Wendell Johns - GLCF Board Chair
Retired
Washington D.C.
 

Wendell L. Johns retired from Fannie Mae as Vice President for Multifamily Housing in May 2005. During his 17 years at Fannie Mae, he helped direct its development of an industry-leading portfolio of community development and affordable rental housing assets, which included:

Wendell L. Johns retired from Fannie Mae as Vice President for Multifamily Housing in May 2005. During his 17 years at Fannie Mae, he helped direct its development of an industry-leading portfolio of community development and affordable rental housing assets, which included:

Establishing Fannie Mae as the leading national corporate investor in rental housing qualifying for the low-income housing tax credit (including historic tax credit) resulting in major contribution to Fannie Mae's profitability

Played a critical role in creating tools for the industry including: the first single investor equity fund, capitalizing some of the premier state and local equity funds and the potential recapture exclusion being considered by Congress to promote affordable housing preservation.

Pioneered housing finance models that later became Fannie Mae's American Communities Fund, including: historic tax credit equity investments; stock purchases of community development financial institutions; lines of credit to community development corporations; permanent debt products used to preserve rural rental housing.

Promoted and led the effort to expand permanent debt products to the affordable rental housing market, including tax-exempt bond purchases and bond credit enhancement.

From 1978 to 1988, Mr. Johns was chief financial and administrative officer for a number of divisions of Oxford Development Corporation in Indianapolis, IN and later in Bethesda, MD. From 1974 to 1978, he was an auditor, rising to the level of supervisor, with Coopers & Lybrand in Indianapolis, IN.

He serves on the boards of the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area (previously as volunteer board chair), the Great Lakes Capital Fund, and Girls, Inc. of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area.

A trained CPA, Mr. Johns holds a BS from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Johns is recently retired as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The NHP Foundation – a nonprofit owner and operator of affordable rental housing in 11 states including New Orleans, LA.

Michael J. Taylor - GLCF Board Secretary/Treasurer
Senior Vice President/Western Territory Executive

PNC Bank
Cleveland, Ohio

Michael J. Taylor is senior vice president, Western Territory Executive, for PNC Bank. He is responsible for community development and CRA activities for Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin. Prior to this he was the president and executive director of the National City Community Development Corporation, the first community development corporation founded by a financial services company. The Community Development Corporation invested more than $1.5 billion in revitalizing neighborhoods. National City's investments in these projects have led to total investments of $11.9 billion and have helped create more than 83,261 new and rehabbed housing units.

Mr. Taylor has experience in both private and public sector community and economic development, as well as twenty-five years of banking experience. He is a graduate of Central Michigan University with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a master's degree in Administration. He is also a graduate of Robert M. Perry School of Banking. He was awarded a 2000 National City Bank of MI/IL Excel Award, the highest recognition award an employee can receive, for outstanding contributions and service to the community.

James S. Bernacki - GLCF Director
First Vice President and Group Manager
Comerica Community Development Center
Detroit, Michigan

Mr. Bernacki has worked in a variety of different capacities during his thirty year career at Comerica Bank. He started in the branch management training program and soon moved into the commercial banking division. There he was part of a team of lenders that started the Small Business Department. While in Small Business, Bernacki was responsible for re-establishing Comerica Bank's SBA program that quickly reached the government's highest status of Preferred. In 1992, he started a subsidiary, Comerica Community Development Corporation, that focused exclusively on delivering financial solutions to community development projects. Over the course of time, that activity became more specialized in tax advantaged financing. Today, Bernacki is the department manager for Community Development Finance. There he guides the wholesale distribution of capital to the affordable housing industry and equity investments to historic rehabilitation developments.

Catherine A. Cawthon - GLCF Director
President
Fifth Third CDC
Dublin, Ohio

Bio coming soon...

William C. Perkins - GLCF Director
Executive Director
Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development
Madison, Wisconsin

Bill Perkins is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development. The Partnership expands affordable housing opportunities and revitalizes neighborhoods by creating partnerships between the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Bill has over 40 years of experience in affordable housing development, finance and policy development.

Under Bill's direction, the Partnership has developed or been a development consultant for 800 rental and sale homes; provided training, technical assistance and consulting services to more than 120 nonprofit and for-profit companies and over 30 local and state governments; The partnership created and managed seven financing programs that provided over $60 million in debt and equity financing; and managed more than $25 million in down payment assistance or counseling to over 11,000 low- and moderate-income households. To date, the Partnership has providing housing assistance to over 14,000 households.

James Stretz - GLCF Director
Senior Vice President
National Housing Group
Denver, Colorado

James is senior vice president with George K. Baum & Company with more than 16 years experience working in the housing finance industry. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Stretz served as Executive Director of New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority for 14 years. Most recently he served a two-year term as president and CEO of Arizona Family Housing Fund. Mr. Stretz is a former board member and treasurer of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, a past member of the Fannie Mae National Housing Impact Advisory Council and served on the Federal Home Loan Bank's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee of Dallas. He is a past recipient of the NCSHA Leadership Award and the National Social Compact Award. He holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at the University of New Mexico, and a BS in economics from Colorado State University.

Donald F. Tucker - GLCF Director
Of Counsel
Clark Hill PLC's
Landrum, South Carolina

Government and Public Affairs Practice Group. Mr. Tucker’s areas of practice have included complex litigation, real estate, corporate, municipal, and government relations. Mr. Tucker served as Legislative Counsel to United States Senator Philip A. Hart in Washington, D.C. in the mid-1970s, and has been engaged in the private practice of law since that time. He has several published articles including “Successfully Managing Client Expectations,” (Michigan Bar Journal, March 1998); “Litigating Tortious Interference Claims” (The Brief, 1998); “Investing in Justice; How Plaintiffs are Selling Shares to Finance Their Commercial Lawsuits” (The Brief, 1992); and “Traps to Avoid when Drafting Auditor Response Letters” (The Brief, 1993).

Mr. Tucker served as Chairman of the Board of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority from 1984 to 1992 and remained on the board until 1994. He was a Commissioner of the State Bar of Michigan from 1999 until 2002 and was President of the Oakland County Bar Association from 2002 to 2003. Additionally, Mr. Tucker has been a faculty member of the Detroit Bar Association Annual Securities Law Seminar for several years and has lectured at three national ABA conventions. He is also a past president of The Detroit Swedish Council and past chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce-Detroit Chapter.

Paul J. Weaver - GLCF Director
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer
Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana

Mr. Weaver served as senior vice president and chief accounting officer for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis until March 2009. He joined Federal Home Loan Bank in 1984 and served in several capacities including overseeing the Community Investment/Affordable Housing, Information Technology, and Financial Controls Divisions for the bank. Mr. Weaver currently operates his own accounting practice, providing consulting and tax services. Mr. Weaver is a CPA and he has a BS degree in Mathematics from Purdue University and and MBA from Indiana University.