Bay Area Hospitality & Tourism

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.

David Kuperberg is the Head of Development, Dream Hotels at Hyatt. In this role, Kuperberg is responsible for the continued growth and success of Dream Hotel Group’s portfolio of lifestyle brands, which includes Dream Hotels, Time Hotels, The Chatwal and Unscripted Hotels, in emerging and established markets worldwide. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Development for Virgin Hotels prior to joining Dream Hotel Group in 2013. Kuperberg started his hospitality career in 2004 as Senior Director of Mergers and Acquisitions with Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, where he oversaw the acquisition of Ramada International from Marriott, which included more than 200 hotels and resorts worldwide and later launched Wyndham’s international hotel business. He was then appointed to Vice President of Global Development and Strategy where he achieved great success leading the acquisition of the TRYP brand from Sol Melia, representing 94 hotels across Europe and South America, as well as a joint venture with Malta-based Corinthia Group to acquire and rebrand its 15 European hotels under Wyndham flags. Prior to joining Wyndham, Kuperberg served as an associate for True North Capital, a New York-based private equity group and merchant bank that provides financing solutions to companies in the U.S. and Europe. He also worked as a strategy consultant for Computer Sciences Corporation, where he gained invaluable experience in the Management Consulting division. Kuperberg holds a Master of Management degree from Yale University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of California at Berkeley.

A hospitality veteran since 1988, Ed Skapinok is recognized for his accomplishments leading the commercial disciplines at some of the industry’s most notable ownership groups, global hotel brands, and third-party management companies. In his current role, Ed is responsible for all branding, communications, revenue generation, and yield management efforts at Appellation, an innovative new line of culinary-first luxury hotels in iconic destinations. Prior to joining Appellation, Ed worked as Senior Vice President for Aqua-Aston Hospitality where he led the sales, marketing, revenue, and reservations teams for an international portfolio of leisure hotels, resorts, and vacation rental properties. His career also includes leadership roles at Hostmark Hospitality Group, Larkspur Hotels & Restaurants, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Sheraton hotels. With a long track record of building and developing winning commercial teams, he is credited with innovations in deploying new technologies, pricing and revenue management, e-commerce, database marketing, and corporate communications.

Steve Allen, AIA, is an associate principal at Stanton Architecture, a leader in hospitality architectural design in the Bay Area. For over 11 years, Steve has specialized in architectural design and construction management for hotels and hospitality, office buildings, and high-end restaurants. Marquee projects include Hotel Via across the street from the Giant’s Oracle Park, the 18-story Hampton Inn at 942 Mission St in SF, Hyatt Place at 701 3rd St in SF, and 345 4th St office building in SF. Important to the firm's expertise is navigating the highly complex approval and permitting processes for both new-build hotels as well as historic and adaptive reuse sites. Currently, Steve is the lead architect for the dual-brand Marriott Residence Inn and AC in Oakland, slated for completion in Q1 of 2023. He is also working on numerous hotel renovations, office to hotel conversions, and restaurants. Prior to Stanton, Steve gained broad experience in design and construction management on public projects for schools, libraries, child development centers, and universities. In addition to his professional work, he has designed, renovated, and built several residential structures, including a competition winning solar house, and duplexes in Berkeley and San Francisco. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Architecture with a concentration in sustainable design. Current clients include Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, Choice Hotels, Presidio Bay Ventures, Hawkins Way Capital, Wolff Urban, Strategic Properties, JLL, Shorenstein, Blackstone, Magna Hospitality, Takenaka, Tishman Speyer, and numerous independent ventures.

Tom is a Shareholder with Buchalter APC and the Chair of the Firm’s Hospitality Group. He is the go-to intellectual property counsel for several companies, principally handling global IP portfolios and related diligence. He has particular skill in trademark branding, licensing and advertising matters, and in the resolution of related disputes. Tom utilizes the skills that he developed as a news reporter for the LA Times, during his MBA work at USC, and as a lawyer to provide advice and guidance to his clients. His clients include a host of energetic and successful businesses such as Pacifica Hotels, Procore Technologies, the Shopoff companies, and Somera Capital Management, all in the IP space. A native of Washington, D.C., Tom obtained his undergraduate degree from James Madison and his law degree from Villanova.

Maki Nakamura Bara, President & Co-Founder of The Chartres Lodging Group, LLC and Chairman of the Board for affiliated management company, Sightline Hospitality, is a leading expert in investing in and repositioning urban hotels and resorts. Since the formation of Chartres Lodging in 2002, she has acquired and repositioned approximately $5 billion of lodging assets in the U.S. and Japan and completed more than $1 billion in the redevelopment of these assets. In recognition of her extensive experience in the lodging sector, particularly in acquisitions, asset management, development management and her role in the growth of the two companies, Ms. Nakamura Bara was recognized as the top "40 Under 40" by M&A Advisor, received the ''Best Executive" Stevie Award for Women in Business, was named a "Woman of Influence” in commercial real estate by Real Estate Southern California magazine, was a three-time honoree of Bisnow’s Power Women LA and recently honored as one of Hotel Management’s 2021 Influential Women in Hospitality. She is also a frequent speaker at various industry conferences. Ms. Nakamura Bara’s previous experience includes participating in the formation and growth of the lodging activities of Lend Lease Real Estate and Strategic Hotel Capital. She has also worked at Oxford Capital Partners, Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the hospitality consulting division. Ms. Nakamura Bara is a graduate of UCLA and is fluent in spoken Japanese.

Since becoming President and CEO, Joe D’Alessandro has driven San Francisco Travel to adopt the city’s ethos of community, innovation, and openness. Joe led the creation of San Francisco’s Tourism Improvement District, grew visitation to San Francisco by nearly 30%, completed a massive expansion of its convention center, and rebranded the association, charting an ambitious course for its next 100 years. Joe also serves on the executive committees for U.S. Travel and Visit California. He was inducted into US Travel’s Hall of Leaders in 2020 and awarded the 2020 Destination Organization Leadership Award by Destinations International. He was also named 2014’s Most Admired CEO by The San Francisco Business Times.

Alex Bastian, a San Francisco native, is the President and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. Prior to this position, he was a Special Advisor to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. Preceding that job, he was the Deputy Chief of Staff and an Assistant District Attorney for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office for nearly twelve years. Alex has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over thirteen years. He began his career in civil litigation before developing his skills as a highly reputed, esteemed, and successful prosecutor. Over the years, he has also been responsible for providing guidance and direction in the development of internal and external messages and media strategies. He supported the District Attorney in handling complex tasks and provided leadership in the development of policy and legal strategies. Alex spearheaded efforts to create the LADA’s first Public Data Portal, an unprecedented effort to enhance transparency by providing the public real-time office data and filing rates. In San Francisco, Alex served three administrations in various capacities, beginning as an Assistant District Attorney in the Criminal Division, and rising in the ranks to ultimately working as the Deputy Chief of Staff. Alex was hired as a prosecutor by then – San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris. Alex’s experience in policy, strategy, communications, and legal matters have assisted the District Attorneys with whom he has worked to advance public safety. Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California Los Angeles and a Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law. He speaks five languages, including: English, Spanish, French, Russian and Armenian (both dialects). He has been published, both locally and nationally, on topics discussing gentrification, human rights, history revision, and genocide. He has often appeared in local, national, and international media outlets, dealing with high profile matters.

Nile Tuzun, a highly accomplished hospitality design and development executive, an award winning photographer, creative director, art advocate, and citizen of the world, has developed a solid reputation for uncompromising excellence in the world of international hospitality design. Her work over the past 22 years has influenced and raised the bar for the hotel, spa, restaurant and residential experience worldwide, first as a hospitality designer at WATG, then as Director of Design and Construction at Fairmont Raffles Hotels International and later as Director of Business Development for the Puccini Group, Creative Director of Design and Branding for Alterra Worldwide and Director of Design for Legado Companies while maintaining her lifestyle and interior design company Studio Nilebrand and Maksim Mimarlik, A.Ş as Founder and Chief Creative Storyteller. Nile brings a design-focused background to her work, typified by in- depth collaboration with valuable ownership groups, distinguished guests, global divisional team members, internal cross divisional team members and operational team members providing hospitality design and management and operational consulting services. Nile maintains close working relationships with the world's leading architects and designers as she strives to realize design standards unique to each project. With a very confident philosophy regarding hotel, mixed-use residential, creative office space, spa and restaurant design and operations, Nile has and continues to support the future of design by participating as an expert panelist for seminars, design forums, charity events and guest academic lectures and critiques at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School in Malibu and Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her strategic implementation of design and her understanding of the global marketplace, drive her to realize her goals with conviction and with the utmost professionalism. Nile believes in the empowerment of the younger generation of females and gives her time in mentoring and lecturing at different educational platforms. Nile is also part of The Young Society Leaders (YSL) which is a program that convenes a select, diverse group of the American-Turkish community’s most outstanding young leaders, in their 30s and 40s. Nile is also the Chairwoman of The American Turkish Women in Business (ATWB), a for-a-nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Istanbul dedicated to inspiring, supporting and celebrating women in their journey to self actualization, success and empowerment. Nile recently became a board member at The Travel Industry Executive Women's Network (TIEWN), a global networking association with over 10,000 members. Nile, born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey holds a Masters of Architecture with a work career which has taken her from Istanbul to New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, St.Louis, Rome, Barcelona, Milan, Mayakoba, Mexico City, Nigeria, Mekkah, Astana, Venice, Paris, Arles, Madrid, Cabo San Lucas, San Juan, St. Croix and Seville. Nile is working towards her executive degree in Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate (AMDP) at Harvard University to be completed in 2022. Nile will also attend Yale School of Management, Women’s Leadership Program to be completed in November 2021. Nile lives in California and she splits her time between San Francisco, Beverly Hills and Istanbul during the year. She is fluent in English, Turkish and conversational Italian.