Chevy Chase, MD – February 1, 2020 – Berkadia announced today the continued expansion of its Affordable Housing platform with the addition of three mortgage bankers based in the Southeast. Managing Directors Jeff Lawrence, Heather Olson and Matthew Baptiste bring an average of 18 years of Affordable Housing financing experience to Berkadia’s robust Affordable debt platform. The group of top performing mortgage bankers, all of whom were most recently with Walker & Dunlop, will join the platform’s mortgage banking team which arranged over $1 billion in loans in 2020.
“Adding Jeff, Matt and Heather to our team increases the breadth of knowledge and technical expertise in all aspects of Affordable lending,” said David Leopold, SVP and Head of Berkadia Affordable. “They complement the existing mortgage banking team and the platform’s integrated investment sales and tax credit syndication divisions.”
Lawrence has over 25 years of real estate experience, including originating both market rate and affordable loans, underwriting, analysis and portfolio management. Jeff has extensive experience with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD loan programs. Prior to joining Berkadia, Lawrence served as Managing Director/Senior Vice President at Walker & Dunlop. Prior to that, Lawrence served as Vice President at CWCapital LLC within the Multifamily Finance Platform.
Olson has over 10 years of real estate experience, specializing in Affordable Housing debt originations with a focus on developments that utilize low-income housing tax credits and tax-exempt bonds. Before joining Berkadia, Olson served as Senior Director with Walker & Dunlop’s Multifamily Debt Team. Since 2012, she has been directly involved in over $1 billion of loan financings from various capital sources, including Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, life companies and HUD.
Baptiste has nearly 20 years of commercial real estate experience. He specializes in loan originations through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and Private Debt funds. Baptiste has extensive experience structuring complex finance executions, including tax-exempt bonds and federal and state tax credits. Before joining Berkadia, Baptiste served a Senior Director with Walker & Dunlop’s Multifamily Finance Platform. He has structured and originated over $1 billion of new mortgage debt during his tenure.