OUR TEAM
Our staff consists of a diverse group of individuals committed to creating social equity through playing a strategic role in real estate development and community transformation. All of our team members have had many years of experience in affordable housing development and government technical assistance to create and preserve housing opportunities and strengthen communities.
Mosaic is incorporated as an LLC and staffed by a small group of employees and independent contractors, who collaborate to deliver our services and are supervised by the principal.
The Mosaic team for each project are selected in order to leverage their unique combination of strengths and expertise. Specific technical needs of a given work assignment are matched to the respective qualifications of individual staff members and their workload capacities.
LIHBIN SHIAO,
Principal
510.207.1941
Lihbin founded Mosaic seventeen years ago. She has twenty-two years of professional real estate development experience, managing challenging projects with complex financing and ownership structures in California. She has been working in the field of community development for 30 years. Lihbin has provided development project management and financial consulting services for the development and rehabilitation of over 12,000 units of family, senior, and special needs housing throughout California.
Lihbin has provided financial consulting services throughout California. Financial consulting services have included serving in a technical assistance, new program creation, and policy advisory capacity to government agencies and providing financial consulting services to nonprofit, mission-driven for profit developers, and public agency development entities and creating financial or programmatic tools for Community Development Financial Institutions. Clients include the California Housing and Community Development Department, Los Angeles County Development Authority, Santa Clara County Housing Authority, and Tribally Designated Housing Entities, the Housing Trust of Silicon Valley and the Low Income Investment Fund.
Prior to founding Mosaic, Lihbin served in a number of capacities with BRIDGE Housing, PolicyLink, EBALDC, the Chinese Progressive Association, and the Asian American Resource Workshop. She led BRIDGE's first HOPE VI project as well as many other projects and launched BRIDGE's first Mission Bay development and the Potrero Terrace Master Plan.
Lihbin holds a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley, and graduated cum laude with a Bachelors in Arts from Brown University. She was a 1998 HUD Fellow. In her spare time, Lihbin enjoys gardening, woodworking, and making art and food with family and friends.
DAVID SCHNUR,
Development Director & Senior Financial Consultant
510.808.7952
dschnur@mosaicurban.org
David brings to this work 25 years of professional experience in real estate development of affordable and supportive multi-family housing projects. He has completed development of over 2000 units of affordable housing in multiple jurisdictions throughout Northern California and has particular expertise in financing and development of supportive housing, including housing for formerly homeless single adults, families, seniors and transition-age youth. This includes close coordination with service providers and property managers to plan design and development for tenants with complex needs, securing operating funding for projects serving extremely-low income populations.
Since joining Mosaic, David has provided technical assistance and support to public sector clients while continuing his project management work for non-profit developers. He has worked to close construction and permanent loans on behalf of both public lenders such as the Los Angeles County Development Authority and private borrowers such as BRIDGE Housing and Resources for Community Development. He has guided projects through the complex transitions into the start of construction and through final completion. He has supported emerging BIPOC and tribal developers in navigating public financing processes, including as part of Enterprise Community Partners’ cohort of Homekey TA providers on behalf of HCD. David was a prime researcher and writer for HCD’s Transition Reserve policy assessment and recommendation report and has provided strategic guidance to the Berkeley Housing Authority in establishing their development affiliate Affordable Housing Berkeley. David was one of the leads for both the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing and Santa Clara Housing Authority contracts.
Prior to joining Mosaic in early 2018, David served for twelve years as Director of Housing Development for Community Housing Partnership, where he was responsible for all aspects of the affordable housing development process for a provider of deeply service-enriched supportive housing for formerly homeless households. David contributes expertise and a deep understanding of the implementation considerations and challenges in building for the most vulnerable supportive housing communities. Prior to moving into real estate development, David worked in the policy realm and brings research methodology and fact-finding skills to the team.
David holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Bachelors in Arts from Rice University. In his spare time, David enjoys travel, camping, motorcycling and cooking, and together with sixteen of his friends he is a member of the nation’s only collectively-owned nightclub.
JAMES COLES,
Senior Project Manager & Financial Consultant
530.513.3110
James brings to this work twenty years of professional experience in real estate development of affordable and supportive multi-family housing projects, and local government housing administration. James also serves as principal of Housing Tools, a consulting firm that assists local governments plan and implement housing and community development programs.
In his role with Mosaic, James has provided consulting services for government agencies and nonprofit affordable housing developers. He has researched moderate income housing programs across Santa Clara County and developed financial models that inform the allocation of Santa Clara County affordable housing funds. James has project managed small to large portfolios for acquisition and rehabilitation. James has expertise in securing tax credits and tax-exempt bonds, utilizing the HUD RAD program, and working with local agencies to refinance older projects. Projects have included public housing, Section 8 units, HUD 202, older Housing Assistance Payment contracts, and expiring tax credit projects.
James started his housing career working as Project Manager and Development Director for Resources for Community Development, managing the development of urban infill multifamily projects. He then worked for five years as the Housing Manager at the City of Chico.
He brings an insider perspective to administrative considerations and challenges and process for government entities. James has also worked with several housing authorities on PBV financing and in particular with CoCs in northern California to create PBV programs to assist homeless.
James holds a Masters Degree in Planning and Public Policy from the University of Illinois-Chicago, and a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Utah. In his spare time, James likes to make music, spend time outdoors, and gaze at all manner of maps.
KENNETH JONES,
Senior Project Manager & Financial Consultant
510.868.2865
Kenneth is an urban real estate developer, development consultant, and project management professional with over 20 years of experience. For the past 12 years Kenneth has been a Principal at Landis Development, LLC where he provided advisory and consulting services to a variety of public and private entities throughout California and several communities in the Southeast. Prior to this Kenneth was the Director of Housing Development for Mission Housing Development Corporation.
Kenneth is an expert in affordable housing, real estate finance, and public/private partnerships. His leadership on a number of important initiatives surrounding affordable housing, urban infill, and transit-oriented and has impacted the lives of thousands of families, individuals, and seniors. Kenneth has worked with a host of public agencies including the City of San Francisco, City of Oakland, City of Richmond, Alameda County, and the Vallejo Housing Authority. Kenneth has also worked with number of service providers and for-profit and non-profit developers throughout northern and southern California. Kenneth development experience includes a variety of project types including retail centers, office, tenant-improvements, student housing and several community wide-master plans. Kenneth has either directly developed or has supported the development of more than 5,400 units and 100,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.
Kenneth holds an Executive Masters Degree in Real Estate and the Built Environment from the University of Denver, School of Business, and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from the UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business. In his free time, Kenneth enjoys outdoor activities including golfing, biking, and hiking. He loves spending time with his 12 year old son playing basketball, board games, and watching Avenger movies. He also enjoys spending time with his extended family in the Bay Area and coordinates lunch with one extended family member every month.
ED PARILLON,
Senior Project Manager & Financial Consultant
917.449.3649
Ed Parillion has sixteen years of experience in a range of roles and sectors in financial services, including work with lenders, government agencies, insurers, and real estate developers, covering property acquisition and development, loan and equity underwriting, capital modelling and adequacy, and training of staff in the public and private sectors and seven years of experience in the underwriting, acquisition, rehabilitation, and construction of commercial and multifamily residential real estate.
Ed has works with Mosaic on financial and technical assistance to government clients, most recently providing guidance to HCD on policy making around transition reserve requirements as part of their approach to affordable housing finance across California.
He also currently works with affordable housers in the Bay Area on RFP responses, financing applications, pro forma modelling, and general project management. Prior to Mosaic, Ed worked on commercial and residential development and related projects at FivePoint, a California-based master planned development firm, and with
BRIDGE Housing, where he led the rehabilitation and refinancing of over 700 units of public housing as part of the San Francisco Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and led acquisition, financing, and predevelopment of a number of affordable tax credit housing projects in multiple Bay Area cities.
Before shifting to real estate development, Ed worked as a Manager at Oliver Wyman, leading management consulting projects with a number of financial institutions, covering capital adequacy, credit risk management, and staff readiness and training in loan departments.
Ed holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and a Bachelors in Science and Engineering from Princeton University. Ed spends his free time exploring San Francisco with his two kids on their family bike, and thinking about new dishes to cook or breads to bake.