Lending ,a top 25 mortgage operation, as Chief Operating Officer. His accomplishments include operating a $10 billion a year origination and 100,000 loan servicing platform, extensive M&A experience, development of several asset or investment M&A structures, and management of multiple conduits and national operational platforms including property management. Richard received his BS from the School of Communications at The University of Texas in Austin, Texas.
Patrick McEnerney is a Managing Director of Deutsche Bank’s Non Core Operations Unit with responsibility for legacy RMBS and related mortgage risk in the US and UK. Pat joined Deutsche Bank in 2007 and has held multiple roles in the firm as part of DB Americas Regional Management team and within Global Markets.
Over his 30 year banking career, Pat has held multiple senior management roles in the mortgage banking and banking industries including as President of The Bank of New York Mortgage Company, Executive Vice President of EverBank and Chief Credit Officer of Participants Trust Company (currently part of DTC).
Pat has also been active in numerous industry boards and not-for-profit organizations. He is an Executive Committee member of the Financial Services Roundtable’s Housing Policy Council. He also serves on the Advisory Board for Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City and as an Advisory Board Member of The Institute for Affordable Housing Policy at New York University’s Furman Center.
Christopher McEntee, who joined the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2011, is Senior Director of Corporate Development, responsible for planning and development of ICE’s residential mortgage-related business initiatives. Christopher also joined the Board of Directors of MERSCORP Holdings in 2016.
Prior to joining ICE, Christopher worked at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta for a decade as the Director of Communications. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from St. Michael’s College and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University.
Stanley C. Middleman is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Mortgage Corporation, a national, full-service mortgage banker headquartered in Mount Laurel, NJ. The company is ranked in the top 10 mortgage originators nationally. In addition to his role leading Freedom Mortgage, Mr. Middleman is a prominent business strategist within the industry and an active member of the Mortgage Bankers Association. He is also a member of the Housing Policy Executive Council (HPEC), an affiliate of the Financial Services Roundtable. The Council advocates for the benefits of a fully competitive and integrated housing market and represents dozens of leading national mortgage finance companies. Mr. Middleman has served on numerous advisory boards, including Freddie Mac, Ellie Mae, Inc., and Fannie Mae and has over 30 years' experience in the financial services industry. Mr. Middleman is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment Corporation (“Cherry Hill”), a real estate investment trust. The stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CHMI.” Cherry Hill raised approximately $150 million in its initial public offering in October 2013. Cherry Hill acquires, invests in, and manages, residential mortgage-related assets in the United States. It is externally managed and advised by Cherry Hill Mortgage Management, LLC, which is an affiliate of Freedom Mortgage Corporation. Mr. Middleman is a graduate of Temple University with a BS in Accounting. He currently resides in Cherry Hill.
Toni Moss is the founder, curator and CEO of AmeriCatalyst LLC and EuroCatalyst BV, “sister” advisory firms with specialized services for investors and companies engaged in housing finance and Single Family Rental (SFR). She is also Chairman of the Board of The AmeriCatalyst Idea Lab, a non-profit which generates viable ideas to stabilize and sustain the housing market. Toni is a unique force in housing and real estate; with an entrepreneurial background in corporate intelligence, strategy, market positioning and trend forecasting, she is both a catalyst and connector to move agendas forward. With hands-on operational and senior management experience in 21 national mortgage markets around the world, Toni is one of few experts with a truly global perspective on the industry.
Frequently among the first to identify significant trends and articulate their impact, she is known for calling a series of international government meetings and giving industry-wide presentations and interviews (beginning in 2001) to draw attention to the role of international housing finance and investment as “the epicenter of the global economic fault line.” She believed that this role, in combination with over-leverage and the accelerating forces of globalization were likely to cause an unprecedented global economic fracture.
To amplify her efforts, the following year (in 2002) Toni launched the revolutionary annual EuroCatalyst conference series to share research, observations and ideas among the most respected peers in global housing finance. Today, the series continues as the AmeriCatalyst conference in Austin (Texas), which acts as a collaborative think tank to discuss current issues in housing finance and SFR in the context of globalization and generate innovative ideas across the housing finance and rental lifecycle. Renowned for its unparalleled content and powerhouse of participants, the event is considered the most influential and intellectually challenging conference experience in the industry.
With 25 years of mortgage industry experience, Mr. Newman is an acknowledged expert and innovator in the field.
Mr. Newman was one of the primary architects behind InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending (InterFirst). Over a period of 8 years, InterFirst grew from a small local mortgage originator to an industry leader in third party lending. In 1997, InterFirst’s parent company, Standard Federal Bank, was acquired by ABN AMRO. Over the following 10 years, Mr. Newman continued the build out of what became ABN AMRO Mortgage Group (AAMG). During his tenure, AAMG became a diverse, multi channel top 5 mortgage lender and top 10 mortgage servicer.
During his tenure at AAMG, Mr. Newman demonstrated the ability to spot opportunity and innovate. Most notably, Mr. Newman led the development of the first Internet-based wholesale lending portal known as MOAI. He also rebuilt Mortgage.com into a leading consumer direct website and lending operation. Finally, Mr. Newman started ABN AMRO Capital Markets Group (AMCAP), which became a leader in direct distribution of originated whole loan products.
Most recently, Mr. Newman built Cole Taylor Mortgage (CTM) from scratch . Over his 4 ½year tenure, CTM became a top 40 lender; a top 40 servicer; and a major contributor to Cole Taylor Bank’s financial performance.
Mr. Newman holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Finance and business economics from Wayne State University.
Elizabeth A. O'Brien serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of Colony American Finance. Prior to joining, Ms. O'Brien was Executive Vice President at Auction.com, where she ran its residential capital markets division and set the financing strategy for the platform. In that capacity she managed over two billion dollars of single-family and multi-family loan sales and multiple financing partners. She also founded a proprietary private money lender geared at the investor market as President of AuctionFinance.com. Ms. O'Brien held prior positions at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Trading and Securitization, Goldman Sachs & Co. as Chief Administrative Officer for the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds and as an Associate at Latham & Watkins LLP. Combined, Ms. O'Brien has over 20 years' experience in the mortgage market as both a principal and an advisor. Ms. O'Brien was named a 2014 Woman of Influence in Housing by Housingwire magazine. Ms. O'Brien received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Niraj Patel is a senior business executive with a successful track record of uncovering a corporation’s hidden value and opportunities to create long-term innovative solutions to increase market share profitability. His successful plans have included strategies to address organic growth, in-organic growth through acquisitions, investments, technology solutions and exit strategies.
Mr. Patel is currently the CIO of IBM’s Lending Platforms and an executive member of the innovative IBM Mortgage Team specializing in delivering Watson, cognitive machine learning solutions, the cloud, big data, blockchain and evidence-based decisioning to transform the mortgage industry.
Mr. Patel Co-Founded ISGN, is a Partner at Witmer LLC and Managing Director for the Musser Consulting Group. Mr. Patel works closely with diverse clients including single product firms, medium size firms targeting rapid growth and international conglomerates. Previously Mr. Patel served as a founding member and Executive Vice President/CIO for GMAC Commercial Mortgage. As a member of the Executive Committee, he was a key contributor to the organization’s international growth by consistently delivering double-digit net income growth reaching as high as $341.6 million annually, increasing loan originations from $2 to $29.9 billion, building loan servicing from $5 to $276 billion.
Recognized as an award winning innovator and viewed as one of the leading technologists of his generation, Mr. Patel serves on numerous boards and panels, speaks at industry conferences and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal and numerous commercial real estate, finance and technology publications.
Mr. Patel’s community and professional memberships have included the Microsoft Executive Circle; Eastern Technology Council; the Board of Advisors of the Marketing Center at the Temple University Fox School of Business; the NPower CIO Advisory Council. His executive board experience includes: the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) Board of Directors, EnableUS and MortgageRamp.
Mr. Patel has a B.B.A. in Finance and a M.I.S. from Temple University.
Katrina Phillips is the Founder and CEO of Investor HOA Services, LLC, (IHS), a company that provides HOA management services to single-family rental owner/operators (SFR Owner/Operators). Utilizing a customizable, flexible, and proprietary operating platform, IHS works to resolve the operational and financial challenges that SFR Owner/Operators experience with HOAs daily.
Previously, Ms. Phillips held the position of Vice President, Operations, with American Residential Properties, Inc. (ARPI) and American Homes 4 Rent (AMH), two of the largest publicly traded pioneers in the SFR industry.
Prior to starting her tenure at ARPI, Ms. Phillips was a licensed general contractor with over 20 years’ experience managing construction, remodeling, development, and property management projects with a focus on leveraging technology to gain operational efficiencies.
Jade Rahmani is a research analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an investment bank specializing in the financial services sector. He is the lead analyst covering the Commercial Mortgage REITs, Commercial Real Estate Brokers, U.S. Homebuilders, and Single-Family Rental REITs. Prior to joining KBW in 2007, Rahmani was an equity analyst at Prudential Financial covering industrial companies including aerospace and defense. He previously spent several years at UBS in product management and marketing roles. Rahmani holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Douglas Rushkoff is a writer, documentarian, and lecturer whose work focuses on human autonomy in a digital age. He is the author of fifteen bestselling books on media, technology, and society, including Program or Be Programmed, Present Shock, and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. He has made such award-winning PBS Frontline documentaries as Generation Like, Merchants of Cool, and The Persuaders, and is the author of graphic novels including Testament and Aleister & Adolf.
Rushkoff is the recipient of the Marshall McLuhan Award for his book Coercion, The Jacques Ellul Award for his documentary The Merchants of Cool, and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. Named one of the world’s ten most influential intellectuals by MIT, he is responsible for originating such concepts as “viral media,” “social currency,” and “digital natives.” Today, Dr. Rushkoff serves as Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens, where he recently founded the Laboratory for Digital Humanism and hosts its TeamHuman podcast. He is also a research fellow at the Institute for the Future, and an advisor to Meetup, Shareable, and Codecademy
Rick became CMO of Ten-X in January, 2016, after spending two years with Auction.com as an Executive Vice President. One of the country’s most frequently-quoted sources on real estate, mortgage and foreclosure trends, Rick has appeared on the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, ABC World News, CNBC, FOX, Bloomberg and NPR; briefed government organizations such as the Federal Reserve and Senate Banking Committee; and corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Deutsche Bank.
Prior to joining Auction.com, Rick was an Executive Vice President for Carrington Mortgage Holdings, which owns and operates multiple businesses in the mortgage, real estate and securities industries. Rick also spent eight years at RealtyTrac, where as senior vice president he was responsible for marketing, business development and data operations, and won the Stevie® Award for National Marketing Executive of the Year. Before RealtyTrac, Rick developed and executed sales and marketing programs for technology companies such as Fujitsu, JD Edwards, Toshiba, and Hitachi; start-ups like Tickets.com; and consumer brands including Pizza Hut, Acura and Cox Communications.
Rick is a member of the Corporate Board of Governors of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, and was included in Inman News’ Inman 100, an annual list of the most influential leaders in real estate in both 2013 and 2014.
David Stevens is President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Prior to assuming this position, Dave served as the Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Dave has more than 30 years of experience in mortgage finance and has held several executive level positions in sales, acquisition, investment, risk management and regulatory oversight.
He is well-known throughout the industry and is often quoted in the media as a key housing influential; serving as an industry authority on major mortgage finance legislative and regulatory issues. In 2013, Dave received the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) Founders Award, presented to individuals that have distinguished themselves by their work in support of sustainable Hispanic homeownership to improve the quality of life for Hispanics in America.
He currently serves on the Hope Loan Port board of directors, the board of MBA Opens Doors Foundation, and as an advisory board member of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families.
Marianne Sullivan was Fannie Mae's Senior Vice President for Single-Family Business Capabilities. Reporting to the head of Single- Family Mortgage Business, Sullivan was responsible for developing Fannie Mae’s Single-Family business capabilities strategy and execution. She led industry-wide innovation initiatives to streamline and automate key mortgage origination processes and tools including developing Collateral Underwriter™ and income and asset verification tools. Previously she has led the loan quality initiative, was the Single-Famly Credit Risk Officer and managed various credit management areas of the company.
Sullivan has more than 20 years of experience in mortgage banking and mortgage finance in Fannie Mae’s Finance, Multifamily, Credit, and Single-Family divisions. Prior to joining Fannie Mae in 1992, Sullivan was an Audit Manager at KPMG, with responsibility for supervising client relations and reviewing, researching, and auditing financial information for clients.
Sullivan has a bachelor of science in business administration from Georgetown University.
Aaron Terrazas is a Senior Economist at Zillow, the country's leading internet portal for information and data on all aspects of the American housing market.
He was previously an Economist at the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Economic Policy where he focused on macroeconomic policy and participated in the inter-agency group of economists
who prepare the forecasts underlying the President’s annual budget.
He started his career at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.
He was educated at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University.
Craig Tillman serves as President of WeatherPredict Consulting Inc., a U.S.-based affiliate of RenaissanceRe that provides intelligence on natural perils to a range of entities. WeatherPredict focuses on modeling natural hazards as well as quantifying their effects on the range of exposures at risk. Craig leads a dedicated team of scientists with specialties ranging across oceanography, meteorology, wind engineering, aerodynamics and earthquake risk. He has been a key participant in the development of the StormStruck exhibit at Epcot ® at Walt Disney World ® Resort and the RenaissanceRe Wall of Wind, as well as RenaissanceRe’s series of Risk Mitigation Leadership Forums that examine the role of mitigation in natural catastrophe risk management.
Craig has been associated with RenaissanceRe since 1996. He was previously Chief Underwriting Officer for Glencoe Insurance Ltd. (now renamed RenaissanceRe Specialty Risks Ltd.), and also led RenaissanceRe’s Risk Modeling group. Craig currently serves on the Executive Committee and Board of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) as well as the Research Advisory Council for the IBHS Research Center.
Craig holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Mathematics, as well as the Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) and Risk Management (ARM) designations. He is a longstanding member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
Diane Tomb is Executive Director of the National Rental Home Council (NRHC), a non-partisan organization dedicated to advocating on behalf of the 16 million home single-family rental industry on legislative, regulatory and capital market matters. As the NRHC’s first Executive Director, Diane works to educate the public, the media and policymakers about the economic value of the industry and the benefits of large-scale, well-managed single-family rental housing platforms.
Diane is an accomplished executive and entrepreneur who founded DC-based public affairs and business advisory firm Tomb & Associates LLC in 2003. From 2011–2013, she served as President & CEO of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), where she represented members on public policy issues before Congress and at the White House. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and in the White House in both the Reagan and Bush 41 Administrations. She also served as SVP for communications at the Fannie Mae Foundation. She currently serves as a commissioner on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform and is a member of the International Women’s Forum of Washington, DC.
As President of Ginnie Mae, which he led for seven years from February 2010 to January 2017, Ted Tozer operated a multi-billion dollar corporation, administered the mortgage-backed securities program, and oversaw enterprise-wide risk management initiatives including capital market activity.
Prior to his Ginnie Mae appointment,Ted served for more than 20 years as Senior Vice President of Capital Markets at the National City Mortgage Company (NCM). There, his responsibilities included pipeline hedging, pricing, loan sales, loan delivery, and credit guideline exceptions. While at NCM, the company’s annual loan sales grew from $1 billion in 1989 to $106 billion in 2003. During his tenure, NCM never experienced a loss.
Previously,Ted served as Vice President and Investment Operations Manager at the BancOhio National Bank from 1979 to 1986. In this capacity, he was responsible for all operational support functions of the bank's bond portfolio and securities dealer. From 1986 to 1989, he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of BancOhio Mortgage Company - which later became National City Mortgage - where he was in charge of overseeing loan delivery, pipeline hedging, pricing, corporate accounting, servicing investor reporting, and product development. In this role, Ted was instrumental in transforming National City from an "originate and hold" lender to an "originate and sell" lender. In 1988, under his leadership, BancOhio Mortgage originated about $200 million in residential mortgages eligible for sale in the secondary market.
Ted has also served as a charter member of Fannie Mae’s National Lender Advisory Board since 2008. Since 2002, Ted has been a member of Freddie Mac’s National Lender Advisory Board. From 2002 to 2004, he was Chairman of the Capital Markets committee of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA). While Chairman,Ted successfully worked with Ginnie Mae to change the structure of the Ginnie Mae II security. He also significantly influenced MBA’s decision to advocate for the Federal Home Loan Banks, as an effective alternative to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ted also served as a member of the MBA’s Board of Governors from 2002 to 2004, as trustee of the Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association from 1999 to 2001, and as part of the Fannie Mae Midwest Secondary Advisory Group from 1994 to 1999.
Ted received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Finance from Indiana University. He became a Certified Public Accountant in 1980 and a Certified Management Accountant in 1984.
Ted has been an AmeriCatalyst on-stage favorite annually since 2010.
Christopher is an investment banker and author who lives in New York City. Over the past three decades, he has worked for financial firms such as Bear, Stearns & Co., Prudential Securities, Tangent Capital Partners and Carrington. Most recently, he was Senior Managing Director and Head of Research at Kroll Bond Rating Agency, where he was responsible for financial institutions, corporate and sovereign ratings. He was a cofounder and principal of Institutional Risk Analytics from 2003 through 2013. Christopher is the author of the December 2010 book, "Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream," now in a second printing from John Wiley & Sons. He is co-author with Frederick Feldkamp of the 2014 book “Financial Stability: Fraud, Confidence & the Wealth of Nations” published by John Wiley & Sons. Christopher is a member of the advisory boards of Weiss Residential Research in Natick, MA. He previously served as a fellow of Networks Financial Institute at Indiana State University (2008-2014). Christopher is a member of the Finance Department Advisory Council at the Villanova School of Business and a member of the Economic Advisory Committee of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Christopher is a member of the National Association of Business Economists. He is a member of Professional Risk Managers International Association (www.prmia.org) and was regional director of PRMIA’s Washington DC chapter from 2006 through January 2010. Christopher contributes articles to Zero Hedge, American Banker, Housing Wire and The National Interest. Christopher has testified before Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on a range of financial, economic and political issues. He appears regularly in such media outlets as CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News and Business News Network. He is active in social media under the Twitter handle “rcwhalen”. Christopher has a conversational command of Spanish. A partial listing of his speeches, articles and interviews is available online at www.rcwhalen.com.
Ram is head of strategic operations at Blend, a Silicon Valley technology company driving a more frictionless, compliant, and accessible consumer lending ecosystem. In this role, Ram oversees the company's marketing and business development teams, including long-term partnerships and market engagement strategy. Throughout his career, Ram has been deeply involved in the capital markets side of housing and real estate. Before joining Blend, he was a senior vice president at Bain Capital Credit where he managed housing, mortgage, and structured products related investments. Prior to Bain Capital Credit, he held several positions at Bank of America including co-managing a non-agency mortgage trading and securitization desk.
