Executive Compensation at the National Equity Fund (Chicago, IL)
The National Equity Fund (NEF) is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) 4 – a social welfare organization – engaged as a national syndicator of low-income housing tax credits. There are 15 voting members of the governing body, 11 of whom are independent. 11 of the 15 (73%) directors are male while 4 of the 15 (27%) directors are female.
NEF reports total revenue of about $50 million ($55 million in 2018; $49 million in 2017) most of which is from low income housing. For the past two years the organization has spent about $6 million more than they have raised annually but because of capital additions, net assets have increased (to $46 million) rather than declined.
The largest expense for NEF is compensation for the 202 employees who received $32 million in compensation in 2018, which equates to an average compensation of nearly $160,000. However, only 83 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation which suggests there were some very well compensated employees at NEF. The 17 most highly compensated employees received $9 million in compensation, which equates to an average of $530,000 each. If total compensation was adjusted for the 17 most highly compensated employees, then 185 employees were compensated $23 million, which equates to an average compensation of $124,000 – still significant.
The 17 most highly compensated employees were reported to be:
- $1,027,895: Todd Fabian, VP Regional Manager
- $ 926,416: Joseph Hagan, President and CEO, Director
- $ 636,280: Maurice Jones, Vice Chairman and Director*
- $ 564,373: Alex Denja, SVP, COO, CFO, and Treasurer
- $ 552,963: Michael Jacobs, SVP, Originations
- $ 548,502: Judy Schneider, SVP, Chief Risk Officer, Asst Secretary
- $ 537,388: Mark Siranovic, SVP, Multi Investment Fund Markets and Asst Treasurer
- $ 525,895: Kevin Boes, SVP
- $ 516,901: Karen Przypyszny, Managing Director, Special Initiative
- $ 493,402: Peter Harrison, SVP, Asset Management
- $ 466,237: Michael Rogers, SVP, General Counsel and Secretary
- $ 465,681: Ed Simon, SVP, Chief Information Officer
- $ 410,926: Steve Petsos, NMSC SVP/COO
- $ 403,314: Joseph Forgue, SVP, Project Management
- $ 339,860: Michael Hearne, Director*
- $ 333,171: Reena Bamblett, SVP, Proprietary Fund Markets
- $ 247,690: Gregory Schuler, Former SVP, General Counsel/Asst Secretary
14 of the 17 (82%) most highly compensated employees are male while 3 of the 17 (18%) are female.
18 independent contractors received more than $100,000 in compensation; the five highest were reported to be:
- $2,070,924: Novogradic and Company, LLP, of San Francisco, CA for audit and tax services
- $2,017,060: Kraus Lam LLC, of Chicago, IL for legal services
- $1,806,618: Barnes & Thornburg, LLP, of Indianapolis, IN for legal services
- $1,428,356: Sparta Advisors, LLC, of Columbus, OH for consulting services
- $1,322,480: Cohn Reznick LLP, of Bethesda, MD for audit and tax services
$9 million was used for accounting, legal, and consulting services, which used up 16% of revenue in 2018.
For an organization whose revenue is only about $50 million annually and derived from low income housing, there are a lot of people and independent contractors with high compensation.
To read the IRS Form 990 (2018), click here.
