Kenneth T. Lombard, President & CEO, is responsible for the overall direction of BRIDGE Housing, a leading nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable housing. He joined BRIDGE in November 2021.

Over a career that spans three decades, Mr. Lombard has garnered extensive experience in business development, management, investment banking, economic development, corporate expansion and real estate investment. Mr. Lombard joins BRIDGE from Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE: SRG), where he served most recently as Special Advisor; he was an original Board member when Seritage went public in 2015 and subsequently served as Seritage’s EVP and COO. Seritage is a self-administered and self-managed REIT with properties totaling approximately 39 million square feet of space across 49 states and Puerto Rico.

Earlier, Mr. Lombard was President of MacFarlane Partners, an investment management firm that acquires, develops and manages real estate assets on behalf of pensions and institutional investors. Prior to joining MacFarlane Partners, Mr. Lombard served as Vice Chairman, Partner and head of investments for Capri Capital Partners, and President of the Capri Urban Fund, which invested in more than $1 billion in commercial, residential and mixed-use development, redevelopment and repositioning projects in densely populated urban markets of the U.S.

From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Lombard was President of Starbucks Entertainment, where he managed the collaboration with Concord Music to form a new Starbucks music label. In 1992, Mr. Lombard co-founded Johnson Development Corporation and spent 12 years as the President and Partner of the firm, creating a legacy of economic improvement in underserved communities of color in 65 cities and 17 states. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Washington.

Elaina Houser serves as the Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs for LABC. She has more than a decade of experience working for federal and local elected officials, with a focus on economic policy. Prior to joining LABC, she served as Legislative Director to LA City Councilmember Mike Bonin, where she collaborated with state and local officials to develop policy primarily around housing and homelessness issues. She previously served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr., a senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she specialized in tax and trade policy, including leading his work overseeing the Subcommittee on Trade and authoring several key pieces of tax legislation; previously, she worked on economic policy issues for Senator Sherrod Brown and his work on the Senate Finance Committee; and she began her Congressional career in the Office of Senator Al Franken. She also led GOTV efforts in north-central Ohio for the 2012 Obama presidential campaign and has volunteered for numerous political campaigns, including the Biden-Harris 2020 policy team. An Ohio native, Elaina attended American University in Washington, DC. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

Unanimously appointed by the HACLA Board of Commission, Lourdes Castro Ramirez leads the second-largest public housing authority in the nation, serving over 200,000 individuals.

As President and CEO, Castro Ramirez is strengthening the agency’s collaborative commitment to people, place and pathways by expanding affordable housing, creating greater access, investing in people and building strong communities.

Before joining HACLA, Lourdes served as Chief Housing and Homelessness Solutions Officer for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. In this role, she led the Mayor’s comprehensive citywide priorities focused on preventing and reducing street homelessness, fast-tracking affordable housing production, forging partnerships that lead to increased housing and service coordination, and developing unified regional solutions by working closely with city, county, state, and federal partners. She continues to serve as housing advisor to Mayor Bass.

Previously, she was the Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency under Governor Gavin Newsom. She led 12 entities, including 40 boards and bureaus, responsible for preserving and expanding affordable housing, advancing statewide efforts to prevent and end homelessness, protecting consumers, and safeguarding California’s civil rights.

Castro Ramírez has held other prominent positions, including her appointment by former President Barack Obama to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Public and Indian Housing, her leadership as President and CEO of the San Antonio Housing Authority, as a Director at HACLA, where she oversaw rental assistance and resident development programs, and as President of the University Health System Foundation in San Antonio.

Castro Ramírez earned her Master of Arts in Urban Planning and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Chicano Studies at UCLA

Steven Spielberg is the Senior Vice President of Affordable Housing for Alliant Communities. In his role, he oversees all affordable housing operations, leading the teams involved with acquisition, entitlement, design, and construction of affordable housing . Mr. Spielberg has over 20-years of multifamily development experience. His previous background includes launching and growing EAH Housing’s Southern California regional office, hiring and managing development staff, and overseeing the acquisition and development of all its initial affordable housing projects. He has also held positions with Step Up, AMCAL, and several other developers of multifamily affordable and market rate housing. Prior to his career in real estate development, Mr. Spielberg was a consultant for IBM’s mid-market consulting group. Steven holds an M.B.A. from the Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California and a B.A. in Psychology from University of Missouri, Columbia.

As Chief Executive Officer of Decro and its affiliated entities, Mr. Handel is responsible for the strategic direction and overall management of the company, pursuit of new housing opportunities, and oversight of a portfolio with 28 developments and over 1,500 housing units in California and Florida.

Prior to joining Decro, Mr. Handel had more than 25 years of experience in developing, financing, syndicating, operating, constructing and managing affordable housing developments. Mr. Handel represented nonprofits and National Equity Fund (NEF) as counsel in affordable housing transactions, formed California nonprofit public benefit corporations, and advised nonprofit Board of Directors on legal compliance issues. At NEF, he closed 57 development deals representing a gross equity investment by this low-income housing tax credit syndicator of $315 million.

Mr. Handel is President of The Carter House, Inc., a nonprofit organization that operates a HUD Section 811 housing development in South Los Angeles, and serves on the Board of the Hockey Equipment Lending Program, Inc., a nonprofit that supports disadvantaged youth playing that sport. He is the former Chair of Los Angeles Lawyer, a Los Angeles County Bar Association publication, and has been published in that magazine and the Los Angeles Business Journal. Mr. Handel has been a speaker at the National Association of Housing and Rehabilitation Officers Summer Conference and conferences of Housing California and the Southern California Association of NonProfit Housing. He is admitted to practice law in California and received a Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Southern California.

Over the past 4 years, Azeen has served as the Director of Affordable Housing Production across two Mayoral administrations, helping to lead the City of Los Angeles’ efforts to accelerate and expand the pipeline of affordable housing. As part of this work, he has worked to lead the implementation of the Mayor’s Executive Directive 1, which has expedited the approval and permitting of affordable housing projects by over 6 months. He has worked with an array of City Departments to drive forward new initiatives to streamline the permitting and approval process. In addition, Azeen has also led housing production policy development and advocacy for new housing production programs. This has included advocacy and implementation of large-scale programs like Project Homekey, revisions to the City’s Density Bonus implementation program, and implementation of the Housing Crisis Act. An urban planner by training, Azeen previously worked at the City’s Planning Department, where he worked to establish affordable housing incentive programs as part of the City’s zoning code update, and at the LA City Council, where he helped lead the approval of the City’s first ordinance regulating home-sharing. A native Angeleno, Azeen grew up in Palms and currently resides in Cypress Park with his wife and daughter. When not working, he enjoys reading, biking, playing tennis, and the outdoors.

Lise Bornstein, AIA has devoted her career to placemaking: creating spaces and opportunities where people and communities thrive. She has accomplished this in her architectural design practice and in her advocacy for professional growth among her staff and career advancement for women in architecture.

As a partner at KFA Architecture, Lise is in charge of project concept and design, and incorporates her love of art and community while achieving her clients’ goals. Focused on strong design concepts, she has managed projects with complex entitlement packages, multiple funding sources and significant community outreach while working collaboratively with clients, consultants, contractors and in-house teams. Lise is the partner in-charge for a diverse portfolio of affordable and permanent supportive housing projects including the West Los Angeles VA Campus Master Plan, PATH Metro Villas, Step Up on Colorado, Blue Hibiscus, SP7, Hayworth House, the Howard and Irene Levine Senior Community, and the Havenhurst Apartments.

Since 1990, KFA has designed over 6,000 units of affordable housing in 57 different buildings for 27 different affordable housing developers in Los Angeles County. Twelve of these projects, containing nearly 1,000 units, have been on Skid Row. It has been a great point of pride for the firm to participate in housing people who might otherwise be sleeping on our streets, in substandard conditions, or beyond their affordability range. The firm’s affordable housing experience includes projects for families, seniors, special needs, veterans, and the formerly homeless. KFA has been an active member of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH) since its start in Los Angeles and has received dozens of awards for affordable housing design.

Lise is inspired by the continuing evolution of the LA cityscape in a new era of transformation in communities and in the ways people live and work. She believes this growth will lead KFA to new and exciting projects with creative partners, while offering new opportunities in urban infill development. She is a former board member of Step Up on Second and the current President of the Association for Women in Architecture Foundation. She is committed to the advancement of people and the profession.

As President and Chief Investment Officer of Avanath Capital Management, John R. Williams is responsible for portfolio acquisitions, capital formation, investor relations, and fund management. During his tenure, Mr. Williams has played an instrumental role in the firm’s acquisition of over $3 billion in assets, closing over $1 billion of debt, and raising over $2 billion of institutional capital.

Capital for the Avanath Discretionary Funds has been provided by some of the most prestigious endowments, foundations, and high-net-worth individuals from the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Prior to joining Avanath in 2012, Mr. Williams was Managing Partner, Capital Markets of Carmel Partners, Inc. (“Carmel Partners”), a real estate development and investment firm based in San Francisco. At Carmel Partners, Mr. Williams was responsible for capital formation, fund management, investor relations, joint ventures, credit facilities, and financing of all the firm’s investments.

Mr. Williams is a Governor of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), past Chairman of the ULI Silver Multi-Family Council, past Chairman of the ULI Orange County District Council, a member of the Executive Committee of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), and on the Advisory Board of the Duquesne University Business School. He is a frequent speaker at national real estate conferences sponsored by ULI, Harvard Business School, University of California-Berkeley, Stanford Business School, UCLA Real Estate Forum, and USC Lusk Graduate School of Real Estate.

A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Williams received his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Duquesne University in 1986 and attended the Executive Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Sean Rawson is a recognized leader in the multifamily development and investment industry. An expert in affordable housing, Rawson has a deep understanding of tax credit financing and housing policy. Rawson is an expert in working with local governments to create a diversity of housing types to meet their public policy goals. Since forming Waterford with John Drachman in 2015, Rawson has acquired and developed nearly 6,000 residential units in California totaling approximately $3.5 billion. In 2021, Rawson led Waterford to be the largest owner and operator of Essential Housing units in the State of California with over 4,000 units. Prior to forming Waterford Property Company and its predecessor companies, Rawson was the Southern California President for St. Anton Partners, a leading privately-owned multifamily development company where he led the firm’s expansion into Southern California. Prior to his time working in the multifamily development industry, Rawson began his career with The Concord Group, a national economic market advisory firm, where he conducted market and financial feasibility analysis for homebuilders, developers, private equity groups and lenders. Rawson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claremont Mckenna College in Government, Economics and History where he graduated with honors. While at Claremont McKenna College, Rawson was a four-year letterman on the men’s varsity basketball team. He also earned an MBA from the University of California, Irvine Merage School of Business with a concentration in real estate finance where he has been a guest lecturer and is on the Board for the UCI Center for Real Estate. Mr. Rawson is an avid sports enthusiast, runner and summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. Mr. Rawson is a resident of Long Beach, CA with his wife and three children where he is very civically engaged.

Charly Ligety leads Housing on Merit’s research and development initiatives forming new and collaborative ways to build more affordable housing across the U.S. In addition, Charly is the Managing Director of The Housing Innovation Collaborative (or “HICo”), a global housing development research platform, sponsored by HOM, that showcases the latest design, finance, and policy solutions to address the housing affordability crisis across the world.

Prior to joining HOM, Charly worked in the commercial real estate finance industry for over 10 years, working for a boutique real estate private equity firm as an analyst prior to joining Wells Fargo’s Commercial Real Estate Group as a Relationship Manager in Los Angeles. In that role, Charly developed new business relationships with large investment firms and developers and managed a $400 million loan portfolio, which included underwriting and managing value-add and construction loans on a range of property types throughout the U.S.

Charly graduated with honors from the full-time MBA program at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in 2018. While in graduate school, Charly became a published author of “Let’s Do Us”, an interactive conversation guidebook for couples, which he co-authored with a former colleague. Charly earned his Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, majoring in Geography and Economics. At Dartmouth, Charly was a varsity member of the nationally ranked Division 1 Dartmouth Ski Team. As a native of Park City, Utah, Charly is still a passionate skier and mountain biker. Charly enjoys exploring his adopted city of Los Angeles, along with biking, hiking, and long walks on the beach with his wife and son.

Nathan Kadisha is the founder of K3 Holdings and Alpine Properties, where he has played a pivotal role in scaling the business and driving its growth. With a strong background in real estate investment and management, his focus today is on expanding the company’s affordable housing initiatives. Nathan is a graduate of Babson College and brings a strategic, long-term approach to real estate development and operations.

Jeff Kearns, managing director, joined Walker & Dunlop in November 2014 through the Johnson Capital acquisition. Mr. Kearns is responsible for originating debt and equity financing for market rate and affordable housing properties on behalf of clients nationwide.

Mr. Kearns has enjoyed a highly successful 19-year career advising clients and procuring financing solutions for commercial real estate investors, with an emphasis in the affordable housing sector. At Johnson Capital, Mr. Kearns specialized in FHA and Agency loan origination for market rate apartments as well as mixed income and affordable housing projects with low income housing tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, and Section 8 subsidy. He has been successful

in working with stabilized assets, properties undergoing repositioning, and ground-up development projects.

Before Johnson Capital, Mr. Kearns served as a regional sales director for a provider of shared-tenant services owned by a consortium of office REITs including Equity Office, Hines Interests, and Carr America. Mr. Kearns is an active member of several multi-family and affordable housing trade organizations including Affordable Housing Management Association and the California Council

for Affordable Housing. He speaks frequently at industry conferences on a variety of topics relating to affordable housing finance and also serves on the advisory board of directors for two Southern California-based non-profit housing developers.

Mr. Kearns holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of California, Irvine and remains a passionate supporter of the Anteaters’ basketball program.

As a real estate development leader, Ekta brings over 20 years of experience in investing and developing

multifamily residential and mixed-use projects across the nation. At SoLa Impact, she heads the

development department forging a new path for high quality affordable housing and workforce housing

in California’s historically overlooked Black and brown communities. She is a member of the firm’s

Investment Committee responsible for providing oversight for the real estate investments of the firm.

Prior to SoLa Impact, Ekta spent the majority of her career in Southern California with Alliance Residential,

leading ground-up new construction and value-add investments with Prudential and AIG as capital

partners. Ekta has executed over $2.5 billion RE transactions with over 7,000 units in Southern California.

Prior to that, she worked in the New York and Chicago regions on multi-phase, mixed-use, mixed income

public-private partnerships.

Ekta was honored as a leading woman in Commercial Real Estate by Bisnow, Globe Street, Los Angeles

Business Journal. She is a US Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional, Housing Committee

member of HomeAid Orange County, serves on Cornell Alumni Admissions Committee, was appointed to

the City of Santa Ana General Plan Advisory Group, and is a member of Bisnow DEI board. She is a

graduate of Cornell University and holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

As Vice President of Development for Related California, Mr. Johnson is responsible for managing all aspects of the development process including the design, financing, and construction of more than 1,100 affordable housing units in Southern California.

Mr. Johnson has more than a decade of real estate development experience and has planned, entitled, financed, and developed over 6,900 residential units and 210,000 square feet of retail. Prior to joining Related, Mr. Johnson was a Senior Project Manager for The Community Builders where he managed the redevelopment of multi-phased, mixed-use, mixed-income developments spanning 32 city blocks in Chicago. In the first phase of his career, Mr. Johnson was responsible for a re-use and urban development project in Coto de Caza, and was an Acquisitions Analyst at The Bascom Group where designed and implemented The Bascom Green Initiative.

Mr. Johnson holds a Master in Urban Planning, with a concentration in Real Estate Development, from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy, Management and Planning from the University of Southern California.

Ancelmo Perez leads Lowney Architecture's Los Angeles office, where he is dedicated

to spearheading initiatives in affordable housing. Bringing over two decades of

experience in the architectural field, Ancelmo has a rich background in overseeing

multifamily projects, leading studio culture and philosophy, financial management, and business development. His work has included managing construction and design quality for eco-friendly homes and steering architectural designs for mixed-use, hospitality, residential, and retail projects globally. Ancelmo holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Woodbury University. Known for his strategic and multidisciplinary approach, Ancelmo is committed to advancing Lowney Architecture's mission in

affordable housing, creating impactful living solutions that meet the diverse needs of

communities in Los Angeles and beyond.

Konstantin Daskalov is an accomplished Senior Executive of Development & Construction with 16 years of diverse

experience in all phases of the development process, leading professional teams through entitlements, design

development, GC selection, budgeting, scheduling and construction execution of large ground-up, multifamily,

affordable, mixed-use, hospitality and healthcare projects with full P&L responsibility.

As the Vice President, US Operations, Konstantin is spearheading all the firm's Operations in the US, and

Directing: Marketing; Sales; Business Development; Architecture / Developer / Construction Partners & Lenders;

Project Entitlements & Approvals; Project Delivery; Product Erection & Assembly and Business Plan Execution.

Previously, as Founder & President of Daskoney Properties, Konstantin led all operations for the firm, overseeing

acquisitions, development and construction management staff with full P&L responsibility for multi-family projects,

while he was also an Executive Consultant for SOLA Impact on their large multifamily and affordable housing efforts.

Prior to that, as VP of Development & Construction with a major real estate investment & development company,

Konstantin has directed all development and construction operations for a large portfolio of hotels and office assets

across the US with annual development budget of over $75M.

Previously, as VP of Development for a national condominium developer, Konstantin has directed and successfully

completed several ground-up multifamily, high-rise projects in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago with average

construction cost of $200M each and delivered great investment returns expediting construction and unit sales.

Konstantin started his career as a Project Manager for a General Contractor and later as Director of Construction

successfully completed the construction of large multifamily projects in Chicago directing PMs, and Contractors.

Konstantin Daskalov holds a M.S./MBA degree from Northwestern University, as well as, a BS in Civil Engineering

and a BA in Business Management degrees from Calvin University. He is a proud member of Urban Land Institute

(ULI), Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) and variety of other professional organizations in

Real Estate and Construction Management, and is a speaker and participant for numerous professional panels.