Raquel Favela

Founding CEO

  • “I’ve spent my career focused on one question: how do we structure capital and systems so more people can build durable wealth overtime?”

    Raquel is an executive leader with more than 30 years of experience translating vision into executable strategy across housing, economic development, and community finance. Her work spans communities large and small nationwide, partnering with cities, public agencies, and mission-driven financial institutions to align capital, policy, and people around clear, measurable outcomes.

    Throughout her career, Raquel has managed complex budgets, led multidisciplinary teams, and directed national portfolios advancing affordable housing, small business growth, and neighborhood revitalization. She is known for operating at the intersection of strategy and execution, structuring partnerships, mobilizing capital, and building the systems, governance, and accountability needed to deliver results at scale.

    Raquel’s leadership philosophy is grounded in people. She is deeply committed to developing talent, strengthening organizations, and cultivating high-performance cultures in service of more resilient and equitable communities.

    Today, Raquel brings this experience into a new chapter, working with organizations and investors to connect disciplined strategy with lasting social impact.

  • People & Culture

    Maureen Milligan’s approach as Co-CEO for People & Culture is grounded in the conviction that employee ownership and belonging are vital to organizational success. Drawing on her legal background and expertise in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), she builds frameworks that ensure every team member is heard, valued, and empowered.

    Maureen champions transparent dialogue and participatory decision-making as core features of Rock Advisory Partners’ workplace culture. She develops collaborative learning programs, fosters mentorship, and actively creates pathways for professional growth across disciplines. Her strategic leadership ensures that policies and practices reflect the firm’s commitment to integrity, fairness, and sustained impact—cultivating a resilient team ready to deliver on Rock’s mission and model best practices for the industry.

  • Operations & Finance

    Laura Salinas-Martinez leads the enterprise backbone—operations, finance, and risk—so the organization can scale with discipline and deliver consistently for clients and partners. As Co-CEO, she pairs day-to-day operational stewardship with long-range planning, aligning people, processes, and capital to the company’s strategy.

    Laura oversees core functions including financial planning and analysis, budgeting, treasury and cash management, accounting, contracts, and audit readiness. She directs enterprise operations—program management, procurement, vendor management, and business continuity—while strengthening data governance, performance measurement, and internal controls. Working closely with her Co-CEO counterparts, she translates strategic priorities into clear operating plans with milestones, dashboards, and accountability.

    Her focus areas include:

    • Financial discipline: multi-year budgeting, scenario planning, pricing strategies, and capital allocation that balance growth with resilience.

    • Operational excellence: standardized playbooks, SLA/OKR frameworks, and capacity planning to improve speed, quality, and cost.

    • Risk & compliance: policy management, internal controls, and readiness for audits and reviews.

    • People & systems: workforce planning in partnership with HR; technology and data improvements that streamline workflows and support decision-making.

    • Stakeholder confidence: timely, transparent reporting to the Board, investors, and public-sector partners.

    Guided by clarity and consistency, Laura’s mandate is simple: build a high-trust, high-performance operation that turns strategy into reliable results—quarter after quarter, year after year.

  • Chief Financial Officer

    Sergio Valle, CPA, MBT, is a real estate tax and finance professional with nearly 30 years of experience across real estate taxation, tax provision, and internal controls and reporting. He has advised real estate companies and investment platforms on partnership and corporate taxation, REIT-related matters, and state and local tax considerations.

    Before moving into consulting, Sergio served as Tax Director at HealthPeak Properties Inc., a large publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on healthcare facilities. His career also includes roles in public accounting with national firms, including Ernst and Young, PwC, and RSM, supporting real estate and REIT clients with complex compliance and reporting requirements.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sergio helped design and administer small business assistance programs for local cities and counties in the North Dallas region, supporting the deployment of loans and grants to stabilize local businesses.

    Sergio holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Master of Business Taxation from the University of Southern California. He is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in California and Texas, and he is based in Dallas, Texas.

Mission

To deliver trusted, best-in-class advisory services grounded in integrity, transparency, competence, shared ownership, empowerment and sustainability.