The Team

Robert

Robert Lay

Founder & Managing Partner

Robert has over 15 years’ experience structuring, syndicating and developing hundreds of real estate projects across the country generating over $1 billion in federal and state tax credits.

He focuses primarily on investor relationships with taxpayers including publicly traded corporations, multi-national financial institutions, family offices, and privately held businesses.

Trey

Geoff Cover, CPA

Chief Financial Officer

Geoffrey Cover, CPA, CITP, a former consulting partner in the New Orleans office of Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC joins RiseImpact’s New Orleans office as its Chief Financial Officer bringing over 15 years of public accounting experience and expertise providing tax credit advisory services to the real estate sector including complex deal structuring, financial modeling, and accounting and tax consulting and management.

Geoff is a member of the Louisiana CPA Society, AICPA, serves as an instructor of Accounting and Taxation for Loyola University New Orleans’ College of Business, is the Board President for the New Orleans Emergency Medical Services Foundation, and volunteers as an Executive Mentor for Loyola’s Business Portfolio Program.

Courtney Tawresey, Esq.

General Counsel

Courtney brings twenty years of legal and accounting experience to RiseImpact, including over a decade in representing developers, syndicators, investors and related entities in tax credit transactions.  As a lawyer in private practice, Courtney advised developers, syndicators, community investment institutions, lenders and other clients in complex tax-credit transactions including historic, low-income housing and New Markets tax credit transactions, generating approximately $5B in state and federal credits. 

As General Counsel, Courtney is committed to providing informed legal guidance that supports RiseImpact’s mission to facilitate community growth and economic development through tax credit initiatives.  She is passionate about leveraging her expertise to drive impactful results.

Courtney holds an LLM in Tax from the University of Denver, where she graduated top of her class.  She also graduated Cum Laude with a Juris Doctorate from University of Notre Dame, and a Cum Laude and with Distinction in all Subjects with a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University.

 

Lou Bosso

Director

Lou brings to RiseImpact over 15 years of broad tax credit finance experience focusing on project origination, underwriting and state-level legislative advocacy from Honolulu to Richmond.  With a wealth of industry experience and a broad ranging network of sponsors, investors, lenders, legislators and lobbyists, Lou crafts creative solutions to project impediments and legislative logjams.

Christine Haidler

Manager, Investor Relations

Christine began her career at Raymond James in 2017 while earning her bachelor’s degree in public relations from Tulane University.

She manages client and investor relationships with a high degree of care and attention to detail; she strives to provide every client with an outstanding experience.

Kaley Sellery

Manager, Investor Relations and Marketing Strategy

With a keen eye for strategic marketing and nearly two decades of experience, Kaley brings a wealth of knowledge to RiseImpact. She previously held several marketing roles and excelled in investor relations within real estate, including federal and state tax credits.

Kaley plays a pivotal role in driving RiseImpact’s brand presence and engaging with our investors. She is responsible for developing and implementing marketing strategies that align with the company’s goals, ensuring effective communication with investors, and fostering strong partnerships. 

Michelle Silies

Director, Transactions, Operations and Compliance

Michelle brings over 20 years of legal, real estate, and development experience to RiseImpact, including the last 12 years specializing in affordable housing, historic rehabilitation, and community impact finance. She is highly experienced in facilitating federal and state tax credit financing and equity direct and syndication investments for historic adaptive reuse and affordable housing developments nationwide.  

Michelle currently leads RiseImpact’s transaction operations and compliance, responsible for implementing and optimizing RiseImpact’s due diligence, underwriting, asset management, and transaction/fund administration processes and procedures to ensure developer and investor relationships achieve their individual and community goals and objectives. 

Holly Strategier, CPA

Manager, Transactions, Operations, & Compliance

Holly Milner is a seasoned CPA with over a decade of experience in consulting and financial management. Currently serving as the Manager of Transactions, Operations, and Compliance at Rise Impact, Holly specializes in facilitating project management for various state and federal tax credits. Her extensive background encompasses a variety of niche tax services, bringing a well-rounded wealth of knowledge to deal-flow and asset compliance management. Holly excels in managing high-volume projects with rapid turnaround times, leveraging her project management skills to effectively support teams and clients.
Holly holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of New Orleans. She is dedicated to delivering exceptional results and fostering strong client relationships through her expertise and proactive approach. 

Lisa Torres

Director, Film & Entertainment Tax Credits

With over 14 years of experience in film and entertainment tax credits, production management, planning, and operations,   Lisa is a seasoned leader in the film and entertainment industry.  She has successfully managed multiple international and domestic projects, securing and maximizing tax incentives, optimizing financial operations, and ensuring quality and efficiency.

As the Vice President of Production Strategy and Tax Incentives at Fox Entertainment, she oversaw the development and implementation of strategic plans for film production across various genres and markets, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to achieve creative and financial goals.

Additionally, Lisa served as the Director and Manager of Production Planning & Operations at AMC Studios, where she supported the production of award-winning shows such as The Walking Dead, Halt & Catch Fire, Fear The Walking Dead, managing all tax credits, audits, schedules, contracts, and logistics.

Profile

RiseImpact Capital is a full-service tax advantaged real estate development and tax credit syndication firm.

We specialize in partnering with local developers and stakeholders to build high impact developments that transform communities, families, and small businesses. For our tax credit investors, we offer a diversified portfolio of state and federal tax credits to help manage their tax liability in addition to achieving CRA, ESG and other sustainability and societal impact objectives.

From the initial spark of a potential development idea to placing the project in service or identifying, syndicating, and managing a portfolio of state and federal tax credit investments, our team of experienced professionals at RiseImpact Capital helps both developers and investors achieve their individual goals and objectives.

Developers

Are you developing a project that will earn federal or state tax credits? Seeking a streamlined, efficient transaction and syndication structure? Or are you looking for a financial partner to help fill funding gaps and round out the capital stack?

RiseImpact Capital specializes in partnering with developers to solve these and other complicated issues associated with tax credit transactions. Contact us to learn how we can work together to take your project from the drawing board to completion.

Investors

RiseImpact Capital has worked closely with many tax credit investors including large corporations, multi-national financial services and insurance firms, small businesses, estates and trusts and individuals, and we provide a wide array of optimized tax credit investments opportunities to help our clients manage and their federal and/or state tax liability.

Our diversified portfolio of historic, renewable, workforce housing, and other federal and state tax credits offers our clients opportunity to select tax credit transactions with the most attractive yields across multiple jurisdictions and/or transactions that are most closely aligned to achieve an investor’s ESG, CRA and other sustainability and societal impact objectives.

Choices matter and our clients rely on RiseImpact to identify and manage their tax credit investments to ensure a positive impact on communities and families, encourage economic development, achieve sustainability and social impact objectives, and generate attractive investment returns.