Howard Brod Brownstein
President, The Brownstein Corporation; Director, P&F Industries (NasdaqGS: PFIN), Merakey, NACD Philadelphia Chapter
Howard Brod Brownstein, CTP, is a nationally-known turnaround and restructuring professional, and regularly provides programs for Women in the Boardroom. He is President of Brownstein Corporation, which provides turnaround management and advisory services, as well as investment banking, fiduciary services, litigation consulting, investigations and valuation services. He regularly serves on the boards of directors of public and private companies, and currently serves on the boards of: P&F Industries (Nasdaq: PFIN) where he chairs the Nominating/Governance and Strategic Planning & Risk Assessment Committees, Renew Financial, where he serves as chair of the Risk Committee, and Merakey, a nonprofit with over 10,000 employees. He is a Certified Turnaround Professional, and also an NACD Board Leadership Fellow and Immediate Past President and Board Chair of the NACD Philadelphia Chapter. He has authored ninety articles and textbook chapters, is a Contributing Editor at two publications, and is a regular guest-lecturer at Harvard Business School, Wharton, NYU and elsewhere. He received JD and MBA degrees at Harvard, and B.S. (Wharton) and B.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
Emily Youssouf
Board Member at JP Morgan ETF
Emily A. Youssouf is a veteran in the fields of finance and housing, with an extensive background of more than 30 years in leadership positions and strong results in both the private and public sectors. Her background encompasses a wide breadth of experience with complex financial instruments as well as turnarounds of troubled organizations.
Ms. Youssouf was appointed to the board of Penny Mac Financial Services, Inc (ticker PFSI) in 2013 which buys, originates, services and securitizes mortgages. She Chairs the Finance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee.
In 2014 she was appointed to JP Morgan ETF Trust Board, which has grown to over $50 billion in AUM since its inception in 2014. She Chairs the Governance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee.
She recently was a Clinical Professor at NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, a Master’s program in real estate where she taught courses in Real Estate Capital Markets, Affordable Housing Finance and was the curriculum coordinator for the finance track. She continues to teach at NYU on a part time basis. She was also a consultant; her clients have included the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York City Partnership, Washington Square Partners and Metropolitan Community Partners.
Previously Ms. Youssouf was Managing Director at JP Morgan Securities where she was head of the Housing Finance Department.
Ms. Youssouf was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to a number of NYC Public Authority Boards over the course of his administration. She served on NYC Health and Hospital Corporation for 13 years where she Chaired the audit and capital committees; NYC Housing Authority for 3years where she was Vice Chairman and chaired the audit committee. She continues to serve on the NYC School Construction Authority and also serves as a gubernatorial appointee on NYS Job Development Authority.
In 2003, Ms. Youssouf was appointed President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. She brought to HDC an extensive investment banking background in housing finance, loan securitization and innovative structured financing strategies. Under her direction, HDC was transformed from a troubled public benefit corporation to the number one issuer of multi-family affordable housing bonds in the country for 2004 through 2007.
During Ms. Youssouf’s tenure, HDC issued $7 billion in bonds, financed 37,000 units of affordable housing in NYC and total assets increased from $2.3 billion to $9 billion. She successfully restructured the corporation, established a risk committee and a credit department and greatly improved the organization’s governance by strengthening its board involvement.
Prior to joining HDC, Ms. Youssouf served as the President of Natlis Settlements, LLC, a specialty finance company, where she sourced institutional financing alternatives and led the company to achieve an A-rating on an innovative financing structure from a major rating agency.
Before joining Natlis, Ms. Youssouf held various senior positions over a 25 year period at Credit Suisse First Boston,
Prudential Securities and Merrill Lynch. Her responsibilities covered a wide range of companies and asset classes including securitization of residential and commercial mortgages, auto loans and airplanes leases to investing the firm’s money in principal transactions. During her tenure at Merrill Lynch, she was a Managing Director in the Housing Finance Department where she was responsible for securing and syndicating mortgage and asset backed securities.
Ms. Youssouf began her financial services career at Standard & Poors, where she was Vice President of the Tax- Exempt Housing Finance Group, specializing in tax-exempt bond finance for both multi- and single-family housing.
She also developed S&P’s rating criteria for Section 8 housing bonds and for single-family mortgage revenue bonds.
Ms. Youssouf is a graduate of Wagner College with Honors and holds an MA in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy.
Amy T. Geise
Associate Investment Manager & Legal Counsel, Omni Bridgeway, Houston
Amy Geise is an Associate Investment Manager and Legal Counsel for Omni Bridgeway.
Amy helps steer Omni Bridgeway’s bankruptcy and insolvency initiative from the company’s Houston office, where she frequently works with debtors, creditors, and other stakeholders to optimize the value of their claims. Amy is also experienced in helping commercial litigants outside of the bankruptcy context to obtain non-recourse funding for their disputes.
Prior to joining the Omni Bridgeway team, Amy was a bankruptcy attorney and a litigator at Porter Hedges LLP, consistently recognized among the leading law firms based in Texas. Amy’s practice focused on creditors’ rights, trustee representation, and corporate reorganizations. Amy also has substantial experience as a general commercial litigator, including complex business litigation and representation of individuals before the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Amy received her J.D. and her B.A. from The University of Texas School of Law. She currently serves on the board of the Houston Chapter of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation and of the Houston Urban Debate League. She is a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and is recognized in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Third Party Funding 2020 Guide.
