DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/104642
contributors Get to know the experts and insiders behind this issue. MICHAEL J. BARKER is a partner in the Jacksonville, Florida, office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., and heads up the firm's financial services practice group. He represents clients engaged in default servicing, banking, mortgage lending, mortgage servicing, construction and development, and title insurance in both transactional and litigation matters. Primarily, his practice focuses on residential and commercial foreclosures, asset recovery, REO real estate transactions and title insurance, title insurance claims, construction disputes, evictions, creditors' rights in bankruptcy, documentation of leases, loans and secured transactions, evictions, and collection matters. ANDY BETH MILLER is an experienced freelance writer and travel blogger. She was recently sponsored to blog about her experiences while traveling throughout Europe. Her blog, PonoPeople, is about her desire for all to become and embrace being people of "pono." Pono is "the personal and organizational value of rightness and balance" and teaches the attitude of positivity and optimism. In addition to DS News, she has also written for Pasadena Magazine, a monthly regional publication serving the greater Pasadena, California, area and Hawaii Home + Remodeling, the leading home improvement magazine for Island homeowners for the past 30 years. SANDRA LANE has extensive experience covering the default servicing industry. She contributed regularly to DS News' predecessor, REO Magazine, from 2004 to 2006, covering local market trends, the effects of macroeconomic shifts on market conditions, and "big-picture" analyses of industry-driving indicators. But her understanding of the mortgage and real estate business extends even beyond those pre-crisis days. She is a former real estate broker and grew up in what she calls "a real estate family." A journalism graduate of the University of North Texas, she has written articles for various newspapers and trade journals in addition to writing company communications for several major corporations. 4 ERIC LICHTENHELD is president of Integra Group Real Estate LLC, a brokerage firm specializing in the management, preservation, and marketing of REO, HUD, and distressed properties in southern Arizona. He is responsible for the executive oversight of operations as well as direction and management of the company's property preservation division. With more than 25 years of experience in operations and project management, he has specialized in managing REO and distressed properties for Integra since 2007. He is Equator and RES.NET certified, a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) candidate, and has participated in numerous REO and short sale certification courses. DAVE LINIGER co-founded RE/ MAX with his wife, Gail, in 1973 and has grown the company from a single office in Denver, Colorado, to a global real estate network with nearly 90,000 sales associates. He remains the visionary leader of RE/MAX and is recognized internationally for his experience in the industry and his influence on housing policy. At the height of the recession, he pushed for reform to help speed the housing recovery, and many of his recommendations were adopted. He is widely credited with improving conditions for real estate agents by creating a unique business model combining the maximum commission concept with a host of support services. IVY ZELMAN founded Zelman & Associates in October 2007. She is currently CEO of the research firm, which provides analyses across all aspects of the housing spectrum, including homebuilding, multi-family, single-family rental, mortgage finance, and policy initiatives. For the past 18 years, she has been recognized by Institutional Investor as one of the most preeminent figures in the industry, and in 2011, she was inducted into the Institutional Investor Hall of Fame. With over 20 years' experience covering housing and housing-related industries, she presently serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Advisory Council on Real Estate Analytics. JAMES E. MOON is an associate in the Fort Myers, Florida, office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., practicing in the areas of civil and commercial litigation. For over 11 years he has focused on professional liability and general liability defense, but his experience extends to the areas of international taxation and financial services, banking regulatory compliance, real estate, and labor and employment law. He has appeared as an expert loss mitigation witness in federal court and as a legal commentator for CNN. He is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in international law with an emphasis on insurance and banking compliance.