Senator Jon Tester is a third-generation Montana farmer and a former school teacher who has deep roots in hard work, responsibility and accountability.

Jon and his wife Sharla still farm the same land near the town of Big Sandy, Mont. that was homesteaded by Jon’s grandparents in 1912. Jon’s parents believed public education and family agriculture are the cornerstones of democracy—and those values had a tremendous role in shaping Jon’s leadership.

After earning a degree in music from the College of Great Falls, Jon took over the Tester farm in 1978. He also taught music at F.E. Miley Elementary and eventually was elected to the Big Sandy School Board. Fired up by the Montana Legislature’s decision to deregulate Montana’s power industry (resulting in higher power costs), Jon ran for and was elected to the Montana Senate in 1998.

In 2005, Jon’s colleagues chose him to serve as Montana Senate President. The people of Montana elected Jon to the U.S. Senate in 2006 and again in 2012.

Bob Corker grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended public schools, played sports, and from an early age learned to love and value hard work. He took his first job at age 13 picking up trash and spent his teenage years bagging ice, working at the Western Auto and putting in long hours as a construction laborer.

Bob graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974 with a degree in Industrial Management, and after working four years as a construction superintendent, he started his own construction company with $8,000. The company grew as it quickly gained a reputation for meeting deadlines on time and under budget and eventually expanded to operations in 18 states. In 1999, Corker acquired two of the largest and oldest commercial real estate companies in Chattanooga.

Johnny Isakson is a businessman, a public servant and family man whose conservative, thoughtful and independent approach have made him a leader in Georgia for over 30 years.

Johnny began his business career in 1967 when he opened the first Cobb County office of a small, family-owned real estate business, Northside Realty. Johnny later served as president of Northside for 20 years, presiding over the company’s growth into the largest independent residential real estate brokerage company in the Southeast and one of the largest in America.

Johnny entered politics in 1974 and served 17 years in the Georgia Legislature and two years as Chairman of the Georgia Board of Education. In 1999, Johnny was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first of three terms before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2010.

Rick Judson, a Charlotte, N.C.-based home builder with over 35 years of experience
in the building industry, is the Chairman of the Board of the more than 140,000
member National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)./p>

Judson is the owner of Evergreen Development Group in Charlotte, and is a
successful builder and developer with several decades of experience in land
development and construction of single-family, multifamily and commercial projects.

Judson has been active in the NAHB leadership structure at the local, state and national levels throughout his career. He first served on NAHB’s Board of Directors in
1979, and he has been a member of the NAHB Executive Board since 2002. He has twice served as NAHB State Representative from North Carolina and as NAHB National Area Chairman representing North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. He has chaired some of NAHB’s most important and influential committees, subcommittees and task forces, including Budget and Finance, Investment and Public Affairs. In 2008, he chaired the NAHB Housing Finance Task Force, which developed association policy relating to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Previously, Rick served as 2004 President of the North Carolina Home Builders Association and was named its Associate of the Year in 1988.

David Hawkings (Moderator), Editor, CQ Roll Call

As the senior editor of Roll Call, David Hawkings writes the "Hawkings Here" blog for the newspaper’s web site, along with a column that starts on the front page every day. His aim is to provide penetrating, non-partisan and forward-looking analysis of policies being formed on Capitol Hill – and the people and politics driving the legislative debates. Before his current assignment began this year, Hawkings spent two years as founding editor of the company’s Daily Briefing and six years as managing editor of the flagship CQ Weekly magazine. He has also been the company’s senior editor for legislative affairs; the magazine’s economics editor and its congressional affairs editor; and co-editor of “Politics in America,” CQ Roll Call's signature reference work on members of Congress.

Hawkings is a frequent guest to discuss Washington’s legislative and political developments on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and National Public Radio. He offers analysis each Monday and Friday morning on NPR’s Washington affiliate, WAMU.

Dr. Eric Belsky, Managing Director, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University

Eric Belsky is Managing Director of the Joint Center and a Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Prior to his Harvard appointments, Dr. Belsky led the Housing Finance and Credit Analysis Group at Price Waterhouse LLP. He has also held the positions of Director of Housing Finance Research at Fannie Mae, Senior Economist at the National Association of Home Builders, and Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Dr. Belsky currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Housing Research and Housing Policy Debate, the board of the Opportunity Finance Network, the Affordable Housing Advisory Council of Fannie Mae, and the National Advisory Council of CredAbility. In 2001 and 2002, Dr. Belsky also served as Research Director for the bipartisan Millennial Housing Commission established by the Congress of the United States.

Dr. David Crowe, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, NAHB

David Crowe is Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Dr. Crowe is responsible for NAHB’s forecast of housing and economic trends, survey research and analysis of the home building industry and consumer preferences as well as microeconomic analysis of government policies that affect housing.

Dr. Crowe is also responsible for the development and implementation of an innovative model of the local economic impact and fiscal cost of new home construction, which has estimated the net impact of new housing in over 500 local markets. Past research has concentrated on home ownership trends, tax issues, demographics, government mortgage insurance, local land use ordinance impacts and the impacts of housing on local economies.

Jason Gold, Senior Fellow for Financial Markets, Progressive Policy Institute

Jason R. Gold is the director for PPI’s “Rebuilding Middle Class Wealth” project and senior fellow for financial markets. His areas of expertise include housing, banking, financial services and capital markets. He has been involved in banking and federal policy for over eighteen years. Gold started his career in the private sector working for institutions such as Saxon Capital and First Tennessee. In 2010 he advised the Congressional Oversight Panel in producing the November 2010 oversight report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Gold is a panelist on the Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey. He is also a thesis advisor for Georgetown University’s graduate real estate program, where he extends industry expertise to guide graduate candidates producing thesis work in the housing and financial services areas.

Professor Christopher Mayer is Paul Milstein Professor of Real Estate and Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School. His research explores a variety of topics in real estate and financial markets, including housing cycles, mortgage markets, debt securitization, and commercial real estate valuation. Dr. Mayer is also a principal at Longbridge Financial, a new and innovative company focused on developing and delivering reverse mortgage products to senior homeowners in a responsible manner. Professor Mayer also serves as a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Academic Advisory Board for Standard and Poor's. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts.

Nick Timiraos (Moderator), Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Nick Timiraos is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, where he has covered housing and mortgage markets, including the GSEs, the FHA, and housing finance policy since 2008. Previously, he covered the 2008 presidential election, travelling with the Obama campaign. Timiraos joined the staff of the Journal in 2006. He graduated from Georgetown University and lives in New York.

Michael D. Berman, Senior Advisor, Housing Finance, Office of the Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Michael D. Berman currently serves in the Obama Administration as Senior Advisor - Housing Finance for Secretary Shaun Donovan - Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Berman’s responsibilities include working on policies for long term housing finance reform (the GSEs and FHA) for multi-family and single family markets, increasing liquidity and access to credit for homeowners, rental property affordability, and new risk retention regulation, among other issues.

Until September, 2012, Mr. Berman was the President and Chief Executive Officer of CWCapital (CW). He joined the CW Companies in 1985, and was a founder and member of the Board of Managers of CW and its parent, CW Financial Services. CW was a national lender and servicer to the multifamily and commercial real estate industry. Mr. Berman was responsible for all strategic planning and operations for all of CW's loan programs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, life company, conduit, balance sheet, and bridge loans. In addition, Mr. Berman provided strategic input for the company's vertical integration business plan, including CW’s shelf REMIC’s, CDO’s, B-Piece buying business, investment sales and special servicing. Under Mr. Berman's direction, CW first entered the national lending business in 1991. Annual loan production grew from $100 million to over $4 billion in 2012, when CWCapital was sold to Walker & Dunlop. CW serviced a portfolio of $17 billion in 48 states. In 2011, CW was the #3 multifamily agency lender in the U.S. (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA).

Mr. Berman earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is an active speaker on real estate finance.

Michael Calhoun, President, Center for Responsible Lending

Mike provides overall direction for the organization and directs the federal policy team. He is a seasoned civil rights and consumer protection litigator. Mike was the principal drafter of the North Carolina acts regulating predatory mortgage loans, mortgage brokers and lenders. He has authored numerous papers and testified before Congress and numerous state legislatures.

Adam Levitin, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Professor Levitin specializes in bankruptcy, commercial law, and financial regulation. His research focuses on consumer and housing finance, payments, and debt restructuring. Before joining the Georgetown faculty, Professor Levitin practiced in the Business Finance & Restructuring Department of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York and served as law clerk to the Honorable Jane Richards Roth on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. While at Georgetown, he has served as Special Counsel to the Congressional Oversight Panel and as the Robert Zinman Scholar in Residence at the American Bankruptcy Institute. Professor Levitin holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.Phil and an A.M. from Columbia University, and an A.B. from Harvard College.

Dr. Michael Stegman, Counselor to Secretary for Housing Finance Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Michael A. Stegman is Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury for Housing Finance Policy. He is responsible for coordinating the Department of the Treasury’s activities relating to the development of housing finance policy, and for assisting in the implementation of Treasury’s housing programs. He chairs a steering committee composed of the senior Treasury participants in these areas, and coordinates Treasury’s work in these areas with other agencies and offices within the Executive Branch, in particular with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Economic Council, and the Domestic Policy Council. He is also responsible for coordinating the Department of the Treasury’s internal and external communications on housing finance reform. Stegman is on leave as Director of Policy and Housing for the Program on Human and Community Development at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as well as his position as Visiting Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Stegman received his BA from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and his Masters and PhD in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Peter Wallison, Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Peter J. Wallison, a co-director of AEI's program on financial policy studies, researches banking, insurance, and securities regulation. As general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration's proposals for the deregulation of the financial services industry. He also served as White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan and is the author of Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency (Westview Press, 2002). His other books include Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds (2007); Privatizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks (2004); The GAAP Gap: Corporate Disclosure in the Internet Age (2000); and Optional Federal Chartering and Regulation of Insurance Companies(2000). He also writes for AEI's Financial Services Outlook series.

Robert D. Dietz, Vice President, Tax and Market Analysis, NAHB

Robert D. Dietz, Ph.D., is Vice President for Tax and Market Analysis for NAHB, where his responsibilities include economic and legal analysis of tax and policy issues, as well as analysis of housing market data. His areas of responsibility include homeownership and energy tax incentives, affordable housing policies, business tax issues, tax regulations, and government budget analysis. Dr. Dietz has published academic research on the private and social benefits of homeownership, federal tax expenditure estimation, and other housing and tax issues in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Housing Research, the National Tax Journal and the NBER Working Paper series. Prior to joining NAHB in 2005, Robert worked as an economist for the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, specializing in revenue estimation of legislative proposals involving housing, urban development, and other business tax issues. He is a native of Dayton, Ohio and earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the Ohio State University in 2003.

Anthony Randazzo, Director of Economic Research, Reason Foundation

Anthony Randazzo is director of economic research for Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank advancing free minds and free markets. He specializes in housing finance, financial services regulation, and macroeconomic policy. Randazzo has also testified before the House Financial Services Committee on topics related to housing policy and government-sponsored enterprises. In addition, he works frequently on privatization, tax policy, monetary policy, and Turkish-U.S. political and economic issues.

Randazzo's work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Barron's, Bloomberg View, The Washington Times, The Detroit News, Chicago Sun-Times, RealClearMarkets, Reason magazine and various other online and print publications. Prior to joining Reason, he worked at The Policy Center in New York, as well as a freelance journalist, and as a legal assistant.

Dr. John Weicher, Senior Fellow, Director, Center for Housing and Financial Markets, Hudson Institute

Senior Fellow John C. Weicher is Director of Hudson Institute's Center for Housing and Financial Markets. From 2001 to 2005 he served as Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at HUD, with responsibility for 3,400 staff and half a trillion dollars of FHA mortgage insurance. His major initiatives included regulatory reform of the real estate settlement process, mission regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and establishing a risk-based premium structure for FHA's multifamily mortgage insurance. He previously served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at HUD from 1989 to 1993, and as Chief Economist at both HUD (1975-1977) and OMB (1987-1989).