About Us
Executive Staff
Mary R. Kenney
Executive Director
Mary is a longtime housing finance professional and affordable housing advocate with over 15 years of experience in affordable housing lending, community development and municipal finance. She returned to the Authority in March 2011 as Acting Executive Director and was appointed Executive Director in April 2011. Prior to this appointment, she served for over 10 years as the Authority's General Counsel and also acted as Assistant Executive Director. She previously served the Authority in the late 1980s as a Portfolio Administrator in the Authority's homeownership department. Mary left the Authority to attend the University of Wisconsin Law School, eventually earning her law degree from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. She worked for a number of years at the law firm of Johnson & Bell before returning to the Authority in 2000. Mary serves as chair of the Illinois Housing Task Force, as co-chair of the state's new Foreclosure Prevention and Mitigation Working Group and serves on the Cook County Land Bank Advisory Commission and the State's Affordable Housing Advisory Commission. Mary also serves on the Board of Directors for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC Chicago), a nonprofit that organizes capital and other resources to support initiatives to stimulate the development of healthy, stable neighborhoods.
Bryan Zises
Assistant Executive Director/Chief of Staff
Bryan returned to the Authority in May 2011 as Assistant Executive Director and Chief of Staff where he oversees programmatic and personnel aspects of the Authority. He obtained a depth of affordable housing finance knowledge from his previous roles as Public Affairs Director at the Authority from 2003 to 2006, as well as Communications Director at the Chicago Housing Authority, one of the largest public housing authorities in the nation. Bryan is a skilled public relations and communications specialist with more than twenty years experience in public finance, political campaigns, government and media production. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film with a focus on marketing, management and creative development from the University of Southern California.
Hazim Taib
Chief Financial Officer/Assistant Treasurer
Hazim has been with the Authority since 1998 and was named Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Treasurer in April 2011. He has also served as IHDA’s Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Director of Structured Finance. His current responsibilities include overseeing the Authority’s assets and liabilities, designing and executing investment strategies, and managing the capital budget and its credit risk and rating. Hazim has extensive experience in bond structuring, cash modeling, tax exempt issuance and managing the requirements of the credit rating agencies. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree with an emphasis in statistics, a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Indiana State University, and a diploma in Public Administration from Universiti Teknologi MARA , Malaysia.
Maureen G. Ohle
General Counsel/Assistant Secretary
Maureen joined the Authority in November of 2010 as Senior Counsel and was promoted to General Counsel in August 2011. Before joining the Authority, she worked in the real estate group at Sidley Austin LLP, practicing out of the firm's Chicago office. Prior to this, she worked for J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. in the commercial mortgage-backed securities group, having started her legal career at Sidley Austin’s Washington, DC. office from 2001 to 2007. Maureen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Studies from the University of Illinois-Springfield and a Juris Doctorate degree from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law.
Michele Williams
Controller
Michele joined the Authority in May 2010. She is a Certified Public Accountant with over 15 years experience in accounting, budgeting and tax preparation for small businesses, industry and not-for-profit companies. Prior to working full-time as an independent financial consultant, Michele worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Tax Products Delivery department conducting tax savings studies. Michele has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.