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Directors and Senior Advisors

IPTI’s Directors and Senior Advisors

Michael Blaschuk: Was Chief Appraiser of Canada and with BC Assessment for 10 years. He was responsible for managing the real estate portfolio for the Province of BC and providing turnkey accommodation and provisioning services to ministries and broader public sector clients. He provided valuation expertise and was part of the Executive Project Board for Federal Sale-Leaseback of offices. As well, he was responsible for federal payments-in-lieu of taxes program and project director for hands-on delivery of an international P3. He has experience at all states of P3 from inception to delivery to operation. Michael has previously worked with BC Housing; Public Works and Government Services Canada; and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and has significant expertise in Real Estate Strategies; Project Delivery, Property Assessment and Appraisal. He was an advisor to the Parliamentary Budget Officer on federal capital projects

Dr. W. Jan Brzeski: Based in Poland, was educated in Poland, Canada and Sweden. He was a senior advisor to the architect of Polish economic reforms. During 1992-94 he served as Deputy Mayor of Kraków. He was instrumental in creation of Mortgage Credit Foundation, Cracow Real Estate Institute and European Property Institute. Dr. Brzeski participated in numerous international events, authored various reports and published in domestic and international journals. Recently, he was chair of the supervisory board of Polish Forces Housing Agency. As well, he spent over three years at the World Bank as a Senior Urban Specialist working on issues related to urban housing, land and property markets and city management.

Dr. Claudia M. de Cesare: Property Tax Advisor, Porto Alegre City Council – Secretariat of Finance Claudia works as a property tax advisor for the Porto Alegre City Council – Secretariat of Finance, in Brazil. She co-organizes courses, workshops and conferences in property taxation for the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. She was responsible for creating and developing the Program for Capacity Building to Improve the Performance of the Property Tax in Brazil, which is run by Lincoln in partnership with the Ministry of Cities in Brazil. She is a Civil Engineer, has a Masters Degree in real estate valuation and has been awarded a PhD degree on Property Tax Equity by the University of Salford, England.

Uche Obi: A Chartered Surveyor with over 20 years in the public and private sector in the UK and the Cayman Islands. He has particular expertise in valuation, stamp duty assessment, acquisition by private treaty, compulsory acquisition and compensation. Uche was influential in launching the Valuers Registration Scheme (VRS). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Estate Management, a Master’s degree in Property Valuation and Law and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Systems Analysis and Design from the City University Business School in London.

Dr. Enid Slack: Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Enid is an Adjunct Professor and teaches a graduate course on the political economy of global cities. Enid has been working on municipal finance issues for 35 years and is respected nationally and internationally for her research on property taxes and other aspects of municipal finance. She advises governments and private companies on public finance issues in Canada and abroad.

David Wilkes: A partner in the New York property tax law firm of Huff Wilkes, LLP, as well as the Global Property Tax Consultant to Cushman & Wakefield. He is the former Chairman of The Appraisal Foundation (publisher of USPAP), and the Vice Chairman of the RICS Americas Valuation Council, a Counselor of Real Estate and the former Chairman of the American Bar Association’s Property Tax Committee, as well as co-founder and Vice Chairman of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys (NAPTA). David has served as Senior Legal Advisor on property tax and finance reform working in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In addition to a law degree from Boston University, he earned a Master’s Degree in Real Estate Appraisal from New York University, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious quarterly journal, “Real Estate Review” for many years. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the New York State Bar Journal for nearly a decade, and is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on property taxation.

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