President, Cinnaire Solutions
Chris Laurent is a featured speaker for our upcoming City Wide event focused on “Serving and Leading in an Anxious World.” This City Wide is hosted by Wisconsin Lutheran College on their campus in Siebert Hall on October 29th from 11:30am-1:30pm. Chris’s presentation is titled, “Finding Meaningful Purpose Through the Virtue of Stewardship.”
Chris Laurent serves his colleagues in Cinnaire’s nonprofit development affiliate, Cinnaire Solutions, in its work throughout its footprint in the Upper Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Cinnaire Solutions’ business model supports undercapitalized or capacity-limited CDCs and emerging development firms owned by underrepresented developers, serving as both a coach and bench strength to help its partners transform their communities. Cinnaire Solutions is managing an active pipeline of over $400 million. Parent organization Cinnaire is a full service CDFI with its corporate headquarters in Lansing, Michigan. He offices in Madison.
Chris previously operated a real estate business with nonprofit and for-profit clients in the affordable and market rate residential sectors and has developed and owns market rate housing throughout Wisconsin. He was Wisconsin Market President for a prominent affordable housing developer, where he oversaw the development and execution of key catalytic properties throughout the state. Prior experience includes that of director of tax legislation and policy with the National Council of State Housing Agencies in Washington, DC, and manager of multifamily development at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA). Throughout his career Chris has been involved in the development and financing of over $1 billion of residential real estate.
Chris earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin and his Master of Arts in Servant
Leadership from Viterbo University in 2024. He currently serves as President of Do Good Wisconsin, Treasurer of the Dane County Housing Authority, Lending Committee Chair and Director of Forward Community Investments, ACRE Advisory Board, and is a Director of Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative, Wisconsin Coalition Against Homelessness, and Eagle Harbor Apartments. Chris is also a candidate for the Viterbo MASL alumni board. Chris is adjunct faculty for Milwaukee School of Engineering and represents MSOE as course leader for Marquette University’s Associates in Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) program. He has served as president of the Board of Directors of Porchlight, Inc., the leading nonprofit provider of services and housing for otherwise homeless people in Dane County, and was appointed by the mayor to serve on the long-range planning committee for the Madison Community Development Authority, its sustainable design and energy committee, and its ad hoc TIF policy committee and served as director of the Madison Reading Project, Asset Builders of America, Milwaukee’s Avenues West Business Improvement District, Madison’s Tenant Resource Center, the Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago’s Affordable Housing Program Committee.
In his free time, Chris practices Bikram yoga, plays and performs vocals and guitar, is a hobbyist photographer, loves to cook, and is a trained Zamboni driver. He enjoys travel in his camping trailer and treasures his time with his two adult daughters, Jordan and Emma – and wife Chris, a behavioral analyst in the autism field, and her children, Nate and Lorelei, and the family’s three rescue dogs, Juniper, Finn, and Atticus.
City Wide
October 29, 2024
11:30am-1:30pm
Wisconsin Lutheran College
Siebert Center
8800 West Bluemound Road
Milwaukee, WI 53226