Senior Staff
Colleen Hernandez
President and Chief Executive Officer
Colleen Hernandez joined the Foundation in 2006 with wide-ranging experience in affordable housing, community development, and grass roots community organizing. Prior to joining the Foundation, she served as Executive Director of the Kansas City Neighborhood Alliance (KCNA) for 18 years. Earlier, Ms. Hernandez was the principal of Hernandez Consulting LLC, a firm specializing in affordable housing and community development. She served six years on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, chairing its Audit Committee for two years. Ms. Hernandez served on the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, as well as on the board of the National Equity Fund. She is the 1995 recipient of the Charles Kimball Award from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.
Julie Steinhagen
Chief Operating Officer
Julie Steinhagen joined the Foundation in September 2010. She previously held a management position at the National Community Stabilization Trust, a start-up, nonprofit focused on facilitating the transfer of foreclosed and abandoned properties from financial institutions nationwide to local housing organizations to promote productive property reuse and neighborhood stability. Prior to her work at the NCST, Ms. Steinhagen worked for 15 years in financial services, holding senior-level positions in both investor relations and capital markets, as well as an earlier position at the accounting firm Deloitte. Ms. Steinhagen brings with her a deep knowledge of the secondary mortgage market. She earned her BS in Accounting from St. Cloud State University in MN and held a CPA license during her time at Deloitte.
David Flavin
Chief Financial Officer
David Flavin, who joined HPF in December 2012, has over 20 years of experience as a senior executive in the financial services industry; his expertise includes the disciplines of accounting, finance, and treasury. He has a demonstrated track record in business integration, strategic and operational development, and cross-functional leadership. Throughout his career, Mr. Flavin has held senior level positions with global financial institutions, including GMAC and Deloitte and Touche. Mr. Flavin earned his degree in Accounting from St. Thomas University and has completed Executive Development courses at Harvard, Stanford, the London School of Business, and Change Masters® Incorporated.
Gene Spencer
Senior Vice President, Stakeholder Relations and Research
Gene Spencer, who joined HPF in January 2010, is responsible for stakeholder relations, business strategy, and research initiatives. He is an experienced marketing, communications, relationship management, strategy development, and corporate planning executive, and a 30-year veteran of the mortgage and financial services sectors. He had a 28-year career at Fannie Mae, lastly in the position of vice president of investor relations, where he was responsible for investor communications strategy and managing relationships with the global institutional equity investment community. He earlier worked as vice president for mortgage-backed securities marketing, where he led the marketing of Fannie Mae’s MBS products to Wall Street and institutional fixed income investors worldwide. Mr. Spencer holds an Executive Masters in Leadership from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a BS from the College of William and Mary. Mr. Spencer serves on the Board of Trustees of The Studio Theatre and advises the board of The Community of Hope, both of which are in Washington, DC.
Josh Fuhrman
Senior Vice President, Government and Community Relations
Josh Fuhrman has been in the credit and housing counseling industry assisting consumers in financial crisis for over 15 years. Prior to joining HPF in 2007, he spent 10 years serving as the Director of Counseling for Auriton Solutions, a national nonprofit crisis-counseling agency and one of HPF’s original counseling partners. He is currently a board member of the Consumer Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve and has an extensive background in business development and has strong community involvement in housing and financial assistance. Mr. Fuhrman holds a BA in Communications and Philosophy from the University of Minnesota.
Board of Directors
Bruce Paradis
Bruce Paradis, a founding board member of HPF, served as the CEO of GMAC-RFC (now Residential Capital LLC) for 13 years until his retirement in 2007. Prior to RFC, he held positions at Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp (MGIC) and First Federal Savings in Minnesota. Currently, his work includes serving on various boards of directors and as a partner at Nucleus LLC, an investment/advisory company that specializes in real estate.
Sharon Sayles Belton
Sharon Sayles Belton is currently the Vice President, Government Affairs and Community Relations at Thomson Reuters, Legal. She is also a senior fellow at the Hubert Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. Ms. Belton is a nationally recognized expert on public/private partnerships that address public safety, neighborhood livability, and economic development. She served as the mayor of Minneapolis from 1994 to 2001. During her tenure, she facilitated the creation of the nationally recognized Phillips Partnership to address public safety, job creation, and quality housing in one of the poorest neighborhoods with one of the highest crime rates in Minneapolis.
Barrett Burns
Barrett Burns is President and CEO of VantageScore Solutions LLC. He has more than three decades of professional experience in risk and credit management, and has held a diverse number of national and international leadership positions at several of the country’s most prestigious financial services companies. Previously, he was Executive Vice President at U.S. Trust, heading the National Private Banking Group and a member of U.S. Trust’s Executive Committee and the Senior Management Team of parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation. He served as Executive Vice President of Global Risk Management and Chairman of the Credit Policy Committee at Ford Motor Credit Company. Barrett serves as a member of the Corporate Board of Governors for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) and on the Asian Real Estate Association of America’s National Advisory Council. Mr. Burns is also a member of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Mortgage Finance Collaborative Council, and was a 2011 member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. He received a BA in economics from Washington and Jefferson College.
Joseph Donovan
Prior to his retirement in February 2007, Mr. Donovan was chairman of Credit Suisse’s ABS and debt financing group, which he had led since March 2000. Earlier, Mr. Donovan was a managing director and head of asset finance at Prudential Securities from 1998 to 2000 and at Smith Barney from 1995 to 1997. Mr. Donovan began his banking career at The First Boston Corporation in 1983, ultimately becoming a managing director at CS First Boston, where he served as Chief Operating Officer of the Investment Banking Department from 1992 to 1995. He is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee of FLY Leasing Limited, an aircraft leasing company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and a director and Chairman of the Investment Committee and member of the Compensation Committee of Cohen & Company, a NYC-based broker-dealer and asset management company. Mr. Donovan earned his MBA from The Wharton School and a degree in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame.
Bruce Gottschall
Mr. Gottschall was one of the original founders of NHS of Chicago in 1975, and its Executive Director from its inception in 1975 until December 2009. His expertise in the fields of housing and community development has led to his appointment to a number of committees and commissions including Chicago’s Affordable Housing Task Force, the NeighborWorks Insurance Alliance Task Force, Co-Chair of the NeighborWorks National Home Ownership Campaign 1993-2003, and Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Abandoned Property. In 2004, the Fannie Mae Foundation named him a James A. Johnson Community Fellow. In 2003, NHS of Chicago and Mr. Gottschall, in partnership with the City of Chicago, established NHS’ Home Ownership Preservation Initiative (HOPI), which became a national partnership model in preventing foreclosures. Mr. Gottschall earned a B.A. in Sociology and Economics from Dartmouth College in 1965 and an M.A. in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago in 1970. He served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer from 1965 to 1967 in Lima, Peru.
Sanjeev Handa
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Mr. Handa is Managing Director, Real Estate Fixed Income at TIAA-CREF where he has worked since 1988. In this role, Mr. Handa oversees TIAA’s real estate fixed income portfolio, which includes commercial mortgages, CMBS and real estate debt funds. Prior to assuming his current role in 2011, Mr. Handa was head of public fixed income, responsible for the public fixed income assets of TIAA-CREF from 2006-2011 and prior to that position, head of asset-backed securities from 1998-2006. During his tenure at TIAA-CREF, Mr. Handa has had additional responsibilities, including oversight over TIAA-CREF’s securities lending programs. He began his career as a corporate bond and emerging market analyst. Mr. Handa earned an MBA from the University of Michigan, and undergraduate New York University and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
Christopher Herbert
Christopher Herbert is the Research Director at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The Center, a collaborative venture of the Graduate School of Design and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, conducts research on the nation’s most critical housing and urban issues. Dr. Herbert has extensive experience conducting research related to housing policy, housing markets, housing finance and urban development. In recent years, his work has had a particular focus on efforts to promote and maintain homeownership for low-income and minority families. Prior to his work at the Joint Center, Dr. Herbert was a Senior Associate in the Housing and Community Development practice of Abt Associates Inc. He earned his PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University and his B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Tom Jacob
Tom Jacob is currently president of Jaytee Associates, which provides business process outsourcing advice and investment. Mr. Jacob retired from Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corporation in 2003 after 12 years as Chairman and Chief Executive. Throughout his career, he has developed and led large and successful credit card, consumer finance, and branch banking businesses. He has held leadership roles in advanced risk management, fair lending programs, and affordable lending programs.
Jill Kanin-Lovers
Ms. Kanin-Lovers was named by Directors & Boards magazine as one of its “Directors to Watch” for 2011. She is a member of the board of directors and chair of the Compensation Committees for Dot Foods, the nation’s largest food redistributor, and Heidrick & Struggles, a leading global executive search and leadership advisory firm. She had earlier served on the Boards of Alpharma, a specialty pharmaceutical company; BearingPoint, a global technology consulting firm; and First Advantage, a risk and business solutions provider. Named one of the Top 50 global leaders in human resources in 2000 by HR World magazine, Ms. Kanin-Lovers previously worked at Avon Products, where she was senior vice president of human resources and workplace management and a member of the company’s Executive Committee, Corporate Compliance Committee, and the board of the Avon Foundation. Earlier, she held executive-level human resources positions at American Express and IBM, and, prior to that, spent 17 years in management consulting with Towers Perrin (now Towers Watson).
Prue Larocca
Ms. Larocca has extensive experience and expertise across the residential mortgage credit continuum. She served as managing director of mortgage and asset-backed finance at RBS Securities, the U.S.-based security brokerage firm of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, where she was responsible for business development, specializing in financial products developed for financial institutions, REITs, specialty financial companies, mortgage banks, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, and the FDIC. She had earlier served as senior vice president at Lehman Brothers where she was responsible for its single-family mortgage business and had managed the single family and consumer securitization business for the Resolution Trust Corporation. Earlier in her career, Ms. Larocca provided legal counsel to lenders and banks in real estate transactions while practicing law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Kutak Rock.
Mike Seats
Mike Seats worked as Executive Vice President at Residential Capital LLC (ResCap) until 2007 and was responsible for the legal and public policy functions. He joined GMAC-RFC (now ResCap) in 1990, and held several positions in the legal department and international business development. Prior to joining ResCap, Mr. Seats worked as an attorney for a Houston-based law firm where he specialized in the areas of banking law and creditors’ rights. Mr. Seats, who became HPF’s first board chairman in 2003, is currently active with several nonprofit organizations.
