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Judi Kende
Senior Vice President & Chief Program Officer of Solutions at Enterprise Community Partners
Professional Background
Judi Kende is an accomplished leader in the realm of affordable housing and social justice, currently serving as the Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer of Solutions at Enterprise Community Partners. Her extensive career is marked by a commitment to driving systemic change in underserved communities through innovative housing solutions. Judi has expertly navigated various leadership positions, demonstrating an unwavering belief in the power of affordable housing as a foundation for social equity and improved quality of life.
Judi Kende has built a rich professional tapestry characterized by strategic vision and impactful implementation. Prior to her current role at Enterprise Community Partners, she held significant positions in leading financial and nonprofit organizations that contribute notably to community development. Serving as the Vice President and New York Market Leader at Enterprise Community, she spearheaded initiatives that align with the organization's mission to promote affordable housing and drive positive social change.
In addition to leadership in affordable housing, Judi's expertise extends to nonprofit finance and community development, underscored by her time as the Senior Vice President for the Eastern and Central Regions at the Low Income Investment Fund. In these roles, she has been at the forefront of efforts to fund and implement projects that directly uplift communities, ensuring access to safe, affordable homes.
Her career with Citibank is noteworthy, where as the Director of Nonprofit Finance and Vice President of Community Development, she effectively bridged the gap between financial services and community needs. This multifaceted experience enables her to approach challenges from varied perspectives, ultimately cultivating sustainable solutions for populations in need.
Education and Achievements
Judi Kende's educational background provides a strong foundation for her professional endeavors. She earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she honed her skills in strategic management, finance, and organizational leadership. Her undergraduate studies yielded a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology from Kenyon College, equipping her with valuable insights into human behavior that inform her work in community engagement and program development.
The combination of education from renowned institutions, coupled with her extensive professional experience, positions Judi as a knowledgeable and effective advocate for affordable housing and social justice.
Notable Contributions
Throughout her career, Judi has been recognized for her significant contributions and leadership within various organizations. She formerly served on the board of the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin, where her insights helped advance initiatives pertinent to cultural exchange and education. Similarly, her role as a board member at Selfhelp Community Services underscores her dedication to enhancing the lives of vulnerable populations, particularly senior citizens and immigrants.
Additionally, Judi's prior experience as the Manager of Corporate and Foundation Relations at CancerCare illustrates her ability to engage with diverse stakeholders and further public interest in essential services. In the earlier stages of her career, her work as a Lead Legal Assistant at Shearman & Sterling LLP provided her with a solid legal framework, enhancing her analytical skills and understanding of regulatory environments, crucial for her future endeavors in finance and community development.
Judi Kende’s unparalleled dedication to affordable housing and social justice has made her a prominent figure in the industry. Her career reflects a steadfast commitment to empowering individuals through accessible housing, illustrating the intersection of social equity and community development. By championing the belief that everyone deserves a place to call home, Judi continues to inspire those around her to advocate for change and work towards an equitable future for all.
Highlights
Today is a bittersweet day as it is my last day as Chief Program Officer at Enterprise. After ten meaningful years at this organization, and after decades in the field, I have made the decision to retire. Getting to be a part of the Enterprise family and seeing the impact of our collective efforts over the past decade has been the greatest privilege. I will miss my team deeply, but the work goes on and I know that they will continue to rise to the growing and significant needs of our communities, with support from exceptional leaders in Jacqueline Waggoner and Shaun Donovan. Thank you to everyone who has made an impact on me throughout my career. As I move on to this new phase, I look forward to seeing the field grow, following Enterprise’s efforts, and finding new avenues to make meaningful change in our communities.
I’m honored to be a pitch competition judge for the 2023 Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge, led by Wells Fargo Foundation and Enterprise Community Partners! Sixteen finalists are competing for grants up to $3 million, made possible by Wells Fargo’s generous support. After witnessing the amazing success of our first cohort of HABC winners, I'm feeling energized to serve as a judge for the final round of this second cycle of the challenge. Learn more and prepare to be inspired: bit.ly/3EDagYL
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.