Breakout: Achieving Sustainable and Affordable Cities
11:00-11:50am Aldrich Room 109
Cities in the 21st century grapple with the dual objectives of developing housing that is both sustainable and affordable. Specialists in urban planning, eco-friendly innovations, and housing regulations will explore forward-thinking approaches to forge urban environments that are eco-conscious and more financially accessible.
Panelists:
Virginia Calkins
Director of ESG | DivCore
Virginia Calkins is Director of Environmental, Social, and Governance for DivCore, providing leadership and management oversight in developing, implementing, and driving DivCore’s ESG framework nationally. She also serves on the development team, managing ground-up and significant repositioning projects, including the development of Peninsula Crossing.
Prior to joining DivcoWest in 2020, Virginia worked with Sares Regis managing development and infrastructure projects and real estate R&D efforts on behalf of Google and other major technology firms. Virginia began her career at the interdisciplinary design firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro in New York City. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in architecture and economics at Yale University and received a Masters of Business Administration from Stanford.
Rebecca Ramsdale
Director of Projects | Verdical Group
Rebecca is Director of Projects at Verdical Group, overseeing a variety of high-performance buildings and material transparency projects. She guides projects through schematic design, feasibility assessments, design iterations, the construction process, and closeout to achieve the client’s sustainability goals.
Rebecca joined Verdical Group from the general contracting industry where she gained valuable experience as a project engineer, project manager, and estimator. These roles enhanced her managing skills for project schedules and budgets, field-work, and communication, all with the highest level of quality and attention to detail. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola Marymount University where she studied Natural Science and Civil Engineering.
Jason Bordainick
Managing Partner & Co-founder | Hudson Valley Property Group
Jason co-founded Hudson Valley Property Group with a vision to create the preeminent housing preservation firm, improving upon the availability, quality, and affordability of housing across the country. HVPG acquires existing multi-family properties and enhances their sustainability, leveraging innovative strategic partnerships in the areas of healthcare, education and technology to deliver added value for residents and investors.
A recognized industry leader, Jason applies his creativity, tenacity, and business acumen toward building an impactful organization that achieves outstanding results for its partners – both for-profit and non-profit, and the communities it serves. Jason leads the strategic direction for the firm and ensures each project, partnership, and investment is structured for success.
Jason frequently lectures at graduate schools of business on the future of affordable housing. He has been recognized by the New York Real Estate Journal as “One to Watch” in 2022 and as Affordable Housing Finance’s Young Leaders. He serves on the board of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing and is a member of the National Leased Housing Association and SPIRE (Stanford Professionals in Real Estate).
Before founding HVPG, Jason founded and built Off Campus Partners (OCP), the nation’s largest online marketplace for off-campus housing, which helps millions of students secure housing each year. OCP was acquired by CoStar in 2019. In his career, Jason has successfully executed over $2.5B of investments on behalf of private investors and corporations. He also previously worked in mergers & acquisitions and corporate management. Jason holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BS in finance from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, where he was honored with the Warwick Johnson Jr. award for academic achievement and serves on the Advisory Board of the UVA Center for Real Estate and the Built Environment.
Annie Koo
Chief Operating Officer | Catalyst Housing
Annie oversees company operations and growth strategy for Catalyst. Prior to Catalyst, Annie led the housing vertical at Sidewalk Labs, the former real estate technology arm of Alphabet. She had worked on housing and affordability topics at McKinsey, NYC Dept of Housing Preservation and Development, and as a Fulbright Fellow in Singapore.
Annie received her MBA from Columbia and studied architecture at Brown
John Macomber - Moderator
Senior Lecturer | Harvard Business School
John Macomber is a Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His professional background includes leadership of real estate, construction, and information technology businesses. At HBS, Mr. Macomber's work focuses on climate adaptation and the future of cities, particularly as aided by the private finance and delivery of public infrastructure projects in both the developed and emerging worlds. His teaching combines infrastructure finance (including public-private partnerships), investing in resilience (notably in the face of sea rise in some areas and drought in others), economic development, and the impact of new technologies in delivering new infrastructure and making old infrastructure more efficient. His most recent book is Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity (Harvard University Press, 2020)