Speaker Bios

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Keynote Speaker 1
8:45am - 9:45am
William Kooper
Mortgage Bankers Association
William Kooper is Vice President of State Government Affairs and Industry Relations at the Mortgage Bankers Association and in that capacity leads MBA's advocacy efforts at the state and local level as well as MBA's engagement with mortgage banking associations across the country. William is responsible for the MBA State Legislative and Regulatory Committee, staffs the State Association Relations Committee and leads the State Relations Initiative -- MBA's program to partner with state associations to align business development, communications and advocacy interests.
Prior to joining MBA in 2001, William was appointed by President Bill Clinton as Special Assistant and Briefing Coordinator to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo. At HUD, William prepared the Secretary's daily event briefings, wrote the Secretary's weekly report to the President and also made contributions to Presidential and Vice Presidential briefing documents. William's other positions in and out of government have included Manager of Government Relations at HIP Health Plans in New York City, Senior Legislative Associate to the New York State Assembly Committee on Health, Research Analyst for the New York State Assembly's Council on Health Care Financing, and Confidential Assistant to New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
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Keynote Speaker 2
10:00am - 11:00am
Mark Eppli
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Mark Eppli is Director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, Eppli served as Interim James H. Keyes Dean of Business Administration from 2012 to 2015 and as a professor of finance and Bell Chair in Real Estate at Marquette University. He has been instrumental in building the Center for Real Estate and the real estate program at Marquette that has enhanced the reputation of the business school not only regionally but also nationally. Widely published in commercial real estate finance, development and valuation, his research has been published in dozens of top-respected real estate journals. Dr. Eppli is co-author of two books: Real Estate Development: Principles and Process and Valuing the New Urbanism, both published by the Urban Land Institute.
He is an independent board member for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago since 2012, and he is immediate past president of the nonprofit Real Estate Research Institute. Dr. Eppli was named a “Distinguished Fellow” by NAIOP, a national commercial real estate organization, which recognizes him as a foremost real estate policy expert. He has also received awards from the Greater Washington Urban League and the Urban Land Institute for his efforts to attract minorities to the real estate profession.
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Keynote Speaker 3
11:00am - 12:00pm
John Israel
Mr. Thank You
Long before I became Mr. Thank You, my lessons in sales and influence began in my teens as a semi-professional skateboarder pitching myself to companies for sponsorship. Competition was fierce! So how did I wind up working with some of the biggest brands in the industry when there were so many kids just as good or better than me? I became more “relevant” to the companies’ success than my competition. I stopped talking about my goals, and started asking about the brands’ goals. Instead of just wearing a t-shirt with a logo, I built relationships for my brands and actively fought for them to get shelf space at local skate shops. That wasn’t in my “job description” but putting them first made me their go-to choice. As my skating career ended and my business career began, those lessons of human connection and relevance became the cornerstones of my sales success. In a few short years I became the #6 rep out of 10,000 sales associates across the country. When the housing crisis of the 2000’s hit, and many businesses were devastated, relationships I had built and nurtured stayed with me and supported our companies’ success.
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Lunch Keynote
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Rob Chrisman
RPM Mortgage/Daily Mortgage News
Rob began his career in mortgage banking – primarily capital markets – 36 years ago in 1985 with First California Mortgage, assisting in Secondary Marketing until 1988, when he joined Tuttle & Co., a leading mortgage pipeline risk management firm. In November of 2006 Rob left TRMS to become the Director of Capital Markets for RPM Mortgage, a retail residential lender you all know, leaving there in late 2008 to focus on, not only publishing a widely read daily market commentary on current mortgage events, but also on his family. He is on the board of directors of Inheritance Funding Corporation, a financial services company which advances capital to heirs, of Doorway Home Loans, of AXIS Appraisal Management, and of the California MBA. He is also a member of the Secure Settlements Advisory Board, an associate of the STRATMOR Group, and of the Mortgage Bankers Association of the Carolinas and its membership committee. Rob has provided expert witness services for mortgage and real estate-related cases, has lectured to groups around the country. Rob holds a BS from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
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Keynote Speaker 4
1:30pm - 2:45pm
Bill Bodnar
Monthly Mortgage Guide
Bill Bodnar is Chief Revenue Officer of Tabrasa and Chief Market Analyst for their Mortgage Market Guide product.
A lifelong student of the financial markets, his extensive fundamental and technical analysis skills have been helping thousands of mortgage loan originators and realtors for over two decades.
He is also a partner in The Bourbon Room, an 80's themed nightclub in Los Angeles.
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WMBA Executive Panel
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Coming soon!
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