Seattle 2025 CEO Market Kickoff

As CEO of Goodman Real Estate for more than 15 years, George believes the company’s mission, vision, and values has created a culture that has attracted extraordinary professionals and kept the company on a successful course. During his tenure, he has overseen the teams that developed, acquired, and disposed of over 350 assets in four countries. With experience spanning roles in finance, accounting, property management, asset management, and capital markets, George’s knowledge, experience, and skill move GRE in the direction of the future of real estate. George graduated from the University of Washington and earned his CPA, CPM, CCIM, and RPA real estate designations. George finds satisfaction by challenging his team to achieve their goals while ensuring each person is encouraged and has opportunities to grow. He considers every team member at GRE to be a leader and supports them as they develop an understanding of their strengths and how to use them within the organization. George firmly believes there is a significant shortage of housing nationwide due to questionable regulatory policies. He advocates for the removal of barriers that policy makers can influence, both legislative and regulatory, so that housing supply will increase for the benefit of current and future generations. George believes that a portion of profitable work should go toward those at risk in the community. This belief led George to create IMPACT—a company-wide program with a mission to provide a sense of place for all of GRE’s community by collaborating with local non-profits to serve the vulnerable with a focus on shelter, community, education, sustainability, and relief. He personally serves on several non-profit boards, including WBPA, CRISTA, V16, and the North Seattle College Real Estate Program. George and his wife have three grown daughters, live near the University of Washington, and like to spend time boating, skiing, traveling, and financially supporting local charitable organizations.

Benjamin Kuula is the CEO at American Capital Group (ACG) and is responsible for their operations and investment strategy throughout major markets on the west coast. He has 15 + years of real estate experience in development, construction, acquisition, property management, asset management and finance. Mr. Kuula has completed over $2.5 billion in real estate transactions, which includes the acquisition of $1.2 billion + in value-add multifamily assets with over 2,000 unit renovations completed. Since 2015 he has raised over $1 Billion in equity. Mr. Kuula received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of San Diego and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington, Foster School of Business. He serves on the Board for the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue, where he chairs their Revenue Development Committee and sits on the Executive Committee. Mr. Kuula is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). In 2021, he was recognized for his nomination to Globe St.’s Top 50 under 40 in Commercial Real Estate.

A-P Hurd’s 25-year career spans real estate, finance and technology. Her experience running a real estate company and developing nearly $3B of new buildings in Seattle has made her a strong investment and risk manager—in addition to having a deep understanding of how her supply chain comes together to create value. A-P is known for her ability to innovate in a highly regulated industry and think strategically about how public policy and technology are shaping her sector. Since founding SkipStone in 2017, A-P has supported clients such as Sound Transit, the City of San Jose, the City of Bellevue, Community Roots Housing (formerly Capitol Hill Housing), as well as several private developers bringing projects to market. Prior to SkipStone, AP spent 10 years at Touchstone where she assembled a new leadership team and execute a merger/transition from a founder-led company. In 2014 Touchstone was successfully acquired by Urban Renaissance Group, and A-P became President until the completion of the portfolio of projects in August 2017. A-P was responsible for the company’s overall financial performance including operating P&L and investment returns. Under her leadership, the company earned several awards (including National Developer of the Year,) and completed projects that set the high-water mark in Seattle for largest commercial lease, highest sales price per square foot, and highest sales price overall for a single project. A-P has also been a Runstad Fellow and faculty member in the Runstad Real Estate Department at the University of Washington, and published The Carbon Efficient City with the University of Washington Press. Prior to Touchstone, A-P’s career was focused in operations and software development. She worked for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider, and her work there (as well as much of her graduate research) concentrated on complex systems architecture. For a few years she also traded interest rate derivatives for Royal Bank of Canada, the largest Canadian bank. In that role, she worked closely with corporate treasuries and developed her risk management skills.