As the eighth President of Georgia State University, Dr. M. Brian Blake leads the State of Georgia’s largest university spanning 6 campuses and a community of nearly 51,000 students and 8,000 faculty and staff. Georgia State is the most ethnically and socioeconomically diverse Research-1 institution in the Nation. Dr. Blake introduced a strategic vision for Georgia State that emphasizes four pillars: Identity, Placemaking, & Belonging, Research, Scholarship, & Creativity, Student Success, and College to Careers. Georgia State’s strategic plan, “The Blueprint to 2033 – Our Place, Our Time”, sets a path for the university to continue to enhance its academic excellence and student success, scholarship and creativity, and campus vibrancy.

During Dr. Blake’s tenure, Georgia State University has set several new milestones. With its increasing reputation, the university received the largest number of applications ever for admission to its Fall 2023 entering class. In the same year, the research enterprise exceeded $200 million in sponsored awards – the highest in history. Dr. Blake oversaw the acquisition of more than $60 Million in government support for a new 120,000 square foot Research Tower that will break ground in 2024 and open in 2026. In FY22, the university also raised a one-year amount of more than $107 Million in philanthropic gifts for the first time in history. An advocate for campus experience, Dr. Blake is leading the effort to establish new interconnected green spaces and enhanced facilities to activate the center of Georgia State’s downtown campus.

Prior to Georgia State, Dr. Blake had over 25 years of faculty and administrative experience across 5 comprehensive research universities including Provost at George Washington University and Drexel University, dean at the University of Miami, and associate dean for research at the University of Notre Dame. During the first 10 years of his academic career, he was professor and later department chair of Computer Science at Georgetown University. Dr. Blake serves on the Board of Directors for Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation, Metro-Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement of Georgia, and the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Dr. Blake has been included on the 2022 and 2023 lists of the Georgia 500 – The State’s Most Influential Leaders as well as recognized as a 2023 Most Admired CEO. In 2023, he was also inducted into Georgia Tech’s College of Computing Hall of Fame. In addition to several honorary degrees, Dr. Blake has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Mercer University, and a Ph.D. in Software Engineering from George Mason University. Blake grew up in Savannah, Ga., and attended Benedictine Military Academy. He and his wife, Dr. Bridget Blake, have two sons, Brendan and Bryce.

Joel Reed is based in Atlanta, GA and serves as Southeast Market President for Gorman & Company with a primary focus on Florida and Georgia projects. Joel has 20 years of experience in urban design, planning, and development. Joel’s experience ranges from senior affordable housing to luxury condominium buildings in Miami and the Florida Keys. He brings considerable knowledge and understanding of the development process given his history as a municipal planner, designer, development consultant, and developer in the private sector.

Joel holds a Master of Arts in Urban Planning and Policy and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, both from the University of Illinois, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Wheaton College. Joel is registered under the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Jared has over 16 years' experience as a lender, completing more than $1.5 billion in commercial loans and more than $600 million CPACE transactions. Previously, Jared served as a loan officer for Voya Financial where he was responsible for the origination of construction, bridge and permanent loans ranging from $10 million to $200 million. Prior to Voya, Jared cofounded the real estate lending platform for AloStar Bank, where he grew the commercial real estate balance sheet to more than $500 million. He started his career as an underwriter for Colony Capital. Jared earned his Business Administration Degree in Real Estate Finance from the University of Georgia.

Anne Michael Sustman is an enthusiastic contributor to Atlanta’s increasingly design-conscious urban landscape. Anne Michael has been working as an architect in the city for the past 20 years, with most of her projects lying within the urban core of Atlanta. She thrives on the challenges of a complex project and is known for consistently guiding her clients through difficult terrain to successful outcomes. As Associate Principal and Director for Commercial Mixed-Use in Page's office in Atlanta, a major part of her role is business development and she continues to broaden Page's client base. Anne Michael has a history of working with existing buildings and is looking to expand the firm's experience in Adaptive Reuse projects.

Anne Michael is also active in the larger real estate and development community through programs and events of ULI and CREW. She is a graduate of the 2016 class of the ULI Center for Leadership (Atlanta) and continues to contribute to the program. She is also an executive committee member of ULI Atlanta's Creative Development Council and recently joined ULI's National Reuse and Redevelopment Council. Anne Michael's passion for mentorship started within AIA Georgia's Equity in Architecture group, which she helped co-found in 2016 and has expanded across various mentorship programs within the industry. She is a past chair of the CREW Mentorship & Protege program and a 2022 graduate of CREW Leadership.

Katherine Lynch is a Principal with TCC’s Atlanta office. In this role, Katherine is responsible for sourcing, shaping and executing TCC’s office and life sciences development and investment in Atlanta, Tennessee, and Alabama. Katherine oversees the firm’s development projects from start to finish, beginning with site acquisition, underwriting, design supervision and capitalization through marketing and leasing, overall asset management and disposition. Projects that Katherine has worked on include Twelve24, a speculative 345,000-square-foot Class AA Office Tower in Dunwoody, GA that was completed in March 2020. Insight Global leased 99% of the project, which was sold in June 2021. Katherine is the TCC lead for Science Square, a $1B mixed-use life sciences district that will include multiple phases of purpose-built R&D labs ground-leased from Georgia Tech. A 17-year veteran of the commercial real estate industry, Katherine previously served as First Vice President for CBRE Atlanta, specializing in the marketing and leasing of office buildings for institutional owners. During her tenure, she completed more than 475 transactions in excess of five million square feet, representing $875 million in total lease volume. In 2009, Lynch was the recipient of the William H. McAdam Memorial Award for being the nation’s highest producing first-year salesperson throughout the Company. Prior to CBRE, she served as Development Associate at Pope & Land Enterprises where she worked on a variety of development activities.

Phil Carson serves as Managing Director of Development for the Atlanta region. Mr. Carson is responsible for directing all phases of the development process, from design and permitting activities to construction and stabilization of Mill Creek communities.

Before joining Mill Creek, Mr. Carson was a Senior Development Associate at Crescent Communities where he led development efforts for multifamily and mixed-use projects in Atlanta. Prior to his tenure at Crescent Communities, Mr. Carson was an Investment Associate at Silverpeak Real Estate Partners, and was primarily focused on multifamily acquisitions and asset management across the Southeast. Before Silverpeak, Mr. Carson worked with J.P. Morgan in Atlanta, and provided investment advice to large family offices, private foundations, and corporate executives across the Southeast.

Mr. Carson received a Bachelor of Science in Financial Management from Clemson University.

Tony has over 34 years experience in providing strategic real estate advisory services for corporate users and non-profit institutions. In particular, Tony has worked closely with clients to develop programs with real world, actionable strategies to align their real estate obligations with their ownership, cost, quality and location objectives.

Tony has extensive experience in providing portfolio reviews and analysis, highest and best use studies, occupancy cost benchmarking, merger and acquistion services, development advisory, master planning, site slection, tenant representation, transaction management, financial analysis and ownership structures. His experience involves working across a wide range of asset classes including office, retail, data centers, and headquarters facilities and transaction types including acquisitions, dispositions, build-to-suits and sale-leaseback transactions.

Some of Tony's distinguished list of clients include SunTrust, McKesson, Ernst and Young, Georgia Tech, Siemens, Microsoft, Sprint, Mellon Bank, Equifax, Wellpoint, Darden Restaurants and Woodruff Arts Center.

Porter Henritze is a Partner in Partners Real Estate’s Atlanta office. He specializes in Office Project Leasing.

Porter has a distinguished career in office leasing, with over 3.5 million square feet of transactions. Porter is known for his strategic insights and ability to cultivate strong client relationships and consistently deliver exceptional results.

Mark leads Eastdil Secured’s Southeast Office Investment Sales business and over the past decade has closed over $10 Billion of sophisticated office and mixed-use transactions. Mark and his team have been extremely active in Midtown and most recently worked on the refinance of Colony Square (2024) and have worked on the sales or recapitalization of 1180 Peachtree (2022), Atlantic Yards (2022), and Ponce City Market (2021).