As Head of Community Development, Catherine Buell is

responsible for long-term and innovative programs that

address civic priorities in the communities where Amazon

employees live and work. Catherine helped launch and

oversees Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund, a more than $2

billion commitment to preserve and create over 20,000

affordable housing units in Washington State’s Puget

Sound region; Arlington, Virginia; and Nashville,

Tennessee—three communities where the company has or

expects to have at least 5,000 employees each in the

coming years. Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund will help

preserve existing housing and help create inclusive housing

developments through below-market loans and grants to

housing partners, traditional and non-traditional public

agencies, and minority-led organizations.

Catherine previously served as the President and CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority (d/b/a “Atlanta

Housing” or “AH”) where she led the agency’s strategic, financial and operational efforts by providing

housing to more than 23,000 of Atlanta’s low-and extremely low-income households. While at Atlanta

Housing, Catherine led the development of the agency’s five year plan, called “Vision 2022” (Live, Work,

Thrive), aimed at increasing the number of households served, increasing investments in family self-

sufficiency efforts and agency fiscal responsibility. During her tenure, she advanced major real estate

efforts including partnerships with the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. to develop affordable housing near the

popular BeltLine and also work with Invest Atlanta to purchase the 19-acre Civic Center site in

downtown Atlanta. She also served as Vice President of Policy and Programs for the Greater

Washington Partnership, a first-of-its-kind civic alliance of CEOs in the Washington D.C. region, where

she focused on a range of issues include regional housing policy issues.

Prior to her time in Atlanta, Catherine served as the executive director of St. Elizabeth’s East, one of the

District of Columbia’s largest mixed-use redevelopment projects. As a result of her tenure, St. Elizabeths

East became home to the District’s Entertainment and Sports Arena which hosts the Washington

Mystic’s performance arena and Wizards practice facility, the Residences at St. Elizabeths (a mixed-

income multi-family housing development), the R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center and Gateway D.C. Ms.

Buell also served as the Chair of the Washington D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board and earned a

number of awards for her revitalization efforts – the Built by Women DC Award and Historic

Preservation Review Board Chair’s Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation among them.

Catherine also serves on a number of boards, including Venture Philanthropy Partners, Community of

Hope (DC), Greater Greater Washington and the Anacostia Coordinating Council. She started her career

as an attorney with Patton Boggs LLP where she counseled institutional investors on real estate assets

and private equity funds in the United States, South America, and Europe. She is a cum laude graduate

of Spelman College and the Georgetown University Law Center.

Emily Cadik is the Chief Executive Officer of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition (AHTCC), where she leads advocacy to support affordable rental housing financed using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit). Prior to joining the AHTCC, she was a Senior Director of Public Policy at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led policy and advocacy related to the Housing Credit and other affordable housing and community development issues. While at Enterprise she served on the board of the AHTCC, chairing the Legislative Committee, co-chairing the Marketing Committee, and serving on the Executive Committee since 2016. She also helped to lead the A Call To Invest in Our Neighborhoods (ACTION) Campaign, the nationwide coalition of more than 2,000 organizations and businesses advocating on behalf of the Housing Credit, and remains active in this nationwide advocacy effort. In 2017 she received the NHP Foundation’s inaugural Advocacy Award, and in 2016 was named one of Affordable Housing Finance’s Young Leaders.

Before joining Enterprise she was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she served as a program coordinator for the Moving to Work demonstration and in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. She earned a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

As Managing Partner, Brett Meringoff’s responsibilities include leading the company’s acquisitions and development activities, with a focus on large-scale redevelopment and mixed-income housing, as well as the strategic direction of the company.

Prior to joining Fairstead, Brett was Senior Vice President and development partner at WinnDevelopment, one of the oldest and largest affordable housing developers in the country. Under Brett’s leadership, projects entitled, in development and completed, totaled more than 4,900 units in 19 properties. At the time of his departure, there were 5 projects totaling nearly 1,000 units in the predevelopment pipeline.

In 2019, Brett was appointed by Governor Northam to the Board of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. He also currently serves on the Board of the Latin American Youth Center in Washington DC, which has been providing educational and recreational programs for youths in the DC metropolitan area for nearly 50 years. Brett previously served on the Green/Energy Committee of the National Leased Housing Association, the Young Leaders Education Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), DC Real Estate Group, the Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic Regional Advisory Board (MARAB), and as a ULI Mentor. Brett received a Bachelor Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

John P. “Jack” Casey

Co-Founder – Vice Chairman of the Meridian Companies

Jack Casey is a 1971 graduate of Boston State College (University of Massachusetts). Mr. Casey is responsible for business development and new products, and he directs Meridian Investments' government relations and industry trade associations' activities. Prior to the formation of Meridian Investments, Mr. Casey was involved in the structuring, administration, and marketing of limited partnership interests in government housing and energy programs. He is a Director of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition and a Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic region (Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virginia). Mr. Casey manages the Washington, DC office in Bethesda, MD. Meridian has originated and closed over $25 Billion in institutional tax credit equity since 1981.