Homer Williams has been engaged in real estate development for more than forty years. He has been instrumental in the success of the Pearl District and South Waterfront redevelopment projects in Portland, Oregon, as well as numerous development projects in downtown Los Angeles, California. Over the past decade, Homer and his affiliated companies have developed over $2.5 Billion worth of real estate. Homer’s unique skills sets include the ability to form instrumental public/private partnerships. This includes the South Waterfront Central District partnership between North Macadam Investors, Oregon Health & Science University and the City of Portland, which has led to the largest urban development in the State of Oregon’s history. He sits on the boards of the River District Steering Committee, as well as Special Olympics of Oregon and Construction Apprenticeship & Workforce Solutions (CAWS). Homer was born in Walla Walla, Washington and raised in La Grande and Portland, Oregon.

Mark is a real estate developer who focuses on sustainable urban residential projects. Prior to founding his own development firm, Green Light Development, Mark worked as a developer for Opus Northwest where he sourced and managed $130M worth of newly built LEED Gold Mixed Use projects in Portland. Mark started his development career working for an affordable housing non-profit and before then as the Vice President of a large senior housing development firm. Mark is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College and Portland State University’s Real Estate Development Graduate Program.

Michael became Home Forward’s executive director in October 2014 after serving as deputy executive director, responsible for the property management, rent assistance, and real estate development departments. He began his Home Forward career in 2001 as a resident services manager, going on to direct policy and planning, where he was the principal architect of the agency's strategic directions and planning. He also designed Home Forward's innovative rent reform program.

His background includes leading operations, including community organizing, as associate director of Sisters Of The Road, a homeless services agency. Earlier, he was health services manager for the Clackamas County Children’s Commission and program supervisor for a residential care facility for developmentally disabled youth.

All of his experience has shaped his view that communities must work together on many fronts to fight the effects of poverty on their most vulnerable citizens, while advocating for the resources necessary to get to the roots of the problem.

To help Home Forward partner more deeply with others to address these challenges, Michael has a management team, pictured below, with experience in a range of disciplines in the public, non-profit, and private arenas.

Founder of PHK Development and a real estate entrepreneur, Patrick H. Kessi strives to cultivate the urban character of Portland and its surrounding communities through well-designed, economically and environmentally conscious spaces.

He was born and educated in Oregon and has deep roots in this state. He grew up in Scappoose, Oregon working on his family’s dairy farm. Later, he worked in his family’s small construction business where he learned firsthand about quality products. Patrick discovered his passion for buildings and design, when in 1998 he purchased, remodeled and then leased out his first investment property, all while earning a B.A. in Finance and serving as Student Body President at the University of Portland.

In subsequent years, Patrick spearheaded sustainable award winning developments, which have garnered accolades and awards along the way for Excellence in Construction, Best in Class, Best Interior Design, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

I have 20 years of Commercial Mortgage Banking experience. Hunt Mortgage Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hunt Companies, Inc., is a real estate finance company providing financing and investing for conventional and affordable multifamily housing throughout the United States. Hunt Mortgage Group is organized around two business units: Mortgage Banking and Affordable Housing Debt. Under the Mortgage Banking and Affordable Housing Debt businesses, Hunt Mortgage Group partners with developers, owners, and investors to provide them with capital to develop, acquire or redevelop their real estate assets. Hunt Mortgage Group’s core debt products consist of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or HUD/FHA financing. In addition, through several strategic alliances, Hunt Mortgage Group offers various CMBS executions for multifamily and other commercial properties, proprietary bridge loans and select joint venture equity products.

Shirley has been with DCI Engineers for more than a dozen years and was just honored with the Daily Journal of Commerce 2019 Women of Vision Award. She was also recently featured in an exhibit at Portland’s Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) called “Designing Our World: A Community Envisioning Girls as Engineers,” where she shared her career story about going into the engineering profession.

Her work providing structural design solutions for mass timber projects has helped reshape the region’s built environment by providing forward-thinking sustainable design concepts. These have included the Fair-Haired Dumbbell, Flatiron PDX and Block 8L.

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at Trine University (formerly Tri-State University) in Angola, Indiana, and her Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering at Cornell University. Shirley is an Allied member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in Portland and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Joe Nydahl has worked in real estate development and brokerage since 2005. He spent his first eight years in his career

as a project manager for Gerding Edlen Development managing multifamily developments in Seattle, Portland, Eugene

and Los Angeles. After making the move to brokerage Nydahl quickly became one of the top performing multifamily

brokers in the Portland region. Joe has completed over 1 billion in real estate transactions and has achieved record

breaking apartment pricing sales in Portland, Bend and Eugene.

Larry brings over 15 years of economic development experience to GPI, most recently as Assistant Director of Economic Development for Cedar Park, Texas. While in Cedar Park, Larry helped attract the aerospace, advanced manufacturing, information technology and clean energy industries. These projects led to over 1,500 jobs and $85 million dollars of new capital investment in Cedar Park. Larry started his career with the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce where he served as Director of Research and BRE for the 5-county Birmingham-Hoover MSA.

Described by his peers as outgoing, perceptive and funny, Larry enjoys coffee, rock music and food trucks.