LIHTC WORKING GROUP - Key Persons
Aaron Sherrard is a principal in the Dover, Ohio, office of Novogradac. Mr. Sherrard has several years of experience in providing tax, audit, forecasting, and consulting services to real estate partnerships. Mr. Sherrard works with the low-income housing tax credit, historic rehabilitation tax credit, tax-exempt bond-financed developments, nonprofits and developments subject to the auditing requirements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He works with operating partnerships, upper-tier tax credit equity funds, real estate developers and tax credit syndicators. Mr. Sherrard received his master's degree in accountancy and bachelor's degree in business administration from Bowling Green State University. He is licensed as a certified public accountant in Ohio.
Abby Cohen is a partner in the valuation consulting, market research and government services division of Novogradac's metro Washington, D.C., office. She has extensive experience performing market feasibility studies, appraisals, rent comparability studies and consulting services for a broad cross-section of clients in the low-income housing tax credit community, including developers, lenders, syndicators and state agencies. She also works extensively in the historic tax credit and new markets tax credit communities, preparing reasonableness opinions related to the IRS Revenue Procedure 2014-12 safe harbor ruling. Cohen received a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and is a frequent speaker at various industry events. She is a designated member of the National Council of Housing Market Analysts. Cohen is licensed as a certified general appraiser in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Principal in the Cleveland Office of Novogradac
Alicia Sacko is a principal in the Cleveland office of Novogradac, where she focuses on providing audit and tax services to the real estate industry. Ms. Sacko has been involved in the accounting, auditing and compliance of development projects subject to regulatory requirements of the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), historic tax credits (HTC) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Her experience includes the preparation of HTC and LIHTC final cost certifications for numerous projects as well as mortgagors cost certifications for HUD. She also has worked extensively with equity sponsors specializing in equity fund audit. Ms. Sacko received a bachelor's degree in accounting from Notre Dame College and is licensed in Ohio as a certified public accountant.
Alvin Lee is a partner in the San Francisco office of Novogradac, where he specializes in real estate and renewable energy transactions by providing audit, tax and consulting services for developers, syndicators and investors. He has extensive experience with financial modeling and financial statement reporting for renewable energy tax credit and low- income housing tax credit transactions with emphasis on investment accounting and partnership taxation. He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley. He is licensed in California as a certified public accountant.
Job Titles:
- Chief
- Officer
- Chief Social Impact Officer
Amy Hook is the chief social impact officer and leads the social impact office at Novogradac. The social impact office advises the firm's executive committee on ways to deploy labor and capital consistent with Novogradac's commitments to continuous improvement, positive change within the firm, the professions in which the firm works and within the communities Novogradac serves. The social impact office is responsible for defining environmental and social risks and opportunities and creating a living social impact strategy to address those risks and opportunities. Hook also works with clients to build out their social impact programming, including strategy creation and goal setting, impact measurement and evaluation, and reporting. With more than 15 years of experience in the social impact realm, Hook has worked in different market sectors, including public, nonprofit and private organizations. Prior to joining Novogradac, Hook led environmental, social and governance (ESG) at Regions Bank where she worked on impact reporting; stakeholder engagement; diversity, equity and inclusion; environmental sustainability and environmental and social risk management. Prior to leading ESG efforts for Regions Bank, she worked on environmental sustainability at SunTrust as the first corporate sustainability leader the company hired. Before leading social impact programming in the banking industry, Hook focused on the capacity building of community development organizations throughout the United States, including affordable housing developers, community development service providers and government entities. Working in this arena for more than seven years at both ICF International and Enterprise Community Partners, she led initiatives partnering with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Energy and others to create strategies, trainings, tool(kit)s, communications, and policies and procedures to improve affordable housing and community development delivery. Most notably, Hook led the multifamily sector of the Better Buildings Challenge and HUD's first renewable energy technical assistance program, Renew300.
Angie Taylor is a partner in the Portland, Oregon, office of Novogradac, where she provides tax compliance, planning and consulting services for multistate partnerships, closely held companies, trusts and high-net-worth individuals. Ms. Taylor's clients include market-rate residential, affordable housing and commercial real estate including real estate developers, investment partnerships, hotels, restaurants, wineries and vineyards. Ms. Taylor also has in-depth experience with Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 exchanges. Before joining Novogradac, she worked at a San Francisco Bay Area firm specializing in audit, tax and consulting services for construction contractors and high-net-worth individuals. Ms. Taylor received a bachelor's degree in business administration with an accounting emphasis from California State University, Fresno. She is licensed in California and Oregon as a certified public accountant.
Annette Stevenson is a partner in the Cleveland office of Novogradac. She has more than 25 years of public accounting and business advisory experience, with an emphasis on complex financing for community development real estate projects, including new markets tax credits (NMTCs), historic tax credits (HTCs), opportunity zones (OZ), public/private partnerships, and other federal, state and local tax credits and incentives. Ms. Stevenson assists her clients in transaction structuring, financial modeling, NMTC compliance and reporting, due diligence and feasibility, and navigating accounting and tax issues. Her client base includes community development entities (CDEs), real estate developers, investors, municipalities and other government entities, community development corporations, financial institutions and nonprofit organizations. Additionally, Ms. Stevenson provides a broad range of advisory services to CDEs, including transaction structuring and financial forecasts, development and implementation of internal compliance policies and procedures, NMTC allocation applications, compliance review and Community Development Financial Institutions Fund reporting. She has extensive experience in structuring and closing HTC, NMTC and OZ transactions. Ms. Stevenson is a nationally recognized HTC, OZ and NMTC expert and speaker who has presented to audiences across the nation. She also served as chairwoman of Novogradac's New Markets Tax Credit spring conference in Washington, D.C., for several years. Ms. Stevenson was the 2006 president of the Cleveland Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women and was named to Crain's Cleveland Business "Forty under 40" in 2009. She graduated from Cleveland State University and is licensed in Ohio as a certified public accountant.
Ashley McKenzie is a principal in the Dover, Ohio, office of Novogradac, where she has experience with institutional investors, syndicators, insurers and specializes in the low-income housing tax credit industry. Her experience includes assisting clients with attestation services, tax return preparation, transaction structuring and underwriting, due diligence, forecasting and consulting on tax and accounting issues. Ms. McKenzie earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Kent State University and a master's degree in business administration from Ashland University. She is licensed as a certified public accountant in Ohio.
Austin Power is a principal in the Dover, Ohio, office of Novogradac where he specializes in new markets tax credits (NMTC), historic tax credits (HTC), and opportunity zones transactions. Mr. Power works extensively on financial statement audits, tax return preparation, cost certification audits, compliance reporting and NMTC allocation applications. He has contributed to various publications, including the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits and is a frequent speaker at conferences on topics related to the NMTC and HTC industries. He received his bachelor's degree in accounting and finance and his master's degree in business administration from Walsh University. Mr. Power is licensed in Ohio as a certified public accountant.
Brad Elphick is a partner in the metro Atlanta office of Novogradac. He has extensive experience in the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), historic tax credit (HTC) and new markets tax credit (NMTC) programs as well as the opportunity zones (OZ) incentive. Mr. Elphick specializes in consulting, with an emphasis in forecasting and partnership taxation. He also works extensively with real estate partnership audits and compliance audits, as well as the structuring of and preparing applications for LIHTC, NMTC, HTC and OZ transactions. Mr. Elphick also leads and coordinates the NMTC Working Group, a membership organization that is highly regarded for the work it does addressing technical programmatic issues surrounding the NMTC industry. He is a regular contributor to the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits' NMTC content, a frequent speaker at industry events and serves as chairman of Novogradac's annual fall New Markets Tax Credit Conference. He also serves on the board of directors of the Mississippi Association of Affordable Housing Providers and is often a speaker at state housing credit conferences in the Southeast. Mr. Elphick received a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from Emory University and a master's degree in taxation from Georgia State University. He is licensed in Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as a certified public accountant.
Christina Apostolidis is a partner in the Naples, Florida, office of Novogradac, where she focuses on providing audit and tax services to the real estate industry. Since joining the company in 2007, Ms. Apostolidis has been involved in the accounting, auditing, forecasting and compliance of developments subject to the regulatory requirements of the low-income housing tax credit and historic tax credit programs and tax-exempt bond-financed transactions. She also has worked extensively with equity sponsors specializing in equity fund audit and tax consulting. Before joining the company, she provided audit and tax services to the real estate industry, which included working with clients involved in real estate partnerships, limited liability companies and joint ventures for residential, retail and hospitality developments. Ms. Apostolidis received a bachelor's degree in business administration with a major in accounting from Baruch College. She is licensed as a certified public accountant in Florida, Ohio and New York.