Bruce Meyerson is a real estate attorney. He counsels real estate owners, developers and lenders with interests in multifamily, office, mixed-use, industrial and condominium properties.

He closes a broad range of transactions involving joint ventures, permanent loans, construction loans, mezzanine loans, private equity investments, securitized lending, workouts, commercial real estate, development and acquisitions and divestitures.

Anthony Orso is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of CCRE, a fully integrated commercial real estate finance company providing loan originations and securitization, loan sales and acquisition services. Since 2010, CCRE has closed over $24 billion worth of loan and become a leading issuer of mortgage-backed securities. CCRE, which was ranked No. 1 Fastest Growing Company by Crain's New York Business in 2014, operates in over 15 locations nationwide with more than 300 employees. Previously, Mr. Orso was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse and Co-Head of the Credit Suisse Real Estate Direct Group where he was responsible for over $100 billion in North American real estate loan origination and over $30 billion of high yield real estate debt and equity distribution. Mr. Orso oversaw the expansion of the business in the US, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, with offices in Dubai and Mexico City. Mr. Orso has also held senior-level real estate positions at APC Realty Advisors, Chemical Bank, Boston Properties, and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Orso also serves on the Board of Directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York and also the in the executive board of director of STARS Club, non-profit organization aiming to assist underprivileged students in their academic pursuits. Mr. Orso is a graduate of Columbia Business School where he received an MBA in Finance, and St. John's University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Barry Sternlicht is Chairman & CEO of Starwood Capital Group, the private alternative investment firm he formed in 1991 focused on global real estate, hotel management, oil and gas, and energy infrastructure. Mr. Sternlicht also serves as Chairman of Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD), the largest commercial mortgage REIT in the U.S.; and French crystal maker Baccarat S.A.; as well as member of the Board of Directors of Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH) the largest publicly traded investor, owner and operator of single-family homes in the U.S.

For the past 26 years, Mr. Sternlicht has structured investments with an asset value of approximately $92 billion. Starwood Capital’s funds have invested in approximately 172,500 multifamily/condo units, 2,900 hotels, 74 million square feet of office properties, 54 million square feet of retail and 52,000 lots of land in residential subdivisions. The Firm currently manages approximately $56 billion of assets on behalf of its high net worth and institutional partners. Starwood Capital, its affiliates and externally managed public companies employ more than 3,700 professionals, while approximately 9,000 additional employees are involved with a dozen portfolio operating companies. The Firm maintains offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Greenwich, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., and affiliated offices in London, Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.

From 1995 through early 2005, Mr. Sternlicht was Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, a company he founded in 1995. During his tenure, he built Starwood Hotels into one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, employing more than 120,000 people with 895 properties in 100 countries. Mr. Sternlicht created W Hotels, perhaps the world’s most successful “boutique” brand, and built the St. Regis Hotels brand from a single hotel to a global brand.

In 2008, Mr. Sternlicht founded SH Group, his new hotel management company. SH Group is the owner and manager of Baccarat Hotels & Resorts and 1 Hotels brands.

In 2016, Mr. Sternlicht was the recipient of PERE’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, he was named the Global Industry Figure of the Year by PERE, received the Cornell Icon of the Industry Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Hotel Investment Forum. In 2013, Mr. Sternlicht was named the Most Important Person in Commercial Real Estate Finance by The Mortgage Observer. In 2010, Mr. Sternlicht was named Executive of the Year and Investor of the Year by Commercial Property Executive. Mr. Sternlicht was also named America’s Best Lodging CEO by Institutional Investor Magazine. He is a member of the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame. He has received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University, the CEO Diversity Award from Diversity Best Practices/Business Women’s Network, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, the Hospitality Heritage Award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and the Marketer of the Year Award from Brandweek. Mr. Sternlicht’s humanitarian efforts have garnered prestigious national honors such as JDRF’s Man of the Year, JDRF’s Living and Giving Award and JDRF’s Chairman’s Award.

Mr. Sternlicht serves on the Board of Directors of The Estée Lauder Companies and the Real Estate Roundtable. Additionally, he formerly served as Chairman of the Board and is currently a Board member of The Robin Hood Foundation, and also serves on the Boards of the Dreamland Film & Performing Arts Center, and the Executive Advisory Board of Americans for the Arts. He is a member of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation Trustee Council, the World Presidents Organization and the Urban Land Institute.

Barry Sternlicht received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Mark Fawer is a partner in the Real Estate group, where he focuses on matters including the representation of real estate developers, funds, REITs, CDOs, investors, and lenders in the acquisition, financing, development, refinancing, recapitalizing and sale of single-asset and portfolios of multifamily, retail, industrial, office, and hotel properties and the origination, purchase, disposition and restructuring of senior and mezzanine real estate and corporate loans and loan participation interests.

David Schonbraun is Co-Chief Investment Officer of the company with a primary focus on structured finance, residential, and alternative investments, and has been with SL Green since 2002. He is also directly responsible for Green Loan Services, the company’s special servicing arm that serves both SL Green and third-party lenders. Mr. Schonbraun has either led or has been a senior team member in the execution of over $25 billion in equity and debt investments. Prior to joining SL Green in 2002, Mr. Schonbraun was a real estate investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he worked on a variety of mergers and acquisitions transactions, as well as debt and equity financings. Mr. Schonbraun received a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Economics and Politics from Princeton University. He is also an active member of the UJA Real Estate Executives (REX) Steering Committee and the Urban Development Mixed Use Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), as well as serving on the Finance and Grantmaking Committees of the Kessler Foundation.

Mr. Schlank is a Founder and Managing Partner of Savanna. At Savanna, Mr. Schlank sits on the investment committee and is in charge of construction and redevelopment and shares responsibilities for asset management, sales and marketing and acquisitions. Mr. Schlank has overseen the acquisition and redevelopment of more than 70 real estate assets, comprising over 20 million square feet of space and nearly $3.8 billion of total capitalization, including raw land development sites, apartments, office buildings, industrial to residential conversions, retail and warehouse/distribution properties. Prior to founding Savanna, Mr. Schlank was a project manager for the Westside Federation for Senior Housing, a New York-based developer of low-income housing. Mr. Schlank received an MS in Real Estate Development from the Columbia School of Architecture and a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Schlank is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University where he teaches a seminar in Real Estate Finance to graduate students in the Columbia Architecture School’s Real Estate Master’s Degree Program.

Ralph Herzka is the chairman and CEO of Meridian Capital Group. Since co-founding the commercial real estate advisory firm in 1991, Mr. Herzka has remained the guiding force behind the company’s evolution from a small Brooklyn-based commercial mortgage brokerage to a national leader in real estate capital markets, having personally arranged over $100 billion in financing. Additionally, Mr. Herzka has led Meridian’s recent expansion into New York City investment sales and retail leasing in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

Mr. Herzka demonstrates an exceptional ability to foster multi-generational relationships with real estate owners and investors and forms critical alliances with lenders to achieve success across the asset spectrum. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

In addition to his professional leadership, Mr. Herzka is a dedicated philanthropist, raising millions of dollars for various organizations over his career. Most notably, he is a passionate participant of Bike4Chai, an annual 180-mile cycling fundraiser for children fighting pediatric illnesses and disabilities.

Mr. Herzka is a lifelong resident of Brooklyn, NY. He and his wife are proud parents and grandparents.

James Flynn is President and Chief Investment Officer of Hunt Mortgage Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hunt Companies. Mr. Flynn is responsible for the management of all the businesses and strategic direction of Hunt Mortgage Group. He joined Hunt Mortgage Group (formerly Centerline Capital Group) in 2007. He is a member of executive management and the investment and credit committees. Mr. Flynn’s prior direct responsibilities at Hunt Mortgage Group include identifying, structuring and pricing new proprietary real estate investments including: bridge and mezzanine debt, preferred equity and JV equity partnership interests. Mr. Flynn’s prior positions at the firm also included: capital raising, business development, and asset management. Mr. Flynn served as portfolio manager for the firm’s commercial mortgage REIT, which included management of CRE CDOs, raised public equity capital for the REIT, and served in various advisory capacities for the firm’s CMBS and high-yield debt funds. Mr. Flynn also led the special servicing, REO and asset disposition units, which comprised 20+ real estate professionals, and an equity portfolio consisting of 1,100 multifamily housing properties with more than 120,000 units. In addition, he directed the special servicing of a $2.5 billion multifamily bond portfolio.

Prior to joining Hunt Mortgage Group, Mr. Flynn practiced law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (GDC) in its real estate practice group, where he represented lenders, real estate funds, developers, and institutional and non-institutional investors in structuring acquisitions and financings for all commercial real estate classes, and advising in the formation of fund partnerships and joint ventures. Before joining GDC, Mr. Flynn was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers.

In 2013, Mr. Flynn was named as one of Commercial Property Executive’s “Stars to Watch” and, in 2014, he was named one of Real Estate Forum’s “Forty under Forty” to watch.

Mr. Flynn earned a Juris Doctorate from Columbia University Law School, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and a Bachelor of Science (finance and accounting) from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, magna cum laude. Mr. Flynn is a member of the California State Bar, ULI, CREFC, MBA, and NAREIM.