Bios
David A. Smith
Founder
David A. Smith is the founder of the Affordable Housing Institute, which develops sustainable housing financial ecosystems worldwide. He is also founder and CEO of Recap Advisors, LLC. (Recap, www.recapadvisors.com), a Boston-based firm that recapitalizes and preserves existing affordable housing via innovative financial transactions; over its 15 years, the firm has been involved in over 365 properties, 45,000 apartments, comprising US$1.5 billion of aggregate value. David provides high-quality analysis to Congress, the Millennial Housing Commission, CBO, HUD, and others, and was a principal member of the 1996 Senate mark-to-market working group. A 1975 Harvard graduate, David is an award-winning author with more than 100 published articles in real estate, valuation, and policy periodicals, and a textbook. David is also a senior fellow at the University of Maryland. Detailed biography here.
Deidre Lal Schmidt
Executive Director
Deidre Schmidt is The Affordable Housing Institute’s new Executive Director. She recently completed a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Prior to this, Deidre worked for 16 years in real estate development, finance and consulting across the United States. She has earned a reputation as a creative and tenacious innovator that understands both the details of real estate development project management and broader policy dynamics. She is most passionate about low-income housing development and preservation in urban contexts.
Her recent work has focused on the preservation of manufactured home communities. Working with the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation and the Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund (a ROC USA affiliate), she has pursued individual and portfolio projects and education efforts.
In 2000, Deidre was named Vice-President of Development of Brighton Development a for-profit organization credited with the residential revival of the Minneapolis, Minnesota riverfront. She developed high-end ownership and market-rate rental housing, neighborhood-oriented commercial and affordable rental and ownership housing. She was also responsible for master planning efforts and organizational and personnel management.
Deidre has also been an Acquisitions Manager and Analyst for the National Equity Fund (affiliate of LISC) where she underwrote investments using the Low Income Housing and Historic Tax Credits. She was responsible for business planning and marketing, training, and technical assistance in her region and on special product types around the country.
Deidre began her career in real estate at Artspace Projects, a non-profit real estate developer for the arts. She quickly became a key staff member in this small organization as it created a national model for financing live/work projects for low-income artists. As a Project Manager, she worked in historic preservation, cultural facility development/ management and cooperative ownership/leasehold cooperative models. As Director of National Consulting, Deidre facilitated the organization’s national expansion, increasing earned income, identifying development project opportunities and initiating a national conference and information exchange among arts and development practitioners.
Janaki Blum
Director
As AHI's Director, Dr. Janaki Blum manages AHI's growth and development on both the revenue and fulfillment sides. In this role, she has lead responsibility for responding to RFQs/RFPs, teaming or prime-sub arrangements with other experts (whether corporate or individual), staffing and team management in work delivery, and training, development, and quality control on AHI's work products.
Dr. Blum brings to AHI a passionate interest in and commitment to affordable housing as an element in sustainable development, and a diverse background touching on all aspects of NGO activity, including non-profit development and management, experience in sustainable development and affordable housing, and knowledge of numerous markets and cultures around the world. Before joining AHI, she was director/manager of SARID, a non-profit organization specializing in sustainable development programs, including low cost housing, in South Asia. At SARID she administered all consulting projects as well as SARID's fundraising, outreach and publicity campaigns, with the goal of presenting SARID's capabilities as a trusted expert on South Asian public-policy matters. In this role, she worked on implementing low cost housing/building programs in areas hit by devastating natural disasters in Sri Lanka (tsunami) and Pakistan (earthquake).
Before SARID Dr. Blum was a research and development consultant to an engineering and construction firm, following similar roles in academic institutions and start-up companies in the US and Europe, as well as being a scientific project leader in Switzerland.
Beyond her work experience, Janaki's life has given her perspective into the challenges of building successful housing financial ecosystems throughout the world. Sri Lankan by birth, she has been educated in England and Switzerland, with a bachelor's from the University of Sussex, a Master's from the University of London, and her doctorate from the University of Zurich. Her post-doctoral education includes courses at MIT and in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts.
Having worked professionally in Sri Lanka, Switzerland, the UK, and the US, Dr. Blum is fluent in English, German, and Sinhalese.
Motlalepula Mmesi
Research Assistant
Motlalepula Mmesi serves as an Associate for the Affordable Housing Institute. In this capacity Motlalepula conducts research and writes reports for all country programs in the portfolio, and also provides additional administrative support services.
Before joining AHI, Motlalepula served as project coordinator for the Corporate Communications department of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. At CBTT, she conducted research and writing on independent projects.
Motlalepula graduated from Wellesley College in December 2005 with a BA in Africana Studies. In her major, Motlalepula studied urban planning, economics and political science. Motlalepula was born and raised in South Africa.