Economic Overview & Housing Outlook

Sally Gordon Ph.D. Senior Vice President Moody's Investor Service

We are pleased to announce that Sally Gordon will be our opening session speaker at the Real Estate Trends Conference on October 14, 2008. Ms. Gordon is a Senior Vice President at Moody’s Investors Service. She has done research for nearly twenty years on commercial real estate property markets and capital markets.

In the last several years her focus has been on commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS). Prior to joining Moody’s, she has conducted research for Credit Suisse First Boston and Citicorp and served as National Director of Real Estate Research and Economics in the Management Consulting Group of KPMG Peat Marwick in New York.

Sally Gordon is frequently invited to speak at professional associations and meetings, such as the Commercial Mortgage Securitization Association (CMSA), the Mortgage Banker’s Association (MBA), and the Practicing Law Institute of the American Bar Assn. She developed an educational series for the CMSA, including CMBS 101, 201, and 301. She has been a guest lecturer in finance, capital markets, real estate, and portfolio management at various universities, including Cornell University, MIT, University of California at Berkeley, and Wharton School of Finance, and has taught courses on real estate capital markets, including one at New York University on “CMBS: Structures and Innovations.”

She also serves on the Board of Governors for the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA), the principal trade organization for the CMBS industry. She has received awards from CMSA, including the Founders Award and an award for the best research article of the year. She is also a member of the editorial board for CMBS World, the CMSA’s quarterly journal. At the Mortgage Banker’s Association (MBA), Sally is on the board for the commercial real estate side of the business, COMBOG, and has served as chair of the research committee. Finally, she is on the Advisory Board for the Real Estate Research Institute (RERI) and currently serves as chair the proposal review committee for that organization.

Dr. Gordon received a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.S. and Ph.D. in International Policy Studies, all from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Gordon will overview the national and regional housing market conditions.

"Hot Topics" in Real Estate Panel

Robert D. Holsworth Ph.D. Director Center for Public Policy Virginia Commonwealth University

Robert D. Holsworth, Ph.D. will cover the political landscape of the upcoming Presidential election. Dr. Holsworth is a professor of political science and public administration, and the director of the Center for Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also is the regular political analyst for WTVR-TV.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and teaches courses in Virginia Politics, American Politics and Political Theory.

Dr. Holsworth has written four books and numerous articles about American politics and culture. His comments on Virginia politics regularly appear in major Virginia newspapers and on radio stations such as WRVA. His observations also have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, on National Public Radio and the BBC. Holsworth has appeared on the CBS “Evening News,” ABC “World News Tonight, ” CNN and the “McNeill-Lehrer Report.”

In 1991, Dr. Holsworth received VCU’s Distinguished Teaching Award and in 1997 he received the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award.