Spear to Lead Community HousingWorks
Sean Spear will become CEO of Community HousingWorks (CHW) in October, announced the San Diego-based nonprofit organization.
He has been serving as assistant general manager for housing development at the Los Angeles Housing + Community Investment Department, where he is responsible for leading its housing production efforts and directing the operation of its Housing Development Bureau. Many also know Spear from when he was executive director of the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee from 2009 to 2015.
He will take the helm of CHW from Sue Reynolds, who announced her retirement as president and CEO earlier this year.
Founded in 1988, CHW is a nationally recognized nonprofit that develops, rehabilitates, preserves, and operates affordable apartment communities in San Diego and throughout California. It owns over 3,600 apartments in 42 communities statewide, serving more than 9,000 working families, children, and seniors.
Jamboree Names CFO
Affordable housing industry veteran Jim Francis has been named CFO of Jamboree, a California-based nonprofit affordable housing developer and owner in California.
He will oversee the company’s asset management, IT, and accounting teams and provide executive oversight of and strategic leadership to Jamboree’s $3.2 billion asset portfolio.
Francis brings more than 25 years of banking expertise and a comprehensive knowledge of debt and equity transactions, tax credit investments, underwriting, residential mortgage, and commercial and consumer lending. He joined Union Bank in 1986 and co-founded its Community Development Finance division in 1995, overseeing the division’s expansion across the West Coast and the origination of more than $3 billion in debt and equity financing for the development of affordable housing. He has served as a managing director for three different Union Bank divisions since 2010.
He has served as a board member of the California Community Reinvestment Corp. and as a president and board member of the Affordable Housing Investors Council.
Regions Affordable Housing Appoints SVP
Rachel Thomas-Phillips has been appointed senior vice president and relationship manager in the originations group at Regions Affordable Housing.
Based in the firm’s downtown Austin, Texas, office, she will focus on sourcing andoriginating affordable housing transactions throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Thomas-Phillips brings more than 20 years of finance and affordable housing experience to the team. Most recently, she spent eight years with CREA as senior vice president of acquisitions.
Her previous roles include serving as director of finance at Samaritan Center for Counseling and Pastoral Care, where she also served as president of the nonprofit’s board of directors post employment. She was also finance operations manager at Verizon Wireless and was a supervising audit senior at KPMG.
Regions Affordable Housing is a national low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) investor and syndication firm. Regions Bank is also a Fannie Mae multifamily lender and Federal Housing Administration affordable lender.
MFRG-ICON Construction Names President
MFRG-ICON Construction, a leader in construction solutions for the occupied renovation of affordable multifamily and senior housing communities, has promoted COO Bradley Wright to president after he led the general contracting firm to expand its presence into four additional markets across the nation.
With offices in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; and Athens, Ga., MFRG-ICON has expanded its footprint to include projects throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Montana, and Washington.
The firm has more than two and a half decades of experience in the LIHTC industry. Its team has completed renovations of more than 30,000 affordable housing units and $2 billion in construction while temporarily relocating more than 50,000 families and seniors.
MFRG-ICON officials plan to open an East Coast regional office in Charlotte, N.C., in 2021.
Tidwell Group Announces Partners
Christopher R. Bailey and Morgan E. Mahaffey have been promoted to partners at Tidwell Group. Both are based in the firm’s Columbus, Ohio, office.
Part of the firm’s assurance team, Bailey has more than 15 years of experience in public accounting and plays a key role in the firm’s services provided to the affordable housing industry, including Department of Housing and Urban Development, Rural Development, and LIHTC projects. He also has experience working with nonprofit organizations.
Mahaffey offers experience in tax credit partnerships and pass-through entity taxation. He is responsible for providing tax compliance, tax planning, and tax consulting services. Mahaffey has knowledge of both state and federal housing, historic, and New Markets tax credits as well as Opportunity Zones.
The Integral Group Adds to Team
Richard A. White has been named senior vice president of corporate communications at The Integral Group, an Atlanta-based development company. He will be responsible for the strategic planning and execution of all organizational branding, corporate and executive communications, public affairs, media relations, community engagement, and investor communications.
White recently served as senior adviser to the CEO of an independent housing provider in Washington, D.C., that holds assets approaching $600 million and 1,300 employees. Before that, he led an Atlanta-based strategic communications firm with clients across a variety of industries, including real estate.
CFA Names Director of Housing
Mitria Spotser has been appointed director of housing at Consumer Federation of America (CFA). She succeeds Barry Zigas, who has become a senior fellow.
She previously served as senior director of advocacy and counsel at Credit Union National Association, senior counsel on the Housing Financial Services Committee for Rep. Maxine Waters, vice president of federal policy and senior counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, and director of legislative and policy advocacy at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
Zigas will continue to co-chair CFA’s Consumer Lender Roundtable as well as support Spotser and the rest of the CFA team with his years of housing experience.
CFA is an association of more than 250 nonprofit consumer organizations that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education.
