Women In Leadership Series - Orange County

Rochelle Mills leads Innovative Housing Opportunities and its Housing Innovation Fund (HIFund) affiliate. HIFund devises creative private financing to deliver catalytic and comprehensive affordable housing developments. Ms. Mills brings a diverse background in architecture, design, construction administration, community planning, writing, and cultural tourism. She is immediate past president of the Southern California Association of NonProfit Housing (SCANPH) and serves on several public and nonprofit boards (including CAL-ALHFA and Arts for LA), services committees, and leader groups.

Real Estate and Financial Advisory: PS&A is a full service real estate brokerage and economic consulting firm that specializes in matching private sector real estate opportunities with public sector land use policies, joint development opportunities, economic development policies and financing/incentive programs. Affordable Housing: Provides Consulting Services to improve existing affordable housing supply and to expand the supply of housing for low to moderate individuals with grant administration and affordable housing development.

Laure Thibodeau brings 18 years of multifamily experience to her role as Sr. Regional Property Manager of Operations for the California region with LMC. Laure has held roles across the industry with Carmel Partners, GH Palmer and UDR, giving her a diverse background that includes lease-ups, acquisitions, dispositions, renovations and repositions. Prior to joining LMC in 2016, Laure was the Regional Property Manager for UDR overseeing their portfolio in Los Angeles. Laure currently oversees a portfolio of more than 2,700 homes for LMC at various stages from pre-development to ongoing operations. Laure has been involved in 14 lease-up communities and 5 dispositions with LMC. Laure works side by side with the development team on underwriting and is involved in the pre-development planning and programming of all assets in the portfolio. She also works closely with all departments to ensure communities are achieving their goals and exceeding financial performance expectations. Laure makes a positive impact on her teams daily with strong mentorship and a dedicated attitude to always doing the right thing, the right way. She believes in leading by example by staying active in the industry and innovating her approach. Laure graduated from University of California with a master’s degree in Regulatory Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in biology.

Stacy Stemen is a real estate industry marketing specialist. Throughout her 20-year marketing career, she has successfully driven brand growth and business development for several national companies. As Vice President, Corporate Marketing for Passco Companies, Mrs. Stemen oversees all aspects of marketing, public relations, special events, conferences and business development for the firm. In this role, she spearheads the development of the Passco brand and manages the strategic growth of the company’s visibility across the nation. Prior to joining Passco Companies, Mrs. Stemen worked for nearly two decades in the marketing industry, most recently serving in a leadership role for Thompson National Properties’ marketing division. Mrs. Stemen is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton, and is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), sits on the Conference Planning Committee for the Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA) and President for Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) – Orange County Chapter. In 2016, Ms. Stemen was nominated by the Orange County Business Journal as a “Woman in Business” and recognized as a “Woman of Influence” by Real Estate Forum.

Named in the 2019 Building Design + Construction Magazine's class of the top 40 Under 40 professionals for their transformative leadership in the AEC profession, Stacey serves as the Southwest Regional Design Resilience leader and Director of Sustainable Design in the Newport Beach office. Stacey specializes in integrated sustainable design and strategic thinking for all practice areas, including: hospitality, retail, sports, campuses, higher education, corporate headquarters + offices, net zero energy projects, and master planning. Her holistic approach includes facilitating eco-visioning sessions, managing third party certification; materials and health + wellbeing research, and development of both internal and external educational content. She is a LEED Fellow, certified interior designer, and professionally accredited in EcoDistricts and Fitwel third party certification programs. She is the go-to resource for eco charretting for health and wellbeing, environmental stewardship integration, and third party certification program knowledge, including: LEED, Fitwel, WELL, EcoDistricts, Living Building Challenge, and others. Stacey sits on the Advisory Committee to the Center for Active Design for Fitwel credit content management. Additional extra-curricular involvement includes serving as the Education Chair for NEWH, where she manages sustainable content for major US Hospitality tradeshows and conferences. Examples of recent project work include a confidential State University project pursuit of the Living Building Challenge certification with the goal of being Net Positive Energy and LEEDv4 Platinum; the Westfield Century City outdoor shopping mall (LEED Gold), Century Plaza Hotel (LEED for Neighborhood & Development), the Banc of California LAFC stadium (LEED BD&C Gold), Hugo Boss Boston (LEEDv4 ID&C Gold), and multiple CBRE locations including the Masonic Temple, to name a few.

Ms. Morse has more than 16 years of experience within the Real Estate and Construction industries in the United States. After managing student housing during college, Nicole kickstarted her career as a Contracts Administrator at the age of 19 with one of the largest land owners in Southern California. Nicole progressed into property and asset management managing several properties at both the local and regional level making her an expert at operations and construction of multi-family portfolios. She secured commercial construction experience as a Project Manager on several accounts for both commercial and industrial buildings in and outside of the United States, successfully managing award-winning relocations, acquisitions and development projects as well as decommissioning significant amounts of real estate portfolios with large complexities. She is proficient in managing and coordinating employees and project teams. Her attention to detail has given her a keen eye for the finer points of design and development. Her ability to build valuable relationships makes her a key asset to projects with important pre-existing or new working partnerships. As a tenured project manager, Nicole and her teams masterfully produce projects including ground-up construction, hospitality, affordable housing and corporate interior build-outs for Fortune 500 clients. She has received certification as an OSHA 30 trained safety professional as well as 3-hour Accessibility Certification, PMP certification with the Project Management Institute and is a WELL Accredited Professional.

Having successfully completed a myriad of complex secured finance deals over her 30-year real estate finance career, Susan Graham has a reputation for timely, efficient, and dependable deal-making and always goes the extra mile to add unique value. She brings insider knowledge to the table to help her commercial borrower clients quickly and smoothly close market-wise loans for their properties—mixed- use projects, office buildings, multi-family developments, retail centers, and industrial sites, and helps lenders across a spectrum of matters, including bridge lending, loan modifications, workouts, REO sales, foreclosures, and more. Wide-Ranging Service Working from our Orange County office, Susan quarterbacks a billion dollars annually in multi-state or single-state deals across the country for her U.S. and international clients. Her well-developed local counsel network allows her to handle jurisdictional matters across multiple states and remain highly involved in her clients’ transactions. When a loan requires specialized entitlement, environmental, tax, corporate, or other deal-specific attention, she seamlessly facilitates the work using the formidable in- house resources of her knowledgeable Allen Matkins colleagues. Borrowers Counsel Borrowers everywhere benefit from Susan’s civil, pragmatic approach. She is known for focusing on client goals and moving things along, offering sound strategic advice without over-lawyering issues or grandstanding. Thanks to her decades of doing deals, she’s quick to identify workable market solutions without getting hung up on immaterial issues, which results in better deals for her clients. CONFIDENTIAL MATERIALS | ATTORNEY ADVERTISING Allen Matkins Susan represents borrowers in connection with structuring, negotiating and documenting all types of real estate secured loan transactions, including loan originations and modification agreements. She also negotiates often-complicated construction, and bridge and permanent financings tailored to fit client needs, making sure that the borrower understands all the implications that might affect their exit strategy or development plans. Further, through the years, she has built good relations with borrowers—often client CFOs or general counsel—and lenders alike, and she enjoys bringing parties together for mutually beneficial opportunities. Lenders Counsel Susan represents lenders in connection with loan originations as well as enforcement of remedies, including modifications, forbearance agreements, non-judicial foreclosures, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, and other resolutions of distressed debt. In all matters, Susan puts together the right lean team to get things done economically and with dispatch. She’s quick to review deal documents, pick up the phone and explain the issues to her client, and develop a workable position that she rapidly communicates to the other side. Along the way, she often makes introductions to other Allen Matkins clients with similar interests who may have new insights—connections that can lead to further efficiencies and collaborations.

Jeannie Vu is Chief Financial Officer of JRK Property Holdings. Prior to joining JRK, Jeannie was Senior Vice President at Colony Capital. At Colony, she held various roles in acquisitions, originations, and corporate finance. Previously, Jeannie was an Associate in the Financial Institutions Investment Banking Group at FBR Capital Markets and a Senior Associate in the assurance practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Jeannie received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Marshall Business School, University of Southern California.