Bay Area Hospitality Summit

Tiffany Cooper is the Senior Vice President, Development for the Americas for The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group. Tiffany is responsible for delivering growth to The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group by expanding the development pipeline and footprint for the Americas via quality hotel projects to include conversions, adaptive reuse and new build opportunities. Tiffany is a hospitality professional with over 20 years of experience, having begun her career working in sales & marketing/hotel operations for The Kimpton Group in early 1995. Tiffany joined Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 1999 and continued working in operations, leading sales teams for various Starwood properties until 2005 when she transitioned to the Real Estate Development Group for Starwood. During this time, Tiffany extensively grew Starwood’s portfolio, more than doubling the footprint throughout the Western Region. In September, 2016, following the Marriott acquisition of Starwood, Tiffany joined the Marriott International development team, focused on full service and luxury hotel development until moving to Kimpton in April 2018.

As Vice President for Real Estate and Development, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Kimo is responsible for overseeing new hotel development, acquisition, franchise, and management contract transactions for Hyatt’s full-service brands (Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Centric, Park Hyatt, Unbound Collection by Hyatt, and Andaz) in the Western United States. Mr. Bertram joined Hyatt from Hilton, where his career included several Feasibility and Investment Analysis roles and development roles. He was most recently Vice President of Luxury and Lifestyle development for North America, leading the growth effort for Waldorf Astoria and Conrad brands in North America. Prior to joining Hilton, Mr. Bertram worked at PKF Consulting in San Francisco. Mr. Bertram holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

Cory Creath, AIA, LEED AP, brings more than 30 years of commercial architectural design experience to AXIS/GFA Architecture + Design as one of the firm’s founders and Principal Architects. With particular expertise in multi-family residential and hospitality architectural design, Cory’s knowledge spans design, building, development, and operational issues for developers, designers, owners, and investors alike. More than simply an architectural designer, Cory assists clients with the business case for each development, helping stakeholders increase a project’s construction success. In addition to managing architectural design projects, Cory oversees AXIS/GFA’s business development initiatives and day-to-day operations, guiding the firm as an expert on the business-side of architectural firm management. Prior to the formation of AXIS/GFA, Cory was a Studio Director with Gensler’s San Francisco office. In his spare time, Cory enjoys sharing the outdoors with his family – particularly skiing California’s local mountains.

Wally is an industry leader for complex ground up, seismic, tenant improvement and building renovations in office, retail, civic, hospitality and commercial buildings, many in occupied spaces. Wally is the primary client representative for his projects, ensuring that the project gets the resources and commitments it needs to guarantee a successful outcome. His responsibilities include client communication, design consultation, budget and cost estimating review and coordination of construction operations. Wally provides direct leadership to project management staff, performs executive-level project management functions, and executes business development efforts for the region. He is accountable for understanding the client’s project objectives and ensuring Pankow’s solutions meet or exceed the Client’s needs.

Mitch Lund joined Fulcrum with a decade of experience in the commercial modular building industry where he was actively involved in leading teams through the entire lifecycle of custom modular construction projects across the US, including design/engineering, estimating, procurement, project management, manufacturing, and site supervision. With modular and offsite construction riding a tidal wave of success and media attention, involvement in $1B of modular projects, a nation-wide team of construction professionals from across all segments of the construction industry, and a decades-long track record of success managing construction risk on behalf of lenders, investors, and developers, Fulcrum is perfectly and powerfully positioned to help the real estate industry make informed decisions with its full range of Modular Risk Management services.

Rich Brand is the firm’s San Francisco Managing Partner and head of the Sports practice group. He focuses on sports law, real estate and corporate transactions, e-commerce, hospitality and leisure, and partnership and corporate law. Rich is recognized as a leading sports attorney by Chambers USA and Legal 500 and as a leading real estate attorney by Best Lawyers. As noted by Chambers USA, “he is highly regarded for his expertise in representing both sellers and purchasers of sports teams” and “he brings tons of experience, and good business sense to the deal table.” Rich speaks extensively on many aspects of sports, real estate and hospitality law at major industry conferences. He is frequently featured on the Yes Network’s Forbes SportsMoney sports talk show and has appeared on CNN, Fox Sports and other national video/television/radio programs. Rich is also an adjunct professor at Stanford Law School and UC Berkeley School of Law, where he leads seminars on sports law transactions. Rich regularly guest lectures at prominent undergraduate and graduate Sports Administration programs.

Mr. Peruri has been involved in over $ 5 billion in transactions during his career and over $1 billion in transactions while at Oxford. He is involved in multiple facets of the business including investor relations, deal origination, acquisitions underwriting, due diligence, project financing, project design, entitlements/planning, construction, and property operations. He is responsible for investment opportunities across the real estate spectrum and also in the corporate private equity area. Prior to joining Oxford Capital Group, LLC, Mr. Peruri worked in acquisitions and asset management at Sam Zell’s Equity International, focused primarily on real estate related platform investments in South America and Asia. Mr. Peruri began his career working in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley in New York City. Mr. Peruri graduated with an MBA in Finance and Real Estate from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, was a recipient of the Pension Real Estate Association Scholarship and the Robert Toigo Fellowship, and served as teaching assistant to Professor Jeremy Siegel. He also holds a B.S. in Finance from the College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, graduating with Highest Honors and awarded the Bronze Tablet, and completed the yearlong General Course program at the London School of Economics.

Director of Development Vanessa Mange brings years of experience to Virgin Hotels. Prior to joining Virgin Hotels, Vanessa worked for Kimpton Hotels where she oversaw global brand assessment and development initiatives, as well as held roles in corporate finance and asset management. During her time with Kimpton, Vanessa established a brand footprint in Mexico and supported growth across Europe, Greater China, and AMEA. In addition to bringing a keen eye to the Latin American market in her role at Virgin Hotels, Vanessa will work closely with the greater team on all development plans across the Americas. A graduate of Cornell University, Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Science from the School of Hotel Administration and a Minor in Real Estate Finance. She has lived in Turkey, Israel, Switzerland, Ethiopia and Spain, and is fluent in French and Spanish in addition to English.

Bill Strang serves as President of the Americas’ Operations for TOTO USA and Chairman of TOTO Mexico. In these capacities, he is responsible for all of TOTO’s North American operations, including supply chain, design and development engineering, quality, ISO, environmental resource management, and management of TOTO’s five North American plants with 1.8 million sf under roof. Under Bill’s leadership, TOTO has received numerous awards and recognitions for its leadership in environmental resource conservation, including the U.S. EPA’s Water Efficiency Leadership award (TOTO is the only plumbing manufacturer so honored); former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s Water Conservation Leadership award; the South face Sustainable Homebuilders’ Argon* award; the City of Atlanta’s Phoenix Award, and the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s River Sustainability award. Recently, the Brookings Institution distinguished TOTO for its leadership in Clean Economy jobs creation.

Jermaine is the Head of Real Estate at Sonder and has led the charge in launching and expanding the brand's hotel platform in the San Francisco Bay Area. Within some of the most dynamic neighborhoods in the Bay Area, he revitalizes underutilized independent hotels and B&Bs by leveraging Sonder’s technological and design prowess to increase operational efficiency. To date, Jermaine has launched the Sonder brand in boutique hotels in Hayes Valley, Alamo Square and The Castro. Currently, Sonder branded hotels are planned to debut in The Marina and Nob Hill in San Francisco, as well as Downtown Berkeley, Uptown Oakland, and South Bay. Jermaine’s recent experience involved investment roles at RLJ Lodging Trust, AvalonBay Communities, and Kimpton Hotels and Restaurant. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Urban Planning and Hotel Real Estate Investment, respectively, from Cornell University.

Michael Kovac, a multifamily professional with nearly a decade of experience in commercial real estate transactions, is VP of Real Estate at Stay Alfred working alongside Stay Alfred’s national real estate team to expand current partnerships and forge new relationships with property owners in the Bay Area. With expertise in acquisitions, asset management and commercial real estate brokerage, Kovac is heading up the company’s Partner Leaseback program which enables developers to purchase buildings and lease them back in entirety to Stay Alfred with long-term master-leases. Michael graduated from The University of Connecticut with a Bachelors degree in Economics and currently holds an active real estate license in several states including California. Outside of work Michael enjoys traveling, exploring the Pacific coastline and everything motorsport related from vintage cars to motorcycles.

Stacy Marchesano is an attorney with Garvey Schubert Barer, P.C. She helps hospitality industry clients negotiate business agreements, find solutions to complex problems and bring transactions across the finish line. Stacy counsels clients through a broad range of real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions of commercial property and commercial leasing of restaurant, office and industrial space. Stacy also represents hospitality clients in owner-operator agreements and consulting relationships for branded restaurant concepts. Passionate about the emerging technologies and trends in real estate, Stacy particularly enjoys partnering with clients whose projects live at the intersection of innovation and real property.