McCormack Baron Salazar announces two new Senior Vice Presidents
Leaders of New Markets Tax Credits Department and Design and Construction Departments Promoted
McCormack Baron Salazar is pleased announce that Laurel Tinsley and Mike Saunders have been promoted to the title of Senior Vice President.
Since taking over the reins of McCormack Baron Salazar’s New Markets Tax Credit arm (MBS Urban Initiatives CDE) two and one half years ago, Ms. Tinsley has more than doubled the rate of tax credit deployment, closing 12 NMTC investments in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Memphis and a half dozen other cities across the country. She has worked diligently to make sure that critical community outcomes are achieved through these investments. By increasing the standards applied to investment selection, community impact criteria, and by updating the CDE’s reporting and compliance program, the CDE is investing in stronger projects with greater direct community impacts.
Prior to joining McCormack Baron Salazar, Ms. Tinsley was a partner at Husch Blackwell. With Husch, she closed over 100 tax credit, lending and real estate transactions, and was the lead attorney on deals involving complex structuring and compliance issues. Ms. Tinsley is frequently a national speaker on new markets, low income and solar tax credit issues. She is a graduate of the Washington University School of Law, and the mother of two young children.
Mr. Saunders joined McCormack Baron Salazar in 1995 as a project architect, and has been leading the Design & Construction Department since 2001. From his initial work on Murphy Park in St. Louis through to one of the firm’s newest communities, Northpark at Scott Carver in Miami, Mr. Saunders has helped to define what a signature McCormack Baron Salazar community looks like and has played a key role in the evolution of the physical design to support the firm’s mixed-income, mixed-finance model. As a project architect, he has been involved in over 20 mixed-income projects, from coast to coast and across the company’s portfolio.
As head of Design and Construction, Mr. Saunders oversees a 6-member staff as well as outside design and construction consultants. In this role, he has helped to streamline and professionalize the Design & Construction Department, standardizing architectural and construction contracts, standardizing units plans, creating a standard Design Checklist and, more recently, working to incorporate standardized environmental sustainability goals.
Mr. Saunders has a Bachelor of Environmental Design and a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering from the University of Kansas and a Master of Science of Historic Preservation from Columbia University. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects - St. Louis Chapter, the St. Louis Chapter of the Home Builder’s Association and a former member of the Planning and Community Design Committee for the City of Olivette. He is a Registered Architect in the State of Missouri.