Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> July 22, 2002
MARK K. JOSEPH is a founder, Chairman and CEO of Municipal Mortgage &
Equity, LLC, also known as MuniMae, which was spun off from the
operations of The Shelter Group in 1996. A nationwide provider of debt
and equity financing for multifamily housing, MuniMae manages over $3
billion of real estate investments. As of the end of the first quarter
of 2002, these investments are secured by a portfolio of 817 apartment
communities, encompassing 84,305 units in 48 states, the District of
Columbia and the US Virgin Islands. Mr. Joseph founded and is Chairman
of the Board of The Shelter Group. He also founded The Shelter
Foundation. The privately held Shelter Group owns, develops and manages
apartment communities, as well as assisted living and elderly facilities
throughout the country and has $1 billion of real estate, approximately
25,000 units, under management. The Shelter Foundation, Inc., provides
grants to non-profit organizations and agencies that address the needs
of children, the elderly and the community as a whole. It owns low and
moderate income and affordable housing communities where services to
residents are of the highest priority. For over a decade, it provided
housing and counseling for hundreds of homeless persons in the Baltimore
region. Before his entry into the private sector, Mr. Joseph served in
the U.S. Army, clerked for the Chief Judge of the Baltimore Federal
District Court and was a Consumers' Advocate in the Philadelphia Legal
Services Program. From 1968 to 1973, Mr. Joseph was Baltimore City's
Deputy Housing Commissioner and then its Development Coordinator under
Mayor Schaefer. From 1975 to 1980, Mr. Joseph headed the Baltimore City
Board of School Commissioners. As President of the Board, he chaired the
nation's seventh largest school system. During this time, Mr. Joseph was
a founder of the Baltimore School for the Arts, now recognized as one of
the five finest arts high schools in the nation. Mr. Joseph graduated,
with honors, from Brown University and also from the Harvard Law School.
He has been a member of the University of Maryland Law School faculty
where he taught seminars in urban legal problems and poverty law. Mr.
Joseph also authored the law that created the Maryland community
development housing finance agency. Mr. Joseph has served on numerous
private and public boards, retiring after several terms from the Boards
of the Walters Art Museum, Beth Am Synagogue, Union Memorial Hospital,
the Baltimore Public Health Service Hospital and the Boards of Visitors
of the University of Maryland Graduate Schools and the University of
Maryland Law School. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of
Provident BankShares Corporation, the Greater Baltimore Committee, the
National Multi Housing Council, The Associated, Jewish Community
Federation of Baltimore and The Baltimore School for the Arts. Profile
Mr. Joseph: Simply put, we're an intermediary providing capital to the
family housing industry. We originate both equity
