Boston Seaport Annual Conference

Ms. Ng is the Managing Director and Co-Head of Investments of Cottonwood Group. In her role as Managing Director, she oversees the Group’s real estate investment activities. Previously, Ms. Ng was Managing Principal at Athena International Capital in Hong Kong, Executive Vice President of Investments at Easternflair in China, Head of Real Estate Business Development – APAC at Aviva Investor in Singapore, Director of Real Estate Acquisitions at Blackrock in Hong Kong, and Director & Principal of the Capital Markets Group at Taurus Investment Holdings in Boston. To-date, she has completed over 100 real estate transactions, totaling over US$2.5 billion in the US, EU, and Asia, representing investors from eight jurisdictions globally. Ms. Ng graduated from MIT with a Bachelor of Science and from Harvard University with a Master of Architecture with Distinction, as well as being a CFA and CAIA charter holder.

James von Klemperer is President and Design Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates where he began as a young architect in 1983. His work ranges in scale from a house to a city, and he contributes closely to these efforts from conception to completion. In addition to focusing on his own projects, he leads the community of designers within the firm in exploring shared architectural agendas and goals. As President of the firm, he is responsible for leading the staff of 750 people in 10 offices around the world. A major focus of Jamie’s work has been to heighten the role that large buildings play in making urban space. He has explored this theme in major projects in Asia including Plaza 66 and the Jing An Kerry Centre in Shanghai, China Central Place in Beijing, and the 123-story Lotte World Tower in Seoul. In New York, his design for One Vanderbilt, Midtown’s tallest tower, links directly to Grand Central Terminal. Each of these projects creates strong symbiotic relationships between program space and the public realm. At the larger scale, his design for New Songdo City extends this challenge to the scope of urban planning. Jamie’s designs have been recognized for the marriage of efficient program with adventurous form. His Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC, Dongbu Financial Center in Seoul, Park Fifth residential project in Los Angeles, and Riverside 66 urban market in Tianjin have all received AIA design awards. In London, Jamie led the design of the One Nine Elms residential towers. He has also been active on the continent, in particular in Paris, where he completed a building for the Ministry of Justice at the Parc du Millénaire and in Lyon where he is designing a series of buildings within the Part Dieu station precinct. In Vienna, he is currently designing a new campus for the Central European University on the site of Otto Wagner’s Steinhof. Jamie has lectured at Harvard, Columbia, Tsinghua, Tongji, Seoul National, and Yonsei Universities, the ESA in Paris, and at Yale, where he has taught as a Saarinen Visiting Professor. After graduating from Phillips Academy Andover, he received a BA from Harvard in 1979, Magna Cum Laude in History and Literature. In 1980 he was the Charles Henry Fiske Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge. He received his MArch from Princeton in 1983. Jamie chairs the Board of Directors of the Skyscraper Museum and the Urban Design Forum. Jamie also serves as a Trustee of Bard College.

Brian Murdy is a Co-Head of Portfolio Management for Berkshire serves as a Senior Portfolio Manager specializing in core strategies and is Vice Chair of the Investment Committee. He has over 30 years of commercial real estate industry experience with extensive multifamily experience. Prior to joining Berkshire, Brian was Senior Vice President/National Director for Institutional Property Advisors’ Multifamily, Student Housing and Healthcare Groups and the National Seniors Housing Group of Marcus & Millichap. He previously served as Portfolio Manager of Barings Real Estate Advisers from 1999 until 2012 and managed its flagship core open-end fund, two apartment development funds and two separate accounts. Brian raised and deployed over $2.5 billion of capital and established strong relationships with state, county and city pension funds, off-shore investors, insurance companies, foundations and endowments. Additionally, he was responsible for overseeing the debt strategies on Barings’ equity portfolio. Prior to joining Barings, Brian was a Director and Portfolio Manager for TH Real Estate for 12 years, managing several equity and debt portfolios. He started his career as an auditor with KPMG. Brian is a board member of the National Multifamily Housing Council, a member of the Pension Real Estate Association, the Multifamily Council (Bronze Flight) of the Urban Land Institute, National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers and a Certified Public Accountant. He graduated magna cum laude from Central Connecticut State University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.

Jonathan Davis is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of TDC. He oversees firm-wide operations, the development and execution of the Fund’s investment strategy, the management of the Fund’s investment activities and serves on the Fund’s Investment Committee. Mr. Davis has over 40 years of real estate management and development experience and plays a central role in the identification and evaluation of new opportunities, capital raising and management of the existing investment portfolios. He is actively involved with numerous business and civic organizations in the Boston area. He was the 2008 President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (“NAIOP”) and the 2009 Board Chair. Mr. Davis has received numerous awards. In 2000, he was chosen by Ernst & Young as New England Entrepreneur of the Year in the real estate and construction category. In 2003, he was honored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals with the individual “Leader in Philanthropy” award. In 2006, the company was named recipient of the Distinguished Real Estate Award by the Massachusetts chapter of NAIOP. In 2014, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay honored Mr. Davis with the Norman B. Leventhal / Edwin N. Sidman leadership award. In 2015, The Boston Preservation Alliance honored Mr. Davis with the President’s Award for Excellence. Mr. Davis also has been involved as a leader on the Boards of Directors and the Executive Committees of several nonprofit organizations including Brandeis University, where he serves a Vice Chair of the Board, The Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, where he serves as a board member and former past Board Chair, The Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, and public radio station WBUR, where he serves as a board member. Mr. Davis graduated from Brandeis University.

Yanni Tsipis is Senior Vice President - Seaport at WS Development in Boston and oversees the company's Seaport project, a 7.7 million square foot mixed-use development currently underway in Boston's Seaport District. Prior to his tenure at WS, Yanni spent nearly 15 years at Colliers International after completing undergraduate and graduate studies at MIT in civil engineering and planning. At Colliers, Yanni focused his work on managing large-scale urban development and historic rehabilitation projects. His project experience at Colliers included multiple commercial, multifamily residential, hotel, and other project types, and spanned over $2 billion of development projects, all in the City of Boston. Yanni lives in Westwood and has written four books about the history of the city's transportation infrastructure. He serves on numerous non-profit boards and is a past member of the Boston Landmarks Commission.

Ted Chryssicas joined Newmark Knight Frank as an executive managing director in 2015, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge from nearly 30 years in the retail industry. Mr. Chryssicas has represented numerous national, regional and local tenants and landlords in the leasing, acquisition and disposition of retail space throughout eastern New England. He has completed more than 1,500 lease and sale assignments not only within the Boston metropolitan area but in 33 states across the country, for clients as small as Peet's Coffee and as large as IKEA. Additionally, Mr. Chryssicas has significant development experience that includes the permitting, design, construction and leasing of many lifestyle centers including Brookside Shops in Acton, Massachusetts, and Eaglewood Shops in North Andover, Massachusetts. Prior to joining Newmark Knight Frank, Mr. Chryssicas worked at Colliers International, where he headed the Retail Services team and became a shareholder in 2004. He previously was a retail specialist for CB Richard Ellis Group in Boston and a leasing manager for Bierbrier Realty Development in Lexington, Massachusetts. Mr. Chryssicas is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and a certificate in commercial real estate from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

John Hynes IV joined the BGI team in 2014. Prior to his role as Project Executive of the 10 World Trade commercial development, John oversaw numerous Seaport Square projects, totaling over $150M of development in 3-years. He has also helped lead BGI’s new business efforts, and serves as the primary point of contact for project approvals with City and State agencies. Before BGI, John spent 4 years working in the finance and construction industries in Boston, North Carolina, and Miami. John holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and lives in South Boston.

Ms. Hughes joined Tishman Speyer in 2018 and is currently responsible for the company’s operations in the Boston region including acquisitions, dispositions, asset management, and development. She joined Tishman Speyer from JLL, where she was a Managing Director in the Boston Capital Markets group and member of JLL’s International Capital Group. Previously, she was a Senior Vice President at Beacon Capital Partners, responsible for acquisitions and dispositions in major US markets, as well as establishing Beacon’s offshore offices in London and Paris. Ms. Hughes has a BA in History from Dartmouth College. She serves as a board member at the Boston Center for the Arts.

David Willett joined Eastern Real Estate in April 2019 as Managing Director of Acquisitions. Mr. Willett leads Eastern’s acquisition efforts and actively participates in strategic planning for the firm. Mr. Willett brings with him 20 years of diverse industry experience in investment sourcing and execution, business development, and strategic planning. Prior to joining Eastern, Mr. Willett was Senior Director of American Realty Advisors’ (ARA) Investment Group, responsible for all transaction activities in the Northeast and Southeast regions of the U.S. Prior to joining ARA, Mr. Willett served as Director of Acquisitions in the Development and Investment division of CNL Commercial Real Estate in Florida. He also served as Regional Director of Acquisitions and Vice President for New Boston Fund, where he was responsible for leading all investment activities in the Northeast and Southeast regions. Mr. Willett began his career as an investment banker, focusing on Mergers and Acquisitions and Capital Markets transactions for the financial, real estate and services industries. Mr. Willett is a graduate of Williams College and earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of NAIOP, the Urban Land Institute, and the National Multifamily Housing Council. Mr. Willett lives in Needham, Massachusetts with his wife Courtney and their three children. He is an active member of the community where he coaches youth soccer, lacrosse and hockey teams.

Kate’s practice as architectural designer has spanned office renovations for commercial and educational clients to large scale mixed-use developments in major urban areas. Equal to her design talents, Kate coordinates complex teams and the production of detailed documents and visualizations. Her focus is always on the development and implementation of innovative – and buildable – design solutions. Since joining Sasaki in 2017, Kate has worked on the global headquarters for Akamai Technologies, Las Lomas Development and Master Plan in Guadalajara, Mexico, and is part of the competition-winning team for Boston Global Investors’ notable development of Parcel A-2 (401 Congress Street) in Boston’s Seaport District. She is a graduate of the Syracuse University School of Architecture, and has previously practiced with several leading design firms, including MVRDV in Rotterdam, NL, Gluckman Tang Architects in New York, and Höweler + Yoon Architecture. With over a decade of experience, she is looking forward to utilizing the diversity of her professional background to help reshape the future of the Seaport.

POER’s Managing Consultant, John Ryder has over 19 years of experience in the property tax industry, representing an enormous variety of property types throughout the eastern seaboard from Maine to Maryland. His valuation skills combined with an extensive background in real estate development and property management are invaluable assets for taxpayers seeking proactive tax management.