Mr. Bartling serves as the President and CEO of Invitation Homes, a Blackstone (NYSE: BX) Real Estate portfolio company and the leader in single-family homes for rent across the United States with 47,000 homes and $9.5 billion of investment.
Mr. Bartling has more than 25 years’ experience in real estate including serving as the Global Co-Head of Real Estate for Ares Management LLC, a global alternative asset manager with more than $66 billion under management.
In this role, Mr. Bartling led Ares’ acquisitions of Wrightwood Capital, AREA Property Partners, and Alliant Capital, as well as the initial public offering of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, where he served as its Co-Chief Executive Officer, a member of its Board of Directors, and the Chairman of its Investment Committee.
From 2007 through its acquisition by Ares in 2010, Mr. Bartling was the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of AllBridge Investments, LLC. AllBridge was a portfolio company of Ares Capital Corporation.
Beginning in 2000, Mr. Bartling served as President and CEO of WMC Management Company, LLC, a privately held real estate operating company with more than 3,000 employees and had such clients as Olympus Real Estate Partners, Arnold Palmer Golf Management, Walden Residential Properties, Inc., and Hyphen Solutions. During his tenure at WMC Management, Mr. Bartling took Walden Residential private, thereby acquiring and managing 142 properties with 39,640 apartment units as well as received fees for managing an additional 15 properties with 4,245 apartment units.
Prior to that, Mr. Bartling served as the CEO and President of Lexford Residential Trust, Inc., a publicly-held multi-family REIT. Lexford Residential Trust owned and managed 402 apartment communities throughout the Midwest and Southeast United States.
Before LFT, Mr. Bartling served as Director of the Real Estate Products Group of Credit Suisse First Boston. Prior to CSFB, Mr. Bartling served as an Executive Vice President of NHP Incorporated as well as positions at Trammell Crow Residential and Mellon Bank, NA.
Mr. Bartling has served on the Board of Directors of APGM, the Children’s Hospital Research for Ohio State University, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: Leadership Forum on Pension Fund and Endowment Investments in Domestic Emerging Markets, Big Brothers and Big Sisters Association of Columbus, Ohio and the NMHC Board of Directors. Additionally, he has served on the Executive Council and as Chairman of the Finance Committee for the National Multi Housing Council. Mr. Bartling won the BBB Business Integrity Award for Lexford, Inc in 1996 and was a judge for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He was the co-founder of Caring Partners for Kids, awarded the 2004 Community Service Award by Multifamily Executive, and served on the Strategic Planning Committee of Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas.
Mr. Bartling received a B.S. in Marketing from Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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.
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.
Dr. Rob Carpenter has more than 30 years of experience as a systems architect, engineer, and technology executive in the high technology industry. Currently he is Vice President of Enterprise Architecture for Corelogic and helping lead a broad technology transformation effort. He joined Corelogic through the acquisition of Dorado where he was Co-Founder and CTO. Prior to Dorado. Dr. Carpenter managed the JavaSoft Systems Architecture practice at Sun Microsystems. He also was a Program Manager and chief engineer with the Advanced Information Systems Division at Boeing / McDonnell Douglas. Dr. Carpenter holds a Ph.D. in Systems Architecture and a MS in Engineering Management from the University of Southern California and a BS in Physics and Economics from UCLA.
Peter Carroll is EVP, Mortgage Policy and Counterparty Relations at Quicken Loans where he provides expertise on policy issues including changes in the asset sales environment, housing reform legislation, and regulatory changes in the origination, servicing and secondary markets. Prior to Quicken, Pete held a similar role as SVP of Capital Markets at Wells Fargo & Co. Prior to Wells Fargo, Peter was Assistant Director of the Office of Mortgage Markets at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). At the Bureau, Pete lead a team responsible for monitoring and analyzing markets for mortgage related products and services as well as assessing the impacts of mortgage rulemaking on providers, consumers, and other stakeholders. Pete provided market insight and leadership throughout the development of the CFPB’s Dodd-Frank Title XIV rulemakings. Prior to joining the CFPB, Pete was Co-Founder of Overture Technologies, a provider of credit risk management services and technologies. Pete has also worked for the management consulting firms Price Waterhouse, LLP and KPMG Peat Marwick, LLP.
Robert J. (Bob) Caruso is the Division President, Servicing, for ServiceLink, a Black Knight Financial Services company. In this role, Bob will lead the company's Sales, Strategy, Servicing Solutions and LoanCare divisions.
Previously, Bob was the Executive Managing Director, Transaction Services at Lender Processing Services (LPS). In this role, Bob was focused on enhancing LPS' origination and default relationships with the nation's top mortgage lenders and servicers. In addition, Bob addressed the strategic and tactical operational needs of LPS' appraisal, valuation, title, flood, field services and default service lines.
Bob also served as LPS' Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the Default Management Services division, where he focused on providing the highest quality technology solutions and service to support clients' needs for the evolving default industry.
In addition, Bob was LPS' Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, where he focused on furthering relationships with leading financial institutions nationwide by addressing their strategic and tactical needs with LPS' integrated technology, services and data solutions.
Before joining LPS, Bob was the Servicing and Post-Closing Executive for the Consumer Real Estate and Insurance Services Group at Bank of America. In this role, Bob oversaw Bank of America's mortgage servicing, home equity and non-real estate portfolios. He was responsible for all servicing and post-closing operations, including development of short- and long-term servicing strategy, customer retention and relationship deepening.
At Bank of America, Bob also led Consumer Real Estate's Vendor Management, Business Continuity Planning, Quality Assurance, Compensation Administration, Executive Complaints, Collection Products and other business administration functions. Under Bob's leadership, Bank of America's mortgage and home equity servicing were recognized with top ratings by external agencies such as Moody's Investors Service, J.D. Power and Associates, Fitch Ratings, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.
With more than 20 years of experience, Bob is one of the most recognized and respected servicing leaders in the industry. Prior to joining Bank of America in May 2004, he served as Executive Vice President of Servicing Operations at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, where he was responsible for servicing and post-closing operations supporting Wells Fargo's mortgage servicing portfolio, as well as the company's sub-servicing operations.
Bob has also held senior management positions with Chase and C&S Bank. Bob is a graduate of Barry University in Miami, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Professional Studies. He formerly served as a member of both the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae advisory boards and is past chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association Loan Administration Steering Committee. In 2007, Bob earned Direct Servicing News' first annual Lifetime Achievement Award.
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.
Mr. Charnoff is the founder and CEO of RentRange and Investability, guiding the firm’s vision and strategic plan. He is a serial entrepreneur who has spent the last 20 years developing cutting-edge companies in the securities and real estate technology sectors. Considered one of the foremost subject matter experts in the field of residential investing, he is frequently called upon by mainstream media to provide knowledge in both televised and print form.
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.
Phil Comeau is President and CEO of Phillip E. Comeau Company, Inc. and Synergistic Associates, Inc. He is on the RentRange Board of Directors.
Phil has over 44 years of residential and commercial finance experience. In the 1980’s he was responsible for originating $1.5 billion of innovative multifamily financing. In the early 1990’s he was responsible for managing Freddie Mac’s scattered site multifamily portfolio and REO. Subsequently, he managed Freddie Mac’s non-performing loan portfolio. He has been a pioneering leader in mortgage delinquent loan management, data analytics, performance metrics and risk management. Phil formed his consulting companies in 2004. He has been working with and advising RentRange since 2011.
He received his MBA in Finance and BS in Engineering from Cornell University. He does volunteer work with St. Joseph, the Worker LTD who assists destitute elderly widows in Bosnia/Hercegovina.
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.
Mr. Corrigan is the Chief Operating Officer of American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH). From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Corrigan was the Chief Executive Officer of A & H Property and Investments, a full service leasing and property management company in Los Angeles County with a portfolio of residential, retail, industrial and office properties where he was responsible for acquisitions, dispositions, development, financing and management operations. Mr. Corrigan served as Chief Financial Officer of PS Business Parks Inc. (NYSE: PSB), a publicly-traded REIT specializing in office and industrial properties throughout the United States, from 1998 to 2004.Prior to his tenure at PS Business Parks, Mr. Corrigan was a partner in the accounting firm of LaRue, Corrigan & McCormick where he was responsible for the audit and consulting practice of that firm. Mr. Corrigan started his career at Arthur Young and Company (now a part of Ernst & Young LLP) and also served as Vice President and Controller of Storage Equities, Inc. (a predecessor entity to Public Storage). Mr. Corrigan earned a B.S. in Accounting from Loyola Marymount University.
Bill Dallas is the chief executive officer of Skyline Financial Corp. one of the nation’s fastest growing financial technology companies. Founded in 1985, Bill Dallas, Upfront Ventures and Ellington Financial have provided substantial capital since 2010. Skyline’s mission is to transform the home-buying experience for consumers, realtors and mortgage originators. We have established an intelligent, data-driven, proprietary online platform powered by data and analytics. We operate our company via three branded platforms: Skyline Home Loans, NewLeaf Wholesale Lending, and NewLeaf Lending. In addition, we customize and operate our platform for consumers, affinity group marketing partners, financial institutions, employers, realtors and other large consumer enterprises.
Bill is known for building two mortgage companies from the ground up, First Franklin and Ownit Mortgage Solutions. Maybe lesser known, Bill, has extensive financial technology and banking experience, as founder of InterThinx, MindBox, California Oaks State Bank and Heritage Bank of Commerce.
Bill is enthusiastic about education and entrepreneurship. Bill and Scott Hamilton are championing the next generation of entrepreneurs at the Dallas/Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Bowling Green State University. Bill is also Chairman of the Board and a founder of Oaks Christian School, a premier college preparatory 5-12 Christian School, in Westlake Village, California.
Bill earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Bowling Green State University and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Santa Clara School of Law. Recently Bill was named one of Bowling Green’s Top 100 graduates and was inducted into the Business Hall of Fame.
Andrew Davidson is a financial innovator and leader in the development of financial research and analytics. He has worked extensively on mortgage-backed securities product development, valuation and hedging. He is president of Andrew Davidson & Co., Inc., a New York firm specializing in the application of analytical tools to investment management, which he founded in 1992.
Andrew was instrumental in the creation of the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae risk-sharing transactions: STACR and CAS. These transactions allow Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to attract private capital to bear credit risk, even as they remain in government conservatorship. Andrew is also active in other dimensions of GSE reform and has testified before the Senate Banking Committee on multiple occasions. Andrew also helped establish the Structured Finance Industry Group and served on the Executive Committee at its inception.
He is co-author of the books Mortgage Valuation Models: Embedded Options, Risk and Uncertainty; Securitization: Structuring and Investment Analysis; and Mortgage-Backed Securities: Investment Analysis and Valuation Techniques. He has contributed to The Handbook of Mortgage-Backed Securities and other publications. He received an MBA in Finance at the University of Chicago and a BA in Mathematics and Physics at Harvard.
Danielle DiMartino Booth makes bold predictions based on meticulous research and her years of experience in central banking and on Wall Street. Known for sounding an early warning about the housing bubble in the 2000s, Danielle offers a unique perspective to audiences seeking expertise in the financial markets, the economy, and the intersection of central banking and politics.
Called “The Dallas Fed’s Resident Soothsayer” by D Magazine, Danielle is a well-known speaker who can tailor her message to a myriad of audiences, once spending a week crossing the ocean to present to groups as diverse as the Portfolio Management Institute in Newport Beach, the Global Interdependence Center in London and the Four States Forestry Association in Texarkana. Her success is based on her ability to translate the arcane language of Wall Street thinkers and Fed insiders to the man on the street. Danielle is regularly featured on CNBC and Bloomberg.
From Wall Street to respected columnist to Fed Advisor, Danielle spent nine years as a Senior Financial Analyst with the Federal Reserve of Dallas and served as an Advisor on monetary policy to Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard W. Fisher until his retirement. Fisher called on Danielle to serve at the Fed after becoming a loyal reader of her financial column in the Dallas Morning News. She began her career in New York at Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette where she worked in the fixed income, public equity and private equity markets. Danielle earned her BBA as a College of Business Scholar at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.
Sean Dobson is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Amherst Holdings, an investment services holding company which controls several companies dedicated to the U.S. real estate finance industry. Amherst is widely known for their data and analytics and one of the few residential mortgage specialists to anticipate the 2008 mortgage crisis. Mr. Dobson has over 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry, including origination, banking, brokerage, and asset management. Mr. Dobson served as a board member of the Structured Finance Industry Group, is a Co-Founder of CapCityKids in Austin, Texas and serves as a Governing Trustee for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He lives with his wife and two children in Austin, Texas
As Senior Vice President of Ginnie Mae’s Office of Issuer and Portfolio Management, Michael Drayne is responsible for the management of Ginnie Mae’s relationships with the mortgage lenders who issue securities under the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities program. In this capacity he oversees the Single Family and Multi-family Program Divisions, as well as the Monitoring & Asset Management Division, the latter of which is responsible for the oversight of the Ginnie Mae servicing assets owned by issuers or Ginnie Mae itself.
A 25-year veteran of the housing finance industry, Mr. Drayne began his career at Chevy Chase Bank, where he served as Vice President and Director of Secondary Marketing. In addition, he was responsible for managing several other operational units for the bank’s nationwide mortgage lending subsidiary. He has also held management positions with the residential lending divisions of two other banks. At one of these banks, he co-founded a reverse mortgage lending unit.
Mr. Drayne has spoken at numerous industry conferences about the U. S. secondary mortgage markets, and in particular the evolution of the post-crisis housing finance industry and its relation to government-insured lending and the capital markets.
Mr. Drayne has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in Public Management, both from the University of Maryland. He resides in Washington, D.C.
Douglas G. Duncan is Fannie Mae's senior vice president and chief economist. He is responsible for providing all forecasts and analyses on the economy, housing, and mortgage markets for Fannie Mae. Duncan also oversees corporate strategy and is responsible for strategic research regarding external factors and their potential impact on the company and the housing industry.
Named one of Bloomberg / BusinessWeek's 50 Most Powerful People in Real Estate and one of Inman News' 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders fo2013, Duncan is Fannie Mae's source for information and analyses on the external business and economic environment, the implications of changes in economic environment to the company's strategy and execution, and forecasting for housing activity, demographics, overall economic activity, and mortgage market activity.
Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Duncan was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association. His experience also includes service as a LEGIS Fellow and staff member with the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs for Congressman Bill McCollum in the U.S. House of Representatives, and work on the Financial Institutions Project at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Duncan received his Ph. D. in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University and his B.S. and M.S. in Agricultural Economics from North Dakota State University. September 2014
Todd is a managing director in the Real Estate Department in the Investment Banking Division, where he advises public and private real estate and hotel companies on mergers and acquisitions and financing opportunities.
Todd joined Goldman Sachs in the Real Estate Department as a financial analyst in 1990. He worked in the department for three years and then attended business school. Upon graduation, Todd rejoined the Real Estate Department as an associate and after four years in New York, relocated to London, where he became a vice president and headed European Real Estate Investment Banking for four years.
Todd subsequently returned to New York to the Real Estate Department and worked for one year in the real estate CMBS joint venture between Investment Banking and Fixed Income. He left the firm in 2005 to pursue two real estate principal investment opportunities and rejoined in 2006 as a managing director in the Real Estate Department.
Todd is a member of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Todd earned an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1995 and an AB from Dartmouth College in 1990.
A versatile real estate executive and accomplished entrepreneur, Eric has more than 18 years of experience working on Wall Street in Investment Banking and launching new business ventures. Eric was previously Vice President, On-line Real Estate at Altisource, where he was responsible for the growth, market penetration and profitability of Altisource’s on-line real estate businesses; Hubzu and Owners.com Prior to joining Altisource in October 2012, Eric founded several start-up companies since 2004, including a mortgage and real estate company that he sold in 2009 and an on-line real estate brokerage model that was a finalist for the Inman Most Innovative Real Estate Startup award in 2012. Prior to this, Eric worked in investment banking for over eight years in leveraged finance at ABN AMRO, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and JP Morgan Chase. Eric is a credit trained financial analyst and has been a licensed real estate broker in New York for over a decade.
James Egan is a Vice President on the Securitized Products Strategy team at Morgan Stanley. He is the head of US Non-Agency RMBS Strategy, focusing on legacy, RMBS 2.0 and Credit Risk Transfer and the co-head of US Housing Strategy. In addition, James co-covers Single Family Rental securitizations. Prior to working in research, James worked as a trader in Morgan Stanley’s Securitized Products group.
James joined Morgan Stanley in 2008. He holds a BA in Commerce from the University of Virginia.
Dain Ehring is an experienced C-level executive, entrepreneur and speaker with extensive experience in high technology leadership and engineering. A dynamic leader and motivator, Ehring is particularly skilled at raising capital; strategy, vision and mission planning; contract negotiations and strategic alliances; and team building and performance improvement.
Most recently, Ehring was founder and CEO of Dorado Corporation, a pioneer in cloud-based applications for mortgage bankers. Under Ehring’s leadership, Dorado became the market leader in demand chain management solutions for the mortgage industry, achieving an average annual growth rate of 200% over a seven-year period. At its peak, Dorado’s patent-protected software was used by 150 of the largest U.S. banks. Ehring raised $120 million in funds from CrossPoint Ventures and other capital sources and structured the company’s successful sale to CoreLogic, a publicly traded, multi-billion dollar technology company.
Ehring began his career in the public sector when he was recruited out of college by the U.S. government. After heading up the National Reconnaissance Organization's (NRO) global technology modernization initiative, Ehring took on a sales and marketing position with NeXT Computers, founded by tech visionary Steve Jobs. His other roles include vice president of worldwide sales and service at Lighthouse Design, a startup applications developer acquired by Sun Microsystems; director of sales development at JavaSoft, a Sun Microsystems subsidiary; and senior vice president of CoreLogic.
A gifted speaker and team builder, Ehring is a strong advocate for an engaged, collaborate and diverse workforce. He serves as an investor, advisor or mentor at several technology incubators, startup organizations and university programs. He also sits on several technology and philanthropic boards and has authored dozens of thought leadership articles on topics ranging from science, technology, politics and financial services. Ehring holds a Master of Astrophysics from UCLA and is an avid traveler and blogger.
Ed Fay founded Fay Servicing in 2008, literally out of his house, since then it has grown into the premier Special Servicer in the Industry with about $10 Billion in loans under management.
Prior to founding the company, Ed launched Countrywide’s Midwest national sales and operations center and was the National manager of the Direct lending group at Household and HSBC. Ed received a B.A. in Economics and History from Duke University and a MBA from Clarkson University.
Mr. Filler has been in the mortgage banking business since 1994, when he was a co-founder of Prism Financial Corp. During his tenure at Prism, revenues grew from $1 million to $275 million; annual pretax profits grew from $100,000 to $50 million; and annual mortgage volume increased from $100 million to over $15 billion. Mr. Filler was president when Prism completed an IPO in 1999. He was CEO when the company was successfully sold to Royal Bank of Canada, where he served until 2001. Mr. Filler gained experience in construction and rehabilitation lending at Prism; the company acquired a national lender that was 100% focused on construction lending for builders. In 2002, Mr. Filler joined American Home Mortgage Corp. American Home was a New York Stock Exchange company, with a market capitalization of $1.7 billion, and the 11th largest mortgage lender in the U.S., when he left in 2006, to form a new mortgage business, Prospect Mortgage Co. He was the sole founder and raised over $160 million in institutional private equity. He held senior leadership positions at Prospect for over five years (he served as CEO, executive chairman or president). In late 2012, Mr. Filler started Hilco Real Estate Finance, LLC (HREF). HREF was extremely successful during its first 2 years, exceeding all expectations. As a result, HREF ownership decided to sell the business to a capital partner that wanted to grow the business much larger and at a faster pace. This culminated in a sale in 2014 to Garrison Investment Group. Garrison is a premier $4 billion New York private equity firm, with extensive expertise in financial services and real estate. The company currently operates under the name Jordan Capital Finance and Mr. Filler remains CEO. In addition, Mr. Filler Co-founded Oasis Legal Finance, and helped raise approximately $100 million from Fortress, Highbridge, and D.E. Shaw. Oasis is the largest company in the consumer legal finance industry. Prior to his mortgage career, Mr. Filler worked at Kirkland & Ellis, a leading national law firm, and The Equity Group, a holding company controlled by Sam Zell. Mr. Filler is a graduate of University of Michigan and Harvard Law School.
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.
Mark Fleming serves as the chief economist for First American Financial Corporation, a leading provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions that traces its heritage back to 1889. In his role, he leads an economics team responsible for analysis, commentary and forecasting trends in the real estate and mortgage markets.
Fleming's research interests primarily include real estate and urban economics, applied econometrics and mortgage risk. He has published research in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Geographic Information Sciences. His research has also been published in the book, "Advances in Spatial Econometrics," and is a U.S. patent author.
As a trusted and influential voice with 20 years of experience in the mortgage and property information business, Fleming is frequently quoted by national news outlets and industry trade publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Housing Wire and he is a regular guest on high-profile broadcast news channels, including CBS, CNBC, Fox Business News and NPR.
Before joining First American, he developed insights and analytical products for CoreLogic, and property valuation models at Fannie Mae. Fleming graduated from the University of Maryland with a Master of Science and a doctorate in agricultural and resource economics and holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Swarthmore College. He lives and works in the Washington, D.C. area.
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.
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.
James Herbert is co-founder and president of LendingHome. Prior to LendingHome, James founded and currently still CEO of Two Bridges Real Estate, a single-family rental real estate fund. Before Two Bridges, James was co-founder of Colony American Homes, one of the leading single-family rental real estate companies, where he helped run acquisitions for the first 4,000 homes. Previously, James was a vice president at Colony Capital where he focused on special situations and a vice president in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley. James received his bachelor’s in economics and MBA from Stanford University.
JK Huey is senior vice president of Wells Fargo Home Lending Asset Management and Preservation, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. In her role, Huey is directly responsible for managing all REO (real estate owned) and property preservation activities for the servicing channel.
Huey, a 30+-year veteran of the mortgage industry, joined Wells Fargo in 2009. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, she was the servicing manager at IndyMac Bank and held senior management positions with Washington Mutual and HomeSide Lending. Huey has managed customer service, default management, escrow administration, cash management, investor reporting, acquisitions, and retail production.
Along with being a Certified Mortgage Banker, Accredited Mortgage Professional, a member of the MORPAC and Loan Administration Steering Committees with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, Huey was president of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association from 1998-1999 and chairman of multiple committees. She is the recipient of the Young Mortgage Banker of the Year Award in 1992, the Larry E. Temple Distinguished Servicer Award for 2012, and the 2014 Five Star Lifetime Achievement Award. She also has experience on the Black Knight Mortgage Advisory Board, Freddie Mac Servicer Advisory Board, Fannie Mae Customer Advisory Group, and the National Mortgage Servicing Association.
Huey is a graduate of the MBA School of Mortgage Banking and holds the designations of Master Certified Mortgage Banker and Accredited Mortgage Professional. She also has a master’s degree in Business Administration from Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas.
Paul Imura has a proven track record driving profitable growth at Fortune 500 and global mortgage services companies. With over 25-years in the mortgage industry, he has held senior leadership positions in marketing, product development, risk management, finance, technology, analytics and business development at global organizations such as ISGN, Accenture, GE, AIG and Allstate. Imura has a deep understanding of housing finance in U.S. and international markets including Asia, Europe and South America. He has designed numerous profitable mortgage products with a focus on borrower safety and security, especially for first time homebuyers. Prior to the housing crisis, Imura made an insightful prediction at the 2005 Mortgage Lending Diversity Conference on pending problems from risky mortgage products mismatched to borrowers based on a mathematical framework.
Imura is currently the Chief Marketing Officer of ISGN Corporation and President of ISGN Solutions Inc. where he is responsible for marketing, product innovation, solutions architecture and growth initiatives. Since 2012, he has driven transformational changes at ISGN such earning numerous industry awards for innovation (like the Mortgage Technology Release of the Year) and market leadership, as well as growing brand awareness.
Imura currently serves on the Board of Directors for ISGN and has also served on the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA) board, a nationwide trade association focused on improving homeownership rates. Imura currently advises new lending platforms such as Solution Lending Services as a board advisor to areas of product innovation with a balance against risk management.
Imura holds a degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and is an Accredited Mortgage Professional from the School of Mortgage Banking. He is also certified in Six Sigma by GE’s Quality program. Imura currently resides in Cary, North Carolina with his wife Karen and has two sons who attend the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Richard Johns is the Executive Director for the Structured Finance Industry Group, a member-based trade industry group focused on providing education and advocacy for the structured finance and securitization market.
A longtime leader in the securitization industry, Mr. Johns previously served as Head of Global Funding and Liquidity at Ally Financial Inc. Prior to working at Ally, Mr. Johns had roles as Head of Global Capital Markets at Capital One Financial Corp and as a transaction lead at MBNA (now Bank of America). Throughout his career, Mr. Johns has issued securitized products across a variety of platforms, including; credit cards, auto (retail, lease and floor-plan), RMBS, Agency, small business, and unsecured installment loan products. He has experience across both domestic and international issuance, including US, Canada, Latin America, Europe and China.
Mr. Johns is a qualified Chartered Accountant within the U.K., having completed his training with Deloitte and is a graduate of the University of Manchester, UK with a bachelor’s degree in Economics.
John Lucey is the Director in the HUD Asset Sales Office. In this capacity, Mr. Lucey oversees all aspects of the Department’s Single Family, Multifamily and Healthcare Loan Sales of defaulted notes. Mr. Lucey supervises a team of skilled professionals to ensure best execution and the highest recoveries to the insurance fund.
Mr. Lucey has been with HUD’s Asset Sales Office since 2002. Prior to his time at HUD, Mr. Lucey worked with Dennison Associates various real estate and related activities
Mr. Lucey is a graduate of Loyola University of Maryland in Baltimore and Towson University in Towson, Maryland, where he earned a B.A. and an M.S. respectively.
Kyle is the President of IndustryVault, and has experience managing diverse cross-functional teams at data and analytics firms such as Black Knight, Andrew Davidson & Co, and LoanPerformance. He co-founded the analytics firm VaRisk, and has worked with C-level executives at many Fortune 500 public companies. Kyle combines a Ph.D. in finance with a strong track record managing both the top- and bottom-lines in data & analytics businesses. He speaks frequently at industry conferences such as ASF, the Housing Policy Council, and MBA Annual, and on news shows such as CNBC and Fox Business.
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.
Mr. McGill is a principal and the Director of Research at Zelman & Associates, responsible for the development and oversight of the firm’s macro research and sector coverage of the apartment, building products, homebuilding, homecenter, mortgage, real estate services, single-family rental and title industries. Prior to Zelman, Dennis was employed by Credit Suisse Group in New York as a Senior Associate Analyst. He earned a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Economics and a Master of Accounting from the University of Michigan. Dennis also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and is certified with the Series 7, 24, 63, 86 and 87 licenses.
Steven Meirink leads Mortgage Solutions, the company’s fee-based business in the mortgage value chain. Mortgage Solutions provides leading financial institutions with services ranging from property management to appraisal and valuation. Businesses include Assurant Field Asset Services, StreetLinks Lender Solutions and eMortgage Logic.
Steve joined Assurant in 2012 from Equifax, where he served as VP, Consumer Information Services, and led Mortgage Growth Initiatives. He is based in Atlanta, and holds a B.A. in Business Administration (Finance and Marketing) from Wartburg College.
Gene Mergelmeyer is president and chief executive officer of Assurant Specialty Property. In 2014, he was also named executive vice president, chief administrative officer for Assurant, Inc., leading their Technology Infrastructure and Enterprise Transformation Groups. Mr. Mergelmeyer has over 30 years of experience in financial services and insurance. Prior to joining Assurant, Mr. Mergelmeyer was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Insureco, Inc. which was acquired by Assurant in 1997. Previously, he held senior management positions in Transamerica’s Property and Casualty Insurance Division and public accountants KPMG.
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.
Dan is Co-Founder, President and a Board Member of Fundrise. He is based in Brooklyn, NY and is head of the firm’s NYC Office.
Dan has a passion for real estate development, technology and finance, which overlap in his work at Fundrise. Dan’s responsibilities include business development, corporate strategy, fundraising, deal sourcing, institutional investor relationships, public relations and public speaking.
Dan is also a Managing Partner of WestMill Capital Partners, a Washington D.C. based real estate development company, and he remains involved with Western Development Corporation, his family’s real estate organization which has developed more than 20 million square feet in its 48-year history.
Dan graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania as a submatriculant with a dual B.S. and M.B.A.
David N. Miller serves as Chief Executive Officer of Silver Bay Realty Trust, an internally managed REIT focused on the acquisition, renovation, leasing and management of single-family properties for rental income and long-term capital appreciation. Silver Bay owns single-family properties in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
Prior to serving as Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Miller served as a Managing Director of Pine River Capital Management L.P. and Two Harbors Investment Corp., where he focused on strategy and new business development, including the formation and development of Silver Bay and the single-family property rental business. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Miller served in various roles at the U.S. Department of Treasury, including as the Chief Investment Officer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) where he was instrumental in building various investment programs and business units and overseeing the investment portfolio. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Miller was a portfolio manager at HBK Capital Management focusing on equity investments. From 1998 through 2007, he held various positions at Goldman, Sachs & Co., including as a Vice President in the Special Situations Investing Group where he focused on proprietary investments in debt and equity and as a financial analyst in the investment banking division where he focused on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Miller received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College.
Managing Director and Head of Financial Services/Real Estate Research Paul Miller is well known in the investment community for providing in-depth, fundamental analysis and investment recommendations on money center, regional, and community banks, as well as on mortgage finance companies. Mr. Miller’s coverage includes Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp.
In 2010, Mr. Miller was named the top overall stock analyst among 2,700 analysts by Forbes.com. He also received the Forbes.com Blue Chip Analyst Award as the leading analyst covering banks & thrifts in 2008, 2009, and 2010; he received the same award for coverage of finance companies in 2009. Mr. Miller was recognized by the Financial Times/StarMine in 2008 and 2009 as the leading earnings estimator in thrifts & mortgage finance. He was also named The Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” in 2006 and 2007 for coverage of thrifts. In 2008, Bloomberg Markets ranked Mr. Miller No. 1 for Bearish Best Calls from among more than 3,000 analysts worldwide.
Mr. Miller is a former bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, where he worked for five years. As a bank examiner, Mr. Miller conducted financial analysis for more than 30 community banking institutions in the Philadelphia and Harrisburg market areas. Mr. Miller earned his B.S. in economics, his B.A. in international relations, and his M.S. in economics from the University of Delaware. He received the chartered financial analyst designation in 1997.
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.
Diane Mueller ieads Community Development at Red Hat, focusing on cross-community collaboration and driving both customer and developer community initiatives to ensure the success of OpenShift, the world's leading Open Source Platform as a Service along with OpenStack and other Cloud initiatives at Red Hat. Founder of XBRLSpy Research Inc and a long-time XBRL Evangelist and XBRL Implementation Strategist, DIane has been designing & implementing financial applications at Fortune 500 corporations for over 20 years. She is actively involved in cloud interoperability standards development efforts of OASIS/TOSCA & the financial XML data standard XBRL Open Standard (http://www.xbrl.org). She lives and works in British Columbia, Canada.
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.
Dr. Frank Nothaft is senior vice president and chief economist for CoreLogic, America’s largest provider of advanced property and ownership information, analytics and data-enabled services. He leads the economics team responsible for analysis, commentary and forecasting trends in global real estate, insurance and mortgage markets.
Before joining CoreLogic Frank served in a variety of leadership positions with increasing responsibility at Freddie Mac. Most recently, he was vice president and chief economist responsible for forecasts, research and analysis of the macro economy, housing and mortgage markets. Prior to Freddie Mac, Frank was an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he served in the mortgage and consumer finance section and as assistant to Governor Henry C. Wallich.
Frank frequently appears on local and national radio and television programs and has been widely quoted in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many industry trade publications such as National Mortgage News and HousingWire. He has been a regular guest on cable news channels such as CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business News.
Frank has served as president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, Board member of the Financial Management Association, Advisory Board member of the Real Estate Research Institute, Chair of the Real Estate Roundtable for the National Association for Business Economics, and as Editorial Board member of the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.
Frank graduated from New York University with a bachelor of arts in mathematics and computer science and he holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia 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.
Joshua is a US real estate expert and founder of Omicelo. Prior to forming Omicelo, Joshua led US housing research for Goldman Sachs through the Great Recession from 2009 to 2013. He spent 2005-2009 as a critical member of Goldman’s universal research team that found equity capital markets opportunities in real estate, engineering & construction and 8 other industrial sectors. During his time at Goldman Sachs Joshua led the $1 billion IPO of Realogy, received numerous awards including an addition to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list and he was the youngest person in Goldman Sachs’ history to lead a research team.
Ms. Porter has been our Senior Vice President, Operations since October 2012 after joining us in July 2012. She has been an executive in the Real Estate Industry since 1995, when, as a founding executive serving as Senior Vice President of Operations, she helped to create the first online marketplace for mortgage lending at Getsmart.com. In 2000, after Providian Bank's acquisition of Getsmart.com, she joined nCommand as Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, where she developed an end-to-end virtual loan process for residential lending. After the acquisition of nCommand by Ellie Mae in 2002 she served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Operations at Accruent, a company whose products are used in managing over 1 billion square feet of commercial space for many Fortune 500 companies and large retailers. In addition, beginning in 2005, Ms. Porter served as Director of Operations for Hometown, where she developed the systems technology and processes to underwrite, fund, manage, securitize and sell more than $2 billion in assets. Ms. Porter has served on the MBA-sanctioned Governance Board of MISMO (Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization), attended Arizona State University, and completed the Oracle RDBMS Master’s program for Database Administrators.
James Rickards is Chief Global Strategist at the West Shore Funds, Editor of Strategic Intelligence, a monthly newsletter, and Director of The James Rickards Project, an inquiry into the complex dynamics of geopolitics + global capital. He is the author of New York Times best seller, The Death of Money (Penguin, 2014), and national best seller, Currency Wars (Penguin, 2011). He is a portfolio manager, lawyer, and economist, and has held senior positions at Citibank, Long-Term Capital Management, and Caxton Associates. In 1998, he was the principal negotiator of the rescue of LTCM sponsored by the Federal Reserve. His clients include institutional investors and government directorates. He is an Op-Ed contributor to the Financial Times, Evening Standard, New York Times and Washington Post, and has been interviewed on BBC, CNN, NPR, CSPAN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox, and The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Rickards is a visiting lecturer in globalization at the Johns Hopkins University and the School of Advanced International Studies, and has delivered papers on risk at Singularity University, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is an advisor on capital markets to the U.S. intelligence community and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Rickards holds an LL.M. (Taxation) from the NYU School of Law; a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School; an M.A. in international economics from SAIS, and a B.A. (with honors) from Johns Hopkins. He lives in Connecticut
Prior to joining BlackRock in 2009, Mr. Robertson spent 10 years with Wachovia Capital Markets, most recently as a Managing Director, head of the Residential Mortgage and Consumer Group, and co-head of Residential CDOs. In these roles, he was the business leader for the broad investment banking consumer and residential mortgage markets activities. He oversaw the strategic and operational management of the company's Distressed Asset Resolution default management team (DART), and the Chief Executive Officer of Vertice, Wachovia's wholesale mortgage origination platform. Mr. Robertson's other responsibilities included performing or managing various capital markets and operations functions, including risk management and arbitrage trading; he also developed Beacon, a loan level statistical model that provides predictive loss and prepayment analysis in all housing price environments. Before joining Wachovia in 1998, Mr. Robertson was Senior Vice President and head of Capital Markets with The Money Store. From 1990 to 1997, he was with Barnett Banks Incorporated, most recently as Director of Investments and Wholesale Funding. Prior to that, he spent four years with American Savings Capital Markets.
Mr. Robertson earned a BBA degree in finance from Florida International University in 1983.
Joshua is a Partner at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co. and advises regulators, policymakers and institutional investors on housing and mortgage finance issues. Previously he was the Managing Director of financial services research for Medley Global Advisors and was an Executive Vice President at CIBC World Markets. Josh was among the first analysts to identify operational and accounting problems at the government-sponsored enterprises and one of the earliest in identifying the peak in the housing market, the likelihood of contagion in credit markets and the weaknesses in the credit rating agencies CDO assumptions.
Curt Schade is co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Pretium Partners, an investment management company focused on residential real estate asset related opportunities. Pretium manages Progress Residential, a private REIT with over 16,000 single-family rental homes and Pretium Mortgage Credit, a non-performing loan fund that has acquired approximately 10,000 NPLs and has the ability to retain both re-performing loans and REO for rental.
Prior to launching Pretium, Curt was a partner at Pinebank Asset Management, a long/short distressed credit hedge fund and prior to that, a partner in the leveraged finance groups at Bear Stearns and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Stephen G. Schmitz is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Residential Properties, Inc., a Scottsdale-based single-family rental REIT. Mr. Schmitz and Chief Operating Officer Laurie A. Hawkes founded the company in May 2012 to invest in the single-family housing sector throughout the United States. In 2008, he and Ms. Hawkes founded ARP, LLC, which was one of the first companies in the country to employ a single-family buy-and-hold rental strategy on an institutional scale. In 2010, together with Ms. Hawkes, Mr. Schmitz founded the Phoenix Fund, a private investment fund that opportunistically invested in single-family homes as rental properties in Arizona and Nevada. In May 2012, they formed American Residential Properties, Inc., which now owns homes in 13 states. Prior to cofounding ARP, LLC, Mr. Schmitz was Chief Investment Officer of Franchise Finance Corporation of America. After spending 15 years with FFCA, the company was acquired by GE Capital. He subsequently spent four years with GE Capital as an Executive Vice President. Mr. Schmitz holds a B.S. in business from Franklin University and an MBA from Pennsylvania State University.
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.
Jeremy is the co-founder and CEO at HouseCanary. He drives the company's vision, strategy and growth by using big data to develop systematic, predictive analytics enabling savvy investors to maximize their real estate investments. Jeremy was previously a Partner & Managing Director at The Boston Consulting Group where he helped leading real estate investors deploy billions in capital. In an effort to employ better analytics for investors, Jeremy connected with PhD candidate Chris Stroud, HouseCanary’s Co-Founder and Chief of Research. Chris brought a background in Economics and Bayesian Statistical Modeling, resulting in a partnership that became HouseCanary. Jeremy received his MBA from The Wharton School and his BS in Accounting from the University of Southern California with highest honors.
Mr. Singelyn is the Chief Executive Officer of American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH). From 2003 through April 2013, Mr. Singelyn was Chairman and President of Public Storage Canada, a real estate company previously listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, where he built a management team that restructured the operations of the company, including building an operations team and installing accounting and operating computer systems. In 2010, Mr. Singelyn facilitated the restructuring of the ownership entity that was traded on the Toronto stock exchange resulting in the company “going private.” In 2005, Mr. Singelyn, along with Mr. Hughes, founded ACE, and he now serves as a co-manager of ACE. Mr. Singelyn is also a director of the William Lawrence and Blanche Hughes Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to research of pediatric cancer. Mr. Singelyn served as the Treasurer for Public Storage (NYSE:PSA), from 1989 through 2003, where he was responsible for equity capital raising, debt issuances, corporate cash management and financial management for Public Storage and its subsidiary operations. During his tenure, and with his direct involvement, Public Storage raised funds through the public and institutional marketplaces, including from a number of state pensions.
Mr. Singelyn started his career at Arthur Young and Company (now a part of Ernst & Young LLP) and also served as Controller of Winchell’s Donut Houses where he was responsible for all accounting functions. Mr. Singelyn earned a B.S. in Accounting and a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from California Polytechnic University - Pomona.
Tim Skeet has worked in the City of London for over three decades and has specialised in the funding of financial institutions and mortgages. He is a frequent contributor to the media and a speaker at conferences and industry events. Over the past year Tim has published a number of articles on subjects such as trading and market liquidity, the impact of the bail-in regime as a solution for failing banks, hiring humanities graduates into the banking industry and the future of banking following the crisis.
Tim has spent over half his career working for Wall Street banks and played a role in trying to introduce covered bond finance to the United States. His current employment is as a Managing Director at RBS with responsibility for covered bonds and Northern Europe debt capital markets origination. He is also a board member of the International Capital Market Association, a global trade association that promotes the smooth running of the debt markets in Europe and elsewhere.
As chairman of the Investor Working Group on Bail-in, Tim works closely with investors and regulators in Europe examining the mechanisms for dealing with bank failures in future.
Ryan has been in the Structured Credit Group at Deutsche Bank for 14 years with management duties including overseeing all aspects of the residential and small balance commercial mortgage business including term securitizations, warehouse lending, M&A and advisory assignments, distressed whole loan purchases and derivative sales for the United States and Canada. He has particular expertise in the non-agency and sub/non-performing/REO sectors and has clients ranging from the US government to specialty finance companies, REITÕs, hedge funds, private equity firms and large banks. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Ryan worked for 2 years at PaineWebber in the Municipal Securities Group focusing on project finance backed debt transactions.
Dallas is one of the founding partners of Invitation Homes. He has overseen acquisitions of roughly 50,000 single family homes with IH. With more than 12 years in Residential real estate and a strong background in finance, Dallas oversaw investor relations, equity raising, and acquisitions at Treehouse Group. While at Treehouse, Dallas was responsible for investing in over $130 million of single and multifamily homes. Before launching Treehouse Group he brokered and syndicated land and residential investments for Perkinson Investment Corp, where he worked closely with developers and construction companies for site-use analysis to determine investment objectives and strategies. Dallas graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelors degree in Finance and a Masters degree in Real Estate Development from the WP Carey School of Business.
Phillip Thigpen is a Director in PwC’s Financial Instruments, Structured products and Real Estate (FSR) group. He has over 25 years of experience in mortgage finance and fixed income capital markets, where he has acted in advisory, managerial, transactional, investment and operational roles. Mr. Thigpen specialize in structured finance, credit enhancement, liquidity strategies, the mortgage-backed securities market, loan originations. He currently is transaction advisor to the FHA’s single-family NPL sale program.
Prior to joining PwC, Mr. Thigpen founded a boutique transaction management and strategic advisory firm and was also previously a Senior Vice President at GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp., where he organized and led the company’s commercial mortgage backed securities team. Mr. Thigpen’s team managed issuance and trading of Agency and Ginnie Mae multifamily MBS as well as CMBS and managed the company’s relationships with the Enterprises, capital markets investors, investment banks, rating agencies and trustees.
Mr. Thigpen began his career in financial services at Salomon Brothers Inc., where he was a member of the Mortgage Securities Department. Working on the trading desk in New York, his client base was comprised of institutional fixed income investors and multifamily, single family and commercial mortgage lenders.
Mr. Thigpen is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.
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.
Allan Weiss is Founder/CEO of Weiss Residential Research, creator of residential real estate indexes and forecasts. He has been awarded several US patents for related financial products. Mr. Weiss is also co-founder and former CEO of Case Shiller Weiss, producer of the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Indexes and forecasts, which were published regularly in The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Weiss is co-inventor of Macro Securities, recipient of the Time magazine award for one of the best inventions of 2008. He has been interviewed and consulted by national media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNBC, as an expert in residential market trends and financial products. He has also co-authored articles in the Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics and Real Estate Economics, concerning the establishment of liquid markets and hedging solutions.
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.
Mr. Zeeman serves as Chief Executive Officer of Main Street Renewal LLC and oversees all aspects of Main Street Renewal’s business including property acquisition, asset management, and property management.
Mr. Zeeman has over 20 years of financial services and operations experience, including prime and non-prime consumer and mortgage lending servicing, real estate portfolio management, information technology strategy, and consumer finance sales operations. He most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer of HSBC US where he led the US Bank’s $1B cost reduction and regulatory control transformation program. In his 15 year career at HSBC, Mr. Zeeman served in various management, strategic leadership and business development roles including Deputy CEO for HSBC Singapore, Chief Servicing Officer for Consumer & Mortgage Lending, EVP for Mortgage Sales and EVP for Credit Card Operations.
