As hospitality design leader at Gresham, Smith and Partners, Valli Wiggins has more than 25 years of experience designing captivating projects across the country. Her passion is creating “Instagram-worthy” hotel, restaurant and entertainment venue designs with fresh themes, memorable branding and unrivaled experiences. Keeping her pulse on the latest trends – in Nashville and around the globe – Valli is currently leading local high-profile hospitality/lifestyle projects for Renaissance Hotel’s public spaces and Nashville Yards. Her team is also upgrading the Printers Alley experience for tourists and locals through Hotel Indigo renovations, supporting design for Fifth + Broadway, and was recently a winner in 21c Museum Hotels “Hotel Room of the Future” competition. Valli is active within the industry, serving as a member of the Greater Nashville Hospitality Association and the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association, and as past president and national board member for the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). Outside of the office, she enjoys providing pro bono interior design services for countless community projects such as the Ronald McDonald House and the Memphis Union Mission.

Nicholas is a Partner at Fresh Capital Group, a Nashville-based and Southeast-focused full service commercial real estate development and management company with a portfolio value exceeding $350 million. Fresh Capital’s primary focus is acquiring and developing restaurant build-to-suite assets and multi-tenant buildings throughout the Southeast and parts of the Mid-West.

Nicholas advises on the acquisition, development and financing of new assets, provides management and oversight on the day to day operation of stabilized assets, and pursues opportunities to ensure the continued growth of Fresh Capital. He has a commercial real estate focused public accounting background with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP in New York City and numerous years of portfolio and asset management experience with a privately held commercial real estate company in California where he oversaw the operation and management of 5MM square feet of retail and office property.

Nicholas graduated from Penn State University with a BS in Accounting.

Elliott Kyle, a native Nashvillian, is very active in the Nashville market and the southeast in general. Elliott is a partner in several Nashville developments (including the recently sold Edgehill Village) with a focus on adaptive reuse mixed use centers and specialty purpose, free standing buildings. In addition to working development deals in Nashville, Elliott specializes in retail and landlord tenant representation for both local and national tenants.

Alex Marks is the Principal of Royal Investments, LLC. Royal is a real estate investment and development firm which develops residential, commercial and hospitality related properties. Originally from California, Marks has extensive hands-on experience in the acquisition, financing, development, management and disposition of complex projects located throughout the country. Since arriving in Tennessee in 2004, he has worked on more than thirty properties around the state, including purchase of sale of large tracts of downtown Nashville property and the redevelopment of three historic buildings on Broadway Street.

Marks is currently developing the new 169-room Dream Hotel located on historic Printer’s Alley. Set to open in late 2018, Dream Nashville includes the iconic Utopia Hotel building, fully restored with its original stone exterior, wood flooring and crown molding, which will be attached to a new 10-story tower and will feature six experiential dining and nightlife venues on Fourth Avenue North and Printer’s Alley.

Marks received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from University of Southern California.

Greg Adkins is the President & CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Association (TnHTA), a statewide 501(c)(6) professional trade association representing over 1600 companies, inclusive of Tennessee restaurants, lodging, and tourism partners. TnHTA is the advocacy voice and key resource for information and education for the Hospitality & Tourism Industry in Tennessee. Adkins is a Former board and executive committee member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, member of the Governor Haslam’s Tennessee Tourism Committee, Chairman of the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Commission, Former Nashville Metropolitan Parks Board member, Immediate Past Chairman of International Association of Hotel Executives, and executive committee and board member of the Music City Bowl.

He served as the President of the Tennessee County Services Association, board member of the Tennessee County Commissioners Association, Chair of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Business Conditions Council, and board member of the Tennessee Society of Association Executives board member. Formerly, Adkins was elected as Nashville Metropolitan Council District 26 for eight years before reaching his term limit. On the council, Greg served as Chair of the Convention Center & Tourism Committee passing the initial ordinance for the Music City Center and also was the Chairman of the Rules and Confirmation Committee.

Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the Tennessee Public Transportation Association and as legislative director with the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT). He began his career as a Policy Research Analyst for the Tennessee General Assembly. Adkins is a veteran who served in the United States Army Reserve and holds a J.D. from the Nashville School of Law and a B.S. from Tennessee Tech University.

Mylinda Vick has spent 20 years working in corporate real estate. As a principal of Cherry & Associates, LLC, which was established in July, 1994 as an exclusive tenant/buyer representation firm, Mylinda is a seasoned veteran of Tenant/Buyer transactions having completed over $300M in total transaction volume.

Prior to becoming a Principal in Cherry & Associates, LLC, Mylinda was the Executive Assistant and served as the Assistant Secretary for McDevitt Street Bovis, which is now Bovis Lend Lease, a worldwide commercial construction company. During her Tenure, she handled Human Resources for the Nashville Office, Lease negotiations; was a project assistant for hospital construction projects throughout the United States, as well as serving as an officer of the company.

Mylinda has been recognized by CoStar Realty Group as a “Top Power Broker” for multiple years, and has regularly been featured in the Nashville Business Journal and received the designation of Top Brokers published by the Nashville Business Journal. The Nashville City Paper featured Mylinda as “Top Ten” People to Watch. Mylinda has received the Middle Tennessee Office Lease of the Year Award on two separate occasions for office lease transactions totaling over 300,000 sf. She has been the featured speaker at the Nashville Economic Forum on several occasions. She is a frequent presenter at the International Tenant Representation Alliance (ITRA).

Mylinda has represented many Corporate Clients including: Bridgestone, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, Mars Petcare, Inc., Harper Collins Publishing, South Central A/V, Vanguard Healthcare, Century II Staffing and MorphoTrust to reference a few.

She provides corporate real estate services for clients, including lease administration, site selection, project management, financial analysis, negotiations, move management services.

Mylinda has been involved in the following organizations: has proudly served as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for International Tenant Representation Alliance (ITRA) Global. She has also served as Chairman for the Economic Forum Committee; Chaired Athena Nominee Luncheon Committee, served as President of Women in Commercial Real Estate in Nashville, TN; Served as Secretary of the local CCIM Chapter, nominated for the NBJ’s Women of Influence Award. She is the past Chairman of the Finance Committee for Bellevue Baptist Church and also volunteers for school and community projects.

Mylinda is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) since 2002. CCIM is recognized expert in the disciplines of commercial and investment real estate. She is the Principal Broker for her firm and participates in ongoing education classes.

Tom Harwell is Director of Leasing and Marketing for Eakin Partners, and provides insight and direction regarding acquisition and development opportunities. Tom is a partner in the firm as well as Eakin Properties, the general partner for the Eakin portfolio.

A native NashVillian, Tom attended Washington & Lee University and subsequently received his Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Georgia.

Tom joined Eakin Partners in 2000 as lead Leasing Representative, responsible for the initial lease-up of Virginia Way Plaza, an 80,000 SF Class A office building in Maryland Farms. He is currently responsible for the existing portfolio of 1,800,000 SF of Class A office space, which includes One Burton Hills, 30 Burton Hills, 6 Burton Hills, Roundabout Plaza, Truist Plaza, Grassmere Business Park, 1201 Demonbreun and Peabody Plaza.

Rob Gage joined Al. Neyer in 2015 to open the company’s Nashville office and expand new business and development efforts in the Southeast. He helps lead and manage all of Al. Neyer’s work in the region from project inception to completion. Rob has more than 25 years of business development and management experience and is known for his infectious enthusiasm and ability to build strong, collaborative teams that support project and client success. In his first two years at Al. Neyer, Rob helped launch more than $100 million in development and design build work in Greater Nashville, including Mallory Green and Cedar Farms.

Zach is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Pender Capital. Zach co-founded Pender in 2015 and brings over 16 years of experience in both commercial real estate finance and capital markets expertise. Zach oversees the firm’s Investment and Research program which includes deal sourcing, research, and structuring and is a member of the Investment and Research Committee and the Management Committee. Prior to Pender, Zach served as Managing Director/ Senior Vice President for Liberty SBF, a commercial finance company based in Philadelphia, where he was responsible for establishing Liberty’s Western Regional HQ in Los Angeles and directed West Coast originations and operations. Zach personally originated over $60 million of commercial loans during the first year of operations on the West Coast. In 2008, Zach joined Silver Point Capital, LP in New York, a Goldman Sachs partner fund, where he was responsible for commercial real estate loan originations and insurance-linked securities trading. During his tenure at Silver Point, Zach traded more than $500 million in distressed commercial real estate debt, insurance-linked securities, and assets in the capital markets. From 2004 to 2008, Zach served as Senior Vice President/Division Director of Velocity Commercial Capital where he was the company’s highest grossing originator in e