Matthew (Matt) Ahrens leads Rising's acquisitions activities, including sourcing, underwriting, financing, and closing transactions. Since joining Rising, Matt has closed more than 4 million square feet of opportunistic investments in Southern California with a total capitalization of nearly $1 billion.

Prior to joining Rising, Matt worked for Principal Real Estate Investors, the real estate investment subsidiary of the The Principal Financial Group. While at Principal, Matt was involved in the securitization of more than 200 commercial real estate loans with a total loan balance of more than $1 billion. In a subsequent role, Matt provided investment credit analysis on a $7 billion portfolio of commercial mortgage backed securities.

Matt has Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Accounting from Iowa State University, and a Master's Degree in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California. Matt is an active member of NAIOP and the Pension Real Estate Association.

Larry Green is Senior Vice President US Development for Westfield LLC. He has worked for the company since 1993 in various capacities both in Australia and across the United States. Larry played an important role in many of the company’s portfolio acquisitions and landmark developments including: Centermark & TrizecHahn Acquisitions, the redevelopment of Westfield Valley Fair, Westfield Topanga, Westfield San Francisco Centre, Westfield Century City, Westfield Roseville Galleria, Westfield Culver City and most recently The Village at Westfield Topanga

Larry graduated from the University of Southern California in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and earning letters for his role on the men’s Water Polo team. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has been an active participant in a variety of charitable organizations and LA public schools. Today he serves on the Board of Directors of Southern California Special Olympics, LA Sports & Entertainment Commission and the US Maccabiah Games. Larry remains an avid

sportsman and in 2008 won a gold medal in the men’s open division Water Polo competition at the 11th Pan American Maccabi Games, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Larry is married to Tina Green, a Northern California native, and has a 13 year old daughter.

Stuart Waldman is the president of the Valley Industry & Commerce

Association (VICA), which is recognized as the most active and influential business group in the San Fernando Valley. Prior to joining VICA, Waldman spent 11 years working for the California State Assembly representing the San Fernando Valley. Seven of those years were spent as a Chief of Staff to two Assemblymembers, including Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg.

From 2001 to 2008, Stuart was appointed as a board member to the California Board of Accountancy, the body that governs California’s 68,000 CPAs. In 2004, Stuart was elected secretary-treasurer of the board, overseeing the board's $7 million dollar annual budget. He became the first non-CPA to hold that position since the board‘s creation in 1901.

Waldman has firsthand experience in the private sector. Charged with purchasing and operations for a Woodland Hills Pension Firm for more than six years in the early 1990s, Waldman was instrumental in ensuring that the company continued operation following the

Northridge earthquake. Waldman served in the Army from 1987 to 1989 as a Cavalry Scout with the First Infantry Division. He was awarded the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Army Achievement Medal and the Army Service Ribbon. He attended Los Angeles Valley College, where he received his associate‘s degree, and California State University, Northridge, where he received his bachelor’s degree. Waldman also holds a law degree from Loyola Law School.

Waldman is on the boards of Grandparents as Parents, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles County Business Federation. He also serves on the Air Quality Management Plan Advisory Group for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the Recycled Water Advisory Group for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Mobility Stakeholder Group for the California Board of Accountancy. Stuart and his wife, attorney Nicole Kuklok-Waldman, share their Van Nuys home with their son Beckett and two rescue dogs, Max and Roxy

David Josker is the Managing Director of the Los Angeles North Region for CBRE, Inc., the global leader in real estate services.

Mr. Josker is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of over 70 sales professionals throughout Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. His team comprises all CBRE lines of business including leasing, sales, property management, debt and structured finance, project management, valuation and consulting, with an acute focus on excellent service delivery.

Mr. Josker emphasizes innovation and world class service as differentiators to his professionals. He successfully relocated the Los Angeles North headquarters into CBRE’s first adaptive reuse, known as The Masonic Temple, a 90yr old iconic building in Glendale, Ca. In partnership with CBRE’s Workplace Strategy group, The Masonic Temple implemented a paperless and free addressing workplace, and also introduced the office industry’s first “concierge service”.

Peter Cotugno, DBIA, LEED AP, BD+C, is a Project Executive at W.E. O’Neil Construction Co. of California. He has over 15 years of industry experience on numerous, successful, high profile, award winning, Design-build, and LEED Certified projects. His expertise includes public, retail, multi-family, hospitality and entertainment, as well as aerospace program types, utilizing sustainable practices, the latest in Building Information Modeling, and industry technologies. He is the first California Intern to make Project Executive and can attribute his success through the numerous relationships he has built with clients and colleagues over the years. His excellent problem solving capability, leadership and communication skills in the field make Peter an in invaluable asset to his project teams. Peter holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois and leads W.E. O’Neil’s Design-build initiatives.

University of Illinois – BS – Civil Engineering; LEED A.P., BD+C;

Certified Design-Build Institute of America;

OSHA 30 Hour Certified;

CPR and First Aid Certified;

UCLA Technical Management Program Board;

University of Illinois Alumni Association Life Member;

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Construction Quality Management for Contractors;

Mike Byrne, LEED AP, ASHE is W.E. O’Neil’s Vice President of Operations in California. He has over 20 years of industry expertise and leads operational excellence and strong client relationships in all market sectors. Mike’s broad expertise stretches from Education to Healthcare, Commercial/Retail, Aerospace to Hospitality, Municipal and Entertainment projects throughout Southern California; including current work for: Burbank Town Center, Belmont Village Calabasas, Northrop Grumman, Fifield, Century West Partners, Manhattan Village Mall, Prospera Hotels, Equity Residential, and Bloom Energy, to name a few. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from California State University – Long Beach, and a Certification from Harvard Business School in Integrated Project Management. He is valued for his leadership amongst project teams and clients alike, ensuring the best service and project success. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and Certified by the American Society of Healthcare Engineers. This dad’s “work hard play hard” motto and value of family is not unique to the O’Neil organization.

Jay D. Rubin is a Principal of Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura Inc., a full-service commercial real estate company and member of the Lee & Associates group of companies. He specializes in representing landlords, tenants, business owners and investors in the leasing and sale of professional and medical office properties in the West San Fernando and Conejo Valleys.

Throughout his career, Mr. Rubin has built a client-focused business centered upon customizing real estate solutions to the particular needs of each client, whether Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurial firms or private or public equity investors. Along with considerable expertise in marketing and transaction management, he provides in-depth knowledge of the office sector offering clients real-time intelligence to assist with decision-making.

Mr. Rubin’s considerable transaction expertise has resulted in the successful completion of well over 3,500,000 square feet of sale and lease transactions. Among his recent notable transactions, he has executed 40,000 square feet of leases on behalf of Life Alert Medical Response Inc., a 34,000 square foot lease to Music Reports Inc. in Warner Center, a 47,000 square foot building sale in Woodland Hills, a 12,000 square foot building sale in Chatsworth and a 10,000 square foot building sale in Tarzana.

In 2016 to date, he successfully executed over 42,000 square feet of NNN retail investment sales.

Cusumano recently completed the 480,000 square foot Talaria at Burbank mixed use project which was named the San Fernando Business Journal 2018 “Mixed Use Project of the Year”, and won the 2019 “Golden Nugget” Grand Award. The Whole Foods anchored project is Burbank’s first and only LEED Gold mixed use development. The Cusumano Family is the largest owner of multifamily units in the region and one of the most active philanthropists in southern California. Cusumano is also one of the most active developers in the area having developed scores of projects over the past several decades. The Cusumano Real Estate Group currently has two major projects in the entitlement phase in Burbank. Cusumano is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Providence St. Joseph Foundation, sits on more than a dozen other community boards and has received dozens off awards for philanthropy and civic engagement. Cusumano received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from UCLA, his MBA from Pepperdine, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business. He lives in Malibu.

Lance 26 years experience in commercial real estate with varied responsibilities that include underwriting, acquisition, asset management, leasing, land development, receivership and dispositions that have yielded the following levels of success:

$1.1 billion in gross transaction volume; 11 million square feet of transaction volume with approximately 10 million square feet of that concentrated in retail, specific asset management of 7 million square feet of retail only; additional asset management of 1.1 million square feet of office and industrial; developed approximately $250,000,000 in retail ground up and redevelopment projects comprised of approximately 1,500,000 square feet; performed these duties in approximately 40 different municipalities nationwide.

He is an International Council of Shopping Center (ICSC) member, a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) member, and a licensed Texas Real Estate Broker

Patrick Prescott has been a city planner for 15 years. He joined the City of Burbank as Senior Planner in 2006 and was promoted to Principal Planner in 2010 and then to Deputy City Planner in 2012. During his time with the City, Patrick has had the opportunity to work on many significant projects including the new IKEA store and the North San Fernando Master Plan.

Patrick received a B.A. in Humanities from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from Cal Poly University Pomona. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Kent Handleman oversees all leasing activity for LPC West Los Angeles. With over 28 years of transactional experience encompassing over 10 million square feet of space, he manages a portfolio with 4+ million square feet of office projects, and represents ownerships that include LPC West partnerships, associated capital partners, and third-party owners throughout the South Bay, Playa Vista, Culver City, Santa Monica, downtown Los Angeles, Tri-Cities, and the San Fernando Valley. Prior to joining LPC West, Kent led leasing efforts for Thomas Properties Group in Southern California. This included City National Plaza, a 2.6-million square foot premier office complex in downtown Los Angeles, where he successfully leased approximately 2 million square feet as the project was repositioned in the market. Prior to this, Kent worked at CBRE where he represented tenants and landlords in the leasing, disposition and/or marketing of commercial office property. Kent’s tenure in the industry began in real estate acquisitions and financial analysis for a pension fund advisor. After completing his MBA at the USC Marshall School of Business, he joined MetLife Real Estate Investments and, in addition to hotel and multi-family projects, he oversaw leasing and asset management for a 3.5-million square foot office building portfolio, with 2.5 million square feet in downtown Los Angeles. In his capacity as an asset manager, Kent also directed property management, and was responsible for business/investment decisions regarding these office, hotel, and multi-family projects as owner’s representative.

Vladimir has over 30 years experience in different phases of Electrical Engineering, LEED, Energy Management, Lighting Design and Fire Alarm Systems. He began his career in the Former Soviet Union as an R & D Engineer, designing, manufacturing and testing special electrical machinery equipment for the military. In 1978, Vladimir moved to Israel where he became an executive for the State of Israel Electric Power Company. His responsibilities included overseeing the design, installation and maintenance of power distribution transformers. In 1984, Vladimir left Israel in pursuit of a career in the United States. He established himself in Los Angeles and worked as a leading Electrical Engineer in several Engineering Consulting firms. In 1989, Vladimir founded Davidovich & Associates - a full service consulting Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Life Safety, Lighting Design and Dry Utilities consulting engineering firm.

Vladimir is intimately involved in every aspect of the firm’s activities including the design and construction of every project in the office. He has a hands-on approach and the ability to represent all the trades (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Lighting and Energy Conservation) throughout all stages of the design, which makes him a valuable contributor of any team.

Vladimir is known in the Development, Architectural and Construction communities for his no-nonsense “best value for the money” engineering approach. His innovative ideas and ability to establish mutually beneficial relationships with all members of the design and construction team has earned him a very well deserved recognition and respect in the industry.

Under Vladimir’s leadership, Davidovich & Associates, a 28 years young firm, has become a major player in design community, and is currently providing integrated sustainable consulting engineering services for such prominent clients as Disneyland, Universal Studios, Caruso Affiliated, Cusumano Real Estate Group, Rising Realty, and Crown Realty.