Julia Shin is a vice president of innovation and managing director of impact investing for Enterprise Community Investment Inc., where she focuses on financial innovation and new capital relationships. Ms. Shin brings deep private sector experience to Enterprise, both as banker and a transactional lawyer. Before joining Enterprise in 2013, Ms. Shin was a derivatives banker at Citi where she structured index, fund and structured-note solutions for institutional and retail clients. Prior to Citi, she was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs where she structured financial instruments and solutions, and worked on new product development. Prior to her investment banking work, Ms. Shin worked as a corporate attorney in New York City at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Covington & Burling, representing institutional clients with focuses on mergers and acquisitions, securities law and banking law. Ms. Shin serves on the board of the Clean Energy Group and on the Advisory Committee to NatureVest’s Accelerator Fund. She received her juris doctor and master’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago and received her undergraduate degrees from MIT. She is also a classically trained pianist and studied at the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School.

Joseph Darby III is a tax attorney and the founding shareholder of the Boston-based law firm Joseph Darby Law PC, which concentrates on helping people with tax matters, from the common to the most complex. Darby concentrates his legal practice on business and transactional tax law and advises a wide variety of public and private business entities and individuals on sophisticated tax-related matters. As a former equity shareholder or partner at national law firms including Greenberg Traurig LLP and Holland & Knight, LLP, Darby offers the attractive combination of large firm expertise in a responsive small-firm setting. Darby was one of the early proponents of opportunity zones, and has been at the leading edge of the legislation and related tax incentives since they were first enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in late 2017. Darby is recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of tax practice by Best Lawyers®, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the American legal profession. He has also been recognized by Legal 500.

Lillian A. Plata is a founding member of the law firm of Nee Plata Law LLC (NP Law) and specializes in the area of tax and structured finance. Ms. Plata has more than 15 years of experience structuring and implementing complex financings having practiced at several prominent laws firms in New York and New Jersey. Ms. Plata provides tax and structuring advice to corporations, partnerships, developers, nonprofits and government entities on an array of complex transactions with a focus on syndicating low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), new markets tax credits and historic tax credits as well as other federal and local tax credit and incentive programs. She has been instrumental in advising clients on the best way to leverage both public and private sources of funding. Ms. Plata has also advised clients on structuring transactions under HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program, utilizing Section 103 tax-exempt financing and LIHTCs. She has also represented corporate entities and investment firms in various projects consisting of corporate acquisitions, infrastructure projects, redevelopment projects, construction of professional athletic facilities and negotiating intercreditor agreements and credit facilities. Ms. Plata has coordinated with developers, issuers, underwriters, financial advisors and state and local government agencies to structure and implement these complex financings that have included taxable and Section 103 tax-exempt general obligation bonds/notes, mortgaged back securities, conventional and revenue financings with fixed rate, variable rate, auction rate and hybrid structures, as well as interest rate swap agreements and other derivative products. In addition, Ms. Plata regularly handles the firm’s tax matters, including advising clients on all aspects of Section 103 tax-exempt financing and the formation of nonprofit organizations, corporations and partnerships. Ms. Plata is also involved in various professional, community and political activities. In addition, she has served on the board of directors of the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association, and the board of trustees of the Tri-County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Ms. Plata received her master’s degree in taxation from New York School of Law in 2014, her juris doctorate from Rutgers University School of Law–Newark in 2002 and her bachelor’s degree in English from Drew University in 1999. Ms. Plata is admitted to practice law in the State of New Jersey, State of New York and the District of Columbia.

Managing Partner

Michael Novogradac is the managing partner of Novogradac, which has been in business since 1989. He specializes in affordable housing, community development, historic preservation and renewable energy. Mr. Novogradac’s focus is in real estate taxation and accounting. He is the author of numerous real estate-related tax and accounting articles and books, including the Novogradac Opportunity Zones Handbook, the New Markets Tax Credit Handbook and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Handbook. A frequent speaker at tax incentive conferences and forums throughout the country, Mr. Novogradac also broadcasts a weekly podcast, Tax Credit Tuesday. As a leading industry expert, he is frequently quoted in national media, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNBC News, NBC News, National Public Radio and Crain’s New York Business.  Mr. Novogradac is active in advocating for the inclusion of affordable housing, historic preservation, community development and renewable energy incentives in federal and state tax policy, and serves as advisor on industry and governmental affairs for the NMTC Working Group, LIHTC Working Group and the Opportunity Zones Working Group. Mr. Novogradac provides input to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and other federal and state agencies as well as members of Congress, including testimony before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Novogradac also serves on the executive committee of the Housing Advisory Group and the boards of directors of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, the National Housing Conference, the NMTC Coalition and Historic Tax Credit Coalition. In 2016, Mr. Novogradac was inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame. He also received The Affordable Housing Visionary Award from The NHP Foundation in 2018, in recognition of his contributions to the affordable housing community and in 2020 was honored as one of the top 25 OZ Influencers through Opportunity Zone Magazine. Mr. Novogradac graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He is licensed in California, Oregon, Maryland and Texas as a certified public accountant. You can follow Mr. Novogradac on twitter @novogradac and on his blog at www.novoco.com/blog or listen to his weekly podcast at www.novoco.com/podcast.