Kevin G. Chavers, is a member of the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Chimera Investment Corporation, Toorak Capital Partners and the Board of Trustees of the Optimum Funds. He was formerly a Managing Director, and member of the Global Fixed Income Securitized Asset Investment Team at BlackRock. He was also a Co Leader of the BlackRock Impact Opportunity fund and formerly a member of the Global Public Policy Group and Government Relations Steering Committee. He began his career at BlackRock in the Financial Markets Advisory Group. Mr. Chavers has extensive experience in the mortgage capital markets and housing finance policy in both the public and private sectors. He was the Co-Chair of the Black Professionals Network at BlackRock.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2011, Mr. Chavers was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he served as a Senior Relationship Manager with coverage responsibilities for the mortgage Government Sponsored Enterprises and related clients. He previously headed the global mortgage operating businesses of Morgan Stanley during their strategic repositioning. He also led strategy, execution and banking for the mortgage principal finance team within the Securitized Products Group.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was a vice president in the Mortgage Securities Department at Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. Chavers served as the President of Ginnie Mae in the Clinton Administration. He also formerly served as Majority Staff Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He began his career with the law firm of Milbank, Tweed Hadley and McCloy.

Mr. Chavers is a graduate of Harvard Law School and earned a Bachelor’s in City Planning from the University Of Virginia School Of Architecture.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and on the boards of directors of Enterprise Community Partners, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the University of Virginia Foundation and the Penn Institute for Urban Research. He is a former Partnership for New York City David Rockefeller Fellow.

Kevin is a native Philadelphian.

Erika is Citi’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and Global Head of Talent, responsible for developing global diversity, equity and inclusion strategy and driving Citi’s agenda on talent planning, succession planning and leadership development. Prior to joining Citi, Erika was Chief Diversity Officer at Goldman Sachs from 2018 to 2021 and Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Bloomberg from 2015 to 2018.

Prior to this, she led executive and diversity hiring efforts at Bank of America and Lehman Brothers. Erika’s background includes a range of banking and finance roles, including Head of Business Development for Black Entertainment Television, Senior Associate in High Yield Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley and Senior Policy Analyst for Domestic Finance for the United States Department of the Treasury. She began her career as an Analyst in Public Finance at Lehman Brothers.

Erika is Vice Chair of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and serves on the Board of the Riverside Hawks. Erika earned a BS in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Based in New York City, Marisha Clinton is the Senior Director of Northeast Regional Research at Savills, where she is responsible for leading the research efforts from Philadelphia to Boston. With over 21-years of deep research experience,  Marisha served as an equity research financial analyst at some of Wall Street’s most prestigious firms prior to joining Savill’s, as well as led research for major commercial real estate companies. Marisha began her commercial real estate career at JLL as the Director of Capital Markets Research where she established the firm’s baseline capital markets research platform, captured granular local investment insights, and published valuable market analysis. Most recently, Marisha led the New York Tri-State Research team and also supported Client Valuation & Advisory at Avison Young.

She was also part of the New York Real Estate Journal’s Spotlight for Women in Real Estate in 2020, and has participated in various public speaking engagements including at the NYU Stern Center for Real Estate Finance Research (CREFR) Annual Fall Symposium, the AICPA Construction & Real Estate Conference, and Urban Land Institute (ULI) Fall Meetings.

Marisha is a graduate of Howard University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she respectively earned her B.B.A. in Accounting and an MBA with a dual major in Finance and Strategic Management.

Blondel A. Pinnock served as a senior executive in banking and public finance, specifically in the area of community and economic development for over 20 years. Before becoming the first female president & CEO of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, she served as  the Chief Operating Officer of Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, the oldest community-based organization in the country. Prior to GJDC, Ms. Pinnock worked for Carver Federal Savings Bank, where she held the role of Chief Lending Officer (CLO) and President of Carver Community Development Corporation (CCDC). 

Notably, Ms. Pinnock served as the first female chair of the 125th Street Business Improvement District and has been appointed by Mayor deBlasio to the boards of New York City’s Community Advisory Investment Committee and New York City’s Residential Mortgage Insurance Corporation. Ms. Pinnock also serves on the board of the Harlem YMCA and is an active member of her church, Abyssinian Baptist, as well as her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.  Ms. Pinnock earned a B.A. in History and Sociology from Columbia University and a J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, where she received a full-scholarship (a/k/a Dwight L. Greene Scholar). She currently resides in Westchester County and has a son attending college. 

Tim Simons is the Co-founder of Forethought Advisors, LLC. Mr. Simons works with Congress, state and local housing constituents throughout the United States, and the financial service industry to ensure the continued viability of mortgage lending for all communities.

Before leading Forethought Advisors, Tim spent 14 years organizing grassroots and grasstops advocacy campaigns, working with Congress and Presidential Administrations at the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, where he served as Vice President. Tim was also instrumental in the establishment of the $100M Donor Advised Fund created by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco to promote job growth and future home ownership opportunities. The initiative drew the praise of several key members of Congress, the Senate, and Presidential Administrations, with House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters recognizing “the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and the contributions of Lawrence Parks and Timothy Simons.”

In addition to his extensive legislative and regulatory network, Tim has a deep background in financial and operational compliance developed while working for KPMG and Cable & Wireless in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America. He has an MBA from University of Maryland College Park and an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Hampton University.

Lenny is Senior Vice President of External Affairs, Strategy & Marketing at The Brooklyn Hospital Center. He was previously Chief Administrative Officer for the BNY Mellon’s Corporate Treasury Division after achieving a long and successful record of accomplishment within various departments across the franchise. In this role, Lenny was responsible for overseeing the strategic management and development of BNY Mellon’s relationships with the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as well as managing compliance and corporate policy adherence, human resources, and technology needs for Treasury.

Prior to being selected as Chief of Staff, Lenny was responsible for leading the successful integration of new business for the Firm’s Enterprise Foreign Exchange business. In this role, he developed the plans for integration, and ensured successful execution of those plans, across multiple business segments, and to the satisfaction of key and senior level stakeholders. Prior to his tenure at BNY Mellon, Lenny also served as a Project Manager at Lehman Brothers, in the Global Operations Division.

As a longtime strong supporter of local civic involvement, Lenny serves tirelessly as a Trustee of The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Director of The Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and 2nd Vice Chairman of New York City Community Board 2 (Brooklyn).

Cameron Arrington is Head of Commerical Bank Leveraged Finance Sales at Goldman Sachs. Prior to
that he was a consultant with Accenture. Cameron is a graduate of Duke University – The Fuqua School
of Business and the University of Texas at Austin.

David is Immediate Past President and CEO at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC), who oversaw its diverse tenant base and ongoing expansion efforts. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Real Estate Transaction Services at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). At NYCEDC, he managed many of the city’s priority economic development projects, including an initiative resulting in Cornell’s Roosevelt Island campus; the redevelopment of vacant land on the Lower East Side known as Seward Park; the Atlantic Yards project; and hundreds of millions of dollars of programs supporting small businesses after Hurricane Sandy. Previously, he coordinated a microenterprise program at South Brooklyn Legal Services. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, was a Fulbright Fellow in Zimbabwe, and received dual master’s from Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in Public Policy and Urban Planning.

A pioneer in community engagement and public policy strategy, Eric’s 30-year career has spanned both the public and private sectors.

BACKGROUND
Working at Finsbury, Eric crafted communications strategies for major corporations managing through crisis and various transitions where government played a material role. Prior to that, Eric led New York City’s chief fiscal office as First Deputy Comptroller, served as SVP of Citigroup Global Community Relations, and was a Special Assistant for Political Affairs to President William Jefferson Clinton.

Leveraging his reputation as an effective, knowledgeable and insightful counselor, Eric launched Ichor Strategies in 2015.

OUTSIDE OF WORK
When he’s not working with clients or advising staff, he spends time with his family and enjoys hiking and rowing.

Joseph Lynch is a partner in the New York City office and represents for-profit and not-for-profit developers of multifamily housing. He has a particular focus on new development and preservation transactions with complex public and private financing. Joe has extensive knowledge about the New York State Private Housing Finance Law, advising clients on various tax exemptions and their benefits, in addition to financing (FHA, LIHTC, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae), restructuring, and dissolutions. He advises clients on all areas of affordable housing and real estate including development, construction, financing, sales, regulatory matters, and joint ventures.

Joe is also the team leader of the Nixon Peabody Affordable Housing Transaction team.

Depelsha McGruder is chief operating officer and treasurer of the Ford Foundation’s executive leadership team in New York, overseeing the global operations and finance for the $13 billion foundation.
McGruder joins the foundation from New York Public Radio (NYPR), where she served as chief operating officer, overseeing internal operations and strategic planning for WNYC, WQXR, Gothamist.com, the Greene Space, and New Jersey Public Radio since 2018. McGruder also served as interim CEO for six months during a transformative leadership transition. During her tenure, McGruder led NYPR in strengthening the organization, cultivating a vibrant, values-driven culture, and improving key processes and systems. She also partnered with senior leadership to chart the course of local news, talk, cultural programming, and digital content to build a sustainable future for NYPR amidst a rapidly changing media landscape.Prior to her role at New York Public Radio, McGruder spent 17 years at Viacom in senior leadership positions at both MTV and BET Networks. During her tenure, she launched mobile, broadband and video-on-demand businesses for MTV. She also developed and operated two new cable television networks with programming designed to serve underrepresented Latino, African American, and youth audiences, resulting in triple-digit increases in audience growth and revenue. McGruder started her career as a broadcast journalist, working as an on-air reporter, anchor, and producer for two commercial television stations in Georgia. A mother of two, McGruder is also the founder and president of Moms of Black Boys United and M.O.B.B. United for Social Change, two sister organizations dedicated to positively influencing how black boys and men are perceived and treated by law enforcement and in society. Since their founding in 2016, the efforts have given birth to a national crusade that has instilled hope, empowerment, and an unwavering commitment from moms of black sons and beyond to take action. McGruder holds a BA from Howard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Wayne J. Riley, M.D., MPH, MBA, MACP, was appointed President of The State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees as the 17th president of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in January of 2017, one of four academic medical centers (AMC) in the SUNY System, and the only SUNY AMC in New York City.

Before Dr. Riley’s appointment at Downstate, he served as clinical professor of Medicine and adjunct professor of Health Policy at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Prior to Vanderbilt, Dr. Riley served as the 10th president, chief executive officer, and professor of Medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dr. Riley is an academic primary care general internist with more than 25 years of progressive senior executive level management, policy, and leadership experiences in academic medicine, patient care, research administration, academic health center administration, health care management, health policy, biotechnology, the corporate sector, government service, advocacy, and organized medicine.

Peter Williams brings expertise in nonprofit capacity building and policy and program development in affordable housing, civil rights, and civil justice. He served as the executive vice president for programs at the NAACP, the president and CEO of the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes Community Housing Corporation, vice president of continuing education and community programs for Medgar Evers College, City University of New York, and director of housing and community development for The National Urban League. Peter also served as a legislative assistant for U.S. Congressman Edolphus Towns and as deputy advocate in New York City’s Office of the Public Advocate. He continues to share his policy and program development expertise through consulting work and teaching at Medgar Evers College.

Mr. Williams has solid experience in leading organizations, managing staff, developing and implementing programs, creating strategic alliances, and conducting policy research projects. Mr. Williams was the principal of PW Consulting Group, a policy research and management consulting firm that focuses on enhancing the capacity of nonprofit organizations. He also has served as President and CEO of the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes (MBD) Community Housing Corporation (Bronx, NY); Vice President, School of Continuing Education and Community Programs for Medgar Evers College (City University of New York); Deputy Advocate for Policy and Research, Office of the Public Advocate for the City of New York; Director of Housing and Community Development at the National Urban League; and Legislative Assistant to Congressman Edolphus Towns, 10th Congressional District in Brooklyn. He has developed and taught courses in government and policy at Pratt Institute Graduate School of City and Regional Planning and Medgar Evers College. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Arizona State University and a Masters of Public Administration degree from American University. He was also a Sloan Fellow at the School of Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie-Mellon University.

Shawn Austin is Senior Vice President, Head of Accident & Health, North America, at Everest Reinsurance Company, leading strategy development and execution for Accident and Health in North America and expanding the company’s products and services within the accident and health market.  Prior to joining Everest, Austin served as Head of AIG’s North American Accident and Health business where he oversaw the entire portfolio.

Over the course of his career within the industry, Austin has served in various leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including senior positions at Liberty Mutual, most recently serving as Senior Vice president leading the distribution and marketing of the company’s start-up global Accident and Health business.

Shawn is a graduate of Fordham University, where he earned an MBA, and Rutgers University, where he earned a BA in mathematics. In addition to Restoration, he serves on the board of directors at Prospect Park Alliance and the Atlantic Yards Development Corporation.

Benjamin Glascoe has extensive experience in public and community affairs as well as in economic development. He worked for the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC), the nation’s first Community Development Corporation, established in 1967. During its early formative years, from 1968-1981, Mr. Glascoe held several leadership posts including Assistant to the first president, Franklin Thomas, Director of Community Programs, and Manager of the RDC Commercial Center. In 1981 he joined the Con Edison team as manager of Public Affairs, where he coordinated media relations, advertising, events and political action for the company in Brooklyn.

From March of 1985 to June of 1988, Mr. Glascoe was the manager of Economic Development at Con Edison and worked to coordinate the company’s business development efforts. He retired as Director of Manhattan Public Affairs at Con Edison, a position which he held since July of 1988. During his retirement, Mr. Glascoe remains active on several boards: the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation; the East Harlem Council for Community Improvement; the Transfiguration Education Association; the Trey Whitfield Foundation and the Trey Whitfield School Board.