Ting Qiao has played a key role in transforming the face of real estate across the state of Texas, disrupting residential community development and redefining what the term “home” means. Founded by Ting in 2016, Wan Bridge is now a leading operator of build-to-rent communities in Texas, with offices and projects throughout the Houston, DFW, and surrounding Austin areas.

Ting believes in a leadership style that focuses on treating people with respect and giving them the support to “work hard, have fun and make a lot of money” while emphasizing the importance of innovation, technology, and team culture. Ting has been recognized as an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist for the past three years and several Houston Business Journal awards including 2022 Most Admired CEO. Under Ting’s guidance, Wan Bridge has been extended the recognition of many awards including the 2022 TAB Star Award, the 2022 Landmark Award, the 2022 The Fire Award, the 2021 Innovation Award, and Best Places to Work.

Povieng has deep expertise in the real estate industry and most recently served as Co-President, North American Rental Division at Empire Communities where he helped launch the company's build-to-rent operations with communities in Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina. Previously, Povieng was the President, Southern California at Encore Capital Management, a real estate private equity firm where he led land acquisitions and homebuilding operations on for-sale and rental housing communities. Povieng’s previous real estate experience included senior management roles at KB Home and Pulte Group where he oversaw teams responsible for land acquisition, entitlements, purchasing, development, and construction. Povieng earned a Bachelor of Science in Management Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and Planning from the University of California, San Diego, as well as a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California. Povieng is also a licensed general engineering contractor, general building contractor, and real estate broker.

Johnny has been an investor and private lender in the SFR class for over 20 years and is Vice President of the Private Client Group at LendingOne.

LendingOne’s Private Client Group provides competitive and customized SFR aggregation and portfolio financing solutions to large institutional investors, entrepreneurial owners, national property groups, private funds, family offices, and brokers. The Private Client Group is a team of seasoned real estate professionals with deep experience across SFR capital markets, operations, and deal structuring.

The Private Client Group is committed to deploy $3B in capital for SFR in 2023 with the backing of the world’s largest global alternative asset manager.

Patton K. Jones, vice chairman of Newmark’s Central Texas office, is responsible for

the Austin and San Antonio conventional multifamily capital markets business, which

includes multifamily investment sales, land, equity and debt. Patton oversees business

development, market research and all aspects of property disposition. The collective

business lines produce roughly $4 billion in sales annually. Patton is often recognized

as a top producing broker for the multifamily investment sales team companywide.

Prior to joining Newmark, Patton was co-founder of an aviation parts company. He lived

and worked in London and Hong Kong and was responsible for sales in 33 countries.

The company grew 9,200% in three years and was the winner of numerous business

awards: It ranked No. 1 in “Houston’s 100 Fastest-Growing Businesses” in 1999 by the

Houston Chronicle, ranked No. 7 in Dun & Bradstreet and Entrepreneur magazine’s

“Hot 100, America’s Fastest-Growing New Businesses 1999,” and was recognized as

having one of the aviation industry’s best web sites by Forbes Magazine in 2000.

Additionally, Patton’s past work experience includes single-family patio home

development, energy trading and serving as an international sales manager for a

Fortune 500 tech firm.

Mr. Castillo has over 22-years of experience in commercial real estate and development with another 9-years in architecture. He is also an Architect and a U.S. Army Veteran, plus, holds both a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters in Architecture degrees from Texas Tech University. Throughout Mr. Castillo’s real estate development career, he has led real estate development efforts for multiple build-to-rent, multifamily, and high-rise mixed-use development projects, moreover, he has personally managed over 29+ zoning cases for multiple development projects across the United States.

Before coming to PlaceMKR, Mr. Castillo was the Managing Director for Urban Moment, a Build-to-rent/Single-family-to-rent Texas based development firm with over a $1BN in equity allocated toward BTR/SFR developments. He led the company’s corporate development, partnership, and acquisition strategy. During and prior to his period with Urban Moment, he has been working on BTR/SFR and multifamily development efforts for several years, with numerous communities developed and/or breaking ground. He has an extensive understanding of the BTR/SFR development process and has a versatile background which understands real estate development from multiple points-of-view.

Prior to Urban Moment, Mr. Castillo was the Chief Operating Officer for De La Vega Capital and led the company’s strategy and growth with an emphasis on De La Vega’s national real estate development efforts. Prior to De La Vega, Mr. Castillo was the Senior Vice President for HALL Group and lead the development efforts for HALL; he oversaw real estate endeavors, entitlements, design, and financial oversight for all new ground-up development projects for Dallas, Frisco, and Napa.

Mark Grobmyer is a Shareholder in Winstead's Real Estate Development & Investments Practice Group. Mark’s practice is focused on real estate development, with an emphasis on structuring and administering residential, mixed-use and office condominiums, and residential and mixed-use communities. Mark also has experience in a wide variety of commercial real estate transactions including drafting acquisition and disposition contracts, easements and license agreements. In addition to representation of homebuilders, Mark specializes in representing build-for-rent and single-family rental owners and operators on a variety of matters, including acquisition, disposition, land-banking, governance, exit-strategy planning, and regulatory requirement compliance. Mark also represents master planned community developers on the challenges in planning for accommodating build-for-rent and single-family rental projects within and adjacent to new and mature master planned communities, and serves as the Chair of Winstead’s Build-for-Rent and Single Family Rentals Practice Group.

Prior to joining Winstead, Mark worked in Washington, D.C. as a legislative aide for United States Senator Blanche L. Lincoln of Arkansas. While attending the University of Arkansas School of Law, Mark worked as a summer clerk in the Office of the Attorney General for the Republic of Palau.

Karen is the Managing Director of Build-to-Rent for RangeWater Real Estate in the

property management division. She is responsible for supporting the Senior Managing

Director and Executive Managing Director in overseeing the operations of the management

division for the build-to-rent platform, maintaining client relations, and overseeing a client-

based portfolio within multifamily.

Karen joined RangeWater in 2014 with more than 15 years of management experience

mostly in multifamily. Her experience includes the direct management of properties

ranging from lease-ups and new developments to value-add renovations. Karen has

extensive knowledge in the Atlanta, Mid-Atlantic, and Florida markets with experience in

the Mid-West as well.

Karen earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality Administration with an

emphasis in Business Management from Georgia Southern University. She is an Executive

Certified Property Manager through the Institute of Real Estate Management. Karen is also

a member of the National Apartment Association, the Atlanta Apartment Association, and

the National Association of Realtors. She currently resides in Newnan, GA, with her two

children, Camden and Abigail.

Prior to joining Darwin Homes in August, Poston was Head of Asset Management at Sylvan Road Capital, responsible for the performance of all Sylvan's investment vehicles representing approximately $700 million in committed equity, including a portfolio of over 6,000 SFR assets throughout his tenure. Previously, Poston launched and managed Starwood's second SFR equity portfolio, including scaling to more than 3,000 single-family homes across the U.S. and overseeing the performance of all facets of operations, acquisitions, renovation, leasing and property management.

Rob Bridges serves as the President of Marsh McLennan Agency’s Austin office. He previously served as the Managing Partner of the Wortham Insurance office in Austin. Rob started his career in the insurance industry with Chubb Insurance Company in Atlanta. He is a native Austinite and graduated from TCU in 1998. Rob currently serves on the board of R Bank, The Boys & Girls Club, AARO, Austin Crime Commission and is a member of YPO. Rob and his wife Elise have three kids ages 17, 15 and 13.

Jason Flory is managing director, Austin for NexMetro Communities, a national developer of luxury

leased home neighborhoods that has nearly 8,000 homes completed and under construction, repre-

senting 43 projects in major metro areas across the nation. With two decades of industry expertise, Mr.

Flory provides leadership, oversight, and delivers value in high-quality assets on time for the compa-

ny’s Avilla Homes build-to-rent (BTR) professionally managed communities. A NexMetro team mem-

ber since 2016, Jason has previously served as development manager of Dallas and vice president

of development of Dallas and Austin. Prior positions include engineer consultant with Jones & Carter,

Inc. and Kimley-Horn and Associates, as well as technical sales engineer with Contech Engineered

Solutions and Propex Geosolutions. Originally from Bryan, Texas, Jason was raised in Lafayette, Lou-

isiana, has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana State University, and is a

Licensed, Professional Engineer.

Chris Kopacek specializes in business development for Lonestar Development Partners. He is responsible for investor relations, debt and equity sourcing and broadening Lonestar’s network. Mr. Kopacek has an MBA from The University of Texas and was a former F-16 fighter pilot and a distinguished graduate from the U.S Air Force Academy.

Russ Murphy is Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of Aspen Heights Partners. Since the company’s founding, Mr. Murphy has been committed to driving innovation and corporate culture that has resulted in the successful development, financing, and construction of over $1.7 billion worth of student housing and multifamily real estate in projects nationwide. Mr. Murphy has been in senior level positions for over fifteen years and has spent the past ten years focusing on real estate development, construction and acquisitions. His diverse background consists of Executive level positions as well as sitting on multiple boards. Russ has started as well as invested in multiple nonprofits, held consulting positions with small to mid-size companies. Russ has been involved in acquiring small businesses and invests in startups. He has spent time working with companies such as Tyson Foods, JB Hunt, Alternative Design Mfg. and Simmons Foods, Inc. His passion for our non-profit, Aspen Heights Awake, inspired him to take on the leadership of Chairman of the Board. Russ earned his B.S.B.A. in Management and Human Resource Management from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and is certified as a Professional in Human Resources.

As Project Manager with Shreve Land Constructors, specializing in SFR’s, Clayton puts his passion, education, and experience to work where he can truly make a difference. Clayton takes great pride in his work and always puts our clients’ needs first. Clayton holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Science from Texas A&M University, as well as a Post-Graduate Degree from the University of Texas in Business Analytics, AI, and Machine Learning.

Scott joined Northmarq in May 2020 to expand the company’s Investment Sales platform across Texas. He focuses on establishing and maintaining client relationships, and providing advisory, transactional, debt structures and equity sourcing services to multifamily owners and developers. He is part of the company’s Built-to-Rent and Institutional Advisory practice groups.

Prior to joining Northmarq, Scott was a Managing Director and Team Lead at Jones Lang LaSalle for six years, and a Senior Director and senior executive over central Texas for Institutional Property Advisors, a Marcus and Millichap company, for 12 years. During the last 18 years, Scott’s direct transactional and oversight experience exceeds $7 billion. With more than 50,000 apartment units sold, Scott is recognized as a market expert and is frequently called upon to speak or provide commentary at real estate conferences and in media outlets. In addition, Scott serves as an advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Beige Book publication.

In addition to his multifamily brokerage experience, Scott served as the regional manager for two of Marcus & Millichap’s flagship offices in Los Angeles and Encino California, and was the Western United States Director for Special Asset Services where he was charged with supporting more than 300 senior agents and creating direct client relationships with many of the nation’s largest financial institutions and servicers.