Our Team

Critical Habitats Inc. has an outstanding team of experienced environmental bankers with successful careers in environmental management, business, and real estate law.

Kevin F. Noon Ph.D. is the Chairman and cofounder of Critical Habitats, Inc.  His twenty-seven years of professional experience with land development, wetland restoration, and environmental policy development formed the foundation necessary to create his environmental banking business.  Kevin manages the completion of all technical aspects of environmental bank creation; completes the feasibility studies, the bank Prospectus, the Banking Instrument, and numerous technical analyses required for certification; and coordinates and completes the certification process.
Kevin works with regulators, land owners, and investors from the US, Canada, and Australia, on developing environmental banks or banking policy.  He is involved in the creation of numerous banks in the US.  He was a coauthor of the wetland mitigation banking rule written for the Sate of Washington and he formulated a mitigation banking model that can be administered by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and adopted for use in creating mitigation banks in the province of British Columbia.

Judith A. Ward is the President and cofounder of Critical Habitats, Inc. She is the planner and managing arm of the team.  As Principal in Critical Habitats, Inc. Judy brings her expertise in Landscape Architecture and the skills of site analysis, environmental bank design, regulatory and planning compliance, and land-development project planning and management. Judy is responsible for habitat design and technical evaluation of construction documents and construction administration for bank creation.

Judy’s 25 years of experience encompasses diverse project types including subdivision planning, County Planning, Botanical Gardens, Museums and Visitor Centers, Parks, and Zoos and Aviaries, University Campus’, Corporate Campus’, Health Centers and Urban Waterfronts.  Her scope of work experience extends from master plans to construction administration.  Judy has worked on teams as small as 2 and as large as 15, with as many different disciplines.  She has managed projects with design budgets ranging from $5,000 to $200,000 and construction budgets ranging from $750,000 to $66 million.
Dr. Noon and Judith A. Ward published a book titled: GREEN WEALTH.  The book is a comprehensive guide to creating environmental banks.

Jerome Ryan is a Partner with Critical Habitats, Inc. and a graduate of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business with a Master of Business Administration.  Jerome manages business transactions including investment strategies, the set-up and long term management and administration of environmental banks, negotiates the credit ratios for banks, analyzes the economic impact of the resulting credit ratios, negotiates the service area, analyzes the economic impact of the resulting service area, and defines the pricing structure for the banked credits. 

Jerome has performed the economic analysis of potential credit ratios and service area on numerous banks in Washington, California, Alaska, Michigan, Texas, and Mississippi.  For twelve years Jerome has served as a consultant, administrative manager, and financial analyst for a $300 Million private equity investment firm.  His duties included all administrative tasks including reporting, accounting, and investor relations.

James Blythe Hodge is a Partner with Critical Habitats, Inc. and received his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of Washington, and his Juris Doctor from the Law School of Columbia University in the City of New York.  Jake creates environmental banking business teams and business entities, structures and negotiates business transactions, and oversees regulatory compliance, credit marketing, and project management.

Jake has practiced law for 30 years, specializing, in complex real estate, business
and financial transactions.  In the course of his practice he has negotiated many
hundreds of transactions with private and public parties, including those relating to
the formation and operation of companies and the transfers, management and
operation of real property.  He has dealt with federal, state and local regulatory,
land use and environmental agencies and commissions of all kinds in the course
of his practice. 

Michael M. McCarthy, Ph.D., is an Associate and Advisor to Critical Habitats. 
He is the Director and Chief Executive officer of the Roger C. Hobbs Institute for
Real Estate, Law and Environmental Studies at Chapman University in California. 
Dr. McCarthy consults, lectures, writes and leads international expeditions about
market-based strategies that make environmentally sensitive land development
practices, profitable, not prohibitive. 

Dr. McCarthy can be contacted at The Roger C. Hobbs Institute
for Real Estate, Law and Environmental Studies, Chapman University,
One University Drive, Orange, California, 92866, USA. 
Phone:  714.744.2164 
Email:  mmm@chapman.edu