Student Housing Deep Dive

Based in Lafayette with offices in New Orleans and Austin, TX, Roger has over 25 years of experience in the acquisition, development and management of multi-family and student-housing properties throughout the U.S. He spent his early career acquiring multi-family and student competitive assets in from Baton Rouge to Lake Charles, LA along the I-10 corridor. This built up into an approximate 2,000 unit portfolio that was sold in 2000. Roger subsequently went to work for student-housing firms JPI, American Campus Communities, and CLV. During his tenure has acquired, developed and disposed of approximately $750 million in conventional and student housing real estate. These transactions have involved multiple financing structures including tax-exempt bonds and conventional debt financing. Since starting Texla, he has acquired approximately $275 million in student housing assets for JV partners Harrison Street and Crow Holdings. Roger holds a B.B.A. from Louisiana State University.

Jennifer serves as Senior Vice President at Cardinal Group Management (CGM). Jennifer has over 20 years experience in the student housing industry. Jennifer is responsible for the day-to-day management and performance of Cardinal Group Management’s student housing portfolio of clients and communities. Jennifer has a reputation for driving revenues, maximizing expense efficiencies and building long term asset value. Jennifer is a leader in the industry in revenue management and has overseen the strategic deployment of more than $50 million in capital improvements throughout her career. Jennifer is known for being a people-centric leader focused on providing mentorship and support to her team and building strong internal and external relationships. Prior to joining Cardinal Group, Jennifer spent 15 years with Campus Advantage serving the organization in a variety of leadership roles throughout Operations and Asset Management, most recently as COO. Jennifer attended University of South Florida where she earned a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Natural Science.

As Executive Vice President of Operations at Aspen Heights Partners, Demi Sterling-Kinney oversees and manages all aspects of property management from pre-development consulting, including market research and evaluation, design and FF&E, and proforma assumptions, to new market lease-up, and asset stabilization. She’s responsible for the overall profitability and operations of Aspen’s owned and 3rd party managed portfolio. She oversees the internal creative agency as well as the corporate property management leadership team, and 300+ site team employees across the nation. Demi joined Aspen Heights in 2014 bringing more than 15 years of experience in the student housing and multifamily industry. Her background includes new development, repositioning acquisitions, optimizing stabilized portfolios, and building strategic property management platforms. After graduating from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, she worked with industry leaders such as Fairfield Residential, Sterling University Housing, CWS Capital Partners, and American Campus Communities where she held a number of roles including Director of Education and Marketing Services, Regional Operations Director, Director of Student Housing, Director of Operations, and Vice President of Operations.

Theodora “Teddy” Leatherman leads the Dallas branch of the National Student Housing Capital Markets business for JLL Capital Markets, Americas. She joined JLL as part of the HFF acquisition and has ten years of experience in student housing equity placement and investment sales. During her career, Teddy has been involved in more than $8.9 billion of real estate transactions on behalf of major corporate, institutional, and private owners. Prior to joining HFF, she worked at Marcus & Millichap as an Associate with a focus on Texas student housing. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. Teddy is a Member of The Real Estate Council (TREC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). In her free time, she enjoys wake surfing, skiing, and is very involved with dog rescue within the city of Dallas.

Hussain's passion for sales and commercial real estate can be traced back to his dad, a first generation immigrant from Afghanistan, who shared his interests of new developments in Dallas, TX with Hussain and a young age. After leaving Dallas, he moved to Fayetteville, AR to attend the University of Arkansas (Go Hogs!) where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Finance with a concentration in real estate. During his time at Arkansas, Hussain established himself as a co-founder of a wine accessory company and a 4.96 star Uber driver (we'd give him a 5). Outside of the office, Hussain cheers for the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Stars, and the Texas Rangers (incase you forgot where he was from). Most importantly, Hussain prides himself on being an investigator and organizer of engaging conversations, connecting with people from all backgrounds.