Real Estate, Credit and the Economy panel – midyear report
5 p.m. CDT
Hutton Hotel Penthouse, 1808 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN

Household expenses outpace income, the real estate market continues to flounder and lenders are still holding tight to their purse strings. Yet each year the economy seems to be growing more than the year before.

Are we on the road to recovery or will we fall into another recession?

At the “Real Estate, Credit and the Economy” panel, four experts will discuss the mid-2012 trends in real estate and credit and how they act as key indicators on the state of our economy. Equifax will also release its newest credit report, detailing how Americans are spending their money and how they are handling their debt.

The panelists will present and break down new figures on American attitudes toward the economy and their personal finances, consumer credit, the mortgage industry and the state of real estate. What do these mean to the average American and what can they tell us about the future?

Panelists include Greg McBride, Vice President and Senior Financial Analyst for Bankrate.com; Trey Loughran, President of Personal Information Solutions at Equifax; Steve Ely, CEO of eCredable; and Doug Walker, Vice President of Churchill Mortgage.

Ilyce Glink, an award-winning, nationally-syndicated real estate columnist, blogger and radio talk show host, will moderate.

The panelists and Ilyce Glink will be available for insights, analysis and comment after the panel as well. The panel discussion will be taped and available as an .mp3 file.

To access by phone:

Dial: (605) 562-3000
Enter access code: 651367#
Wait for prompt to enter

To ask questions, text Ilyce Glink at 312-933-3450.

For more information:

Michael Frenkel, MFC PR
(201) 317-7035 (mobile)
[email protected]

Biographies and talking points

Ilyce R. Glink
Columnist, TV reporter, radio show host, author
Think Glink Publishing

Ilyce Glink is an award-winning, nationally-syndicated columnist, television reporter, radio talk show host and bestselling book author. Her syndicated column, Real Estate Matters, appears in more than 100 newspapers and websites, including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Detroit Free Press.

She hosts “The Ilyce Glink Show,” on Sunday mornings for Newstalk 750 WSB in Atlanta.

Her all-video site, ExpertRealEstateTips.net features more than 300 videos dealing with all aspects of real estate and personal finance. Her YouTube channel, ExpertRealEstateTips, has nearly three million video views.

She is the author of many books on real estate and personal finance, including her bestselling book, 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask. She has nearly one million copies of her books in print. She has also written more than 20 eBooks, some of which are available for purchase at Amazon.com. Glink pens the award-winning Home Equity blog at CBS MoneyWatch.com, contributes to Yahoo! Homes and is the managing editor of the Equifax Finance Blog. She appears regularly on CNN, Fox Business, and other news programs.

Glink also owns and operates Think Glink Publishing LLC, a privately-held marketing communications company that provides media consulting services, as well as strategic editorial content and video for companies and non-profit organizations. This original content helps companies achieve specific marketing and sales goals, such as providing top-quality educational content for customers, nurturing existing customers and clients, and increasing web traffic and sales volume.

The content created by Think Glink Publishing takes on many forms, including private label books, websites, targeted email campaigns, electronic newsletters, ebooks and ereports, Internet video and other unique forms of strategic content. Find her at [email protected].

Glink’s topics and expertise:

  • National real estate, mortgage and refinance issues and trends
  • How businesses can adapt their communication strategies to a changing media environment
  • Personal finance strategies in a down economy

Trey Loughran
President
Personal Information Solutions at Equifax
Contact Michele Cacdac-Jones
678-795-7885
michele.cacdac [email protected]

Joseph M. (“Trey”) Loughran is responsible for Equifax’s consumer business that provides credit monitoring, identity management and debt reduction solutions to customers across the U.S. and Canada. Promoted to this position in December 2009, Loughran previously led the company’s corporate development efforts, including leading global mergers and acquisitions and the company’s business expansion in new international markets including Russia and India.

Loughran joined Equifax after being at BellSouth Corp., where he held a number of leadership positions, including Managing Director of the company’s Corporate Strategy and Planning department. During his five-year tenure at BellSouth, he also served as Executive Director of Marketing in BellSouth’s Interconnection Services unit.

Prior to joining BellSouth, he helped launch Global Food Exchange, an Internet-based software company, and was its Chief Financial Officer and head of Corporate Development. He also served nearly four years as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Previous to McKinsey, he served as an attorney with King & Spalding in Atlanta and as an investment banking analyst with Lazard Frères & Co. in New York.

Loughran holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar, and a law degree from Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Loughran’s topics and expertise:

  • Midyear credit trends report: what Americans are spending, the percentage of debt they have, and the payments they are making on that debt
  • How do the last five years affect where we are today?
  • Identity theft and child identity theft and what it means for American finances
  • The emergence of the Hispanic market in credit
  • The future of credit as it expands internationally

Steve Ely
Chief Executive Officer
eCredable
404-307-3541
[email protected]

Steve Ely is the CEO of eCredable, a Credit Reporting Agency based in Alpharetta, Georgia. The “credit economy” relies upon the consumer’s credit information housed in the three national credit bureaus. This works well for people who have earned credit, but not for the almost 60 million adults who have yet to establish credit. eCredable verifies the routine bills people pay such as rent, utilities, and insurance premiums (payments not typically reported to the credit bureaus), to build an Alternative Credit Report that can be used with creditors to assess their creditworthiness.

From late 2005 through 2009, Ely was President of Equifax Personal Information Solutions, which provides credit-related products to consumers that help them manage their credit health, protect themselves against identity theft, and improve their overall financial well-being. Prior to this role, Steve was responsible for global product development at Equifax.

Prior to joining Equifax in 2004, Ely led worldwide marketing and software development at S1 Corporation, the first software company to provide Internet banking. Ely has held various roles in numerous technology companies since 1978, spanning software development, marketing, sales, and general management.

Ely is a graduate of the Institute of Computing Management in Pittsburgh, PA. He also completed the Emory University Goizueta Executive Program.

Ely’s topics and expertise:

  • Alternative credit and its relevancy to financial institutions as they hope to emerge from the recession
  • Consumer credit trends and what people do to impact their credit
  • There are approximately 80 million adults in the U.S. without access to mainstream financial services. That’s almost a third of the adult population. What would be the impact of having this many additional people participate in the financial economy?
  • The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (or ECOA as lenders know it), has been around since the 70’s. Why is eCredable talking about this so much, and what’s the impact on lenders?

Greg McBride
Vice President, Senior Financial Analyst
Bankrate.com
561-630-1214
[email protected]

Greg McBride, CFA, is Vice President, Senior Financial Analyst, for Bankrate.com, providing analysis and advice on personal finance. With 16 years of experience in personal finance, he has the unique ability to provide both in-depth commentary and practical advice to consumers. Through Bankrate.com’s Money Makeover series, he has helped consumers plan for retirement, manage debt and develop appropriate investment allocations.

McBride has appeared on hundreds of national cable and network broadcasts including CBS’ “Early Show,” NBC’s “Nightly News,” CBS’ “Evening News” and ABC’s “World News Tonight.” He is a frequent guest on CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. McBride is routinely quoted by major print outlets such as The Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and is a regular radio guest on financial talk shows throughout the United States. He is also an accomplished public speaker, having appeared before audiences at the Federal Reserve Board, Mortgage Bankers Association, Federal Trade Commission, and at the China Times Golden Cicada Awards in Beijing.

McBride is on the Board of Directors of CredAbility, an Atlanta-based nonprofit credit counseling agency accredited by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Additionally, he serves on CredAbility’s Marketing Committee and is Chairman of the Advisory Board for the regional office, CredAbility of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

McBride is a graduate of the University of Florida and has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

McBride’s topics and expertise:

  • Opportunities that exist for the people that have steady jobs, positive cash flow, little or no debt, plenty of savings and good financial discipline
  • Given the re-default rates, why do we continue to bother with mortgage modifications?
  • The forgotten casualties of this prolonged ultra-low interest rate environment
  • What should be – but aren’t – the top financial priorities of Americans under age 50
  • How Americans feel about their financial security and the economy as income remains flat and household expenses grow

Doug Walker
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Churchill Mortgage Corporation

Doug Walker is vice president of Sales and Marketing for Brentwood, Tenn.-based mortgage lender, Churchill Mortgage Corporation, and has been with the company for 14 years. Churchill Mortgage is a leader in the mortgage industry providing conventional, FHA, VA and USDA residential mortgages across 23 states.

With more than 20 years of experience, Walker currently oversees all aspects of the marketing, customer service, sales support and sales management for all of the Churchill Mortgage Corporation offices. Walker initially joined Churchill Mortgage in 1997 as a loan officer and later became director of Sales in 2000 before being promoted to vice president of Sales and Marketing a year later.

Walker’s major accomplishments include establishing the lender’s Sales Support division in 2009, whose role is to constantly monitor Churchill Mortgage’s pipeline of customers to ensure they receive outstanding service. Churchill estimates an $18 million increase in production for that year as a result of the division’s efforts.

Walker graduated from Middle Tennessee State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Recording Artist Management. Before moving into the financial industry, Walker worked for several artist management companies in and around Nashville representing musicians such as Billy Ray Cyrus.

Walker’s topics and expertise:

  • Nashville real estate and mortgage market
  • Nashville home value trends, from Churchill Mortgage study dating back to 2008
  • Attitudes toward homeownership in a down economy, from Churchill Mortgage study dating back to 2008
  • What will mortgage rates do in the next 6 months? What is keeping them down to such record lows?