January 18, 2024

By Donna Kimura, Affordable Housing Finance

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Brundage to Lead NAAHL
Sarah Brundage has been appointed president and CEO of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL). She will begin her position on Feb. 5. Brundage will lead the organization’s affordable housing and community development policy advocacy following the retirement of Benson “Buzz” Roberts, who led the organization for nine years.

She joins NAAHL after recently served as the senior adviser for housing supply and infrastructure in the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She also previously served as general deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at HUD. Before serving at HUD, she was senior policy director at Enterprise Community Partners, where she co-led the national ACTION Campaign to strengthen and expand the LIHTC program.

LIIF Appoints EVP and Chief People Officer
Tina R. Walker has joined the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) as its chief people officer and executive vice president.

Walker will lead the organization’s human resources department, overseeing its culture and engagement, training and development, and office administration. She has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, as she previously held the role of vice president of human resources and administration at the California Community Foundation. Prior to that position, she held roles at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and at Providence Saint John’s Health Center. Walker served as an adjunct professor at University of Phoenix for over 10 years, teaching courses in business administration, leadership, and organizational development. She will be based in LIIF’s Los Angeles office.

LIIF is a national Community Development Financial Institution. Since 1984, it has deployed more than $3.5 billion to serve 2.5 million people in communities across the country.

RBC Community Investments Announces Promotions
Todd Surbey
RBC Community Investments, a leading syndicator of low-income housing, renewable energy, historic, and state tax credits, has announced 11 promotions. Todd Surbey has been promoted to managing director. He also serves as co-head of financial management, responsible for the financial reporting function of RBC Community Investments and its various tax credit partnerships, along with management of the financial management department staff. Additionally, Surbey oversees the dispositions process, which is a collaborative effort between the financial management and asset management groups. He provides financial analysis assistance and review and offers tax technical guidance to the asset management department.

Stacie Altmann
Stacie Altmann has been promoted to managing director of the West region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. Altmann is responsible for originating, structuring, and negotiating LIHTC investments throughout the West. She joined RBC in 2010 as vice president—acquisitions and was promoted to director in 2013. She has over 20 years of investment banking and real estate finance experience, with a specific focus on the affordable housing industry. Altmann has relationships with for-profit and nonprofit developers and has experience structuring 9% tax credit, taxexempt bond, state and historic tax credit, mixed-income, and mixed-use projects in both urban and rural markets. She also actively works with state and local agencies as well as community affordable housing groups on policy and program issues.

Christopher Tully
Christopher Tully has been promoted to managing director. He has over 20 years of experience in real estate and finance. During his tenure with RBC Capital Markets since 2010, Tully was promoted to director in 2016 and has been involved in the structuring and placement of over $1.15 billion in LIHTC equity. He is responsible for evaluating, negotiating, and closing the acquisition of LIHTC multifamily properties in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Southern New York, Washington D.C., and Virginia.

Elliot Frolichstein-Appel
Elliot Frolichstein-Appel has been promoted to director, investment manager. He has a focus on structuring and closing lower-tier investments on the syndications team, along with originations activity with several national clients and across Illinois. Frolichstein-Appel joined RBC in 2000 as a vice president in RBC’s Chicago office, responsible for acquiring, structuring, and underwriting tax credit projects. He specializes in transactions with public and nonprofit development partners and in projects with complex financial structures, as well as supporting a number of RBC Community Investments’ national account developer relationships.

Ross Kaufman
Ross Kaufman has been promoted to director, investment manager, in the Denver office. He joined RBC in 2011 as an investment analyst working with the team to underwrite LIHTC transactions in the Western United States. In 2018, Kaufman was promoted to vice president, investment manager, and since has obtained additional responsibilities for equity originations across Colorado, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Amanda Kronstein
Amanda Kronstein has been promoted to director, sales management, and works in the RBC Community Investments’ Cleveland office. She joined RBC in 2007 and manages a team responsible for the execution of tax credit equity fund closings with investor clients. Kronstein began her career in finance in 1995 and has over 16 years of LIHTC experience and over 18 years of real estate experience.

Paula Stiles
Paula Stiles has been promoted to vice president, data integrity, as she continues to expand her expertise in that functional role. She originally joined RBC in 2009, first as a contract employee and in 2010 as an insurance analyst and assumed the role of database analyst. Stiles continued to assume responsibilities and was promoted to database associate in 2015.

Lisa Matheny
Lisa Matheny has been promoted to vice president, investment diligence manager. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Matheny joined RBC in 2014 as a licensed paralegal and was promoted to investment diligence associate in 2018. Her responsibilities include the facilitation of weekly deal calls as well as the collecting, coordinating, and reviewing of due diligence related to tax credit investments (LIHTC, historic, and New Markets). She also manages the due diligence process for a portion of the firm’s proprietary upper-tier investor closings.

Jamie Montoya
Jamie Montoya has been promoted to vice president, pre-stabilized team lead, working in the Denver office. She joined RBC in 2018 as an asset management analyst and was promoted to associate in 2021. Effective September 2021, Montoya was promoted to pre-stabilized team lead and manages all the asset management analysts. She is responsible for maintaining a portfolio of real estate assets invested through LIHTC program and/or the historic tax credit program to ensure the continuous delivery of tax credit benefits and passive losses. In addition, she supports the stabilized asset management team.

Justin Peters
Justin Peters has been promoted to vice president. He joined RBC in 2021 as an associate, development risk manager, in the Columbus office. Peters oversees a
diverse portfolio of affordable housing properties representing approximately $200 million in equity commitments. His engineering education coupled with his background in finance provides a solid foundation for construction underwriting and monitoring through project completion.

Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown has been promoted to vice president, investment diligence manager, in the Charlotte, North Carolina, office. She joined RBC in 2015 as an investment diligence specialist and was promoted to an associate in 2020. Brown is responsible for leading diligence calls, managing closing checklists, and diligence review while maintaining client relations. In addition, she continues to work on streamlining processes and procedures and help train new employees.