Mike Ballard

Co-Founder at Camino Verde Group

Speaker

Mike Ballard is the Co-Founder and CEO of Camino Verde Group (CVG), a real estate development and investment firm specializing in multifamily and mixed-use properties in six states. With more than 30 years of experience spanning acquisitions, development, entitlement, finance, and asset management, Mike has been a significant force behind more than $1 billion in multifamily development — with a particular focus on workforce and attainable or senior housing solutions that deliver both investor returns and community impact.

Under Mike's leadership, CVG has served as General Partner across market-rate, affordable, and workforce housing communities in Nevada, California, Utah, Iowa, and Kentucky. The firm's affordable housing strategy includes Opportunity Zone projects serving working families in underserved markets. CVG is also the master developer of Ephraim Crossing, a 310-acre mixed-use community in Ephraim, Utah, planned for more than 1,150 residences alongside medical, retail, hospitality, and technology uses — a model for how attainable housing can anchor broader community and economic development.

Prior to Camino Verde, Mike was an entitlement consultant in Nevada whose clients included Forest City Development, Greenspun Corporation, Thomas & Mack Company, the Molasky Group of Companies, Union Pacific Realty, Laurich Properties, Realty Management, Inc. (RMI), major law firms and architecture & engineering firms, and the City of North Las Vegas.

Mike was also a founding partner of Ascent Multifamily Accounting, an Inc. 500-recognized firm supporting more than 50,000 apartment units across 17 states for 50 different owners or management companies — a reflection of his deep operational roots in the multifamily industry. Earlier in his career, he served as Managing Member and CFO of Switch Communications, a leading data center developer and operator where he structured capital, built the executive team, and helped fuel the company's decade-long growth trajectory.

A recognized civic and industry leader, Mike is a founding board member of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at UNLV, a former board member of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, and past president of the Las Vegas Rotary Club. He has been named one of Nevada's "Top 20 Visionaries" by Nevada Business magazine and has been profiled in Investor's Business Daily, GlobeSt Real Estate, and the Las Vegas Business Press.