Katherine Kelman is a Senior Director of Development at L+M Development Partners, Inc. She is a development professional with over fifteen years of experience in both the public and private sectors, focusing on ground-up and redevelopment projects with complex entitlements. At L+M Development, she leads several mixed-income developments in Manhattan and Westchester, and acquisition efforts in Brooklyn and Queens. Prior to L+M Development, Ms. Kelman was a Vice President at Extell Development Company, and worked at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Ms. Kelman grew up in Queens, graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. with Honors in Political Science and from the Wharton School with an M.B.A.

Thomas Madden was appointed Director of Economic Development for the City of Stamford, CT in July 2014, and appointed Executive Director of the Urban Redevelopment Commission, City of Stamford, CT in March 2017. During his career, Mr. Madden has been instrumental in the development of new economic and environment standards for the communities he has served, including administrative procedures and policies to retain, restore and expand the commercial and industrial tax base, adoption of Green Building code for new site development, and oversight of the approval and development of numerous large-scale developments. Thomas is an advocate for promoting Connecticut’s assets. In 2017, Mr. Madden initiated the launch of the new economic development website: www.choosestamford.com. The website is aimed at site selectors and commercial brokers and offers all of the information that someone is looking for when considering Stamford. In 2018, Mr. Madden was appointed Chairperson of the Connecticut Tourism and Sports Bureau, which brings new corporate meetings and sporting events to Connecticut. Prior to working for Stamford, Mr. Madden was the Commissioner of the Department of Community Development and Conservation for the Town of Greenburgh, NY. Mr. Madden graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA in geography (Urban Studies) and attended Dalhousie University’s Masters of Urban and Rural Planning Program. In his spare time, he enjoys coaching and refereeing youth hockey. Mr. Madden is also a Director for the Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research in NYC, which has raised more than 2 million dollars for cancer research.

Ms. Dara Kovel is the Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Communities LLC, a multi-family housing development, investment, and management company with properties throughout New England, New York, and the eastern seaboard. The company currently owns over 150 communities with more than 18,000 units of housing, with a wide variety of affordable, mixed income and mixed-use projects. Beacon has over 50 years of history creating and maintaining award-winning residential communities that serve a diverse cross-section of society that make enduring contributions to the vitality of the cities and towns where they are located. Dara began at Beacon in 2015 as President of Beacon Communities Development LLC, overseeing the all development activities for Beacon Communities. Dara has been actively involved in the development of affordable housing her whole career. Prior to her joining Beacon, she was Vice President and Chief Housing Officer at the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) where she oversaw all multifamily lending and tax credit allocation activities, as well as the homeownership programs. Before working at CHFA, Dara ran the New England office of Jonathan Rose Companies, a New York-based, green, real estate development and investment company. Her previous work was with Mercy Housing California, where she ran the Southern California office and developed affordable housing throughout the state of California. Dara currently serves on the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center’s Workforce Housing Board and the Home Connecticut Steering Committee. She is LEED accredited and holds a BA and MBA from Yale University.

Clayton H. Fowler is a Founding Partner, and Chairman and CEO of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners LLC in Norwalk, Connecticut. He has over 35 year’s experience in acquisition, development, construction and management of residential and commercial office projects and has ownership interests in over 3,000,000 square feet of multi-family properties, commercial office and industrial buildings located in Fairfield County, Connecticut. His residential experience includes the completion of over 3,000 housing units consisting of rental apartments, condominiums and single-family homes in the Fairfield County, CT / Westchester County, NY area. Mr. Fowler is also the Managing Development Partner of several projects in Portland, Oregon, among them Hoyt Street Properties, a 3,000-unit urban development with over 2,300 units having been completed and one in St. Louis, Missouri consisting of a 1 million sf mixed-use project including apartments, retail and an Embassy Suites hotel. Past projects include 1600 units of multi and single-family housing in Westchester and Fairfield counties. Projects currently in his pipeline range from urban infill apartments in New Haven and Norwalk to hotels in Fairfield County and Portland, Oregon. Mr. Fowler is leading advocate of affordable housing and has served on affordable housing committees and study groups throughout Fairfield County, Connecticut. He has been the Chairman of the Planning Board for the Town of Pound Ridge, New York for the past 20 years and currently is Chair of the Housing Development Fund (HDF), and of the Greater Norwalk (CT) Chamber of Commerce, Vice Chair of the Maritime Aquarium, and board member of the Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. Mr. Fowler is a Founding Board Member of the Fairfield/Westchester Chapter of the Real Estate Finance Association and is a Member of the Urban Land Institute. In addition, he is a former member of Outward Bound USA and a current board member of the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding, and chair of the Maine Hurricane Island Outward Bound School Board. Mr. Fowler lives in Pound Ridge, New York with his wife Margaret who, together have raised four children. He is a graduate of Princeton University.

Mr. Aragon is currently the Principal at LEAD4 LLC which is a planning and management consulting firm charged with the goal of leading municipalities toward positive change in partnership with the private sector. Luiz Aragon recently served as the Commissioner of Development for the City of New Rochelle, New York. In this capacity, Mr. Aragon lead all planning and economic development initiatives in the City. Under his leadership, New Rochelle was able to reposition itself as a leading transit-oriented development (TOD) destination in the tri-state area. In partnership with the City Council and Master Developer RXR Realty, Mr. Aragon rezoned approximately 300 acres of the City’s downtown to accommodate over 10 million square feet of mixed-use development and 7,000 new housing units, by utilizing an innovative form-based zoning code and streamlined environmental review process. Mr. Aragon also led the City’s marketing, branding and technology initiatives – bringing quality of life amenities such as bicycle and scooter-share programs, free downtown public wi-fi, and a free downtown electric shuttle service. Previously, Mr. Aragon served as Commissioner of Planning & Environmental Management for Sullivan County, New York, Deputy Commissioner for Preservation Services for NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development, and Assistant Commissioner for Capital Projects and Assistant Commissioner for Planning & Urban Mobility for NYC Department of Transportation. Mr. Aragon holds an MBA from Baruch College, CUNY and a BA in Architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY