South Florida Capital Markets

Kyle Asher, Partner, Managing Director & Co-Head, Opportunistic Private Credit. Mr. Asher is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Monroe Capital’s Opportunistic Private Credit investment vehicles, and Head of Underwriting & Structuring. He is also a Partner in Monroe Capital LLC. He is responsible for deal origination, structuring, and portfolio management, as well as overseeing the opportunistic business and its team. As part of the opportunistic business, Mr. Asher co-leads the firms’ investments in real estate, specialty finance and corporate special situations. He joined the firm in 2009 and is a member of the Opportunistic Private Credit Fund’s Investment Committee. He serves as the Co-Chair of the firm’s Strategic Planning Committee. Mr. Asher has over 14 years of investment experience and has led the underwriting of over $5 billion of debt and equity transactions, across a variety of opportunistic private investments. Prior to Monroe, he was an Analyst with Chicago-based Calder Capital Partners, a direct and fund-of-funds private equity firm partly owned by Goldman Sachs and Ares Capital (formerly Allied Capital), where he performed due diligence on various direct and fund-of-fund investments, sourced transactions and assisted in capital raising. Mr. Asher began his career as an Equity Analyst for MindShare Capital, an institutional money-manager where he focused on the valuation and trading patterns of small-cap growth companies. Mr. Asher earned his M.B.A. in Finance and International Business from Northwestern University and his B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Northwestern University.

Asi Cymbal is the Chairman of Cymbal DLT Companies. Mr. Cymbal has over 30 years of experience in real estate development, construction, finance, and law. He is driven by his passion for great architecture and design, his focus on transforming communities, and his commitment to creating great wealth for his investors. He has been fortunate to work with the world’s best architects and designers (Philippe Starck, Bjarke Ingels, Enrique Norten, Jo Palma, Arquitectonica) as a first mover in neighborhoods at a critical time in their transition (the Financial District in Manhattan, Tribeca, SOHO, the Miami Design District, Wynwood, Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach, Miami Gardens). Mr. Cymbal is grateful to his investors and proud of the fact that he has rewarded them with unmatched returns.  Mr. Cymbal raised his first fund in 2010.  That $3 million fund is now worth over $180 million.  He is focused on increasing that to $700 million by 2026. After experimenting with retirement in 2014, he came back to create a second fund during the 2020 Pandemic.  He turned that $16 million fund into $90 million in 20 months. Mr. Cymbal is currently raising a $100 million evergreen fund to be deployed into the $2 billion Cymbal DLT pipeline. Mr. Cymbal also has significant food and beverage experience. He has co-created and owned over half a dozen of the hottest restaurants and clubs in Miami, including Sra. Martinez (with celebrity chef and James Beard award-winner, Michelle Bernstein), Bardot, and gigi. Mr. Cymbal has been named by the South Florida Business Journal as a Heavy Hitter in Construction and Real Estate Development, a Top 100 Power Leader, and as one of 2013’s People to Watch. He has also appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Cymbal is the Vice Chair and board member of Florida International University’s College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts - Miami Beach Urban Studios. He is also a board member of Wynwood Norte, the organization that is spearheading the revitalization of north Wynwood. Mr. Cymbal was a past board member of Business for the Arts of Broward. Mr. Cymbal is a graduate of Vassar College and the UCLA School of Law. He is an experienced real estate and business attorney licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., and is a licensed general contractor in Florida.

Patrick Carroll is the founder and CEO of CARROLL. As CEO, Patrick Carroll defines and implements strategic plans designed to further expand CARROLL's existing platforms. He infuses a hands-on approach to guide every aspect of the company leveraging his diverse real estate investment experience, asset management expertise, and overall industry knowledge. This approach, along with an aggressive acquisition strategy, led to the national growth and rapid success of “CARROLL”. Relevant Experience – Patrick Carroll started his real estate investment and development career in December of 2004, founding Carroll Organization and investing in residential properties in Georgia and Florida. Following these initial investments, M. Patrick Carroll developed several residential communities in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. With the success of those residential developments, he turned his focus to commercial real estate development and investment, successfully developing a retail shopping center, a mixed-use property, and student housing. In 2008 Patrick Carroll successfully sold his development projects. In 2009, Patrick Carroll acquired three property management companies; creating a 20,000 unit Property Management Infrastructure for Carroll Organization. In 2010, in partnership with Institutional Investors, Carroll began acquiring Multifamily Properties throughout the Southeast and Texas. To date, Carroll has successfully acquired over $6.6 Billion in Multifamily Properties, as well as successfully exited sixty of these properties; resulting in $4.5 Billion in sales proceeds and producing an average gross IRR of ~28%. Education/Affiliations – Patrick Carroll is an active supporter of Jesuit High School in Tampa, FL, Academy of the Holy Names in Tampa, FL, The Boys and Girls Club of Tampa Bay. Patrick Carroll is currently a member of the National Multifamily Housing Council, and the Urban Land Institute.

Faisal Ashraf is the Founder and Chief Executive of Lotus Capital Partners, LLC. From 2013 to 2016, Mr. Ashraf served as Managing Director and the Head of Capital Markets & Large Loan Lending at CCRE, the largest non-bank CMBS lender in the United States. During his tenure at CCRE, he successfully originated & risk managed over $4 billion in mortgage and mezzanine capital. Prior to joining CCRE, Mr. Ashraf served as a senior member on the US real estate finance team for Crédit Suisse where he structured and closed over $35 billion in debt and equity related products. Mr. Ashraf’s focus at Crédit Suisse was on LBO's, large loans, development debt, and mezzanine financing. He also served as the Deputy Head of the Real Estate Finance in Europe where his group financed over $5 billion of mortgage and mezzanine capital across eight countries. Mr. Ashraf started his career at Moody’s Investors Service where he underwrote over $15 billion in US commercial real estate loans. He holds a B.A. from Hofstra University.

Nelson oversees the operational aspects of the company, including accounting, finance, underwriting, construction, legal and risk management. Since co-founding Integra in 2009, he has managed the development of more than $375 million dollars of construction throughout Florida and has grown the company’s portfolio to more than $500 million dollars across 8 different asset classes. Nelson has a Finance and Marketing degree from University of Miami and a Master’s in Engineering from Florida International University.

Ms. Resnick serves as Managing Director. In this capacity, she provides oversight to all of the firm’s investments, asset management activities and business plan execution. Cassie is also involved in all facets of the acquisition, disposition and financing processes for the firm. Prior to joining Mast, Ms. Resnick was an Associate at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in New York. During her tenure at JLL, she provided advisory and disposition services on hospitality and mixed-use assets valued in excess of $5 billion. Additionally, she was responsible for underwriting equity and debt transactions ranging in size from $50 million to $1 billion across recapitalization, restructuring and other value recovery strategies for non-performing positions. Prior to JLL, Ms. Resnick was an Analyst at WR Hambrecht + Co., a San Francisco-based investment bank where she evaluated initial and secondary equity offerings, and merger and acquisitions opportunities for technology-focused companies. Previously, Mr. Resnick was an Intern at Ernst and Young where she analyzed hotel markets and worked on feasibility studies. Ms. Resnick received her Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University. She is often a guest lecturer at FIU’s hospitality master’s program, actively participates in the South Florida Chapter of the Cornell Hotel Society, Pi Beta Phi fraternity for Women, and Renew, a real estate network empowering women. Ms. Resnick Cassie came in first place in the New York Road Runners 31st Annual NYRR Empire State Building Run-up. She also holds a Series 7 license as well as a Real Estate Salesperson license in New York. Ms. Resnick spends time volunteering at Tribe events and is an active supporter of Kiva, an international nonprofit founded in 2005 that connects people through lending to alleviate poverty.

James Murad is a Managing Director at RIPCO, where he leads all efforts relating to underwriting, structuring, and placing commercial real estate transactions with a focus on ground-up and transitional assets. Throughout his career, James has successfully closed in excess of $6 billion of commercial real estate loans and equity placements. He takes pride in acting as a true advisor for his clients and puts an emphasis on identifying the capital provider that is the best structural fit for the borrower while also providing the most attractive economic terms. Prior to joining RIPCO, James spent over five years as Managing Director at Meridian Capital Group as well as the prior three years as a Director at Eastern Consolidated. James received his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Real Estate from the University of South Carolina where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Kyle has more than ten years of experience in the commercial real estate finance and corporate finance. Prior to joining Nuveen Green Capital, he was a Director of Originations at American Real Estate Capital, the lending arm of American Financial Group, a Fortune 500 life insurance company headquartered in Cincinnati OH. He focused on originating permanent, fixed rate commercial mortgages over $15MM for all major asset types with an additional focus on leisure assets, including amusement, water parks, and marinas. Kyle began his banking career with LaSalle bank in Chicago, IL and later, Bank of America. He also spent three years working internationally for Jaguar Mining in Brazil and speaks fluent Portuguese. Kyle earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Finance from Case Western Reserve University and completed commercial credit training at LaSalle Bank. A native of Cleveland, OH, Kyle currently resides in Miami and enjoys traveling and spending time with family.

Joe Hernandez is a sought-after transactional real estate and business lawyer with a unique perspective: he is able to draw from his prior work experience as a banker and general counsel for a private equity firm to inform his representation of a variety of clients seeking to engage in complex commercial real estate and business transactions. Joe’s clients include real estate developers, financial institutions, private equity firms, high net worth individuals, and public entities in all phases of complex commercial real estate and business transactions in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. He handles acquisitions, development, financing, leasing, joint ventures, and advises clients on raising capital for real estate projects. Joe has also developed a particular niche representing condominium associations and cooperative corporations being pursued by developers for acquisition of the units and termination of the condominium or cooperative. Joe coordinates a multi-disciplinary approach in order to counsel clients in navigating the myriad of legal issues faced by associations and unit owners in these situations. Joe also represents condominium associations, community associations, developers of condominium projects, and groups of unit owners in a variety of condominium law and community association matters, including turnovers, dispute resolution, casualties and construction defects issues. Joe is an agent for several national title insurance companies and has handled the resolution of complex title insurance issues involving real property in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the firm, Joe served as general counsel for an asset management firm owned by Cerberus Capital. Prior to that, Joe was the head of the real estate practice group at the Miami office of an AmLaw 100 firm and a real estate shareholder at one of the largest law firms in the country. Prior to law school, Joe was a banker at a large money center bank in New York and also worked for the predecessor of Bank of America for five years as a corporate and real estate banker. Joe was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) in 2017. Active in the community, Joe is on the board of directors of Junior Achievement of Greater Miami. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law and teaches courses in real estate finance for the Real Property Development L.L.M Program.