Our Board

Sherif Lotfi, Chairman of the Board – MA Economics (Columbia), MPP (Harvard), BS (Tufts)

Sherif is a Managing Director in the Strategic Solutions Group and Head of Corporate Finance Advisory and Solutions at Mizuho Securities USA. At Mizuho, Sherif works closely with private equity and asset managers on structured financing solutions and advises corporations on corporate finance policy, risk management, and strategy.

From 2006-2015, Sherif was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Advisory Americas for the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he concentrated on Corporate Finance policy, risk management, and strategy for large US Corporations, similar to his role at Mizuho. Before joining the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sherif was at Ernst & Young, LLP for eleven years and a partner from 1998 to 2006. He worked with multinationals to analyze international organizations and structure domestic and cross-border funding strategies yielding cost savings and improved returns. Before Ernst & Young, Sherif taught finance at Columbia University and served on the Staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President under Presidents Bush (41) and Clinton.

Sherif was also involved in technical assistance programs for the Indonesian government and provided economic analysis for urban upgrading studies in Abidjan and the Hafsia District in Tunis for the Unit for Housing and Urbanization, I2UD’s predecessor. Mr. Lotfi holds graduate degrees in Economics from Columbia University, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science from Tufts University. [top]

Rene Pantalone – BA (York University), B.Ed. (York University), AMDP (Harvard)

Pantalone is the Director of a number of family-owned real estate and development companies in Toronto, Canada, including “National Homes,” a major residential homebuilder; “Forum Development Limited,” a firm that builds and develops retirement residences, commercial projects, and infill housing neighborhoods. Mrs. Pantalone was Chair of Montcrest School, an independent, non-profit private school, where she directed overall growth, land acquisition, and campus development. She served on the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Alumni Council and sits on the Boards of several charities in Toronto.

Her education includes BA and B.Ed. Degrees from Toronto’s York University and AMDP from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Rene is a Past Governor of the Canadian Olympic Trust, a member of the Canadian Olympic Association, and a Toronto Real Estate Board member. [top]

Dr. Daniel Tsai – BS (MIT), MS (Columbia), Master of Design (Harvard), Doctor of Design (Harvard) 

Daniel Tsai is a senior associate/fellow (2005-present) and board member (2012-present). He teaches and conducts research at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Over the past 10 years, he has co-instructed the MIT Design Computation Workshop on Digital Heritage, investigating visualization technologies for architectural heritage projects in Italy, Japan, USA and other locales.

At the I2UD, Daniel has worked on the Jerusalem Monuments Database, the I2UD Digital Library, Arusha urbanization strategy and urban development plan, and other technical and quantitative spatial projects. [top]

Dr. Alfredo Stein Heinemann – PhD (Lund University, Sweden); M.Sc. (University College London, UK).

Dr. Stein is an urban development planner specialist with more than 37 years of experience in the design, management, and evaluation of low-income housing, local development and urban poverty reduction policies and programs, as well as post-emergency reconstruction projects in cities of the global South. Dr. Stein has a PhD in Housing and Management, Engineering, Construction and Architecture (Lund University, Sweden), a M.Sc. in Urban Development Planning, (University College London, UK).

At the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED), University of Manchester, Stein codirected the multidisciplinary MSc in Global Urban Development & Planning. His main research interests include the linkages between climate change adaptation, environmental problems and poverty reduction through participatory planning methods, and structuring of alternative financial schemes at neighborhood and city levels for social inclusion.

As Program Officer for the Swedish cooperation in Honduras he was responsible for coordinating the international donor agencies’ strategies with central government, local government and NGOs during the reconstruction and transformation process after hurricane Mitch. Alfredo was responsible in setting PRODEL in Nicaragua, recognized worldwide as a best practice in micro-finance for the improvement of housing, basic services and livelihoods in urban poor settlements. He has ample working experience on designing inclusive housing policies and local development strategies with bilateral and multilateral agencies, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNDP, UN-Habitat, Sida, GIZ, and KfW.

In the late 1980s, he worked at IIED-Latin America and was responsible for setting up a training and capacity-building program for Latin American NGOs working in urban development. He worked as Assistant to the Executive Director of FUNDASAL working in slum upgrading, sites and services, and repopulation and reconstruction projects amid the civil war in El Salvador. From 2000 to 2004, Stein was a member of the International Task Force of the UN Millennium Development Project on improving the lives of slum dwellers. [top]

Carolina Hollmann, Secretary – Affordable Housing Development Finance Consultant. MCP (MIT), MSRED (MIT) BS in Economics and Urban Studies (Northeastern University)

Carolina Hollmann is a Senior Associate at TAG Associates, where she specializes in project and portfolio-level development strategies for Public Housing Authorities across the United States. Before joining TAG, Carolina worked at a consulting firm in Barcelona, Spain assisting local governments and research institutes to obtain and manage European Union grants to research and implement urban innovation projects related to energy efficiency in affordable housing, climate change adaptation, and smart city technologies. Prior to obtaining her Masters degrees in City Planning and in Real Estate Development from MIT, Carolina worked at I2UD for five years on strategic urban plans and action research projects funded by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, The World Bank, UN-Habitat, UNDP, The Aga Khan University, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the EU.