Kathleen McCarthy is a Senior Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Blackstone Real Estate. Blackstone has the largest real estate platform in the world with $120 billion in investor capital under management. Blackstone Real Estate is the industry leader in opportunistic, core plus and debt investing across the US, Europe and Asia.

Ms. McCarthy most recently served as Global Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone Real Estate where she was responsible for its day-to-day operations with a particular focus on its investors, capital raising and business development efforts across new investment products. Before joining Blackstone in 2010, Ms. McCarthy worked at Goldman Sachs, where she was a Vice President focused on investments for the Real Estate Principal Investment Area. Ms. McCarthy began her career at Goldman Sachs in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Ms. McCarthy received a BA with Distinction from Yale University.

Ms. McCarthy serves on the Board of City Harvest, which exists to end hunger in New York City through food rescue and distribution, education and other practical, innovative solutions. In 2017, Ms. McCarthy was honored for her work to support Reading Partners New York, a not-for-profit that provides one-on-one volunteer tutoring to help students master foundational reading skills by grade four.

Sonny Kalsi is a Founder and Partner of GreenOak Real Estate, an independent, partner-owned real estate principal investing firm that seeks to create long-term value for its investors and clients.  Formed in 2010, GreenOak Real Estate is a highly focused global platform with an experienced and cohesive senior team that possesses a long and successful track record investing in and managing real estate. The firm has nine offices globally including New York, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Tokyo and Seoul with dedicated teams that possess local knowledge, experience and extensive networks in each market. Since inception, GreenOak has raised approximately $8 billion of equity to invest in targeted strategies and assets and acquired approximately $11bn of real estate assets globally. Sonny was previously the Global Co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s Real Estate Investing business and President of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds until early 2009. At its peak, the MSREI platform had approximately $100 billion of AUM in 33 countries.  From 1997 through 2006, Sonny and his team led the formation of Morgan Stanley’s property business in Asia and built the leading real estate platform in the region. Sonny was recently named by PERE as one of the 100 most influential people in private real estate from the past decade. Sonny is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in Business Administration and is a former member of the Georgetown’s Board of Regents.   He also serves on the board of several organizations including:  The Spence School, Teaching Matters, PowHERful Foundation, Room to Read, AHRC New York City Foundation, and the Asia Society.  He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in the Real Estate Master’s Program.   

Mr. Hughes joined Hines in 1986 and is CEO of the Capital Markets group and CEO of Hines’ East Region.

EDUCATION and LICENSES
Bachelor of Arts, History, Southern Methodist University
Registered representative of Hines Securities, Inc., a broker-dealer affiliate of Hines, and holds FINRA Series 22 and Series
63 licenses.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Christopher Hughes is CEO of the Capital Markets group and CEO of Hines’ East Region. He is a member of the firm’s
Executive, Steering, Strategy and global Investment Committees. He is responsible for all institutional capital raising
activities globally, including structuring of commingled funds and joint ventures.

As head of the East Region, Hughes oversees all development, acquisitions and operations activity in the Eastern United
States. His past experience includes serving as a development officer in Hines’Washington, DC office.

Ms. Hines joined Hines in 2012 and was responsible for project management of land acquisitions and developments in the Midwest and Southeast Regions, including analyzing acquisition and new business opportunities, developing financial and budget models, assessing market research, evaluating mixed-use development opportunities and assisting with institutional fund raising. Since 2017, she has worked in the Office of the Chief Investment Officer, focused on several firm-wide initiatives that have helped to refine investment strategy and acquisition efforts.

Prior to joining Hines, she worked for Sotheby’s in New York, where she helped develop and implement standardized auction processes and oversaw daily management of departmental auctions and client relationships for high-net-worth clients. She also interned at Eastdil Secured where she was responsible for underwriting, analysis, market research and the development of offering memorandums for a variety of asset types across geographies.

Mr. Craig is a senior managing director and has been the regional officer and partner responsible for Hines' New York Tri-State office since 1996. His responsibilities as senior project officer include managing the development, redevelopment, acquisition, construction, modification and/or interior fit-out on projects. Since joining Hines in 1982, Mr. Craig has been involved in a variety of development projects and transactions aggregating approximately 21 million square feet. He has been directly responsible for project development and transactions valued in excess of $15 billion (value at completion) during this period.

CURRENT ACTIVITY

• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for 12 buildings in the Trinity/Norges/Hines portfolio of 6 million-square-feet in Hudson Square, lower Manhattan.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of new seniors housing, Sunrise East 56, with over 150 units.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development management of One Vanderbilt Avenue, a $3 billion, 1.6 MSF project in which Hines is a joint venture partner.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of 53W53, the Museum of Modern Art West site at 53 West 53rd Street.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of 7 Bryant Park, a 470,000 SF office building across from Bryant Park.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the 1.2 MSF acquisition and subsequent disposition of 600 Lexington Avenue (2010), as well as 499 Park Avenue and 425 Lexington Avenue (2013), acquired through Hines' Core Office Fund, a partnership between Hines and Sumitomo Life Realty (N.Y.) Inc.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the renewal of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s 595,000 SF lease at 425 Lexington Avenue.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the disposition of 750 Seventh Avenue, a 34-story, 600,000 SF Manhattan office tower to Fosterlane Management Corp., for $485M.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of One Jackson Square, an 11-story, 51,000 NSF, 36-unit luxury residential condominium project in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for managing development of the Royal Bank of Scotland building, a 500,000 GSF project in downtown Stamford, CT.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the $87.5 M acquisition of 33 Benedict Place, Greenwich, CT from Unilever Home.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for 100 East Fifty Third Street, a development management assignment for RFR Properties involving air-rights transfer from the landmarked Seagram building, comprising 332,000 SF of residential use.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for redevelopment of 2000 Westchester Avenue in Purchase, NY, a 1.1 MSF project for Morgan Stanley.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for managing development of 30 Hudson, a 1.5 MSF build-to-suit project for Goldman Sachs in Jersey City, NJ.
• Responsible, as Senior Project Officer for managing development of 745 Seventh Avenue, a 1 MSF building for Morgan Stanley. Upon completion and sale to Lehman Brothers, responsible for base building modifications and interior fit-out of the project upon their acquisition of the project.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for managing development and sale-lease back financing of the UBS Warburg Center, a 1.6 MSF project in Stamford, CT.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the $150M acquisition of 750 Seventh Avenue from Morgan Stanley.
• Responsible as Project Officer for the $50M acquisition and releasing of 55 Railroad and Two Soundview, in Greenwich, CT.
• Responsible as Project Officer for the $250M restructuring of 31 West 52nd Street, Deutsche Bank's North American Headquarters in Manhattan.

• Responsible as Project Officer in Hines' role as advisor, in the sale of Deutsche Bank's $600M first mortgage interest in Worldwide Plaza to Blackstone Realty Advisors.
• Responsible as Project Officer for the redevelopment and property management activities at 1585 Broadway, a 1.3 MSF office building in midtown.
• Responsible as Project Officer to a group of eight international banks led by Swiss Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal, in the management and disposition of the 1585 Broadway project, resulting in a successful workout of the project for $176 M.
• Responsible as Project Manager for development of 225 High Ridge Road, a 230,000 SF building in Stamford, CT.
• Chairman of the NOP Advisory Committee CalPERS Fund (2002-2004).

EDUCATION
Tommy received his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his MBA from Columbia University.
 
INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS/AWARDS

• Mr. Craig served as an adjunct professor of Real Estate Development at the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School from 2010 through 2015, as well as a guest lecturer at New York University. He was a recipient of the Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) Award in 2012 and 2007, and of the Police Athletic League Award in 2009.
• Former member, Urban Land Institute (ULI).
• Member, Board of Trustees, Executive Committee and Chairman of the Real Estate Committee, Phipps Houses, New York City’s largest non-profit developer of affordable housing.
• Member, Citizens Budget Commission.
• Member of the Vestry and Senior Warden, Trinity Episcopal Church, Southport, CT.

 
PERSONAL  
My wife Kim and I divide our time between New York City and Connecticut. Kim works for the Center of Arts Education, a nonprofit organization that is an advocate for art in public schools. We have three children, two are grown, out of college and working in New York City. Our youngest will be a sophomore at Kenyon College, in Ohio.

Tim Grant is the Founder and CEO of DrumG Financial Technologies, a product company and operator of distributed ledger/blockchain technology applications for the global financial services industry. DrumG is a blockchain platform agnostic and focuses on delivering demonstrable business value.

Prior to this Tim was CEO of the R3 Lab and Research Center which is focused on bringing global financial institutions, established and startup technology companies, regulators and central banks together in a unique virtual and physical environment where new distributed ledger technologies and methodologies could be researched, evaluated and accelerated towards production. As part of this mandate Tim was also responsible for sales, sales engineering/pre-sales, investor relations and client relationship management for all R3 products and services.

Prior to joining R3 Tim was a Managing Director at UBS O'Connor, a $6bn multi-strategy hedge fund, where he was Head of Quantitative Research, Head of Technology and was involved in investing in financial technology. Before this Tim was a Managing Director at Benchmark Solutions, a Warburg Pincus backed fintech startup. Prior to that Tim was a Managing Director at UBS AG in various positions including reporting directly to the Group Executive Board during the global financial crisis as well as running the UBS Delta Americas portfolio solutions business within UBS Investment Bank.

Tim has a MA in Materials Science and Metallurgy (First Class) from the Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Financial Engineering (Distinction) from the Birkbeck College at the University of London.

Tyrone joined Taconic in 2017 and is responsible for the acquisition of affordable housing assets. He was previously the acquisitions senior manager at the Related Companies, where he was part of the acquisitions and development teams that purchased more than 2,000 luxury development units in New York and 16,000 units nationally. Prior to that, he held senior Portfolio and Asset Management positions with Winn Residential and MMC, respectively. Tyrone earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Colgate University and a Masters in Real Estate Finance and Investment from NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate.

Anna Coatsworth is founder and managing partner of AJEA Real Estate Advisory, where she provides advisory services mainly to investors of small-scale multi-family and residential real estate properties in the New York City area.

Previously, after obtaining her MBA from Columbia Business School in 2001, she spent eight years as a management consultant at Capgemini, where she worked with Fortune 100 clients in the Financial Services industry to maximize operational efficiencies. Prior to business school, Anna was a Senior Marketing Associate in Equity Research at Santander Investment Securities, where she also published articles in Emerging Markets research reports on market-moving political events. She has served as Special Assistant to the President of the Council of the Americas, and as Editorial Assistant at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In addition to her MBA from Columbia, Anna holds a B.A. in History and M.A. in International Relations from New York University. Originally from Chicago, where she was a professional ballet dancer, Anna is a member of the Board of Directors of Tom Gold Dance and Chair of the Columbia Business School Women’s Circle. She is also a member of the Board of Directors in the co-op she shares with her husband and two children and is a licensed real estate broker in New York.

Mr. Craig is a senior managing director and has been the regional officer and partner responsible for Hines' New York Tri-State office since 1996. His responsibilities as senior project officer include managing the development, redevelopment, acquisition, construction, modification and/or interior fit-out on projects. Since joining Hines in 1982, Mr. Craig has been involved in a variety of development projects and transactions aggregating approximately 21 million square feet. He has been directly responsible for project development and transactions valued in excess of $15 billion (value at completion) during this period.

CURRENT ACTIVITY

• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for 12 buildings in the Trinity/Norges/Hines portfolio of 6 million-square-feet in Hudson Square, lower Manhattan.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of new seniors housing, Sunrise East 56, with over 150 units.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development management of One Vanderbilt Avenue, a $3 billion, 1.6 MSF project in which Hines is a joint venture partner.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of 53W53, the Museum of Modern Art West site at 53 West 53rd Street.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of 7 Bryant Park, a 470,000 SF office building across from Bryant Park.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the 1.2 MSF acquisition and subsequent disposition of 600 Lexington Avenue (2010), as well as 499 Park Avenue and 425 Lexington Avenue (2013), acquired through Hines' Core Office Fund, a partnership between Hines and Sumitomo Life Realty (N.Y.) Inc.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the renewal of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s 595,000 SF lease at 425 Lexington Avenue.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the disposition of 750 Seventh Avenue, a 34-story, 600,000 SF Manhattan office tower to Fosterlane Management Corp., for $485M.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for development of One Jackson Square, an 11-story, 51,000 NSF, 36-unit luxury residential condominium project in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for managing development of the Royal Bank of Scotland building, a 500,000 GSF project in downtown Stamford, CT.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the $87.5 M acquisition of 33 Benedict Place, Greenwich, CT from Unilever Home.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for 100 East Fifty Third Street, a development management assignment for RFR Properties involving air-rights transfer from the landmarked Seagram building, comprising 332,000 SF of residential use.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for redevelopment of 2000 Westchester Avenue in Purchase, NY, a 1.1 MSF project for Morgan Stanley.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for managing development of 30 Hudson, a 1.5 MSF build-to-suit project for Goldman Sachs in Jersey City, NJ.
• Responsible, as Senior Project Officer for managing development of 745 Seventh Avenue, a 1 MSF building for Morgan Stanley. Upon completion and sale to Lehman Brothers, responsible for base building modifications and interior fit-out of the project upon their acquisition of the project.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for managing development and sale-lease back financing of the UBS Warburg Center, a 1.6 MSF project in Stamford, CT.
• Responsible as Senior Project Officer for the $150M acquisition of 750 Seventh Avenue from Morgan Stanley.
• Responsible as Project Officer for the $50M acquisition and releasing of 55 Railroad and Two Soundview, in Greenwich, CT.
• Responsible as Project Officer for the $250M restructuring of 31 West 52nd Street, Deutsche Bank's North American Headquarters in Manhattan.

• Responsible as Project Officer in Hines' role as advisor, in the sale of Deutsche Bank's $600M first mortgage interest in Worldwide Plaza to Blackstone Realty Advisors.
• Responsible as Project Officer for the redevelopment and property management activities at 1585 Broadway, a 1.3 MSF office building in midtown.
• Responsible as Project Officer to a group of eight international banks led by Swiss Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal, in the management and disposition of the 1585 Broadway project, resulting in a successful workout of the project for $176 M.
• Responsible as Project Manager for development of 225 High Ridge Road, a 230,000 SF building in Stamford, CT.
• Chairman of the NOP Advisory Committee CalPERS Fund (2002-2004).

EDUCATION
Tommy received his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his MBA from Columbia University.
 
INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS/AWARDS

• Mr. Craig served as an adjunct professor of Real Estate Development at the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School from 2010 through 2015, as well as a guest lecturer at New York University. He was a recipient of the Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) Award in 2012 and 2007, and of the Police Athletic League Award in 2009.
• Former member, Urban Land Institute (ULI).
• Member, Board of Trustees, Executive Committee and Chairman of the Real Estate Committee, Phipps Houses, New York City’s largest non-profit developer of affordable housing.
• Member, Citizens Budget Commission.
• Member of the Vestry and Senior Warden, Trinity Episcopal Church, Southport, CT.

 
PERSONAL  
My wife Kim and I divide our time between New York City and Connecticut. Kim works for the Center of Arts Education, a nonprofit organization that is an advocate for art in public schools. We have three children, two are grown, out of college and working in New York City. Our youngest will be a sophomore at Kenyon College, in Ohio.

Professional Expertise
Louis D’Avanzo brings over 27 years of experience to Cushman & Wakefield. Based in the firm’s Midtown Manhattan office, Mr. D’Avanzo has been one of the firm’s leading brokerage professionals and is currently managing principal of the office.

Mr. D’Avanzo began his career with Cushman & Wakefield in 1991, and he has since advised many of the world’s most prestigious companies on their real estate occupancy requirements worldwide. With a primary focus on New York City, he has completed transactions on behalf of clients throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

Clients Served
A partial list of clients he has acted on behalf of include: AT&T; AXA; Gartner, Inc.; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; Hearst Corporation; Hudson’s Bay Company, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC); M&T Bank; Moelis & Company; National Football League; Stifel Financial Corp, and Union Investment.

Professional Affiliations
Mr. D’Avanzo most recently served as Chairman of New York City Chapter of CoreNet Global and remains on the board as an advisor.
Mr. D'Avanzo is a member of The Real Estate Circle of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School.

Community Leadership
Mr. D’Avanzo is active in civic and non-profit communities, including serving as a trustee of the Franklin Lakes Education Foundation.
Education

He received his BA in Economics from Boston College and his MBA in Real Estate/Corporate Finance from Columbia Business School.

Edward is an entrepreneur with big-company skills and a start-up spirit. He started two companies before graduating from college. He
then spent a decade in the fertile training ground of General Electric as a corporate finance professional and private equity investor, from which 3i (a FTSE-100 company) recruited him to be the CFO of its North American division. His experiences span numerous industries
and over ten countries. He has held leadership positions as a manager with direct reports and as a board member with less formal influence. A consummate relationship builder with strong ties to his community, Edward currently serves on the Boston University Alumni Council, actively mentors graduates from his high school and college, & recently assisted in a private equity course at Columbia Business
School.

An early entrepreneur, Edward started his 1st business, a lawn-mowing and yacht cleaning service, as a teenager. He used the proceeds from the business to finance his tuition in prep school and college. Edward made the transition from landscaping to high-tech with a website he co-founded from his dorm room. The site, BUbooks.com, created a market for students to buy and sell their used textbooks. The site was later sold.

At GE, Edward learned finance and accounting rigor that professionalized his entrepreneurial intuition. Within three years of starting as a finance analyst in a chemical plant, he was appointed finance manager for a $45MM P&L with 215 employees globally. He then graduated to GE’s internal consulting and auditing group, where he ultimately managed 21 people across 3 continents in engagements that ranged widely from auditing the securitization of mortgage backed securities to investigating a $3MM embezzlement with the FBI to creating the Transition Services Agreements (TSAs) for a $725MM corporate disposition.

Edward combined his functional expertise in corporate finance with his intuitive entrepreneurial insight as a private equity investor in GE Equity. In that role he sourced, underwrote, negotiated, and managed minority equity investments. These included such bespoke situations as a $500MM PIK preferred instrument in a chemical LBO and a $25MM debt-for-equity-restructuring in a logistics firm. He eventually concentrated his focus on the midmarket energy sector. There he closed deals in the Oil & Gas and Renewable sectors while serving on the board of directors for company that provided safety equipment and training to various industrial companies.

As CFO and Corporate Vice-President for 3i North America, Edward applied his unique mix of minority investing experiences and operational finance skills to source/underwrite deals while optimizing the firm’s back-office operations. On the deal side, he led the underwriting of a $1B CLO and sourced the pre-eminent SmartGrid transaction from his personal network. On the finance side, he used the principles of LEAN 6 sigma and SOX404 to improve organizational efficiency while cutting costs from 2.25% of AUM to 1.5%. In addition, he led the subsidiary to profitability and through its first successful 3rd party audit in a decade.

Since leaving 3i, Edward has further demonstrated his ability to work across asset classes by starting Workforce Partners LLC, a real estate investment and management firm. His empirical investment approach uncovers neglected properties at attractive prices and his process oriented management runs them with strictly monitored controls that deliver recurring returns with low volatility. The result is a risk/return profile that far exceeds the Sharpe Ratio available from the NACREIF and NAREIT indices.

Edward earned his MBA from Columbia Business School’s Executive Program and his B.A., magna cum laude, in Sociology and Education from Boston University’s interdisciplinary University Professor’s Program. He is currently a twice selected member of Boston University’s Alumni Council and has funded scholarships there and at his Jesuit high school, Fairfield Prep, for students with economic need. In his free time he enjoys teaching Tae Kwon Do, sailing with his wife, cycling, reading (particularly behavioral economics), and working on his house.

Gentry Ashmore Hoit joined GreenOak Real Estate, a global real estate private equity investment and advisory firm, in April 2016 to help build the company’s business. GreenOak is a value investor investing in mid-market assets in gateway cities around the world through separate private equity funds in the US, Asia, and Europe.  Based in New York, Gentry helped to capitalize funds and co-investments, evaluate and launch new business strategies and further build GreenOak’s brand.  Covering investors in the US and Middle East, she worked closely with the GreenOak European team to market and raise their second value-add fund of €655MM, investing predominantly in Spain and Italy and with the US team to market their third value add fund of $1.55B.  She project managed the firm’s new initiative in India seeking to raise $300-500MM. 
 
Other Experience 
Previously Gentry was a Partner of Park Madison Partners (2012-2016), a boutique real estate advisory firm. She led the firm’s Capital Advisory practice, which included direct equity investments comprised of individual deals, co-investments, joint ventures and separate accounts and worked with the Park Madison team in the fund raising and manager due diligence side of the business.  She evaluated over 100 managers and strategies in her time at the firm.

Prior to joining Park Madison Partners, Gentry was a Partner at Atlantic Assets Group (2006-2012), a private investment company dedicated to mixed-use and residential investment and redevelopment in Brooklyn, New York. AAG’s projects were located in urban infill and transit oriented areas. Gentry worked with the partners to formulate corporate strategy for the firm. She led capital transactions: acquisitions, dispositions and financings. She oversaw all investor participation in deals: raising equity, finalizing structures and negotiating terms and documentation. In addition, she ran lender reporting and compliance and oversaw execution of all retail leasing.

Gentry was a Senior Partner at Rubenstein Partners (while also running Atlantic Assets Group 2009-2010), a private real estate investment fund focused on the acquisition and redevelopment of office properties in the Eastern Time Zone. She advised them on New York and Florida office acquisitions and helped build relationships with strategic operating partners.

Gentry served as Managing Director of Shorenstein Company, LLC (1993-2006). She was with Shorenstein at the inception of their investment management business through seven funds (Funds I-VII) which totaled $2.2 billion and achieved net IRRs at the fund level from 9-24%. While at Shorenstein, Gentry was responsible for running east coast acquisitions for the firm’s Capital Transactions Group and served as a member of the Executive Committee. She led the team to purchase office properties across the nation specializing in Midwest and East Coast markets. She acquired approximately 16 million sf of office properties valued at nearly $4.0 billion and raised over $1.8 billion in debt financing.

Prior to Shorenstein, Gentry worked for Hines as Assistant Project Manager (1990-1993) where she coordinated planning, approvals and construction of a $100 million complex for Bristol Myers Squibb Company in Princeton, NJ. After graduating from college she joined PaineWebber Incorporated (1986-1988) where she participated in more than $3 billion of financings and worked on initial public offerings of 6 closed-end bond funds.

Education
Georgetown University – BA – History/Computer Science – 1986
Columbia University – MBA – Real Estate and Finance – 1990
Series 7, 24, 63 Licenses
Professional Interests and Activities

• Full member of Urban Land Institute.  Vice Chairman of UDMUC Blue Product Council and former Chairman.  Past member of ULI NY District Council Executive Committee and former Co-Chair of Programming Committee.
• Member of WX (Women Executives in Real Estate).  Former mentor.
• Member of the Columbia Business School Real Estate Advisory Board and Columbia Business School Real Estate Circle. Former Chairman of Marketing and Communications Committee.
• Former Member of the Board of Trustees at Kent Place School in Summit, NJ. Former Member of its Finance and Audit Committees and past Chairman of its Real Estate Committee.
• Former Member of the Board of Trustees of The Peck School in Morristown, New Jersey.  Former Member of its Finance and Buildings & Grounds Committees.
• Former Member of the Lincoln Center Real Estate and Construction Council.
• Former Member of the Real Estate Board of New York.
• Licensed real estate sales person in Georgia since 1985.
• Past Trustee of George F. Baker Scholarship Program Georgetown University and past Co-Chairman of the Board.
• Guest lecturer and case author for Columbia Graduate School of Business. Guest lecturer at Yale University and University of Pennsylvania.

Aaron Kazam is responsible for pre-development of Tishman Speyer’s Hudson Yards properties, including The Spiral, an iconic 2.8 million square foot office development anchored by Pfizer. Mr. Kazam also analyzes industry innovations related to building design and delivery, and conducts feasibility analyses, due diligence, and underwriting for new acquisitions. In the past three years at Tishman Speyer, he completed more than $3.0 billion of debt and EB-5 financings for assets in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. Mr. Kazam also helped lead the formation and initial development of Zo, Tishman Speyer’s office amenity program. Prior to joining Tishman Speyer, he worked in the mixed-use development group at Related Companies, as a construction project manager at Artimus, and as an architect at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Mr. Kazam received a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, where he was Co-President of the Real Estate Association and received scholarships from the Real Estate Circle, ICSC, and PREA.

Tom Ortinau is the Head of Acquisitions at GFP Real Estate where he leads the firm’s investment efforts.  At GFP, Tom has sourced and closed 10 transactions comprising over $1 billion.  Tom also handles leasing, asset management and development activities for GFP’s projects.  Sponsored by the Gural family, the firm currently owns and manages 72 properties comprising over 16 million square feet in New York City.
 
Prior to GFP Real Estate, Tom was a member of the US Transactions Group at PGIM Real Estate. As such, he was involved in Northeast Acquisitions and Development activities for the firm’s US funds.  At PGIM, Tom was involved in 34 entity and property-level investments comprising over $5.5 billion via common equity, preferred equity and mezzanine debt positions both on a direct basis and through joint ventures. 

Tom began his career at WSP Group, a leading design and construction firm in New York.  At WSP, Tom worked on the design and construction of approximately 50 properties in New York including The Hearst Building, The New York Times Building, The Plaza Hotel, 184 Kent and Atlantic Yards.

Tom holds a BSE from the University of Kansas, an MS from New York University, and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is also an Adjunct Professor at New York University.

Christopher Mayer is the Paul Milstein Professor of Real Estate at Columbia Business School. His research explores a variety of topics in real estate and financial markets, including housing cycles, mortgage markets, debt securitization, and commercial real estate valuation. Dr. Mayer is also CEO of Longbridge Financial, an innovative reverse mortgage company focused on delivering responsible home equity products to older Americans to help finance retirement. Professor Mayer serves as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Director of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, and a member of the Academic Advisory Boards for Standard and Poor's and the Housing Policy Center at the Urban Institute. His research has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Dr. Mayer is active in the media and advising policymakers, testifying six times before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, writing a paper for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, and authoring numerous op-ed articles in major publications. Dr. Mayer previously served as Senior Vice Dean at Columbia Business School and held positions at The Wharton School, the University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.  He earned a BS in Math and Economics from the University of Rochester with highest honors and a PhD in Economics from MIT. 

David M. Sherman is a Co-founder and Managing Director of Metropolitan and Chairman of Metropolitan’s investment committee. Mr. Sherman has more than 30 years of real estate finance and analytical experience. In 2000, Mr. Sherman founded D. Sherman & Company, Inc., an advisory firm focused on strategic issues and transactions in the real estate securities industry.

Previously, Mr. Sherman was Managing Director of Salomon Smith Barney’s REIT research team, which covered more than 60 stocks and supported the firm’s $15 billion of REIT offering activity. At Smith Barney, Mr. Sherman created a new approach to evaluate global real estate securities and initiated global coverage of the sector. The team received recognition from Institutional Investor Magazine in 1998 and 1999. Mr. Sherman also held other positions in real estate finance, investment banking, and strategic planning at Smith Barney, The Harlan Company, First Boston, and Paine Webber, including acting as the Chief Financial Officer of Paine Webber Properties.

In addition, Mr. Sherman is the Co-Director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Administration and the former Chairman of the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) Institute Committee. Previously, Mr. Sherman was an Adjunct Professor of Real Estate Finance at Columbia Business School for seven years. Over the years, Mr. Sherman has published numerous articles in periodicals including American Banker, PREA Quarterly, Shopping Center Business, and National Real Estate Investor. Mr. Sherman served as a panelist for Institutional Limited Partners Association for its first member educational webcast on private equity real estate. Mr. Sherman currently serves as an independent director on the board of Brookfield Residential Properties.

Mr. Sherman received an A.B. in Mathematical Economics (magna cum laude) from Brown University and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School.

Ross L. Smotrich joined Barclays in September 2008 and is currently a managing director and senior research analyst responsible for the US real estate investment trust (REIT) and real estate securities sectors. Previously, Mr. Smotrich joined Lehman Brothers in June 2008 after 10 years as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns and four years as a senior equity analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Mr. Smotrich has ranked in Institutional Investor’s “All-America Research Team” survey nine times and has twice been named to The Wall Street Journal’s “All-Star Analysts” survey (earnings forecasting). Before moving to sell-side research, Ross was a real estate banker for Chemical Bank doing lending, investment banking, and workout.

Mr. Smotrich earned an MBA from Columbia University in Finance/Real Estate and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Diplomatic History/International Economics.

Robert Stern, Founder and Managing Partner of Castle Hill Investors, has a 30-year real estate background, encompassing finance, investments, portfolio and asset management, workouts, development and general management. He has invested in all property types throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Castle Hill serves along the continuum between a real estate operating company and an investment management firm. Investing alongside local and product based "operators", Castle Hill connects capital to real estate in ways that bridge the capital/operator divide — providing investors access to deal flow and an asset management capability that limited partners often lack, a fiduciary overlay that may not exist at the operator level, and industry, capital markets and business skills to augment those of its operating partners - thereby delivering a true value proposition to all constituents.

Previously, Mr. Stern was a Managing Partner of Perry Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund. At Perry, he was co-founder and Managing Partner of Perry Real Estate Partners, a global real estate private equity vehicle designed to make equity investments in real estate assets, portfolios and operating companies, purchase discounted notes and sub/non-performing debt and securities, and provide mezzanine and bridge financing. Prior to that, Mr. Stern served as a Managing Director of Blackacre Capital Management, the real estate arm of Cerberus Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar private investment management firm. Earlier, he was Director of Asset Services at BDG, Ltd., a privately held, Long Island based commercial real estate firm, where he was responsible for the Asset Management division. Before that, he was associated with Kemper Corporation where he served as a Director and Senior Asset Manager in Chicago, and Barcelona, Spain, with responsibility for the financing, management, administration and disposition of real estate investments, as well as a real estate development business unit. Over his career, Mr. Stern has invested in and financed several billion dollars of real estate assets and companies globally.

Mr. Stern has been a member of the Board of Directors for several privately held real estate companies. He currently serves on the Management Committee of GHC Housing, one of the five largest affordable housing companies in the U.S, and on the Investment Committee of Peninsula Investments Group, a Latin America investment fund focused on workforce and middle class housing development. He is a full member of the Urban Land Institute, a founding member of Columbia University's Business School Real Estate Circle, and an Advisory Board member of The Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia University. Mr. Stern holds a BA from Connecticut College and an MBA from Columbia University.

Kristin Svenningsen is the Managing Director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate. Prior to her appointment at Columbia Business School in 2014, Kristin spent several years working in commercial real estate for SL Green Realty Corp (SLG), focusing primarily on tenant and building operations, managing all occupied and unoccupied office space for the SL Green wholly owned subsidiary, Emerge212 Boutique Office space; supervising expansion and development of new Emerge212 Centers, and overseeing 200+ tenant relationships across a myriad of industries.  While still at SL Green, she was able to redirect her focus to marketing and sales; building brand recognition, generating new business opportunities and leasing over 150,000 sq. ft. of office space, comprised over 250 individual offices.  Concurrently, Kristin received her M.A. in Higher and Post-Secondary Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned a duel B.A. in Mass Communication and Theatre from Towson University, and in the years prior to her career in real estate, worked in the entertainment industry as a casting professional for Broadway and Off-Broadway Theatre (Manhattan Theatre Club and Second Stage Theatre) as well as Network Television (Showtime and The CW).