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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Habitat-NYC has a highly engaged Board of Directors composed of 23 members with diverse backgrounds and expertise. The Board has a vital leadership role in making strategic decisions about the immediate and longer-range direction of Habitat-NYC, as well as identifying and obtaining essential financial support.

Les Bluestone, Chair
Les Bluestone has been involved in the real estate development and construction industries for over 27 years, first for 17 years as a principal at the Bluestone Organization, and then as the co-founder of Blue Sea Development Company, LLC. He has developed and constructed a wide range of market-rate and afford-able housing units throughout the New York City metropolitan area under a variety of programs, including the NYC Housing Partnership New Homes Program, the NYC Housing Development Corporation's 80/20 Program, NYS Housing Trust Fund and Homes for Working Families, and both Federal and NYS Low Income Housing Tax Credit programs. Mr. Bluestone is a member of the Housing First! advocacy group, the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Brownfield Association, a board member of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, and an advisory board member to The Housing Partnership Development Corporation and the Long Island Housing Partnership.

Claudia J. Machaver, Vice Chair
Claudia Machaver is a Managing Director of JPMorgan Principal Investments Management, heading the New York office of the JPMorgan Mezzanine Group. She has held various positions with the firm, including overseeing JPMorgan Chase’s Middle Market asset securitization activities and managing the Middle Market Financial Sponsor Group responsible for all leveraged senior debt trans-actions and delivering investment banking capabilities to Middle Market equity sponsors and corporate clients nationwide. Prior to joining the bank, Ms. Machaver worked for the United Nations managing energy programs. In addition to serving as Vice Chair of Habitat for Humanity - New York City, she is a member of the Financial Women's Association, serves on the Bank Street College of Education Capital Campaign Board, and volunteers weekly at the Ansche Chesed Homeless Shelter. Ms. Machaver holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.I.A. from Columbia University.

Rev. Mark Hallinan, Vice Chair
Father Hallinan is Assistant for Social Ministries to the Provincial of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus. In this role he engages members and constituents of the Society of Jesus in New York on issues of social justice. He also represents the Province in groups and organizations working to further a more just social order. He is Chair of the National Jesuit Committee on Investor Responsibility, serves on the Steering Committee of the National Jesuit Commission on Social and International Ministries, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-Community Center for Justice and Peace. Father Hallinan also works with the East Side Congregations for Housing Justice, Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, the Citizens’ Committee for Children, and the Juvenile Justice Ombudsman Review Board. He graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio with a B.A. in History. He also earned a M.Div. from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., and a M.A. in Medieval History from Fordham University.

Shauna Rae Long, Vice Chair
Shauna Rae Long has an extensive background in non-profits. Her background includes Chief Legal Officer/Corporate Compliance Officer of Fidelis Care New York, a non-profit health plan with a mission to provide access to quality, affordable health coverage to uninsured residents and Vice President of Strategic Agency Services for The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Prior to working at Catholic Charities, Ms. Long was Legal Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Health Plus, one of the largest managed health care plans in New York City. Prior to that, she was a partner in a private law firm, focusing her practice in health care law. Ms. Long is a member of the Bar in New York, California and Michigan and a Board Member for Youth-Bridge New York and Incarnation Children's Center. Ms. Long is a regular builder here in New York City and has built houses with the Jimmy Carter Work Project in India, South Africa, Alabama, Michigan and Mexico. Ms. Long holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco's School of Law.

John S. Kwon, Treasurer
John Kwon is a Senior Manager at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, which provides corporate finance advisory services, business valuation, real estate valuation, forensic and dispute services, bankruptcy and reorganization services, and related financial advisory services. He has over 13 years of experience and serves clients in a variety of industries including entertainment, media, technology, and consumer products. Prior to Deloitte, he has worked with Duff & Phelps LLC, Standard & Poor’s, and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He has been on Habitat for Humanity - New York City’s Board since 2002 and currently serves as Treasurer. He is also a skilled volunteer on Habitat-NYC’s work sites. Mr. Kwon received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Connie Sargent, Secretary
Connie Sargent is Vice Chair of the Board of Habitat for Humanity - New York City. She is a marketing communications consultant specializing in corporate brochures, websites, and annual reports. She was a staff member at Habitat-NYC before moving onto the Board. Prior to her work at Habitat for Humanity - New York City, she worked in advertising and promotion for client CBS Television, where she created promotional campaigns to drive viewer ratings. She was also a brand manager at General Foods, where she managed all aspects of marketing on Maxwell House businesses. She has served on the Board of the Brooklyn Historical Society and worked with the School Committee of the Brooklyn Friends School, drafting 5-year strategic plans for both organizations. She holds a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. in marketing from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Jennifer A. Armstrong
Jennifer Armstrong currently is a consultant for Westfall Consulting focusing on business development for small banks and acquisitions in the financial services arena. Prior to this Jennifer spent 23 years in banking with Citigroup and Bankers Trust working in both consumer banking and corporate banking. She has focused her career on business Development with the expansion of the US consumer group and using outside partnerships for distribution, in addition she spent 9 years in the securities industry managing the Global network to buy and sell securities for the large institutions. Jennifer sits on the Board for the New York Woman's Agenda as their past president. She was on the NCEE as a board member focusing on education children in Economics. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and resides in Manhasset, New York.

David Bach
David Bach has helped millions of people around the world take action to live and finish rich. He is the author of seven consecutive national bestsellers, including two consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, Start Late, Finish Rich and The Automatic Millionaire. Bach carries the unique distinction of having had four of his books appear simultaneously on the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and USA Today bestseller lists. In addition, four of Bach's books were named to USA Today's Best Sellers of the Year list for 2004. In all, his FinishRich Books have been published in more than 15 languages, with more than five million copies in print worldwide.

Bach's most recent book is the #1 bestseller, The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner which has already sold more than a million copies since the book launched in March 2006. To coincide with the release of this book, David Bach launched The Great American Homeowner ChallengeTM, a national financial literacy campaign to empower ten million people to build financial security through homeownership by buying their first home, second home or investment property.

As part of his mission, David is involved with many worthwhile causes including serving on the board for Habitat for Humanity and co-founding Makers of Memories, an organization dedicated to helping women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

David Bach lives in New York, where he is currently working on his ninth book, Go Green, Live Rich. Please visit his web site at www.finishrich.com.

Neil Bader
Neil Bader serves as an Area Manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in New York. In this role, he is responsible for the Private Mortgage Bank, Retail Mortgage Lending, Home Credit Solutions and Reverse Mortgage Lending. Wells Fargo is the nations largest retail home lender. Before joining Wells Fargo in 2003, he was the Chief Executive Officer of IPI-Skyscraper Mortgage, which at the time of its sale in 2001, was the nations largest mortgage brokerage. Mr. Bader has frequently appeared on radio and television, including the Today Show, ABC Nightly News, CNBC and Bloomberg, for his expertise in housing and mortgage trends. Mr. Bader is a graduate of the University of Rochester. A New York native, he continues to live with his wife Amy and children Griffin and Caleigh, on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Evan Bauer
Evan Bauer has 25 years of experience in the architecture, design, implementation, and maintenance of complex information systems. He is an independent consultant advising both public and private sector organizations on technology innovation. He also works with venture capital and private equity firms through Fanzilli | Bauer Technology Partners. Evan serves on the Brooklyn Community Leadership Committee of the Board of Habitat for Humanity NYC and is a founding member of its Community Builder Society. He sits on the advisory board to the Computer and Information Systems Department of LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York. He is webmaster for his wife, novelist Joan Bauer.

Robert L. Burch
Robert L. Burch, IV, has been a General Partner of A.W. Jones Company since 2003. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton, an M.Sc. with Distinction from Oxford, and an M.B.A. from Harvard. His work experience prior to A.W. Jones has included management consulting at Booz, Allen & Hamilton and product management at a startup telecommunications company. He is also the General Partner of A.W. Jones Concentrated, LP. Robert was born and raised in New York City

J. Christopher Hoeffel
Mr. Hoeffel is the Global co-head of the Commercial Mortgage Department where he is responsible for all of the Firm’s commercial mortgage principal transactions, including origination, marketing, securitization and syndication of Commercial real estate investments in the US, Europe and Japan. Before taking over management of the department in 1995, he was a member of the Real Estate Investment Banking group at Bear Stearns. Prior to joining Bear Stearns in 1993, Mr. Hoeffel was employed with Eastdil Realty, Inc. in New York where he was responsible for principal-oriented transactions for the firm and its clients. Previously, he was a loan production officer with Walker & Dunlop, Inc., a commercial mortgage banking firm in Washington, D.C. Mr. Hoeffel has a BS in Business Administration from Georgetown University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Hoeffel is a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America’s Commercial Board of Governors, a member of the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA) Board of Governors (where he also serves on the Executive Committee), a member of the Real Estate Roundtable and a member of the Real Estate Finance Committee of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). He is also on the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity, NY.

Suzette Hunte
Bio to come.

Karim Hutson
Karim Hutson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Genesis Partners where he oversees the company's development and acquisitions efforts and is actively involved in plotting the strategic growth of Genesis as well as its efforts in the area of sustainable and smart design. Since founding Genesis in 2004, Mr. Hutson has engaged the firm in over $60 million of development activity equating to the creation of close to 200 residential units and several retail facilities within the firms residential buildings. Prior to founding Genesis, he was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs in New York City and a private equity investor with General Atlantic in Greenwich, Connecticut. Mr. Hutson received a B.A. in philosophy and economics from Amherst College in Massachusetts and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. A graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School, Mr. Hutson is an avid hiker, enjoys tennis and actively volunteers his time for non-profit organizations focused on education and housing. He is also a member of the US Green Building Council-NY and the Urban Land Institute.

Rabbi Robert Kaplan
Bob Kaplan is the founding director of the New York Center for Community and Coalition Building (NYCCCB), a division of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the central coordinating and resource body for 62 major Jewish organizations in the metropolitan New York area. Under Rabbi Kaplan’s leadership, the NYCCCB has been instrumental in developing and consulting to many community-based coalitions and community-building initiatives such as the Northern Queens Health Coalition, Project C.A.R.E. (Crown Heights), the Greater Southern Brooklyn Health Coalition, the Coalition for Far Rockaway, the Lower Manhattan Health Care Coalition, and Bronx Women Moving Our World, among others. He has served as a member of and a consultant to the NYC Board of Education Chancellor’s Interfaith Commission, President Clinton’s White House Conference on Race, and the Plenary Committee for the United Nations Conference, Habitat II. Rabbi Kaplan studied at Empire State College and Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and received his rabbinical ordination in 1984.

Douglas L. Paul
Doug Paul is a Vice Chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston, a global investment bank, and is a member of the management committee of the Fixed Income Division. He has been with the firm for 35 years and represents CSFB with both sovereign and corporate clients throughout the world. He serves as a board member of the Credit Suisse First Boston Foundation and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Paul received his B.A. in English Literature from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

Nia Rock
Nia Rock is Vice President and Community Reinvestment Officer with Independence Community Bank and manages the bank’s CRA Compliance initiatives throughout New York and New Jersey. With an extensive career in Banking and Real Estate finance, Ms. Rock’s primary expertise is in Community and Economic Development lending and product development. Ms. Rock also serves as director on the boards of various housing, community and economic development organizations and is a leader in a number of strategic initiatives throughout the region. She holds a B.A. in economics from Bard College and is presently pursuing graduate study at New York University's Real Estate Institute.

Theodore U. Schweitzer
Theodore U. Schweitzer is a Managing Director at TishmanSpeyer, a real estate development company headquartered in New York City.

Mr. Schweitzer works for the president of the company as his chief of staff. In January 2000, Mr. Schweitzer joined Tishman Speyer Properties as Assistant General Counsel. He was responsible for the company's global asset dispositions from 2002-2003. Prior to joining Tishman Speyer Properties, Mr. Schweitzer was an associate at the New York office of Shearman & Sterling. He received his BA from Columbia College in 1991 and his JD at Columbia Law School in 1994.

Mr. Schweitzer is a member of the Executive Committee of the ULI New York District Council and a member of the Connecticut regional board of the Anti-Defamation League. He also serves as alternate member of the Conservation Commission of the Town of Westport, Connecticut and is a board member of Habitat for Humanity-New York City.

Andie Simon
Andie Simon, the Senior Vice President for Strategic Marketing at Warner Brothers Records, has dedicated her professional life to the music industry. Starting with radio station KALX in Berkeley, California, Ms. Simon has held a series of promotion and management positions in the music business for the past 20 years, including posts at AOL and A & M Records. Her responsibilities at Warner include promoting and marketing Warner artists through videos, concerts and sporting events. An enthusiastic supporter and volunteer for Habitat for Humanity - New York City, Ms. Simon has worked through her church, St. Bart’s, to volunteer on Habitat projects from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Ms. Simons was instrumental in creating an unprecedented Habitat Operation Home Delivery marathon building event on Rockefeller Plaza in 2005 to build homes for Hurricane Katrina victims. Ms. Simon enlisted her company, the Today Show and Habitat for Humanity International to make the 24-hour-a-day, five-day event a reality.

Rev. Thomas Synan
The Rev. Thomas N. Synan is a Priest Associate at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City. Among his responsibilities, he oversees the outreach programs of his church, which include several feeding programs, a homeless shelter and a variety of ministries in East Harlem. He is also a Clergy Liaison with the New York City Police Department. Following the tragic events of September 11th, he assisted throughout the rescue and recovery effort as an on-site chaplain at Ground Zero and was a participant in several documentaries about it. Father Synan is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University Law Center, and Yale University’s Divinity School.

Julia Taylor
Julia Taylor is the owner of Platinum Caterers and Events Planning. The company provides catering and events planning services for the corporate, religious and entertainment communities. She previously spent ten years in the banking and higher education industries providing asset liability and budget analysis services. She joined Habitat for Humanity - New York City in February of 2002 and currently serves as the co-chair of the Brooklyn Leadership Committee. Mrs. Taylor holds a B.S. in Finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Vanitha Venugopal
Vanitha Venugopal is an architect and planner by training and is a Program Officer for the Community Revitalization program at the Surdna Foundation, a national family foundation. She has more than 25 years of experience in planning and housing. Prior to Surdna, she was the Director of Housing and Associate Director for Planning and Development for the Queens Borough President, New York City and worked extensively on policy, legislation and constituent services. Her other work experience includes commercial street revitalization and school facilities planning. She is a board member of Asian Americans for Equality and a co-founder of Chhaya CDC, an organization that provides housing services to the South Asian community in New York City.

Joshua Lockwood, Executive Director
Joshua Lockwood, Executive Director of Habitat-NYC, combines expertise in both strategic planning for the non-profit and for-profit and in economic development. Prior to joining Habitat-NYC, Josh spent eight years as a Principal at HR&A, focusing on the firm's business and strategic planning practice, which served an array of non-profits and foundations. These have included Urban Pathways, the New York Association for New Americans, the Randall's Island Sports Foundation, Gay Men's Health Crisis, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, World Culture Open, and the Friends of Van Corltandt Park, among others. Josh has also overseen a number of major economic development and affordable housing projects, working on behalf of both public and private sector developers. Recently, these included urban revitalization projects throughout New York City; Flint, MI; Millville, NJ; and Baltimore, MD, and mixed-income and affordable housing plans in Staten Island and Miami, FL. Josh has an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and a Master's Degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He was a fellow with the Coro Foundation's Leadership New York class and a Presidential Management Intern at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. Josh currently serves as the co-chair of the American Planning Association, New York Metro Chapter Economic Development Committee.