George Kruse is a second-term county commissioner in Manatee County, Florida, with a focus on growth management, affordable housing and multimodal transportation. He sits on numerous advisory boards, including the Florida Association of Counties, the Affordable Housing Committee, the local MPO, the Chamber board and many others. In his spare time, he advises on origination for short-term bridge financing nationwide for a NYC-based hedge fund. He started in commercial real estate with a LIHTC syndicator and went on to CRE finance on Wall Street before moving back to Florida. He graduated with a BS in Finance from the University of Florida and with an MBA from Columbia Business School. He's active with ULI Tampa Bay as well as housing policy work at both the state and federal level.