The Future of Downtown Austin

Mr. Redd is our Executive Vice President and Senior Managing Director for the Austin and Metro DC regions with responsibility for the leasing and marketing, asset management, evaluation of building and land acquisitions and dispositions, third party services and property management of a diversified portfolio consisting of urban and suburban high-rise and mid-rise properties. He joined Brandywine in 1999 as Vice President of our Richmond operations. Formerly, Mr. Redd was a partner from 1988 until 1999 with Childress Klein Properties, a privately-held real estate firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. From 1985 until 1988, he was with the Trammell Crow Company. In Austin, Mr. Redd serves on the Board of Directors of the Hill Country Conservancy, the Opportunity Austin Economic Development Council, and is a member of the Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA) and ULI Austin. He is also a member of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Real Estate Circle of Excellence, Greater Richmond Association of Commercial Real Estate (GRACRE), and Richmond Real Estate Group. Mr. Redd earned his law degree from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. degree from Hampden-Sydney College.

Veronica Briseño has served the City of Austin in various roles since 1999. Currently, she is the City of Austin’s Chief Economic Recovery Officer, responsible for identifying and implementing strategies to help Austin’s economy recover from the unprecedented health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also serves as Director for the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department, which engages business and creatives in Austin through its six divisions: Cultural Arts, Global Business Expansion, Heritage Tourism, Music & Entertainment, Redevelopment, and Small Business. In addition, she is currently serving as the Interim President/CEO for the Austin Economic Development Corporation (AEDC). Prior to these positions, Veronica served as the City of Austin’s Interim Homeless Strategy Officer and held several progressively responsible positions at City of Austin’s Small & Minority Business Resources (SMBR) Department, including Director, Assistant Director, and Certification and Administration Manager. Prior to SMBR, she was a Policy Aide to former Austin City Council Member Raul Alvarez and the City Council Agenda Manager in the City of Austin’s City Manager’s Office. Veronica currently serves on the Board of Directors for Workforce Solutions Capital Area and LifeWorks. She previously served on boards for the Austin Metro YMCA, PeopleFund and Mission Capital. When it comes to professional engagement, Veronica serves as Past President of the Local Government Hispanic Network (LGHN), a national organization that promotes inclusiveness of Latinos in local government. She also co-founded and co-chairs Woman to Woman, a City of Austin employee affiliation group for women. Previously she served on the board of the Austin Hispanic/Latino Network in many roles, including President. She earned her Master of Public Affairs from The University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, as well as undergraduate degrees in Journalism and Government from The University of Texas at Austin.

During a career that began in 2005, Anne has completed hundreds of transactions for some of the industry’s most respected institutional owners, including Clarion Partners, Lionstone, TA Associates, UBS, Shorenstein, Westmount Realty, TIER Reit, and Principal Financial Group. She is regularly recognized as a “Commercial Real Estate Heavy Hitter” by the Austin Business Journal. Prior to joining Endeavor in 2015, Anne was a Vice President of Office Leasing at Austin-based Live Oak Gottesman.

Brett Rhode is well known for his ability to design and manage large, complex projects, producing award- winning buildings within budget and schedule constraints. Brett honed his skills for over a decade in New York City on complex international commissions in the offices of I.M Pei and Phillip Johnson. In Austin as a Vice President at Page Southerland Page, Brett worked on healthcare and civic projects for eight years before founding Rhode Partners in 2005. Rhode Partners is organized in an open studio environment to facilitate team communication and easy client access.

Scott is a serial tech entrepreneur, having been part of founding four different software companies over the past 25 years, with several successful exits. His early career was all about datacenter and broadband management platforms, but in the past 10 years he has focused on buildings and proptech, first with Noesis for energy management, and currently with Swivel, the digital office leasing SaaS platform. Basically, Scott loves all things proptech.

With a legacy of more than 40 y ears of real estate and hospitality experience, Dave Johnstone, McWhinney’s Chief Investment Officer - Hospitality, is responsible for acquisitions, developments, asset management and dispositions. Specifically, he creates and executes business strategies associated with all hospitality-related acquisitions and development. His career began in 1979 in the Windy City at Laventhol and Horwath, a hospitality accounting and consulting firm, before moving in 1981 to open their Denver office. He then served as an Investment Manager for Prudential Property Company in Atlanta, GA in 1987, where he was responsible for an equity portfolio of hotel properties located in the Southeastern United States. He then joined Sage Hospitality in 1989, where he served as Principal for the Denver-based, nation-wide owner/ operator of hotels. In 1996 he departed for Hong Kong, and his role as Vice President, Development for the Asia/Pacific region at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, a subsidiary of Marriott International, Inc., where he negotiated operating, management and technical services contracts for new hotel projects. In his final role before joining McWhinney in 2015, Dave joined Miller Global Properties, LLC, a real estate pension fund advisory firm, in 1998 , where he developed and acquired hotels throughout the United States. Passionate about creating new destinations with endless possibilities in the ever-changing world of hospitality, Dave is driven by the numerous opportunities McWhinney discovers. He continues to give back to the industry that has shaped his professional life by serving on university boards and councils, as a guest lecturer and authoring several articles and book chapters on industry related topics

Fausto’s hospitality development and financing projects have a combined value in excess of US$2.5 billion. He helped create, finance and grow a leading luxury hotel management company/brand with an international footprint. Fausto’s ventures in both gateway cities and resorts have helped accomplish the investment goals of public companies, private equity, institutional investors and family offices in 16 countries throughout the Americas and Europe. Among his positions throughout his career was investment and development officer for CBRE, Grupo Posadas, Harding Capital in partnership with DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners and Capella Hotel Group. Fausto graduated cum-laude from the University of Monterrey with a BA in Architecture and holds a master’s degree in Urban Planning with a concentration in Real Estate Finance and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ms. Weaver founded Weaver Buildings to provide healthy housing affordable to middle-income earners. Ms. Weaver developed the first car-free multifamily in Austin, Capitol Quarters and is also developing Shoal Cycle. Ms. Weaver is a Registered Architect, Registered Interior Designer, and Realtor in the State of Texas. She serves as Commissioner for the City of Austin Design Commission, Downtown Commission, and Co-chair of the Urban Land Institute Urban Council for Austin. She holds a Master in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California and Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sandi Rudy is an Associate at Cushing Terrell and the Regional Interior Design lead in the firm’s Austin office. She has worked with some of the world’s largest companies including Google, Facebook, Dell, and Apple, supporting their future-looking workplace designs for the past 16 years. Her passion for the human impact of the designed environment has influenced her thoughtful, sustainably-minded approach to Interior Design and shaped interactions with owners and occupants. This passion extends beyond her work to not only mentoring and guiding coworkers, but also to educating the next generation of designers as a Lecturer in the Interior Design program at Texas State University.

Kelly is the Managing Director for Construction Services for the South Zone. In this role, she is responsible for the Construction Services Group which includes brokerage, account executives and surety. Prior to joining Aon, Kelly held various roles at AIG. Her experience at AIG included executive roles for excess casualty, running the energy and construction platforms for Canada, Bermuda and the US. In her last role, she served as the domestic technical underwriting executive for the whole of the excess casualty portfolio. Kelly also held roles as the regional casualty executive, marketing roles and various underwriting roles in excess casualty and Directors and Officers Liability. Kelly began working in the industry in 1996 through various internships and entry level roles with Liberty Mutual, AIG, Aon and Travelers. Kelly works on a diverse set of contractors including, civil, commercial, mechanical, industrial, residential (single family and multi-family) and trades. She has worked on Owner Controlled Insurance Programs and Contractor Controlled Insurance Programs. Kelly enjoys the contractual intricacies that are found throughout the contracting industry and has lectured on them for several different seminars throughout the country. Additionally, she served as an adjunct professor for several semesters for the University of Houston Downtown.

Porter Wilson was appointed executive director of the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) on June 1, 2015. Under his guidance, ERS administers programs that provide retirement, deferred compensation and flexible benefits for more than 225,000 state employees and retirees. ERS is entrusted with an investment portfolio of approximately $29 billion and is responsible for managing the Texas Employees Group Benefits Program, which provides health care coverage to more than 530,000 state and higher education employees, retirees and their families. Porter most recently served as associate vice chancellor for governmental relations for the Texas Tech University System. He spent most of his career, from 1996 to 2014, serving as Chief of Staff for Texas State Senator Robert Duncan. In that role, Porter worked closely with ERS on legislation related to state employee benefits, demonstrating a strong commitment to ERS members and retirees, as well as keen knowledge of state government, benefits and budgets. Prior to leading Duncan’s Senate staff, Porter was his legislative assistant when he served in the Texas House of Representatives. In his years in state government, Porter earned the respect of lawmakers, colleagues and other associates. He has long-term relationships throughout Texas state government, and with employee and retiree associations and organizations. He received the Texas Public Employees Association’s Public Service Award for the 83rd legislative session and was named the Department of Public Safety Officers Association’s Legislative Staffer of the Year for both the 82nd and 83rd sessions. Porter holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Texas at Austin.

At an early age, Chi knew he wanted to be an architect and his passion for the industry grew when he moved to New York City for college. A couple of years after graduating, he moved to Austin where he has spent the majority of his career. Chi is a trusted advisor, steward and friend to his clients. He is an excellent Project manager and makes it his priority to achieve the client’s goals and vision while monitoring and maintaining project schedules and budgets. As the Austin Office Leader, Chi also prides himself on mentorship, hoping to cultivate a studio of creative and passionate designers. Furthermore, Chi takes great pride living in Austin and is dedicated to influencing and transforming the city he calls home.

Since 2021 Peter Mullan has served as Chief of Architecture and Urban Design for Austin Transit Partnership, the new local government corporation charged with implementing Project Connect, Austin’s multi-billion-dollar transit expansion, in collaboration with CapMetro, the City of Austin, and the entire Austin community. Peter brings decades of experience working in public space design and community engagement to the extraordinary opportunity for Project Connect to reinforce and enhance Austin's diverse and human-centered urban fabric. In 2022, Peter received the Taniguchi Award for Public Architecture from AIA Austin and the Austin Foundation for Architecture. From 2015 to 2021, Peter was the CEO of the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy, building an innovative public park system around a restored Waller Creek, in partnership with the City of Austin, including the transformed Waterloo Park and new Moody Amphitheater which opened in 2021. Waterloo Greenway combines access to art and culture with an immersive natural experience in the heart of the city, to create a newly inclusive public space on the east side of downtown Austin. From 2004 to 2015 Peter was the Director of Planning and Design and Executive Vice President at Friends of the High Line, the non-profit organization responsible for creating and operating the High Line, in partnership with the City of New York. Peter is a graduate of Princeton University and the Yale School of Architecture, where he was the recipient of the Alpha Rho Chi medal for Leadership. A converted lifelong New Yorker, Peter admires Austin’s uniquely vibrant and welcoming community, which he enjoys with his wife Melanie, daughter Josie, and dog Mimi.

After first serving as the Texas Freedom Network’s deputy director from 1996 to 2000, Kathy Miller returned to the organization as president in January 2005. Kathy has also served as communications director for the Texas Council on Family Violence and National Domestic Violence Hotline and as public affairs director for Planned Parenthood Federation of Austin. After 16 years at the helm of the 25-year-old Texas Freedom Network, Kathy Miller steppeddown as president of the grassroots advocacy organization at the end of 2020. She was the organization’s third and longest-serving president. Kathy also previously served as interim CEOof Every Texan, supporting policy and advocacy experts while the organization successfully completed the national search. She has appeared on Texas and national television and radio and has testified before the Texas Legislature and Congress. Kathy created and directed a nationally acclaimed public awareness campaign that included television, radio and print advertising and reached thousands of Texas victims of domestic violence and connected them to lifesaving services. Kathy believes in the tremendous strength of the grassroots and has spent her career focused on mobilizing support for important issues such as women’s reproductive freedom, children’s health care, public education and ending partner violence. Kathy has trained thousands of individuals from Texas and across the nation on media relations, and grassroots organizing. In April 2021, Kathy Miller was named Interim CEO of Waterloo Greenway Conservancy as the organization also launched a national search for a permanent leader following the departure of Peter Mullan. Waterloo Greenway Conservancy leads comprehensive restoration efforts along Waller Creek, in collaboration with the City of Austin. The first phase of revitalization efforts will come to life on August 14, 2021, with the reopening of Waterloo Park in Austin, Texas. This 11-acre public park will feature community programming, 1.5 miles of new trails, the 5,000-capacity Moody Amphitheater, imaginative playscapes, and a stunning Hill Country Garden. Kathy earned a degree in political science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 and attended the University of Texas graduate school, studying philosophy.

“Daniel Brooks is an architect and Page’s Corporate/Commercial Market Sector Leader with over 30 years of professional practice experience. Daniel has helped guide and deliver many of Page’s most prestigious projects. His career has encompassed commercial, multifamily, civic, academic, government, and sports-related projects ranging from private residences to multi-block mixed use urban developments. Daniel is an expert in the unique demands of high-rise design and construction, and currently serves as the project director for several prominent skyscrapers and mixed-use projects in downtown Austin. These include the Texas Facilities Commission Texas Capitol Complex Phase 1, Indeed Tower, 70 Rainey Street Residential Tower, 321 West 6th Street, Travis County’s District Attorney’s Office Building and 44 East Ave Residential Tower.”

Keenan Wilson has worked in the general contracting industry since 2013 with a majority of his portfolio being from Austin and Central Texas. The flagship projects he has worked on are The Northshore and The University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame. Mr. Wilson began his career as a project engineer and moved through superintending to project manager and is now the business development manager for Adolfson & Peterson’s Austin, Texas office. Keenan Wilson graduated from Texas A&M University with a BS in Construction Science and is currently working on his MBA at The University of Texas McCombs School of Business.