RUTH WUORENMA - NCI CHAIR AND PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE

NCI BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Nancy Braund Boruch - President, Bonsall, Braund Boruch & Associates
Laurance J. Freed - President, Joseph Freed and Associates, LLC
Paul Slade - Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Old Plank Trail Community Bank
Ruth Wuorenma - Chair and President of the Institute

NCI AFFILIATES

Lisa Thomas - Urban Design Consultant

RUTH WUORENMA Ruth Wuorenma has focused her career on helping public, private, for-profit and nonprofit groups work together to achieve mutual goals. Her experience as both a land use lawyer and developer spans national and international commercial real estate, market-rate and affordable housing, and various civic roles. In 2003, Ruth created the Neighborhood Capital Institute, an Illinois not-for-profit research and policy corporation, which offers planning and real estate development strategies to foster capital investment, economic vitality, and an enhanced quality of life in communities of all sizes, from neighborhoods to counties. Although the Institute provides a broad range of development advisory services, one of its highest principles is to foster connections between stakeholders, the development community, and planning professionals of excellence so as to create community driven and economically viable comprehensive redevelopment plans. Before founding NCInstitute, Ruth was development advisor/project manager to the City of Waukegan, Illinois as it launched a redevelopment master plan and financial strategy for its 1,400-acre lakefront and 400-acre downtown. One of the Midwest's largest planning projects, the redevelopment plan encompasses more than 4,000 new residences, an intermodal regional commuter rail and bus station, a restored eco-park and moorlands system, and improvements to the expansive marina. The plan won unanimous City Council and Citizens' Council support and went on to win several awards of national significance, including the Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Burnham Award of the Metropolitan Planning Council. Also significant, the plan is one that can be financed, even with its large scale and significant environmental contamination, because investment values have been market-based and developer-tested. NCI's recent and current projects include those in various Chicago neighborhoods, in the broader metro area, in other Midwestern states and in California. Prior to her work in Waukegan, Ruth was a managing director for Mesirow Financial Real Estate, where she oversaw the firm's work on a variety of mixed-use, high-density, often transit-oriented urban developments, including market-rate and public housing transformation projects. Earlier, with Joseph Freed Homes, she developed an array of market-rate residential products, both new construction and loft conversions. Under NCInstitute's predecessor, Neighborhood Capital Company, she partnered with Freed in a non-subsidized affordable condominium conversion, which won Bank of America's first Enterprise Award to a for-profit entity. Ruth began her career as a land use and zoning attorney at one of the country's largest real estate law firms (Rudnick & Wolfe, now DLA Piper), orchestrating entitlement processes. From Rudnick & Wolfe, she went to work for Marriott Corporation, becoming one of Marriott's top producing developers (at a time when Marriott was one of the four largest developers in the US), serving in the Midwest, West (excluding California), and Europe. During a yearlong sabbatical from commercial real estate, she served in the reform cabinet of a community college, which team removed the college from governance probation within six months. Ruth's professional affiliations are with organizations addressing urban issues, infrastructure and finance. She is a frequent participant in ULI Advisory Services Panels (See representative ULI activity), both nationally and in Chicago, and often speaks on those topics as well on high impact, informed community engagement. Her civic and personal commitments often relate to education, the arts and social service. She is also a proud partner in "Happy Turtle Farms," two farm sites in Michigan focusing on the preservation of small farms and wildlife habitat. Ruth graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned her JD from its College of Law, after having started her legal education at New York University as a Root-Tilden Scholar (a full tuition scholarship awarded to those who would use their legal education to serve the public interest).

RUTH WUORENMA Credentials Licensed real estate broker (Illinois) Licensed attorney (Illinois) Representative Affiliations (current and past) Urban Land Institute Public/Private Partnership Council, National Chicago Local District Council Policy Committee Lambda Alpha International Honorary Society for Land Economics, Director-at-Large National Housing Conference Chicago Finance Exchange, various committees University of Chicago Women's Board, Steering Committee Roosevelt University Chicago College of Performing Arts Executive Committee Illinois American Water, Advisory Board (compensated) Harvard-based Inner City Economic Forum Chicago Commons Executive Committee Education B.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with honors J.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Law

NCI BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Nancy Braund Boruch took her experience at the top of the real estate finance world to develop the first co-mingled, socially responsible real estate fund ($600 million to $1 billion) specifically designed to create positive change in the real estate industry.

Laurance Freed is responsible for the overall administration of Joseph Freed and Associates LLC. Capitalizing on the company's strengths, Larry has initiated highly-successful programs focusing on the exploration of broader areas in the real estate industry, resulting in more diversified, highly specialized and profitable real estate ventures. His strategy has played a pivotal role in the company's transition from a family business to a major real estate firm. Today, Joseph Freed and Associates LLC is one of the largest privately-owned real estate development companies in the nation. Currently, Larry is involved in a number of highly visible, mixed-use projects such as the historic Carson Pirie Scott Building restoration and the Block 37 redevelopment in the Chicago Loop, Hilldale Mall and Residences redevelopment in Madison, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Gardens in Denver (the former Gates Rubber Factory), and the Willits Town Center redevelopment outside Aspen, Colorado.

Prior to joining Freed in 1986, Larry was involved in real estate and corporate matters with May Department Stores.

Larry presides over the company's Investment Committee and Senior Management Committee. He also serves on the board of directors of City Year and Chicago Area Committee, and is the administrator of the Freed Family Foundation. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

A recent cover story about Larry in Crain's Chicago Business >>

Paul Slade is Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Old Plank Trail Community Bank, a subsidiary of Wintrust Financial Corporation. He was also the organizing member, in 2005, of this new bank with three offices, which reached approximately $120 million in total assets in 11 months of operation. This phase of Paul's career is in keeping with both his entrepreneurial and his banking histories. After 15 years in the banking industry, advancing to First Vice President and Division Head for Commercial Real Estate at Firstar Bank Ilinois, he formed Basis Development, LLC (operational 1999-2005) which had as its primary activity condominium conversions in Chicago's emerging southside neighborhoods. From a community development perspective, he understands the value in disinvested urban areas that often goes unrecognized; and, from the banking perspective, he understands and requires that economic rationality must be demonstrated before any project can be financed.

NCI AFFILIATES

Lisa Thomas has gained experience as an architect and urban designer in many diverse contexts. Her professional work has included healthcare facilities, commercial offices and retail stores, to urban parks and neighborhood plans. She has sought out work at a wide range of scales, from building signage to entire neighborhoods and cities. Her academic experience has included design studios in Canada, the U.S., Thailand, Italy, Venezuela and Japan.

Most recently, Lisa worked in the urban design studio of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Chicago office. While at SOM, her key projects were the masterplan for Chicago State University, the Chicago Central Area Plan, and the Waukegan Lakefront and Downtown Masterplan Design Guidelines. Lisa played a key role in editing and preparing the final draft of the Chicago Central Area Plan, which was adopted by Chicago City Council in 2003 and won an American Institute of Architects Urban Design award in 2004. She was instrumental in drafting the Design Guidelines for the Waukegan Lakefront and Downtown Masterplan. The Guidelines and Masterplan won a Charter Award from the Congress for New Urbanism in 2005.

While Lisa has over ten years of experience in the professional fields of architecture and urban design, she is also actively involved in the academic side of the profession. She has taught in a diverse number of programs, from high school mentorship, to docent at Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, to a studio class for Harvard's incoming Master of Urban Planning Students. She has also been a studio guest critic for numerous architecture school reviews.

She earned a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Prior to this, she received a Bachelor of Architecture from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where she graduated with distinction.

She is a licensed architect and a member of the American Institute of Architects.