Breakfast with the Boss

Join ELPN for an intimate roundtable with an inspiring Bay Area affordable housing leader to discuss their career and take on our industry. Learn, ask questions, and make connections! Each one-hour talk will start at 8am PST. These events will be limited to twelve ELPN members to ensure there is rich conversation in a small group.

Given the few number of spots per talk, we are limiting each ELPN member to attending only one of the four scheduled speaker events. To sign up, please complete our first-come, first-serve pre-registration form. This form allows you to choose which roundtable you are most interested in attending.

After the pre-registration, we will reach out to share which talk you’ve been selected to attend. Once the day has been selected you are eligible to register for the event.

Dates & Speakers:

Wednesday, March 3 at 8am-9am PST

• Ari Beliak, President & CEO of Merritt Community Capital Coportation 

Friday, March 5 at 8am – 9am PST

• Shola Olatoye, Director of Housing & Community at the City of Oakland 

Wednesday, March 10 at 8am – 9am PST

• Carol Galante, Professor & Faculty Director in Housing and Urban Policy Program at UC Berkeley

Friday, March 12 at 8am – 9am PST

• Andy Madeira, CEO of East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation

Speaker Bios:

Ari Beliak, President & CEO
Merritt Community Capital Corporation

Mr. Ari Beliak comes to Merritt from Bank of America where he served as a Senior Vice President in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Community Development Banking group leading a team of experts who provided debt and equity solutions to affordable housing developers based in Northern California, Nevada, and Colorado.

Mr. Beliak has been credited with reestablishing the bank as a leader in affordable housing in Northern California and expanding into Nevada. In addition, he was the key driver in Bank of America’s $2.2 billion financing of the nation’s largest affordable housing project, the San Francisco Rental Assistance Demonstration. Beliak has dedicated himself to attracting professionals into affordable housing via his management and expansion of the Bank of America Low-Income Housing Challenge, a business plan competition and supporting industry leadership and mentorship programs. In 2016, he was recognized as a “Top 40 under 40” in the San Francisco Business Journal.

Prior to Bank of America, Beliak practiced law for Sidley Austin LLP, served in various real estate finance capacities for Wells Fargo Bank, including their affordable housing group, and was a management consultant for A.T. Kearney. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley and a JD/MBA from UC Hastings College of Law and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

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Shola Olatoye, Director of Housing & Community

Oakland Department of Housing & Community Development

Shola Olatoye is an experienced real estate and management executive with more than 20 years of experience launching and managing public-private partnerships. She served as Vice President of Business Development for Suffolk Construction, a national construction management firm. Prior to joining Suffolk, Shola served as Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the largest public housing authority in the nation. As a Mayoral appointee, Shola launched NextGeneration NYCHA, the agency’s 10-year turnaround plan. She led her team to balance the $3.1 billion operating budget for three consecutive years, launched a major real estate development program, and founded a social impact nonprofit, the Fund for Public Housing.

Ms. Olatoye graduated with a B.A. with honors in history and African American studies from Wesleyan University. She also earned a master’s degree in public administration from NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where she currently serves as a Visiting Scholar teaching in the Masters of Urban Planning program on management and leadership.

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Carol Galante, Professor & Faculty Director in Housing and Urban Policy Program
Terner Center, University of Berkeley

Carol Galante is the I. Donald Terner Distinguished Professor in Affordable Housing and Urban Policy and the Faculty Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation. She also co-chairs the Policy Advisory Board of the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics.

As Faculty Director for the Terner Center, Galante oversees the Center’s work and co-leads the Center’s research agenda, supervising projects that identify, develop and advance innovative solutions in local, state and federal housing policy and practice. In her role as I. Donald Terner Distinguished Professor in Affordable Housing and Urban Policy, Professor Galante teaches graduate courses on housing policy and community development, including a semester-long studio intensive course on the design and finance of affordable housing development.
Prior to coming to UC Berkeley, Galante served in the Obama Administration for over five years as the Assistant Secretary for Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing programs.

As FHA Commissioner, Ms. Galante was responsible for the oversight of the FHA’s trillion dollar insurance portfolio, which includes single family and multifamily housing as well as insured health care facilities. She was also responsible for HUD’s two million apartments with rental assistance.

Prior to her appointment at HUD, Galante was President and Chief Executive of BRIDGE Housing Corporation, the largest non-profit developer of affordable, mixed-income and mixed-use developments in California. Early in her career Galante also worked for local government in city planning and community economic development.

She has held numerous volunteer leadership positions at the federal and state level, and has received a number of notable industry and academic honors for her leadership and commitment to addressing the housing challenges and needs of families from all walks of life. Galante holds a Master of City Planning from U.C. Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan.

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Andy Madeira, CEO

East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation

As Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development of Eden Housing, Andy Madeira leads Eden’s Real Estate Development team, and is responsible for heading Eden’s strategic growth in affordable rental development, operating property acquisitions, and portfolio recapitalization/preservation.

Andy has worked in affordable housing and community development for over 30 years, and has an extensive background in affordable housing development and financing. Prior to joining Eden Housing in February of 2014, he was a Senior Banker for JP Morgan Chase Community Development Banking. He also served as Vice President, Real Estate Development for Citizens Housing Corporation, Director of Real Estate Development at BRIDGE Housing Corporation, and Vice President at Community Preservation and Development Corporation in Washington, DC.

Andy also has significant real estate lending and finance experience having spent six years at Fannie Mae’s American Communities Fund, which financed affordable housing development, provided joint venture equity for workforce housing, and loans to local governments. Before his work in affordable housing, Andy practiced law at community nonprofit organizations in California and Philadelphia.

Andy also is on the Board of Directors for the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH), and Community Vision (a CDFI). He was formerly on the California Housing Consortium Board of Governors, the Enterprise Community Partners Northern California Advisory Committee, and a Loan Committee member of the Enterprise Community Loan Fund.
Andy received a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and a B.A. in Economics with Honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz.