Bisnow National Real Estate Finance Summit

Helen Hwang is Senior Executive Managing Director at Meridian Investment Sales, LLC and is head of the Institutional Investment Sales Group. Ms. Hwang has executed over 85 institutional sales and recapitalization transactions exceeding $26 billion in value. Prior to joining Meridian, Ms. Hwang spent 16 years at Cushman & Wakefield as an Executive Vice President, as the head of NYC Investment Sales. Ms. Hwang has worked on numerous prestigious sales assignments throughout her career, including 1865 Broadway, 220 East 72nd Street, 22 River Terrace, 101 Murray Street, 400 Madison Avenue, One Court Square, 60 East 12th Street, 510 Madison Avenue, 511 Fifth Avenue, Glenn Gardens, the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue, 666 Fifth Avenue, the portfolio sale of Park Avenue and 850 Third Avenue, and the ground leases under 625 Madison Avenue, 2 Herald Square and 75 Rockefeller Center. For the sale of 88 Leonard Street, Ms. Hwang was honored with the Real Estate Board of New York’s highest achievement, the 2012 Most Ingenious Sales Deal of the Year (Robert T. Lawrence Memorial Award). Ms. Hwang has marketed significant New York assets for clients such as Africa Israel Investments, Ashkenazy Acquisitions, Capmark Financial, Daishin Securities, Dermot Company, Epic UK, Five Mile Capital, Istithmar, J.E. Robert Companies, Paramount Group, Park Tower Group, Rockrose Development Corp, SL Green, Spitzer Enterprises, Vornado Realty Trust, and Macklowe Properties. She has been a trusted strategic advisor to numerous domestic and international family offices, institutions and not-for-profits, including American Bible Society, Archdiocese of New York, Children’s Aid Society, MTA, New York University, St. John’s University, and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, and Fortune 50 Corporations such as Bank of America and Verizon. Ms. Hwang has been presented with numerous awards over her career for both her professional achievements and charitable contributions, including the Top Broker of the Year by Real Estate Forum Magazine, a leading trade publication, CoStar’s prestigious Power Broker of the Year award, Bisnow’s New York Power Women award, Rebuilding Together NYC ‘s Patty Johnson Outstanding Leadership Award, and Friendship Circle’s Humanitarian Award. She was also named one of the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business by the Asian American Business Development Center. Ms. Hwang serves as Chair of the Membership Committee and member of the Executive and Advisory Committees for the Urban Land Institute’s New York City Chapter and as an industry expert guest speaker for numerous conferences and some of the top REIT equity research teams in the nation, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, ISI Group, FBR Capital Markets & Co, JMP Securities, and UBS. Ms. Hwang received her Bachelor of Science degree from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (Real Estate Finance), where she graduated “With Distinction.” She also holds a Master’s degree in Real Estate Investment and Development from New York University. Ms. Hwang is a New York State Certified Real Estate Appraiser and is a New York and New Jersey Licensed Salesperson.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Wenger has sourced, negotiated and closed more than $10 billion of transactions in more than 35 cities. She has been involved in numerous transactions. These include equity and debt positions in stabilized, value-add, opportunistic, infrastructure and opportunity zone investments in office buildings, retail, apartments, condominiums, industrial, data centers, cold storage, hotels and mixed-use assets through direct and joint venture investments. Prior to joining CBRE Global Investors, Ms. Wenger served as a senior executive for institutions including CIM Group, General Electric and Equity Office Properties. In these roles, she was responsible for strategizing, developing and executing the real estate investment strategy. Ms. Wenger currently serves as a Board Member for CA South, a women-owned development and investment management firm based in Nashville, Tenn., and American Ventures, a value-add workforce housing investment firm based in Austin, Texas. She is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business with an emphasis in Accounting.

Mr. Schlank is a Founder and Managing Partner of Savanna. At Savanna, Mr. Schlank sits on the investment committee and is in charge of construction and redevelopment and shares responsibilities for asset management, sales and marketing and acquisitions. Mr. Schlank has overseen the acquisition and redevelopment of more than 70 real estate assets, comprising over 20 million square feet of space and nearly $3.8 billion of total capitalization, including raw land development sites, apartments, office buildings, industrial to residential conversions, retail and warehouse/distribution properties. Prior to founding Savanna, Mr. Schlank was a project manager for the Westside Federation for Senior Housing, a New York-based developer of low-income housing. Mr. Schlank received an MS in Real Estate Development from the Columbia School of Architecture and a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Schlank is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University where he teaches a seminar in Real Estate Finance to graduate students in the Columbia Architecture School’s Real Estate Master’s Degree Program.

Jack Conboy is a Partner with the law firm of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf. He represents various financial institutions and real estate operators in connection with acquisitions, sales, financing and refinancing of commercial properties. He also counsels landlords and tenants in the leasing of commercial space. In addition, Mr. Conboy has experience in representing clients in the purchase and sale of residential real estate, including condominiums, cooperative apartments, and single and multi-family homes. Jack has been nominated to The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch in the category of Banking & Finance Law, and has also been named to Super Lawyers - New York Metro Rising Star. He earned a JD from St. John’s University School of Law and a BA from Bucknell University.

Mr. Trivilino is a Managing Director at Related Fund Management overseeing the high-yield credit strategy and new investment originations. Mr. Trivilino most recently was a Senior Vice President at Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE: GPT) responsible for net lease equity investment originations. Previously, he was a Senior Vice President with Gramercy Capital Corp. (GPT’s predecessor company), responsible for new loan originations and special situation loan asset management. Mr. Trivilino was previously a Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of the real estate private equity fund at American Capital Energy Corporation, an affiliate of Zhong Rong Group, the largest private commercial real estate development company in Shanghai. Previously he was a Managing Director at the Related Investment Fund. Mr. Trivilino was a Principal and Senior Vice President at BayNorth Capital LLC, formerly Charlesbank Capital Partners LLC (with Harvard’s endowment as its primary investor). Prior to that time, Mr. Trivilino was a Partner at Apollo Real Estate Advisors, L.P. Preceding his tenure at Apollo, Mr. Trivilino specialized in mergers and acquisitions at Victor Capital Group (now Capital Trust). Before Victor Capital, Mr. Trivilino was Manager of Treasury Services at Pearson Inc. and prior to that, a Banking Analyst at Lazard Frères & Co. Mr. Trivilino received a BS in Finance from St. Johns University and completed graduate level coursework at Fordham University.

With over 20 years experience, Shawn serves as the Head of Fund Management and Chief Investment Officer for Nuveen Real Estate’s ~$90 billion Americas platform. He leads a team of seasoned portfolio managers in driving investment performance and partnering with our clients on their current and prospective real estate investments. In addition, as Chief Investment Officer, Americas Shawn oversees the end-to end investment process. He is a member of the Global Executive Leadership Team and Americas Investment Committee. Prior to joining the business in 2015, Shawn served as a managing director on the capital markets team of Grosvenor Fund Management. Shawn has also worked as an officer in Morgan Stanley’s real estate investment banking group. Additional experience includes positions at Lazard, JPMorgan and Sullivan & Cromwell. Shawn graduated with a B.A. from Columbia College of Columbia University, an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.

Christopher Kramer joined Newmark at the company’s New York headquarters, where he currently serves as a senior managing director in the Debt and Structured finance group. Christopher has worked on over $5 billion of real estate transactions over the course of a nearly 14-year real estate career. Prior to Newmark, Christopher was a vice president with Societe Generale’s New York-based U.S. commercial mortgage backed securities team. Christopher focused on origination during his three years with the team, which Societe Generale had reconstituted in 2015 after an eight-year absence from the U.S. CMBS market. Christopher was one of the French bank’s 11 hires from the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he had worked in a similar capacity for four years. He began his real estate career as an associate with Arbor Realty Trust, where for six years he was responsible for underwriting structured finance transactions, including bridge loans, mezzanine loans and Fannie Mae multifamily loans. He also worked in asset management and dispositions.

Jason S. Weisman was born in Boston, MA. He attended Newton South High School, graduated from Curry College in three years and received an MBA from Babson College. While attending university, Jason began his career in real estate working for a local brokerage company and that is where he fell in love with the built environment and the art of the deal. Mr. Weissman founded Boston Realty Advisors in 2001. At the time, Jason was a pioneer, one of the first in the industry to embrace the live-work-play model, now known as “mixed-use”. He launched the firm with multiple service lines under one roof – created leadership roles for multifamily, office, retail, hospitality and user housing – and became the largest, independent real estate services firm in New England. Mr. Weissman manages the investment sales and capital markets platform, with an owner-aligned philosophy. He represents some of the most distinguished investors on strategic real estate matters, having transacted millions of square feet worth billions of dollars throughout his career. Mr. Weissman is an industry thought leader and enjoys a reputation of being creative and an out-of-the-box thinker. He regularly appears in local and industry publications, is a part of the Forbes Real Estate Council and has been a guest speaker at Harvard, MIT and Suffolk University. Jason advocates to preserve the authenticity of Boston, while also ensuring its growth as a leading city of global innovation. He is the founder of The Broadway Company, a real estate investment company with over 60 investment properties in North America and is an active member of numerous organizations including the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). Mr. Weissman’s advises on the largest transformative projects in Boston; from concept through delivery. His dedication to Boston extends to multiple special cause issues and organizations including Boston Children’s Hospital and Combined Jewish Philanthropies. He is an avid runner and a foreign film buff, including credited as executive producer for multiple films. He and his wife reside in South Boston.

Sara Queen is head of equity strategies for MetLife Investment Management’s (MIM) Real Estate group. Sara is responsible for leading MIM’s direct property investment platform, investing on behalf of the MetLife general account as well as third-party institutional investors, including public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies. Sara joined MIM in March 2021. Before joining MIM, she was with Mapletree Investments, a global real estate development, investment and capital management company headquartered in Singapore, where she was head of the company’s North America business. Prior to Mapletree, Sara spent 11 years at Brookfield Property Partners as head of asset management for the company’s U.S. office portfolio, in addition to overseeing strategic planning and management of their expanding closed end accounts business. Before Brookfield, she spent nine years at Clarion Partners in a variety of asset management and portfolio management roles. Sara began her asset management career at MetLife in 1991, before departing in 1996 to pursue her MBA. She has nearly 30 years of industry experience. Sara currently serves as the board chair for Solar One, an organization which provides education and resources that create more sustainable and resilient urban environments. She is also a member of the Vestry of Trinity Church Wall Street serving on the investment committee overseeing a $5 billion endowment. She recently served as a board member of WX Women Executives in Real Estate. Sara holds a BA in economics and history from Wellesley College. She also has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Sara is an adjunct professor at Columbia University where she has developed and currently teaches commercial leasing and asset management classes to graduate students as part of the Master of Science of Real Estate Development (MSRED) program.

The controlling partner of the firm, President & CEO Peter Duncan has spent over 30 years at George Comfort & Sons. Over the years, he has been involved in and overseen every facet of this top-tier commercial real estate business, from acquisitions to financing, repositioning, management and leasing. Since taking over leadership of GCS in the early 1990’s, Peter has been responsible for acquiring and redeveloping many of the company-owned properties, totaling over $3 billion in value. He is also integrally involved in the leasing and renovation of all GCS assets. Mr. Duncan received a B.A. from Trinity College and is a licensed commercial broker in the State of New York and New Jersey and is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). Mr. Duncan also serves as a board member of Trinity College, The Realty Foundation of New York, Phipps Houses and the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Zach Aarons has been working at the intersection of real estate and venture capital for the past decade. Zach is the most active early-stage PropTech investor in the United States, having funded over 60 startups in the space as an individual as well as 40 startups (and counting) through MetaProp NYC's venture capital funds. In addition to early-stage investing, Zach has worked on large scale mixed-use development projects in cities like Boston and Los Angeles with Millennium Partners. He has experience with real estate development, commercial asset management, property marketing, and commercial leasing. Prior to joining Millennium and founding MetaProp NYC, Zach was a Senior Associate at ENIAC Ventures, a seed stage mobile technology fund and the founder of Travelgoat, an online and offline walking tour business. He began his career as an analyst at boutique investment bank Peter J. Solomon Company. Outside of work, Zach currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The Tenement Museum. Zach is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He is the author of the bestselling book, PropTech 101: Turning Chaos Into Cash Through Real Estate Innovation. He serves on the Technology Committee for the Real Estate Board of New York and the Technology and Real Estate Technology Council for the Urban Land Institute. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with an A.B. from Brown University in Ancient Studies and earned an MBA from Columbia Business School. Zach has been featured in dozens of international publications and media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Real Deal, Curbed, Commercial Observer, Propmodo, The Information, TechCrunch, Bisnow, Forbes, The Real Estate Weekly, Crain's, and Cheddar. He is a frequent speaker at global PropTech events including the Urban Land Institute, MIPIM, Realcomm, ICSC ReCon, Argus Connect, SuperReturn International, and the Columbia/Goodwin Real Estate Capital Markets Conference.

Prior to co-founding Greenworks Lending in 2015, Jessica led the design, management, and implementation of the nation’s first successful C-PACE program at the CT Green Bank. In its first two years, the program financed $75 million in clean energy projects and executed the first securitization of commercial efficiency assets – more than doubling the volume of C-PACE transactions between 2013 and 2014. From 2004-2012, Bailey worked at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), an $800 million foundation based in New York. As the Fund’s program officer for sustainable development, she co-managed a $7 million portfolio of grants focused on mitigating climate change and promoting clean energy. Jessica has received numerous awards and positive recognition for her work. Most recently, she was selected for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women of 2019 program. In 2014, Bailey was named a “Champion of Change” by the White House for solar deployment. For her work designing the successful Connecticut C-PACE program, The Hartford Business Journal dubbed her a “Green Warrior;” and after co-founding Greenworks Lending and scaling C-PACE nationally, Jessica was named to Connecticut Magazine’s 2018 list of “40 under 40.” Jessica received her graduate degree from Yale University and undergraduate from the University of Notre Dame. She is a member of YPO and sits on the board of PACENation, the League of Conservation Voters, CT and CTNext.

YuhTyng (“Tyng”) Patka is chair of the NYC Real Estate Tax and Incentives Practice Group and Co-chair of the firm's NYC Climate Mobilization Act Task Force. Tyng provides a road map to her clients for the optimal way to minimize their property tax burden. Tyng represents owners in challenging their property taxes (certiorari) and is one of New York City’s top experts on building tax classifications, having successfully argued and litigated on matters relating to building misclassifications which have led to significant tax refunds. For Tyng’s developer clients, she advises on strategies to reduce a project’s tax liability and represents developers on NYC tax incentive programs such as 421-a, ICAP, and IDA benefits such as FRESH. Tyng also counsels not-for-profit organizations on how to qualify for property tax exemptions for space that they own and occupy and advises nonprofits on leasehold condominium formation as one popular strategy for successfully obtaining property tax exemptions. Tyng’s practice also includes representing developers on matters relating to Inclusionary Housing zoning benefits before the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (“HPD”). She regularly represents developers on inclusionary housing applications (VIH, MIH, PFASH/AIRS) and provides her developer clients advice on preserving their project’s rights to property tax and zoning benefits simultaneously. Tyng also regularly represents developers in their acquisition or disposition of inclusionary air rights.

Mr. Mack is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of MREG. Before founding MREG in 2013, Mr. Mack was one of the founding principals of AREA Property Partners (founded in 1993 as Apollo Real Estate Advisors) and served as the Chief Executive Officer of AREA’s North American business and a member of that firm’s U.S. and European Investment Committees. Over 20 years at AREA, Mr. Mack was involved in the investment of billions of equity capital in debt and equity real estate transactions on behalf of AREA’s primarily institutional investors, and was personally responsible for creating new business lines to capitalize on evolving market trends, including an in-house development business and a subordinate debt business. Before AREA, Mr. Mack was a member of the Real Estate Investment Banking Department at Shearson Lehman Hutton. Mr. Mack serves on the Wharton School of Business Undergraduate Advisory Board and created a course on Real Estate Disruption, which he co-taught with Professor Gilles Duranton at Wharton in the Fall 2019 semester. Mr. Mack serves on the Board of Trustees of both the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation and the Child Mind Institute, and on the Board of Directors of the 92nd Street Y. He is president emeritus of the HES Community Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn and a member of the Robin Hood Foundation’s Housing & Homelessness Committee. Most recently, Mr. Mack was elected as Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Council on Poverty. Mr. Mack earned a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

In October 2008, Fein co-founded Kensington Vanguard National Land Services, LLC after merging Vanguard Title Agency, Inc. with Kensington National Land Services, LLC. Prior to the merger, Fein founded and served as the President of Vanguard Title Agency, Inc. since its formation in 2002. Vanguard specialized in both New York and national commercial and high-end residential transactions and underwrote several billion dollars worth of insured transactions annually, written on the largest and most respected title insurance companies in the country. The firm was involved in such high liability transactions as the acquisitions of 5 Times Square and 650 Madison Avenue among many others. Prior to entering the title insurance industry, Fein served as the Director of Business Development with the New York based telecom/data startup Trucom. While at Trucom, he assisted in growing the startup into a 90 person organization that was ultimately acquired by a competitor in the industry. Subsequently, Fein worked for the Manhattan law firm of Rubin & Weissman, LLP where he handled a variety of legal matters for its clients. Fein received a B.S. from Boston University and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School where he was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society, The Journal of Law and Policy and was an Academic Achievement Award Scholar. Fein has been a member of the New York State Bar since 2000.

Paul is a co-Founder and co-Chief Executive Officer of Taconic Partners who is known for his vision and integrity as an owner, developer and operator of innovative commercial and residential real estate. Paul and his partner Charlie Bendit are directly involved in all aspects of Taconic’s business, and have successfully directed the acquisition, repositioning, and/or redevelopment of key properties in both established and emerging markets. Prior to co-founding Taconic in 1997, Paul was president and Chief Executive Officer of Balfour Holdings, a national investment and development company focused on the acquisition and redevelopment of master planned communities. Balfour Holdings was ultimately sold to Blackstone. Paul has been immersed in the real estate industry since 1978, when he joined Jones Lang Wootton as one of the firm’s first employees in the United States, and where he first met business partner Charlie Bendit. During his tenure at JLW, Paul was named a co-managing partner of its nationwide operations. Paul is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Advisory Board of New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, the Advisory Board of the Columbia Business School Real Estate Program and its affiliated Real Estate Forum. Paul is also passionate about the arts, serving on the National Council of The Arts and Sciences School at Washington University in St. Louis and the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Art Museum. Paul is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, and earned a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

Michael Shvo is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of SHVO. Headquartered in New York City with offices in Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, SHVO owns and operates a national portfolio with more than $8 billion in assets under management and over 4.5 million square feet across industry sectors, including commercial office and retail, hospitality, and luxury residential assets. The firm’s selective portfolio of architecturally significant properties, from innovative ground up new developments to revitalized landmarks that define skylines in the world’s leading cities, includes the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, The Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach, 333 South Wabash Avenue also known as, “The Big Red,” in Chicago, Mandarin Oriental Residences at 9200 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, Mandarin Oriental Residences Fifth Avenue in New York City, and the AMAN New York Hotel and Residences at the Crown building.

James Nelson is a Principal and Head of Tri-State Investment Sales in Avison Young’s New York City office where he leads a group of 30 professionals in the sale of multifamily, office, development and retail properties.    Nelson most recently served as Vice Chairman of Cushman & Wakefield, where his team marketed over $1 billion in listings, ranking him as the number one Investment Sales broker nationwide in 2016. Prior, Nelson was a partner and top producer for Massey Knakal for six of their last eight years and was named the company’s youngest partner in 2004. Throughout his 20-year career, Nelson has been involved in the sale of over 400 properties and loans with an aggregate value of over $4 billion.   Nelson is the Chairman of REBNY’s Commercial Board of Directors, a Board Member of both the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and the Catalog for Giving, and Founder of the Real Estate Services Alliance and the Colgate Real Estate Council. He has received numerous distinctions including being #1 Top NYC Deal Maker by LoopNet, Real Estate Forum’s 40 Under 40, Top 35 and Under NYC Real Estate Players by The Real Deal, and REBNY’s Most Promising Commercial Sales Person of the Year Award.

Caroline Harcourt is the head of Pillsbury’s Real Estate Finance Group and also leads the firm’s New York Real Estate Group. Caroline represents foreign and domestic banks, financial institutions and family offices in connection with the origination, securitization, sale and purchase of mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, construction loans and bridge loans (and interests in such loans) with respect to properties in all asset classes. Having practiced through several real estate cycles, Caroline also has considerable experience representing lenders, borrowers and investors in connection with forbearances, restructurings, foreclosures and deeds or assignments in lieu, often in the context of multi-tiered debt stacks. Caroline also routinely represents owners, investors and funds in the negotiation of complex sales, purchases, joint ventures, development projects and leases, including multi-billion dollar single asset transactions. Caroline is a frequent speaker and author regarding a wide range of real estate related topics, including recently leading a series on Distressed Real Estate During COVID-19. Caroline is a dual citizen with France and, having spent significant time abroad, has developed a significant international practice. Caroline earned a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

Managing Partner and CEO Jim Simmons serves as head of Asland Capital Partners’ investment committee and runs the day-to-day operations of the firm. With more than two decades of real estate investment experience, Mr. Simmons focuses on sourcing and structuring transactions through his deep relationships across the public and private sectors. Mr. Simmons was most recently a partner at Ares Management, where he ran the $485 million Ares Domestic Emerging Markets Fund, and he was previously a partner at Apollo Real Estate Advisors. Prior to his private equity fund management career, Mr. Simmons was president and CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation. He held previous roles at Bankers Trust and Salomon Smith Barney. Mr. Simmons holds a BS degree from Princeton University, an MS from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Master of Management degree from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Nolan, EBI Consulting's CEO, joined EBI Consulting in 1991 after receiving a Bachelor of Science in biology and an MBA from Boston College. Nolan possesses over 28 years of experience in environmental and property condition due diligence, energy and sustainability, CMBS, construction consulting, and agency lending. He has successfully recruited and managed a national sales force, while creating successful partnerships with the most prominent real estate finance, global investment, and commercial banking companies in the United States. Nolan resides with his family in Massachusetts and operates out of EBI’s corporate headquarters in Burlington, MA.

Martin Nussbaum is the co-founder and principal at Slate Property Group. He has over twenty years of experience buying, developing and operating real estate across the United States. He currently oversees the strategic visionary behind the business platform, investment decisions and overall operations of the company. With a focus on multifamily and mixed-use properties, Martin leads strategic repositioning, ground-up development and conversion projects. Under Martin’s leadership, Slate has remained an active lender in the New York metropolitan real estate market with over $1 billion in loans closed and $300 million in the pipeline. Many of these deals came through Slate’s active lending affiliate called SCALE Lending, a direct lender providing first mortgage financing secured by commercial real estate assets with a focus on senior transitional loans. SCALE leverages off the Slate platform to guide investment decisions and assess the valuation of collateral, including land acquisition, construction, new development, re-development, inventory and assets with a lease-up or reposition component. It has more than $2 billion spread across 4.2 million square feet in ongoing developments. Prior to co-founding Slate Property Group, Martin served as the co-founder and managing partner of Silverstone Property Group, a full-service real estate owner and operator in New York. While overseeing Silverstone, he purchased more than $1 billion in real estate assets. Earlier in his career, Martin worked for a family office based in New Jersey overseeing a portfolio of over 5,000 apartments and three million square feet of commercial property throughout the tri-state area. He started his career in real estate investment banking working at Wells Hill Partners. Martin received a Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York Albany.

Will Nelson joined Columbia Pacific Advisors in 2015 to help lead the loan production and asset strategy for our Real Estate Lending strategy. Since joining Columbia Pacific, Will has sourced and closed over $1.0 billion in transactions and has helped define the funds strategy and image within the market. Previously, he managed the real estate portfolio for Legacy Companies. Will participated in the acquisition, disposition, leasing, project management, entitlement work, and property management of approximately 1.5 million square feet of real estate assets in the United States and Canada. Will graduated from Loyola Marymount University’s business program with an emphasis in Marketing and Management. He earned his MBA from the University of Washington.

Matt Weilgus is Senior Vice President of Originations and General Counsel at Mag Mile Capital. Matt leverages his extensive network of owner/developers together with background as a commercial real estate attorney to provide value to Mag Mile Capital's clients. Prior to joining Mag Mile Capital, Matt served as General Counsel for Sanders Equities, a management company responsible for a privately-held portfolio of commercial real estate in the New York metropolitan area. In addition, Matt's background spans approximately 13 years of in-house counsel and law firm roles where he counseled a wide variety of clients - owners, lenders and tenants while executing financings, acquisitions, dispositions and leases across all asset classes. Matt obtained a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from New York Law School. The depth and breadth of Matt's experience and his network of industry contacts are a valued addition to the Mag Mile Capital team out of the New York office. Matt resides with his family in Westport, Connecticut.

Mrs. Santiago is Head of Real Estate Private Credit and Managing Director at Cerberus. Prior to joining Cerberus in 2020, Mrs. Santiago spent eight years at Goldman Sachs, where she was a Managing Director in the Real Estate Principal Investment Area investing both in private equity and debt. While at Goldman Sachs, she oversaw the firm’s investment strategy in the Midwest, Texas, and South Florida as well as the hospitality sector. Mrs. Santiago began her 15-year real estate investing career as a real estate banking analyst at Merrill Lynch and held principal investing positions at Lehman Brothers, Scout Real Estate Capital, and H/2 Capital. Mrs. Santiago graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Matthew is widely known for closing major deals in New York City and helping clients build real estate portfolios across the United States and beyond. A powerful negotiator who understands the legal and business issues on both sides of a transaction, Matt is respected by his clients, opposing counsel and other parties alike for his result-driven approach. This ability to shepherd complex transactions to a successful conclusion is evidenced by his impressive client list. As a partner in the firm’s capital finance and real estate practice, Matt cuts a wide swath across the real estate industry by advising owners, developers, investors and lenders, among them REITS, private equity funds and family offices, on a variety of transactions. These include construction and real estate finance, acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, real estate developments, preferred equity investments, mezzanine loan originations, and secondary market purchases, leasing, and loan workouts and restructurings. Well-connected in the real estate world, Matt looks to generate business for his clients by introducing them to potential partners and new deals. He is active in pro bono work and leads the coordination of the annual NALP/Street Law Legal Diversity Pipeline Program in New York, which brings high school seniors from The Urban Assembly School for Law & Justice into the firm to teach them about the law and legal careers, encourage them to enter the field and support them in their pursuits.

Drew Fletcher is head of Greystone Capital Advisors where he oversees a team of professionals responsible for arranging creative debt and equity solutions for institutional and private commercial property owners and developers, and provides strategic advisory services for institutions, investors and borrowers. GCA also focuses on large loan mortgage origination across Greystone’s Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, CMBS, Bridge, balance-sheet and special situation lending platforms. Drew has over 20 years of commercial real estate experience, having directly originated and executed on more than $10 billion of financing transactions. Prior to joining Greystone in 2013, Drew was the Chief Financial Officer of Edison Properties LLC, one of the largest private real estate owners in New York City, with a $5 billion diversified portfolio of self-storage, office, multifamily and substantial land holdings throughout the NY Metro Region. Drew received a B.A. in Economics and Communications from Wake Forest University; an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University; and a Master of Accountancy in Taxation from Rutgers University. He volunteers his time as a guest lecturer at the NYU Real Estate Institute and also is an active member of the Real Estate Board of New York and the Urban Land Institute. Drew also was named to the Commercial Observer’s 50 Most Powerful People in Commercial Real Estate Finance in 2018.