KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment announced on May 29, 2026 that it has hired Naomi See and promoted Celia Smoot as part of a push to expand its equity syndications platform.
See joined CDLI as a senior banker on the business development and investor relations team and will be based in Seattle. She will focus on raising capital and supporting the sourcing, structuring and syndication of investments across low-income housing tax credits and state credits, and will report to Christina Knuckles, who was promoted to Head of Equity Syndications and Fund Management in March 2026.
Smoot’s promotion to Head of Equity Originations puts her in charge of investment strategies and execution across the platform. The moves follow earlier staffing shifts: Jon Burckin was appointed Senior Banker in Equity Distribution in July 2025, part of a series of leadership investments KeyBank has made over the past year.
The appointments are aimed squarely at institutional investor coverage and the mechanics of placing tax-credit equity. KeyBank CDLI finances projects in all 50 states and runs a platform that spans construction, acquisition, bridge-to-re-syndication and preservation loans as well as lines of credit, Agency and private placement executions, HUD permanent mortgage work and equity investments for low-income housing projects.
Bank executives framed the hires as capacity building. "These additions reflect our continued investment in building a best-in-class equity syndication platform," Robert Likes said. He added, "We are strengthening our capabilities across acquisitions, syndication, and distribution to better serve our clients and investor partners and build on our position as one of the nation's leading affordable housing lenders, recently ranked second by Affordable Housing Finance." That statement ties the new staffing to a platform KeyBank already markets as a top performer.
CDLI’s public record bolsters the firm’s claim: the bank has earned 11 consecutive Outstanding ratings on its Community Reinvestment Act exam from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a track record that institutional partners and regulatory watchers will weigh as the equity teams seek new commitments.
The friction in the announcement is plain. The bank says it is strengthening an affordable housing platform even as it points out that the platform is already ranked second by Affordable Housing Finance. The appointments read as both reinforcement for growth and as an effort to maintain momentum at scale — a task that hinges on translating personnel changes into measurable increases in investor allocations and closed deals.
KeyBank did not specify targets for additional capital or broader investor coverage tied to these moves. That gap matters: hiring and promotions can improve execution, but the market will judge success by the dollar commitments and syndication volume those teams produce over the coming quarters.
Naomi See’s start in Seattle will be the immediate step to watch; she is slated to lead outreach and capital-raising efforts on behalf of the syndication platform. Observers should look for future announcements or filing-level disclosures that show whether the new configuration produces larger private placements, more Agency or HUD executions, or quicker bridge-to-re-syndication turnovers. Absent explicit fundraising targets, the most consequential next signal will be the size and pace of equity closes attributed to the retooled team.
