Workplace of the Future

Alireza (Ali) Esmaeilzadeh leads Brookfield’s residential and commercial development business for the NY and Boston regions. Prior to his current role, he was responsible for the asset management and leasing of a 6 million square foot Class A New York commercial portfolio, including the New York Times building and the Tata Innovation Center at CornellTech. Prior to joining Brookfield Properties, Mr. Esmaeilzadeh headed the NYC offices of Forest City Enterprises and previous to that, he was a banker in the investment banking division of Scotiabank in Toronto, Ontario. Mr. Esmaeilzadeh received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and graduated with honors from Queen’s University, in Ontario, Canada. Mr. Esmaeilzadeh proudly serves on the Brooklyn Hospital’s Board of Trustees, as well as the boards of Brooklyn Horizons, Greenpoint Manufacturing Design Center, and The Acting Company. Mr. Esmaeilzadeh is the Chairman of the MetroTech Business Improvement District; board member and secretary of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership; board member of the Times Square Alliance and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Tony Vargas is a creative problem solver with a mission to deliver joy at scale through workplace services and culture. He is an innovative thinker and collaborator focused on shaping communities by including all of its members to engage intentionally and recognize moments of happiness in their daily life. He is the Global Head of Workplace at Sprinklr, a provider of enterprise software for unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM).

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Property Trust, Adam Frazier is responsible for the Company’s overall business strategy, capital allocation, operations, and the performance of its portfolio of investments. Mr. Frazier has two decades of experience in real estate asset management, development, and investments. Prior to joining Columbia in 2022, he served for eight years as Vice President at Oxford Properties, most recently as Head of New York. In this role, he oversaw leasing, operations, and development for the company’s New York region, covering some of New York City’s most transformative developments, such as St. John’s Terminal and Hudson Yards. Prior to Oxford, Mr. Frazier spent nearly seven years in leadership positions at Boston Properties in Development and Leasing. He started his career in real estate at Edens & Avant (now EDENS) as a Development Manager, leading the development of large mixed-use projects and acquiring shopping centers in the Mid-Atlantic region. Mr. Frazier began his career as an equity trader, trading NASDAQ- listed technology stocks for Salomon Smith Barney/Citibank. Mr. Frazier earned a BSBA degree from Bucknell University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan- Flagler Business School. He is a member of the Bucknell University Real Estate Advisory Board, a board member of the National Board of Directors for Autism Speaks, and an Advisory Board member for VTS, a leading CRE software company.

Georgina joined the Richard Rogers Partnership in 2003 and was made an Associate when the practice was renamed Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in 2007. In 2016 she became an Associate Partner. Her extensive experience ranges from masterplanning and housing to high-rise buildings and airport design. Georgina was involved in the early stages of the concept design for 3 World Trade Center in New York where her role evolved into team leader for the later stages of the design, coordinating client and consultants. 3 WTC was awarded the American Architecture Award in 2019. She played a key role in the design coordination and client liaison for the BBVA Bancomer Tower in Mexico City, spending two years in Mexico collaborating directly with the client team and the local partner Legorreta. This was integral to the design development and its implementation on site and in 2018 the project achieved a LEED Platinum certification. It was also awarded the RIBA Award for International Excellence the same year. The experience she obtained in high-rise design, along with her collaboration in international projects, made her a key participant in Atrio, two high-rise office buildings in Bogotá, Colombia. One of the towers is nearing completion and already the recipient of a LEED Gold certification. Georgina’s initial involvement in the delivery of the facade and structural packages was followed by a more general client liaison and coordination role with the executive architect for the later stages of the design and construction documents. Georgina has also worked on Taoyuan Airport, Terminal 3 project in Taiwan. Initially, her emphasis was on the masterplanning and design of the Multifunctional Building, a 200,000 m2 development adjacent to the new terminal building. During 2017-2018, she worked directly with the local architect and consultants through to the final delivery of the Terminal building design. Georgina is currently responsible for overseeing the design of the 30 Bay Street development in Toronto. The new 60-storey tower, which will be one of Toronto’s tallest commercial office buildings, will deliver in excess of 1.4 million square feet of premium AAA class rentable office space in Toronto’s downtown area.

Kirsten Beck is the Principal in charge of Project Management for Avison Young’s New York City office. With 20 years of project management and managerial experience, Kirsten is responsible for overseeing project management activities in the New York metro area, including owners’ representation, tenant representation, interior renovations, and capital improvements. Kirsten has performed or managed over three million square feet of tenant interior capital improvement, and ground-up projects totaling over $500 million. Prior to joining Avison Young, Kirsten was employed with The Walsh Company for five years and managed many high-profile and complex commercial interiors projects, as well as lab spaces and restaurants. Prior to joining The Walsh Company, Kirsten served as Facilities Project Manager for Champion Mortgage where she was responsible for the interior renovation of Champion’s 200,000-square-foot Corporate Headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey as well as the renovation of Champion’s three regional sales centers in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. Kirsten has a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from Project Management Institute (PMI). Professional credentials & affiliations  Project Management Professional (PMP)  New York State Salesperson’s License Awards & recognition  Committee Member, CoreNet Program and Outreach Committee  Committee Member, IFMA Cares Committee  2019 – Avison Young Project Management Professional of the Year  2017 – Honoree, Irish American Building Society  2017 – Avison Young Project Management Professional of the Year  2016 – Avison Young Corporate Culture Award  2015 – Woman of Valor, St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters  2015 – Real Estate Forum Woman of Influence  2015 – Avison Young Tri-State Project Management Professional of the Year Significant projects  District Council 37, New York, NY – 264,000 SF building renovation and vertical expansion  Panasonic, Newark, NJ – 280,000 SF Office/New Headquarters Facility  WME | IMG | Endeavor, 11 Madison Ave and 304 Park Ave South, New York, NY – approx. 230,000 SF Office/Interior Renovations  211 E 43rd Street, New York, NY – 210,000 SF Tenant Interiors, Pre-Builts, Infrastructure Upgrades  ADAPT (formerly United Cerebral Palsy of NY), New York, NY - 180,000 SF Building Infrastructure Upgrade / Interior Renovation / Pre-School  National Basketball Players Association, New York, NY – 45,000 SF Office/Interior Renovation/Basketball Court & Fitness Center  General Motors, multiple locations in NY & NJ – 10,000-40,000 SF car dealership renovations and new construction

Bruce MacAffer has been a corporate real estate professional for almost 30 years. Currently he is Senior Vice President of Group Real Estate, Americas over seeing real estate strategy and portfolio management for WPP, a global leader in marketing services, on their 8 million square foot regional real estate portfolio. Bruce has developed a series of award-winning corporate headquarters projects for WPP’s global brands and transacted over 7 million square feet with $5 billion in aggregate value. In 2013 Bruce leased and led development of what became 690,000 SF of GroupM offices anchoring the development of 3 World Trade Center. The leading-edge project won IFMA and Corenet awards for innovation and excellence in 2016, 2018 & 2019. In 2011 he led Young & Rubicam’s move to 3 Columbus Circle using 1031 forward and reverse exchanges into 375,000 SF HQ lease and condominium, a transaction further leveraged into a sale leaseback generating over $200m cash in 2019. Earlier headquarters’ relocation projects, Grey Advertising to Madison Square and Ogilvy & Mather to the Far West side, garnered many awards including REBNY’s “Deal of the Year” awards in 2007 and 2008. In addition, Bruce has led the leasing and development of dozens of campus colocation projects for WPP across the Americas. Most recently Bruce is championing new ways of working at WPP and leading an aggressive portfolio restructuring, dramatically reducing real estate costs to respond to the COVID pandemic and its effects on the workplace. Before his 18 years at WPP, Bruce managed international real estate for Citigroup, regionalizing real estate operations and developing projects and managing transactions across Asia and Latin America. Bruce graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts, Magna cum Laude in Architecture. He earned his MBA from Columbia University where he also studied Urban Planning. For 8 years, Bruce was a member Manhattan Community Board 4, as well as a board member of the Times Square Alliance.

Karl May is the Founder and CEO of Join, which delivers on-demand networking as a service to owners and tenants of Class A buildings to enable Smart Buildings and Smart Workplaces. Prior to founding Join, Karl was the co-founder and CEO of Treq Labs (acquired by Sonus Networks) where his team built and delivered into production the first post-MPLS networking platform in large-scale deployment with the likes of NTT, Telstra, and BT. Prior to that, Karl spent 25 years in technology, working on the first RISC computer at Hewlett-Packard, founding and developing one of the first multi-service branch routers at Provectus, pioneering television with the Silicon Graphics interactive television project, including the Orlando Project, and bringing broadband to the masses with the first cable modem (LANcity/Bay Networks). He is also the author of several patents on encryption, scrambling, and other cybersecurity related topics.

Mr. Durels is responsible for all of our real estate activities, including leasing, property redevelopment, management and construction. Mr. Durels joined our predecessor in 1990 where he served in similar capacities, also supervised property acquisitions, and was involved in acquisitions and structured equity investments of over $1.1 billion. Prior to joining our predecessor, from February 1984 to April 1990, he served as Assistant Vice President at Helmsley Spear, Inc., where Mr. Durels was responsible for construction and engineering for its portfolio of office, hotel, residential and retail properties. Mr. Durels is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Urban Land Institute and the Young Men’s and Women’s Real Estate Association, for which he served as Treasurer in 2003, and is a licensed real estate broker in New York and Connecticut. Mr. Durels received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University.

Jeff heads our Real Estate and Communications practices in New York and has significant experience in general commercial real estate law. Jeff’s general real estate practice includes acquisitions, sales, development, leasing, and borrower’s side financing. He also has a particular focus on real estate challenges facing communications, technology, and energy companies, and represents property owners and telecom companies in telecom real estate matters, such as data center leases. His clients include both large national companies and smaller, local clients. He is frequently invited to speak on real estate, data center, and telecom topics. He also writes for several industry publications, and he is regularly quoted in national media. Jeff was a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and led many of its major real estate and telecom transactions.

Tayyib Smith is Principle of Meta Global, parent company to Little Giant Creative. He is dedicated to cultural competency and the ability to engage multicultural audiences. He co-founded Pipeline Philly to serve as an inviting and dynamic co-working space filled with professionals from various backgrounds and industries, creating one of the most diverse workspaces in the city. He is also a partner S&R Holdings, a real estate company that engages and invites diverse stakeholders of neighborhoods to become part of a growing, multicultural and multi-socioeconomic tapestry, as well as a founding partner at The Collective. Tayyib has long been a successful conduit of professional and cultural ecosystems. He is a fellow of the The Guild of Future Architects and sits on the boards of the Kensington Corridor Trust, Prizm Art Fair in Miami, Memphis Slim House, BlackStar Film Festival, The Colored Girls Museum, and AllTogether Now PA.

Chris Roth joined Hines in 2017. He is a Managing Director with over fourteen years of experience in real estate asset management, corporate finance, and project management. Mr. Roth is currently responsible for the repositioning and management of the Hudson Square Properties portfolio in lower Manhattan. Prior to joining Hines, Mr. Roth spent over seven years with Tishman Speyer Properties in New York where he was most recently responsible for the asset management of Rockefeller Center. In addition to the leasing, capital projects, and management of over 7 million square feet of iconic office and retail space, he played a central role in the redevelopment and reopening of the Rainbow Room, the management of the observation deck at Top of the Rock, as well as the oversight of multiple operating businesses and strategic initiatives across the portfolio. Prior to Tishman Speyer, Mr. Roth started his career in real estate with Morgan Stanley in New York. EDUCATION MBA, Columbia Business School BA, Economics, BA, Architectural History, Minor Architectural Design, University of Virginia

Michael Givner is an Executive Director for Morgan Stanley Real Assets Michael joined Morgan Stanley in 2009 and is responsible for sourcing, underwriting and executing transactions in the Northeastern United States on behalf of Morgan Stanley’s real estate funds Previously, Michael worked at Credit Suisse DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners Michael received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael also graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School and a B.A. in History from the College of Arts and Sciences

Kofi is the product visionary behind Lane, the no-code platform designed to transform the workplace into a seamless, connected ecosystem. Growing up in Europe, Kofi moved to North America to study, and in true entrepreneurial spirit launched two award-winning companies, achieving a UNICEF global standard, collaborating with the world’s largest brands, and named one of Toronto’s Top 30 under 30. Now based in New York, Kofi is scaling Lane from the Series A company it was in 2020, into the world’s leading workplace software. He frequently shares his perspectives with Forbes, and is a host for the Work/Place Podcast.

Jamie Hodari is the CEO and Co-founder of Industrious, the largest premium workplace provider in the U.S. Under his leadership, Industrious has grown to over 95 locations across more than 50 cities, achieving the best unit economics in the industry, and pioneering the evolution to landlord partnerships over traditional leases. Prior to Industrious, Jamie was CEO of Kepler, a hedge fund analyst at Birch Run Capital, a corporate lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, and a reporter for the Times of India. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.P. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Columbia University.

Rachel is Executive Vice President, SPACE+, where she is responsible for Brookfield Properties’ flexible workspace strategy and the delivery of SPACE+ across the portfolio. Rachel joined Brookfield Properties in 2002 and held a variety of workplace, operations and communications roles across Brookfield Properties and Brookfield Asset Management. In 2017, she took a brief hiatus to create and manage the real estate and workplace strategies for a leading Fintech broker-dealer before returning to Brookfield Properties in 2019 to focus on the creation of its global flexible workspace strategy. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Science in Design & Environmental Analysis from Cornell University.

Jeremy Bernard is the CEO, North America at essensys, the world’s leading provider of software and technology to the flexible real estate industry. He has over 25 years of experience in the real estate and technology sectors. Most recently, Jeremy was the Global Head of Real Estate for Knotel where he grew and oversaw a portfolio of 5.5MM sq ft of flexible office space around the world. In previous roles, he has held C-level positions at real estate investment firms and launched several proptech companies. Jeremy resides in Westport, CT with his wife Jamie, daughter Morgan and son Brody.

Matthias Hollwich is the founder of HWKN, a NY-based collective of architects, sculptors, social strategists and innovators dedicated to use architecture to shape a better world. Matthias was born and raised in Germany where he studied architecture and brings a dual perspective to all the firm’s designs, combining German precision with American aspiration. His work encompasses buildings, spaces, masterplans, and new social typologies, all of which are designed to engender curiosity and encourage participation. His vision is shared by a team of collaborators who listen, question, and lead the creation of extraordinary places. Matthias Hollwich published his first book UmBauhaus- Updating Modernism in collaboration with Rainer Weisbach and the Bauhaus Foundation in 2006. His latest book, New Aging: Live Smarter Now to Live Better Forever, suggests a new way to think about aging that could fundamentally change the way we design for it, published in 2016. Matthias lectures widely on the topics of architecture, sustainability, aging and innovation at renowned conferences around the world, including TED, PICNIC, Stelka, and the Conscious City conference. In 2019 he spoke at Me Convention about “Unforgettable Architecture,” and continues to lecture at the University of Pennsylvania.

Steven M. Durels serves as an Executive Vice President and Director of Leasing and Real Property of SL Green Realty Corp. Mr. Durels is responsible for marketing, structuring, and negotiating all lease transactions of SL Green Realty Corp. and has completed many of the largest and most complex leases in SL Green Realty's history. He manages a leasing and marketing team of 25 professionals and routinely completes nearly 300 leasing transactions per year. Prior to joining SL Green, Mr. Durels served as Vice President and Director of Leasing and Management of Helmsley-Spear Inc. for 16 years. While there, he was responsible for all leasing, management, and operations of a 2.5-million-square-foot Manhattan office portfolio. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York. Mr. Durels received a degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Iowa.

Shri Madhusudhan, a leader with more than 19 years of experience in the energy sector, is currently Vice President of Property Services at National Grid. National Grid (LSE: NG; NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company that supplies the energy for more than 20 million people through its networks in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the Northeast. National Grid also operates systems that deliver gas and electricity across Great Britain. Shri is responsible for National Grid’s U.S. property portfolio, [including a total of 8 million square feet of office and operations space enabling a workforce of more than 16,000. She leads the Property Strategy, Real Estate, Rights of Way, and Facilities Operations groups within the U.S. business. Prior to assuming her current role Shri served in various leadership positions at Eversource Energy in the Facilities, Real Estate and Environmental areas. Shri holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Chennai India, a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management and Policy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an Executive MBA from the University of Connecticut.

Ellen Albert, AIA, is the Executive Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities for ViacomCBS where she is responsible for the overall strategic direction, transactions and design implementation of ViacomCBS global real estate requirements. In this position, Ms. Albert provides leadership for over 10,000,000 square feet of office, studio and production space for ViacomCBS divergent businesses including Viacom Media Networks (MTV, Nickelodeon, CMT, Comedy Central, Paramount Network and BET), Viacom Digital Studios, Consumer Products, Pluto and ViacomCBS Networks International. She oversees real estate, design and construction, office services, building operations, food services and special events for ViacomCBS globally. Ms. Albert is a member of CoreNet Global having previously served on the Board of the NYC Chapter and on their Education, Programming and Professional Development Committees. She is also a longstanding board member of NEW (Nontraditional Employment for Women) having served for 3 years as Board Co-Chair and is currently Co-Chair of the Development Committee. A board member of the Times Square Alliance for 13 years, she currently serves as Vice Chairperson. Ms. Albert is a frequent panelist and speaker at forums which include CoreNet, Executive Women in Corporate Real Estate, REBNEY, Brookfield Properties Tenant Advisory Council, RETHINK Office New York, Workplace Trends, the Convene Office of the Future Conference, Women in Green, AIA Corporate Architects Round Table, Contract Magazine, and the School of Visual Arts. She has also been a contributing writer for The Leader and The Corporate Real Estate Journal. Ms. Albert holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and received a BA in Art History and French from Emory University. She is a Registered Architect in the State of New York and a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Neal Weinstein handles complex commercial real estate transactions in New York and throughout the United States. Major components of his practice include the acquisition, disposition and financing of multifamily, office shopping centers and industrial project. His practice also focuses on office, retail and restaurant leasing for both landlords and tenants. He also advises leading entrepreneurs in various industries on business contracts, day-to-day operations and handling (and avoiding) business disputes. Clients’ industries include technology start-ups, investment funds, concierge services, hardware distributors, retailers, restaurants, designers, management and brokerage companies, contractors and real estate companies. He has extensive experience in the resolution of real estate and commercial disputes including landlord/tenant proceedings in New York City. Neal has been a presenter and panelist at industry conferences and events where he has spoken on topics including due diligence in real estate and corporate transactions, the pitfalls of subleasing and the future of office spaces. Prior to joining Ingram, Neal was a court agent at LeFrak. Neal frequently writes and lectures on hot topics facing the real estate industry.