NICHOLAS SHAPIRO, President
nshapiro@comreinvest.com

Nick Shapiro has been president of Community Reinvestment Fund, Inc. (CRF) since its founding in 1997. He designed the goals and structure of the corporation and of the investment funds that it manages. Nick is responsible for handling directly or overseeing all equity raising, project identification, project underwriting, investment structuring, investment closing, asset management, investor reporting, and investor relations activities of CRF and of CRF’s investment funds.

Prior to the founding of CRF, Nick served as vice president in charge of project acquisitions for Chicago Equity Fund, Inc., a Chicago-based not-for-profit syndicator of investments in affordable rental housing projects that qualified for federal low-income housing tax credits. In addition, he also served in a similar role as vice president in charge of project acquisitions for Illinois Equity Fund, Inc., another not-for-profit syndicator of low-income housing tax credit-subsidized affordable housing investments. Through his work for the Chicago and Illinois Equity Funds, Nick underwrote, structured, and closed over $300 million worth of equity investments in more than 8,800 units of rental housing in metropolitan Chicago and downstate Illinois.

Before that, Nick was a financial analyst at LaSalle Partners, Inc. in Chicago, where he underwrote, structured, and negotiated acquisitions, financings, sales, sale-leasebacks, and leveraged leases of numerous office buildings, regional shopping centers, hotels, and mixed-use complexes throughout the United States on behalf of corporate and institutional clients of the firm’s real estate investment banking division.

Nick is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate with honors from Harvard University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in government. He received a master’s degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Nick is an elected member of Lambda Alpha International, an honorary land economics society, and is also a member of the American Planning Association and the Urban Land Institute. He has been a speaker, moderator, or mobile workshop presenter at many conferences and symposia, including national conferences of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the American Planning Association. He has been appointed to numerous local governmental boards and commissions concerning such matters as aviation, historic preservation, and housing. Nick has been listed in Who’s Who in Finance and Business since 2006 and in Who’s Who in America for several years beginning in 2001.

Nick is married and is the proud father of two sons.