Jonathan Philips, Managing Director

Mr. Philips is a Managing Director of the Anka Funds. Prior to Anka, Mr. Philips served as Senior Director and a General Partner of Cherokee Investment Partners. Mr. Philips joined Cherokee as one of a small handful of senior investment professionals during the deployment of $250mm Fund II and assisted in catalyzing expansion of the Cherokee platform over the next 6+ years with Fund III ($620mm), Fund IV ($1.24b), CSS ($200mm+), New Market Tax Credit vehicle ($92mm) and the creation of the not-for-profit CGB entity. He specializes in investment, strategic and structuring activities and has reviewed hundreds of transactions and participated in nearly every aspect of Cherokee’s operations activities. In addition to his transactional and strategic work, Mr. Philips helped craft and expand Cherokee’s toolbox for the creative and efficient execution of contaminated, distressed and sustainable transactions. Mr. Philips created the US Conference of Mayors —Cherokee Investment Partners Community Revitalization Initiative, a first-of-its-kind national public-private partnership between Cherokee and the nation’s official organization of mayors to fast-track the cleanup and revitalization of property in cities and towns across America. A leader in the field of public-private partnerships, securing public incentives for real estate development, energy efficiency initiatives, and green building, Mr. Philips has testified before Congress four times as an expert in the investment in challenged property. He gained national prominence in the field of green/sustainable building as a leader in Cherokees' aggressive initiative toward sustainability and its decision to promote the green vertical build-out on its sites. As part of that push in 2003, he launched and led a project comprising over 100 partners from government and the private sector, the National Homebuilder Mainstream GreenHome, www.mainstreamgreenhome.com, an educational showcase home seen by over 40 million people and receiving the first LEED-H Platinum designation in the Southeast, the Department of Energy/NAHB’s 2008 EVHA Gold Award and one of two projects bestowed the City of Raleigh’s inaugural Overall Environmental Award recognition in 2008.

Prior to Cherokee, he served as CEO of a New York City-based, sustainability-driven, private company where he identified, structured and closed private equity investment and public and private strategic relationships. Previously, Mr. Philips worked as a Mergers and Acquisitions corporate attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell, with a rotation in the Capital Markets group, where he represented private equity, banking and corporate clients in over 25 public and private transactions, comprising several billion dollars of closing value. Prior to his work at Davis Polk, Mr. Philips led a profitable Manhattan-based start-up. He is a member of the Business Council of the US Conference of Mayors and serves on the USCM's Council for the New American City. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Green Standard Organization (formerly IDCE) and as a founding member of the Board of Advisors for UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School's Business Accelerator for Sustainable Enterprise (BASE). Mr. Philips also serves on various boards associated with Anka Sustainable Venture portfolio companies. Mr. Philips received his law degree from the Yale Law School, where he was an Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, and his Bachelors degree from the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar with double Highest Distinction.

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