Mark Roeckell is President of American First Contracting; he graduated from the United States Naval Academy with an Engineering degree. As a Naval Flight Officer, Lieutenant Roeckell flew 30 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, earning several awards, including the Air Medal for meritorious flight, the Navy Achievement Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal.  He also taught Chemistry at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, RI.  Mark retired as a Lieutenant Commander.

Upon retiring from the Navy, Mark joined Chicago’s premier middle market bank, American National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, (now JPMorganChase). At American National, Mark completely redesigned the Cash Management Customer service function at the bank, which resulted in improvement to customer issue resolution and a promotion to Vice President. Selected as a key executive project team member by senior management to coordinate the merger of First Chicago (who owned American National) and Bank One, Mark integrated all Cash Management functions. He created, launched and implemented new loan system training for the State of Michigan operations which was used by over 800 employees. Transitioning to a Commercial Banking officer, Mark managed key client relationships and grew his portfolio from $20M to $75M while selling bank products and services. He became an expert in commercial loans, home mortgages, bond finance, lines of credit, subordinated debt, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mark’s talents led him to manage the corporate office and be the Chief Financial Officer for a privately held real estate development, construction, and owner-operator of nursing homes and supportive living facilities throughout the United States. Mark worked with the project team on the complete design and build of 5 supportive living buildings in Illinois, several renovations to existing nursing homes and the 60 bed addition to a nursing home in Colorado. Mark developed expertise in all areas of construction, including site selection, design, finances, zoning, permitting, build out, project management and finally the actual operations. His experiences bring a unique set of skills to any project, having the ability to see all facets the project, not solely the build out. Mark sees issues from owner’s perspective as well.

The supportive living facilities were financed under the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 232 mortgage program. Having been through that process 5 times (Mark financed a project under this program as a commercial banker), Mark developed a proficiency in dealing with the Federal Government and all the paperwork involved. As the managing member of a supportive living facility and member of others, Mark knows the intricacies of dealing with the State of Illinois, since that program was created under a waiver of the current Medicaid program. Mark has mastered the payment system of the State of Illinois.