Why South Florida?

A well-known and venerated industry veteran, Richard Millard was at the helm of Trust Hospitality for over three decades before joining Highgate to lead business development and owner relations efforts in the region. Prior to joining Trust, the UK-born hotelier served in management positions with some of the world’s most recognized hotel companies, including Hyatt, Sheraton and Hilton. A self-described “lifetime hotelier,” Richard continues to guide Trust’s development and growth.

Gopal Rajegowda is a Senior Vice President at Related Companies and a Managing Partner of Related Urban-Southeast, a development platform focused on sourcing, developing, and managing best-in-class mixed-use properties within the southeast United States. Mr. Rajegowda joined Related in 2004, and has over 15 years of experience managing all aspects of mixed-use real estate acquisition and development, including financial analysis, deal structuring, partner negotiations, financing, and project and asset management. He has been directly responsible for developing multiple mixed-use hospitality projects, including the W South Beach in Miami Beach and the Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, where he led the programming, development and grand opening of the food and beverage and retail. Most recently, he headed the development of the Hilton West Palm Beach, a public private partnership with Palm Beach County. Throughout his career, Mr. Rajegowda has earned a reputation for delivering results and has been passionate about developing successful destinations that bring forth the vitality of urban locales by combining world-class architecture, urban planning, hospitality, art, experiential retail, food and beverage, community, education and density. Mr. Rajegowda holds a M.A. in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and a B.A. in Mathematics from Cornell University. He currently resides in West Palm Beach and is a board member of the Economic Council of Palm Beach County and Chamber of Commerce of The Palm Beaches.

Melissa is a Managing Director in the Miami office of JLL Capital Markets, Americas. She has over 15 years of experience in the real estate industry, securing debt and joint venture equity financing for a broad range of property types with a focus on Office and Industrial. Over the course of her career, she has closed more than $3 billion in capital through first mortgages, mezzanine loans, bridge loans, acquisitions, and joint venture equity for a variety of asset types throughout the U.S. Prior to joining JLL, Melissa spent three years as a Managing Director at Ackman-Ziff. Before that, she held acquisitions and in-house capital markets roles at Maxwelle Real Estate Group in Aventura, Florida, and Eretz Group in New York City. Melissa also serves as Director of Programming for the CREW Network Miami Chapter, and has a seat on the Real Property Development Advisory Board at the University of Miami School of Law. She earned a B.S. from University of Miami.

Andrew founded Mantra in 2007 - a real estate development firm that specialized in funding and developing on-campus student housing. After selling his interest in the firm, he joined the City of Miami’s Department of Real Estate and Asset Management. At the City, he manages a diverse asset class and focuses on deal creation, acquisitions, development, finance, construction, leasing, and operations - leading multi-million dollar projects from inception to completion. Andrew holds a J.D. from New England School of Law and a B.S. in Hospitality Administration from Florida State University.