Complete List of Conference Speakers
Samuel Byrne | CrossHarbor Capital Partners
Byrne is managing partner of CrossHarbor Capital Partners, an investment firm he cofounded
in 1993. CrossHarbor specializes in investments in real estate equity, distressed
real estate loans and debt securities, and finance companies focused on real estate and
hard asset financing. With his partners, Byrne manages all aspects of the company’s
daily operations as well as its investment committee and institutional fundraising
activities. Since founding the company, he has overseen all aspects of the highly successful
investment in more than $10 billion in real estate and assets across more than 300
transactions. In addition to managing the firm’s primary investment activities, Byrne is
also a managing general partner of the MassMutual/Boston Capital Mezzanine Partners
Funds, which are co-managed by CrossHarbor. Prior to the firm’s inception, Byrne
worked as a management consultant, advising and designing strategies for private and
institutional clients with complex real-estate related bankruptcy and financing issues.
Barb Callaghan | First Security Bank
Callaghan has been a Vice President and Commercial Loan Officer at First Security since 1996. She specializes in all types of loans to commercial businesses including SBA, USDA, MBOI, and now NMTC transactions. Barb has been employed in the commercial finance industry since 1985 previously at Bank of America and AT&T. She taught Business Finance at the University of Montana from 1982-1985, is a Great Falls native, and graduated from the University of Montana.
Rosalie Sheehy Cates | Missoula Community Development Corporation
Cates has worked in rural community development for 26 years, in Montana and Wisconsin. She has been at MCDC for 20 years, 13 of them as President/Executive Director. MCDC is a $15 million fund that provides financing to businesses in order to reduce poverty and improve the lives of low-income people in Montana. MCDC has lent over $12 million to 300+ small and medium-sized businesses. Recently MCDC received a $40 million allocation of federal New Markets Tax Credits, and is active in deploying these credits to assist projects in Montana’s low-income census tracts. Rosalie’s leadership in western and rural community development has been recognized in awards from the Small Business Administration, the Peter F. Drucker Leadership Fellow program, and the United States Forest Service.
Jeff Crouch | Kibo Group Architecture/ Sustainable Building Systems
Crouch AIA, LEED AP is the co-founder and President of Sustainable Building Systems and is a senior managing partner at Kibo Group Architecture. At Kibo Group, Jeff has managed, designed and overseen commercial, residential and resort project with a constructed value of over $200 million. As director of development for 140S4 LLC, he oversaw the sustainably designed and award winning re-development of the historic HO Bell Building in downtown Missoula, which houses Sustainable Building Systems main offices. Jeff is passionate about sustainable development, construction and protection of the natural environment. As such, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Clark Fork Coalition as well as Garden City Harvest. He is a past member of the Missoula County Board of Adjustment and the Missoula City Design Review Board.
Tim Davis | Montana Smart Growth Coalition
The director of the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, Davis grew up in Lander, Wyoming. He has worked on smart growth, community development, and conservation issues for 20 years here and abroad, including in Seattle, Ukraine, Billings and Helena. He has also published several groundbreaking studies on land-use planning and transportation reform and has written more than a dozen articles and commentaries on conservation, zoning, economic development and transportation in Montana. Davis has been instrumental in the development and passage of many of the growth policies, most of the land use and planning legislation, and a wide variety of the cutting-edge land-use regulations adopted throughout Montana since 1999.
Andy Erstad | Erstad Architects
Erstad , AIA, LEED AP, a fifth-generation Boisean, is principle of Erstad Architects based in Boise. He graduated with Honors and Distinction from the University of Arizona, School of Architecture in 1988, and studied abroad at Gonzaga University in Firenze. He received the Alpha Rho Chi Medal in Architecture in 1988. Andy is a past Director of the USGBC Idaho Chapter and is currently chairman of the Idaho State Capitol Commission and Chair of St. Luke’s Children’s Advisory Board. He is involved as well with various civic and cultural committees. Andy’s breadth and depth of design of experience both nationally and internationally, makes him a valuable asset to projects of any size and scope, from the planning stage through to completion. Andy worked for companies in Philadelphia and California before coming home to Boise with his young family.
Hal Harper | Chief Policy Advisor to Governor Brian Schweitzer
Harper serves as both chief policy advisor and legislative liaison to Gov. Schweitzer. He served nearly 30 years in the Montana House of Representatives as both a Democrat and Republican, was twice elected the House Majority Leader, and also was elected Speaker of the House during that time. Harper was previously a long-time building contractor in Helena, Montana. He attended Rocky Mountain College and the University of Montana, where he received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy.
Jeremy Keene | WGM Group
Kenee, P.E., LEED AP is a professional engineer with more than 15 years experience specializing in urban planning, transportation, and mixed-use redevelopment projects. He is a Principal Engineer and owner at WGM Group, Inc., a 30-person planning, surveying, and engineering firm. His clients include the City of Missoula, Missoula Redevelopment Agency, City of Whitefish, Montana Department of Transportation and numerous private individuals. Jeremy serves on the Missoula Midtown Association Board of Directors and is Vice President of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Montana Chapter. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado and recently received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation.
Christopher Kelsey | Steeplechase Development Advisors
A Whitefish resident, Kelsey is a partner of Steeplechase Development Advisors, a provider of analysis and management services to lenders and developers with challenged real estate investments. He has focused the majority of his career in mountain resort environments and has management experience in entitlements, general development, sales and marketing, operational assets and green design. Prior to founding Steeplechase, he oversaw the development of over $1 billion of resort residential properties, including work as senior vice president of development for Lowe Enterprises’ Suncadia in Roslyn, Washington; as project manager for Hines Interests’ River Valley Ranch in Carbondale, Colorado; and in other leadership assignments.
John Koval | Coburn Development
Koval is Coburn Development’s director of development, responsible for determining the economic viability of all projects. He oversees project management and is engaged with each project throughout its lifecycle. He has more than 20 years of experience in the real estate industry with an emphasis on acquisitions, commercial brokerage, property management, development and construction. He was recognized by Site Selection magazine as a “Young Leader in Corporate Real Estate” and has managed a portfolio of more than 200 properties valued in excess of $100 million. Koval, who has also served in a variety of appointed civic capacities, received a degree in environmental design from the University of Colorado, and is a licensed Colorado real estate broker and a certified Ecobroker.
Roger Lang Jr. | The Lodge at Sun Ranch
Lang decided to transform a distinctive log home on his 26,000-acre southwest Montana Sun Ranch into an internationally award-winning and groundbreaking eco-lodge, The Lodge at Sun Ranch. In the Madison Valley, Roger is active in progressive land stewardship practices, including work to prevent weeds, protect animal habitat, and create replicable and sustainable conservation practices. Lang’s professional experience spans a variety of high-tech and other industries. In 1989, he founded Infinity Financial Technology, which became the world’s leading supplier of derivatives trading and risk management software. He was named one of the 50 most influential people in the history of the financial risk management by the industry’s flagship publication, Risk Magazine. He is currently president of the board of directors for the Sun Ranch Institute.
Ruth A. Link | Missoula Organization of Realtors
Link is the Public Affairs Director for the Missoula Organization of REALTORS® (MOR). She acts as a liaison between the membership, citizens and local government on housing and other real estate related issues and advocates for private property rights in Missoula County. In addition, Ruth also coordinates the development of the annual Missoula Housing Report produced by MOR. She currently represents MOR on the Board of Directors for Missoula ADAPT. Ruth is a Missoula native and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Montana in Business Administration, emphasis in Marketing.
Doug Maves | Garlington, Lohn & Robinson, PLLP
Maves has been the firm administrator for Garlington, Lohn & Robinson since mid-2006. He started his professional career as an officer in the U.S. Army, serving five years. Before coming to Missoula, Maves held positions as a financial analyst and operations manager with Agilent Technologies in Colorado. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the University of Arizona.
Alan McCormick | Garlington, Lohn & Robinson, PLLP
An associate at the law firm of Garlington, Lohn & Robinson, McCormick practices land use, zoning, real estate and local government law with an emphasis on development permitting and related transactions and litigation. McCormick combines his professional planning background with his work in land-use law to provide clients with both practical ideas and relevant legal analysis. In the past four years, he has participated in more than 30 land-use-related lawsuits keeping him on the forefront of emerging land-use law in Montana. He earned his undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Tech and got his J.D., with high honors, from the University of Montana.
Jeff Medanich | Colorado Chautauqua Association
Medanich has been building, remodeling, and preserving residential buildings for more than 30 years. For the last 14 years, he has been involved in the construction of new homes. He has worked as a manager of building sciences for McStain Neighborhoods, a pioneer in the green building industry. He now heads up a newly-formed High Performance Preservation program and is a facilities and preservation manager at McStain. Formerly, Jeff worked as construction manager at Harvard Communities, a leading high-performance homebuilder in the Denver metro area. Medanich is a featured speaker at numerous national conferences, a contributing editor for the Green Building Advisor, a certified LEED Accredited Professional, and was inducted into the Colorado Built Green Hall of Fame in 2005.
Sima Muroff | BlackHawk on the River
Using environmental stewardship philosophies as his development guide, Sima Muroff has, to date, developed over $250 million in unique conservation-oriented real estate. Starting in 1999 with the formation of Bull Valley Developers, LLC, Muroff focused on river and lakefront properties in Montana and Oregon, including the Cambridge View Estates, The Falls at Savage Lake, and the Stanley Creek Homestead. In 2004, on a chance trip to Idaho, Muroff found his next calling—Blackhawk on the River. That project includes 1,500 acres at Blackhawk on the River and the recently approved Redridge at Blackhawk, a 2,800-acre development nearby. Together, the Blackhawk community has placed more than 1,200 acres into protected conservation easements to offer unmatched views and protect wildlife migration routes.
Marty Noyd | OZ Architects
Noyd was raised in Columbia Falls, Montana and from an early age was interested in construction and building materials. Upon graduation with an architecture degree at Montana State University in 1986, Marty began working for Zimet & Associates and later joined Jim O’Neill, Stan Zimet and Dennis Greeno as a partner in OZ Architects. In 2007 Marty and Dennis became managing partners of the firm. Marty has a broad base of experience encompassing a wide range of projects types as well as a great understanding how materials can be used. A few highlighted projects Marty has worked on includes: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation National Headquarters and Visitor Center, Big Sky Surgery, St. Joseph Hospital and the U.S. District Court Building , to name a few.
Glenn Oppel | Montana Association of Realtors
Oppel has been serving as the government affairs director of the Montana Association of Realtors (MAR) since December 2004. He oversees the lobbying, electoral, research, issue advocacy, legal action, and grassroots efforts of MAR, which currently has 4,100 members statewide. In this capacity, Oppel focuses primarily on land use, water, tax, and real estate license policy issues at the Montana state legislature and the various regulatory agencies. He previously worked as government affairs director with the Billings Association of Realtors, covering local issues affecting the real estate industry. Oppel obtained a degree in political science from the University of Montana in Missoula. He lives in Helena with his wife and two children.
Eric Ossorio | Ossorio/Prudential Montana Real Estate
Ossorio has been a Big Sky, Montana resident and Montana broker since 1993 and has been involved with the real estate business since 1980. Originally a leasing broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate in Manhattan, New York, he worked at Cushman & Wakefield before relocating with his family to Big Sky. As manager of the Lone Mountain Ranch in the early 1990’s, he realized that Big Sky visitors were interested in real estate in Big Sky, and that he could help avoid many of the pitfalls of acquiring property in an unincorporated and as yet unzoned area. Ossorio became involved in the Big Sky Zoning initiative and served on the Big Sky/Gallatin County Zoning Advisory Board for the better part of a decade and has been involved in developing the Big Sky Trails system.
Stefan Pellegrini | Opticos Design, Inc.
Pellegrini, AICP, LEED AP, is a principal with Opticos Design, Inc. During his career he has contributed to a wide variety of urban design, planning, and architecture projects, including the design of new towns, master planning and revitalization endeavors for existing communities, and the design of residential and civic buildings. He possesses a masterful knowledge of both building types and vernacular architectural styles, and has played a significant role in the development of contemporary design guidelines and form-based codes. Much of his recent work has focused on charrette-based planning, coding, and revitalization strategies for California’s small towns and underserved communities, many through partnerships with the Local Government Commission.
Luther Propst | Sonoran Institute
Propst founded and directs the Sonoran Institute, with eight offices based in Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and Mexico. The Institute’s mission is to inspire and enable community decisions and public policies that respect the land and people of the West. The Institute focuses on conserving public lands, promoting “smart growth,” reforming local and state energy, and improving water management and climate change policies – the core issues that define how the West is growing and changing. The Institute is now recognized as a leading practitioner of community-based, collaborative, and innovative conservation efforts to integrate conservation and economic values throughout the West. Previously, Propst practiced law, where he represented landowners, local governments, and organizations nationwide in land-use matters. He has co-authored three books, and frequently speaks and writes on Western conservation, land use, economic development, and state trust lands. He serves on the boards of the National Conservation System Foundation, High Country News, the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University, the Murie Center, and the Rincon Institute.
Lori Ryker | Artemis Institute
Ryker makes her home in Livingston, Montana where she is the executive director and founder of Artemis Institute, a nonprofit offering a college-level program called Remote Studio that focuses on the relationship between nature and creativity. Ryker is the author of Mockbee Coker: Thought and Process and, most recently, Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy and Off The Grid Homes. She was a founding partner of Ryker/Nave Design (1994-2007), which focused on ecologically inspired and sustainable architecture. Her design work has been published in The House You Build, Organic Style, Western Interiors and Design Journal, Residential Architect, and Outside Magazine, among others. Her Wapiti Valley, Wyoming residence received a merit award from Residential Architect in 2007. She has taught at Montana State University, Texas A&M and Auburn University.
Jonathan Schechter | Charture Institute
Schechter is the founder and Executive Director of the Charture Institute, a Jackson Hole-based think tank focused on growth, change, and sustainability in Places of Ecological and Aesthetic Significance (PEAS). Such communities — places such as resort or national park gateway communities — have been growing and changing rapidly in the last 1-2 decades, raising concerns about whether they can sustain their essential qualities. Charture’s mission is to help understand the hows, whys and implications of their rapid growth and change. Charture then helps communities act to identify and sustain their essential qualities. Through its 1% for the Tetons project, Charture has also developed a mechanism for PEAS communities to fund their sustainability efforts (in its first three years, it granted nearly $375,000 to sustainability-related projects in the Tetons region).
Keith Simon | Investor and Developer
Simon has 26 years experience in commercial real estate and successful in maximizing financial returns for income property and efficiencies for owner/user space. He has extensive qualifications in commercial real estate brokerage, office leasing and property acquisition/disposition. His asset management skills include market and building analysis, property/site renovation and construction, entitlement, financing (government and private), site and building design, tenant relations and retention, outsourcing, contract negotiations and development team management. He is currently a independent real estate investor and developer in California, Nevada, Colorado and Montana. Prior to this, he was the Director of Real Estate for Kjell Ovale and was responsible for full P & L for entire real estate portfolio and managed $88.4 million in transactions and increased passive income 368%.
Michelle Sullivan | Sullivan & Associates
Sullivan is principal of Sullivan & Associates, a firm that works with public institutions, not-for-profit organizations and private foundations to help them more effectively and intentionally achieve their goals. She recently founded the Center for Inspired Learning, whose mission is to connect the most recent scientific research about how children and adults learn to the development of education policy, practice and the environments in which people learn. During the 2008 general election, she served as the Wyoming state director for Obama for America. Sullivan just completed her term as a member of the Wyoming State Board of Education and was its chair in 2007 and 2008. She served as president of the Ucross Foundation from 2004 through 2006 and was vice president and director of Wyoming operations at the Daniels Fund from 2000 until 2004. She is a 1986 graduate of Colorado College, from which she also received an honorary doctorate in 1994 for her founding of the Snake River Institute in Jackson Hole, WY. A native of Wyoming, Sullivan and her husband Brian live in Sheridan with their three children.
Zane Sullivan, Principal, Sullivan, Tabaracci & Rhoades, P.C.
Montana native Sullivan is the senior member of the law firm of Sullivan, Tabaracci & Rhoades, P.C. of Missoula. Mr. Sullivan is also a designated instructor for the National Association of REALTORS®, the Montana Association of REALTORS® and the Graduate REALTOR® program, as well as a guest lecturer at The University of Montana School of Law, Montana Bar Association and Montana Land Title Association. Zane serves as President of the Executive Board of Missoula ADAPT. Mr. Sullivan graduated from Montana State University in 1966 with a degree in Psychology and in 1972 from the University of Montana School of Law with a Juris Doctorate degree.
Christopher Thornberg | Beacon Economics
Thornberg, a founding partner of Beacon Economics, is an expert in the study of regional economies, real estate dynamics, labor markets and business forecasting. He has been involved in a number of special studies measuring the impact of important events on the economy, including the NAFTA treaty, the California power crisis and the September 11th terrorist attacks. Prior to launching Beacon, he worked with the UCLA Anderson Forecast where he regularly authored the outlooks for California, Los Angeles and the East Bay. Thornberg lectures on a regular basis at a variety of public and private events and continues to teach in the MBA program at UCLA.
Blair Williams | Urban Mountain Development
Williams was raised in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where her father was a developer. She is a founding member and partner in Urban Mountain Development, specializing in the redevelopment of downtown properties. Williams holds a degree in arts administration from Golden Gate University and another in public relations and communications from Carroll College. She has a background in everything from program development to marketing and community planning. She is driven by the opportunity to create energy in downtown districts by developing projects that work for the local community and culture.
Tom Wood | Montana State University, School of Architecture, Integrated Design Lab
A professor of architecture at Montana State University, Wood is the director of Integrated Design Lab–Bozeman and is on the board of directors of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Wood was elected director for NCARB’s Region 5, representing the Central States Conference that includes Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming. Wood earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Michigan in 1972 and a master’s degree in 1975 from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He is registered to practice in Colorado and Montana, and has written and lectured extensively on daylighting, climate-responsive design and integrated design. He has also donated his architectural services to a variety of worthy organizations and won numerous awards for his affordable housing and energy-efficient designs.
William K. VanCanagan | Datsopoulos MacDonald & Lind
VanCanagan is a senior partner in the law firm of Datsopoulos, MacDonald & Lind, P.C. of Missoula, Montana where he specializes in the practice of Land Use law including the representation of clients in the subdivision application process, zoning and planning, real estate acquisition and development and financing. His clients include developers, investors, lenders, businesses and state and local associations who participate in development and land use planning. VanCanagan also maintains an active practice in the state and federal courts where he represents the private sector and non-governmental interests including individual developers and businesses in connection with the enforcement and preservation of private property rights and real property interests. VanCanagan has completed numerous private and public acquisition transactions as well as public and private financings related to real property acquisition and development.
Mark Woolley | BuildTec Solutions
Woolley is the founder and principal of BuildTec Solutions, a Salt Lake City-based consulting firm for the construction and land development industry. He has served his community as chair of the economic development council and a member of the planning commission. He has also served on several local and state government affairs committees, is past president of the Salt Lake Home Builders Association, and sits on that governing board as a life member. His peers named him the “Builder of the Year” in 2005 for his service in the construction industry. He is a board member of the Home Builders Association of Utah and a past director for the National Association of Home Builders. Woolley is a certified trainer with the NAHB University of Housing and holds certifications as a green professional and graduate builder with the NAHB.
Becky Zimmermann | Design Workshop
Zimmermann is president and an owner of Design Workshop, an international land planning and urban design firm. She is involved in resort, tourism, community, economic and marketing-related consulting. She is highly recognized for her work with resort communities, including visitor services analysis, market definition, and positioning and tourism planning. Zimmermann is currently working on master plans for Sun Valley Resort in Idaho and Snowbasin Resort in Utah and on a new ski resort near Nagano, Japan. She completed the Big Mountain Visitor Facilities and Services Analysis in Flathead County, Montana; a market investigation for River District in Liberty Lake, Washington; the Teton County Tourism Marketing Plan in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and the Tourism Development Master Plan for North Lake Tahoe, which received an honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
