Kittle Property Group Names EVP
Todd Sears has been named executive vice president of research, policy, and strategy at Kittle Property Group. Since 2005, he has held numerous leadership positions at the firm, including director of finance, chief financial officer, and executive vice president of portfolio management and analysis, most recently working with the firm’s property management and design departments.
In his new role, Sears will serve as a member of the senior management team, conducting internal and external data-driven analysis to further position Kittle Property Group as a national industry leader. He also will continue to direct the company’s design department, focusing on durable and resilient design that meets the needs of the firm’s clients and partners.
Prior to joining Kittle Property Group, Sears was executive vice president of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership. He recently began serving as an independent director for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, Kittle Property Group owns and manages more than 18,000 apartment homes, providing homes to 30,000 family members in 19 states.
MBS Announces Moves
Ian McCormack has been promoted to senior vice president of development—finance at McCormack Baron Salazar (MBS). He will work with the heads of new business, development finance, and asset management to underwrite transaction structures from a risk/return prospective. He will help drive deals to closings, overseeing them from new business to development, and will be responsible for ensuring that all financing structures meet MBS standards.
McCormack has more than 13 years of experience in structuring and underwriting mixed-finance, low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), workforce, and New Markets Tax Credit developments, corporate risk management, and new business. Since joining MBS in 2009, McCormack has worked on and closed transactions totaling more than $500 million in investment for the development of more than 2,000 mixed-income residential units across the United States.
Tricia Copeland has joined the firm as chief information officer. In this newly created role, she will direct the planning and implementation of enterprise IT systems in support of business operations in order to improve cost effectiveness, service quality, and business development. She will evaluate existing technologies and processes and develop strategies for adopting new solutions for challenges. Copeland’s role will extend across all MBS companies.
Copeland joins the firm from Magellan Health, where she managed a $5 million budget and oversaw the information technology end user experience for all Magellan associates.MBS works in 48 cities and has built more than 24,000 homes for families, children, seniors, and veterans at costs exceeding $4.9 billion.
Rocky Mountain Communities Adds to Executive Team
Mark Marshall has been named vice president of real estate and Denise Gomez has been named director of development, equity, and engagement at Rocky Mountain Communities, a nonprofit that owns and manages affordable housing across Colorado.
Marshall will oversee all aspects of affordable real estate development, including site acquisition, land use, and zoning analysis; financial feasibility; and construction administration. It has been more than 15 years since RMC last had a vice president of real estate.
For the past five years, Marshall was at the Urban Land Conservancy, where he began as director and advanced to vice president of real estate.
Gomez will design and implement a comprehensive fundraising strategy that aims to growing planned-giving and sponsorship. She brings more than 11 years of experience in nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, fundraising, donor cultivation, and nonpartisan campaign and community organizing. She has worked on organizational development and endowment campaigns at the Emily Griffith Foundation and the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado.
RMC owns 1,135 affordable housing units for underserved populations statewide and manages an additional 408 units. It also provides programs for residents ranging from English and exercise classes to after-school activities and food pantries. Since its founding in 1992, the nonprofit has responded to the need for housing and program services for more than 11,000 families.
Enterprise Names Southern California Market Leader
Jimar Wilson has been selected vice president and Southern California market leader for Enterprise Community Partners. Starting March 22, he will work with Enterprise’s partners from the Central Valley to San Diego to build and preserve affordable homes.
Wilson will lead the regional implementation of the organization’s five-year, nationwide strategic plan and its three organizational priorities: increase housing supply, advance racial equity, and build resilience and upward mobility. The plan builds upon Enterprise’s work in Southern California, which includes $1.3 billion invested since 1997 to create and preserve more than 24,000 affordable homes.
With more than 20 years of community development experience across the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Wilson joins Enterprise from the American Business Bank, where he served as vice president and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) officer, overseeing the CRA program in Greater Los Angeles, Orange County, and the Inland Empire.Previously, he held regional community development manager positions at Boston Private and at Northern Trust. Wilson also served as real estate project manager and housing director at West Angeles Community Development Corp.
KeyBank Expands Northeast Team
Kate De La Garza has been named a senior relationship manager for KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI). Based in Syracuse, New York, she will focus on expanding community development banking efforts in the state and the surrounding markets.
De La Garza brings more than 15 years of affordable housing experience in finance, development, and consulting. Prior to joining Key, she was a vice president and senior project manager at U.S. Bank Community Development Corp. She was also previously with Beacon Development Group and Capitol Hill Housing. De La Garza serves on the board of Housing Visions, a nonprofit affordable housing development organization in Syracuse.
KeyBank CDLI finances projects that stabilize and revitalize communities across all 50 states.
Travois Announces Promotion
Kellie Burke has been promoted to chief financial officer at Travois, a company focused exclusively on promoting housing and economic development for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.
As CFO, she is charged with protecting corporate assets and promoting operational efficiency and effectiveness. Burke is responsible for managing the short-term and long-term financial actions of the company and the day-to-day operations of the finance and accounting staff. She also works with the management team to define and implement business processes that align with organizational mission and goals.
Burke has been with Travois since 2012 and has held several key roles in the organization, including financial analyst, asset manager for Travois New Markets, and controller.
Since 1995, Travois has brought investor equity to more than 230 developments through the low-income housing and New Markets tax credit programs, making an impact of more than $1.5 billion across Indian Country. These private investor funds have helped build or rehabilitate more than 5,700 homes and have helped finance critical economic developments.
Merchants Capital Adds to Team
Tony Washington has been named vice president of multifamily loan originations at mortgage banking company Merchants Capital. He will lead the origination of a wide variety of multifamily financing, including Fannie Mae Affordable, Freddie Mac Affordable, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) transactions.
Additionally, Washington will play a critical role in expanding Merchants’ footprint throughout the Mid-Atlantic.
Most recently, he was a founding partner of the EagleBank FHA lending platform, where he served as senior vice president, FHA multifamily lending. Earlier in his career, he worked at Oak Grove Capital, American Property Financing, and AMI Capital.
Jim Green has been appointed vice president, third-party report administration, at Merchants Capital.
With more than 20 years of accounting and commercial real estate experience, Green brings experience in both FHA and government-sponsored enterprise appraising to his new role. He will support the Merchants Capital credit teams, focusing on third-party appraisals/rent studies, project capital needs assessments, and other reports. He will serve as the primary point of contact for all third-party report vendors and offer internal guidance to better help support underwriting recommendations.
Prior to joining Merchants Capital, Green most recently served as partner of Terzo & Bologna, and he’s held a senior real estate accountant position at Aimco, a national multifamily real estate investment trust.
TAT Announces Promotion
Tom Schultz has been promoted to associate at The Architectural Team (TAT). In his new position, he will continue to lead building projects while expanding his involvement with firm leadership, including project design, client management, and business development.
Schultz was recently senior project manager and architect. In his 19 years with TAT, he has led design and project management for over 3 million square feet of built projects in New England alone. His portfolio includes work for major national developers such as Lennar, Toll Brothers, Hines, and Greystar.
CHFA Names Controller
Cindy Adams has been appointed controller and director of accounting at the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).
Adams will lead the agency’s accounting and financial reporting functions with direct responsibility and oversight to ensure CHFA conforms to generally accepted accounting principles. Adams previously served as the financial reporting manager and has more than 20 years of experience in the areas of accounting leadership, financial reporting, budgeting, cost accounting, and overall fiscal management.
HPC Appoints SVP of Public Affairs
Sheryl Pardo has been names senior vice president of public affairs at the Housing Policy Council (HPC). Acting as HPC’s official spokesperson, she will spearhead the organization’s public affairs, advocacy, and communications activities.
Pardo joins HPC from the Urban Institute, where she served as director of communications for the Housing Finance Policy Center. Prior to the Urban Institute, she worked as a strategic communications expert for a variety of federal agencies, trade associations, and public relations firms, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Mortgage Bankers Association, and Glover Park Group.
Founded in 2003, HPC is a trade association whose members are among the nation’s leading mortgage originators, servicers, and insurers and data/settlement service providers.
