Speaker Biographies

Austin J. Belton joined the U.S. Small Business Administration as director of the new markets venture capital program in January 2001. In a previous position as senior advisor to the multilateral investment fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, he oversaw a portfolio of loans to microcredit institutions and investments in 30 private small-business equity funds, located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Earlier, he held positions as investment officer with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and senior manager with Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (Back to conference main page)

Elyse D. Cherry is an attorney and a former partner of the Boston law firm of Hale and Dorr, where her practice focused on large commercial real estate, development of affordable housing and the preservation of open space. Prior to joining the Boston Community Capital, she served as CEO of Earthwide Products Corporation, an investment fund that targeted environmental businesses. A former VISTA Volunteer at the East Tennessee Community Design Center, Elyse is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Northeastern University School of Law. She serves as a Director of the National Community Capital Association and the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance. (Back to conference main page)

Matt Josephs is a financial and program advisor with the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He has been with the fund since 1999, initially as a policy and research analyst and currently as an advisor on the new markets tax credit program. Earlier, he worked on housing and community-development issues while serving with the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He previously worked as a policy analyst in the office of public and Indian housing in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Back to conference main page)

David Kavanaugh is a tax partner at the law firm Nixon Peabody LLP. He focuses his practice in the taxation of corporations and partnerships and specializes in the tax related aspects of syndication, real estate, and low income housing tax credits. He also has extensive experience in international tax matters and business tax planning. He has received a master of laws degree in taxation from Boston University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and the U.S. Tax Court and is a member of the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Association. (Back to conference main page)

Beth Lipson is the Manager of Special Projects in the Financial Services Division at National Community Capital. National Community Capital provides financing, training, consulting, and advocacy services to a national network of private-sector community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Beth manages National Community Capital’s New Markets Tax Credit efforts and the collection and publication of CDFI industry data. She also underwrites and monitors loans and investments to CDFIs. Beth has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School. (Back to conference main page)

Benson F. Roberts, vice president for policy at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), directs LISC’s public-policy and government-relations activities. He helped create the low-income housing tax credit, HOME, and new markets tax credit programs. Before joining LISC in 1988, he was an associate at James Pickman and Associates, Inc., a consulting firm. He is a board member of the Center for Community Change, National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, and the National Housing Conference, and is co-author of several books on affordable housing and community development. (Back to conference main page)

Renee T. Simms is Senior Vice President and Director of Strategic Investments for Fleet Development Ventures (FDV), a for-profit subsidiary of FleetBoston Financial Corporation. FDV is a $500 million dollar equity investment unit of FleetBoston Financial. The mission of FDV is to profitability invest equity capital and knowledge in local businesses and real estate enterprises which benefit low-and-moderate-income communities as well as in women-owned and minority-owned businesses. As Director, Simms is responsible for new products, partnerships and initiatives that profitably invest risk capital in business enterprises in low-to-moderate income areas as well as women-owned and minority-owned businesses. Prior to this assignment, Simms was part of the management team that developed and launched the Women Entrepreneurs’ Connection, a nationally recognized initiative for women. In this role, Simms developed a $100 million credit initiative, a technology partnership with IBM and debt and equity initiatives to expand access to capital within the women-owned business segment. (Back to conference main page)