In his 30+ years of experience with Baltimore City—as a prosecutor, as Director of Code Enforcement’s legal team, as Deputy Commissioner of Permits and Code Enforcement, and now as Commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development—Michael has played a key role in innovating new approaches to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. As Deputy Commissioner, he oversaw a division accounting for almost 2/3 of the staff and 99% of the general revenue collected for DHCD. In that role, he reengineered cleaning, boarding, and housing code enforcement operations, reducing response times while increasing service outputs. He was also a key architect of the Vacants to Value program, leading its innovative receivership and strategic demolition programs; and an essential collaborator on Project CORE, which is providing unprecedented funding for blight removal and community greening in Baltimore.

Michael’s focus on efficiency, transparency, and accountability has resulted in savings to the City, and better service for its citizens. As Deputy Commissioner, he helped design and deliver on innovations including: a dedicated Special Investigations Unit which identifies and locates illegal dumpers in Baltimore and helps prosecute them for their crimes; the City’s receivership program, a nationally-recognized best practice which helps transfer derelict vacant properties from unresponsive owners to capitalized developers who can rehabilitate and reoccupy them; and a suite of enterprise applications that work to collect information from 311, manage housing and building inspections, issue notices and citations to violators, and ensure responsiveness and follow up on citizen complaints.

Michael is known nationally for his expertise in well-managed, data-driven government, and has been asked to share his work with organizations including the Center for Community Progress, the Federal Reserve Bank Board of Governors, the Clinton Global Initiative, and a host of cities across the country. He is known locally for forging partnerships across City and State agencies, and building relationships with community residents and leaders, private and non- profit investors, anchor institutions, and others to achieve big picture goals. As Commissioner, Michael is helping to implement a comprehensive community development framework to support the Mayor’s new era of neighborhood investment; utilizing new tools, like the Community Catalyst Grants Program, to support locally driven community development work.

Michael holds a J.D. from the City University of New York and a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Baltimore with his wife, an education and early childhood consultant, and his two children.

Joshua Olsen has led Monument Realty's acquisitions team for the last five years and during his nine years with Monument, he has made significant contributions on both the acquisition and development teams. His most recent accomplishments include the assemblage of Liberty View, an 880,000 square foot office and hotel development in Springfield, VA. Mr. Olsen also played a major role in the assemblage of Half Street, a 1.5 million square foot mixed-use development adjacent to Washington, DC's $880 million baseball stadium, Nationals Park.

Mr. Olsen is responsible for identifying real estate opportunities, making recommendations to Monument's investment partners and closing acquisitions, which often involve a complicated set of transactions and a difficult series of negotiations, particularly in the highly competetive Washington, DC market. he has been involved with the acquisition of land for development and existing buildings totaling 5.2 million square feet, of which he was personally responsible for 2.9 million square feet. Mr. Olsen's daily duties include contract negotiation, underwriting, joint venture formation, entitlement, and financial structuring. He has served as a project manager for all aspects of an award-winning $30 million redevelopment of an office building conversion to residential condominiums and the conversion of a 150,000 square foot rental apartment building to condominums.

Mr. Olsen has authored two books, Better Place, Better Lives: A Biography of James Rouse (2003) and Foggy Bottom and the West End (2010), and published two articles “On the units of geographical economics,” in Geoforum, (2002) and “Open space may not be all that it’s cracked up to be,” on the American Planning website (1999).

Mr. Olsen is on the executive committee of the Washington District Council of ULI and has served nationally as a juror for ULI’s Kenneth M. Good Graduate Student Scholarship. He was named as one of Washington Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 business leaders in 2011. Josh has a B.A. in Architecture and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale and earned an M.S. in Geographical Sciences from the University of Bristol while a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom.

Jordan began his real estate career in 2004 in Manhattan at Deutsche Bank followed by Ernst & Young in their Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities groups. In 2006 Jordan moved to Chicago where he began working on various real estate development deals. Since that time he has seen the height and trough of the real estate market. Currently, Jordan is overseeing the construction and redevelopment of JK Equities’ existing portfolio as well as working on new projects.

Dominic Wiker is an experienced development professional with over 15-years of managing large-scale development projects. He is currently overseeing the $30 million redevelopment of the 250,000 square foot historic Hoschild Kohn warehouse in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood into 171-market rate apartments. Prior to working with The Time Group, he managed the development of McHenry Row, a $150 million mixed-use project in Baltimore’s Locust Point neighborhood and was a Senior Development Director with Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse overseeing such urban in-fill, mixed-use projects as 1209 North Charles, Charles Commons and the Village Lofts. Dominic received a Bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr Ernst Valery is a co-managing member of SAA | EVI and shares overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations and execution of SAA | EVI projects and relationships. Mr. Valery has successfully invested in and developed real estate in Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Pennsylvania; Virginia; California; and New York. For the past 16 years, he has been involved with development projects ranging from mixed-use, multi-tenant rental properties, single-family renovations and condominium conversions.

Mr. Valery is the founder and president of SAA | EVI affiliate Ernst Valery Investments Corp. (EVI), a private, minority-owned real estate investment firm established in 2001. EVI invests in select underserved and undervalued key emerging domestic real estate markets, defined as urban transitional areas with high residential and retail demand. Mr. Valery has extensive experience in affordable and market rate housing development and investment, including providing due diligence capabilities and extensive skills in budget planning, design development, marketing, and the supervision and guidance of contractors, architects and engineers. He is responsible for the securing and structuring of financing, including expertise in securing Historic and New Markets tax credits.

Mr. Valery is also active in social entrepreneurship and volunteer work, including a collaboration with a team of professionals and graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Community Innovators Lab (MIT CoLab) as well as efforts at incubating businesses around the world that help alleviate poverty and increase the earning potential of low income individuals, families, and communities.

Mr. Valery graduated from Columbia University’s Master of Science program in Real Estate Development. He also obtained a Master’s Degree in Policy Analysis and Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in International Relations, both from Cornell University. Ernst is also a Mel King Community Fellow at MITs CoLab.