Swimming with the CDEs
Annette Stevenson
Partner
Novogradac & Company LLP
Annette Stevenson is a partner in the Cleveland office of Novogradac & Company LLP. She has more than 20 years of public accounting and business advisory experience, with an emphasis on complex financing for community development real estate projects, including new markets tax credits (NMTCs), historic and rehabilitation tax credits (HTCs), public/private partnerships, and other federal, state and local tax credits and incentives. Ms. Stevenson assists her clients in transaction structuring, financial modeling, NMTC compliance and reporting, due diligence and feasibility, and navigating accounting and tax issues. Her client base includes community development entities (CDEs), real estate developers, investors, municipalities and other government entities, community development corporations, financial institutions and nonprofit organizations. Additionally, Ms. Stevenson provides a broad range of advisory services to CDEs, including transaction structuring, development and implementation of internal compliance policies and procedures, monthly loan servicing and asset management assistance, compliance review and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund reporting. Ms. Stevenson serves as chairwoman of Novogradac & Company’s New Markets Tax Credit spring conference in Washington, D.C. She is a nationally recognized NMTC expert and speaker who has presented to audiences across the nation. Ms. Stevenson was the 2006 president of the Cleveland Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) and was named to Crain’s Cleveland Business “Forty under 40” in 2009. She graduated from Cleveland State University and is licensed in Ohio as a certified public accountant.
Kermit Billups
Executive Vice President
Greenline Ventures
Kermit Billups is an executive president of Greenline and is involved in activities including transaction structuring, tax credit syndication, debt financing, origination, underwriting and new markets tax credits (NMTCs) compliance. Mr. Billups began his career at Capmark in 1999 and has been a member of the NMTC platform since 2004. He has been in investment banking since 1992, with an emphasis on developing solutions for deficiencies in low-income communities nationwide, including complex and innovative financings to benefit low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and NMTC transactions. He has participated in more than $3.5 billion of project finance and affordable housing capital. He has successfully completed more than 50 taxable and tax-exempt revenue bond programs to serve low- and moderate-income individuals. Before joining Capmark, Mr. Billups worked for Honeywell, IBM, Legg Mason and Stephens Inc. Mr. Billups has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College and a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Tracy Burton
Vice President, Deal Team Manager
Community Lending and Investment, West Region
Wells Fargo & Company
Tracy Burton is a vice president and the West Region deal team manager for the Wells Fargo Community Lending and Investment (CLI) group. In this role, she originates, underwrites and manages a portfolio of new markets tax credit (NMTC) investments. Ms. Burton joined Wells Fargo in 2000. Since that time, she has held positions in a range of departments including capital markets and commercial banking, as well as positions in several areas within CLI including low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) investments, private equity and equity-equivalent investments to nonprofit organizations. She is a graduate of Wells Fargo’s Wholesale Banking Credit Management Training Program and a recipient of the Wells Fargo Golden Spoke award. Ms. Burton holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley. She received a bachelor’s degree in international business and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Denver.
Elaine DiPietro
Vice President, New Markets Tax Credit Program
Enterprise Community Investment Inc.
Elaine DiPietro is vice president of the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program for Enterprise Community Investment Inc. Working with investment and development partners across the country, Enterprise provides real estate capital, enhanced with NMTC when appropriate, to commercial and mixed-use developments in underserved and emerging markets with the goal of providing opportunity to low-income people. Enterprise’s NMTC portfolio is one of the largest in the country and includes debt and equity investments enhanced with NMTC, historic rehabilitation tax credits (HTCs) and other real estate financing products. In her role, Ms. DiPietro is responsible for day-to-day management of Enterprise’s NMTC program, including investor and government relations, deal selection, underwriting and portfolio management. Ms. DiPietro also oversees the provision of compliance and accounting services to other NMTC community development entities (CDEs). Ms. DiPietro is a certified public accountant with a background in public and private accounting. Ms. DiPietro also serves on the advisory board of several NMTC community development entities. She is often invited to speak to industry conferences on compliance matters and has contributed to several articles about community development financing. Ms. DiPietro graduated from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., with a degree in accounting. Before joining Enterprise, Ms. DiPietro was an auditor with Deloitte & Touche and worked for two Fortune 500 companies on mergers and acquisitions.
Kandi Jackson
Senior VP and Managing Director of Acquisitions & Underwriting
The National Trust Community Investment Corporation (NTCIC)
As managing director, Kandi Jackson oversees the acquisitions and underwriting team of the National Trust Community Investment Corporation, which is primarily responsible for finding, underwriting, closing, and initiating the first equity and loan disbursements to a project. She also originates and manages NTCIC’s upper-tier investor relationships. Ms. Jackson has more than 20 years of senior level experience in commercial real estate development and finance. As director at Wachovia, she originated and managed developer relationships through underwriting, closing and asset management of complex transactions, including historic tax credit (HTC) and new market tax credit (NMTC) investments. As vice president at PNC and Simpson Housing Solutions (formally KBMH), Ms. Jackson originated low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) and HTCs. She is also licensed as a general contractor and general engineer in California. As construction manager at Bovis, she established on-site project development experience for high-profile historic and non-historic new construction projects. Ms. Jackson received a master’s degree with a concentration in finance from Pepperdine University.