Kwame S. Brathwaite is responsible for strategic partnerships with Real Estate Developers invested in the KU model as well as fostering positive relationships with the local municipalities in our rapidly growing portfolio. Prior to his role with Kitchen United, Kwame was the VP of Real Estate Development for Citibank Realty Services and Regional Portfolio Manager for McDonald’s USA. In both roles, he was tasked with protecting existing assets and growing the value of each company’s west coast portfolios. An executive with 17 years of experience in real estate from his hometown of New York City, Brathwaite has a B.A. from Amherst College and an MBA from Marshall School of Business. He founded and has grown his own company and continues to pursue his passions of fine art and his family business.

Ryan Nelson is a Managing Principal for Turnbridge Equities, a privately-held, vertically-integrated real estate investment and development firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and Austin. Ryan oversees the Company’s acquisitions, operations, and asset management activities, focused on value-add and opportunistic real estate investments throughout the US.

Prior to joining Turnbridge, Ryan was a Managing Director for MRP Realty, where he was responsible for opening their New York City office and successfully building a multi-strategy portfolio, with multiple, institutional partners. Previously, he was a senior vice president of acquisitions and development, with Sherwood Equities where he spent eight years and was responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and managing Sherwood’s acquisitions and development projects in New York City, totaling over $1 billion in transaction volume. Prior to joining Sherwood, Ryan was a partner with Champion Partners in Dallas, Texas, and prior to joining Champion, he was a project manager with Turner Construction.

Ryan received his M.B.A. from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin and his B.S. in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University. Ryan is a Council Member on the Urban Development Mixed Use Council (Red Flight) for ULI as well an Advisory Council Member for the Texas McCombs Real Estate Finance Center.

Belinda Schwartz has chaired Herrick’s Real Estate Department since 2014, is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee since 2017 and is a 30+ year veteran of New York City’s commercial real estate market. She is a leader and mentor for 50+ attorneys and urban planners (23 of which are women) and one of the only women in the country to chair a major commercial real estate practice.

One of the industry’s most creative real estate dealmakers, Belinda’s clients value her ability to find common ground in negotiations and achieve a desirable outcome as swiftly as possible. Her clients include prominent developers, owners, funds, investors and family-owned real estate businesses, whom she advises in complex debt and equity transactions including real estate restructurings and workouts; fund formation; property acquisitions and sales; joint ventures; development deals; construction matters; ground leases and commercial leases.

Belinda frequently advises clients in single asset and portfolio transactions involving residential, hospitality, office and retail properties across the U.S. She has also advised on several of New York City’s largest development projects, including Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Empire Stores complex, Downtown Brooklyn’s 1.8 million square-foot City Point project, and one of the largest land swaps in Manhattan history, a deal which won REBNY’s coveted Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Award. Recently, Belinda has been leading her clients through the impact of COVID-19 on their real estate transactions, development projects, workouts and restructurings, loans and leases as a critical addition to her clients' business team.

Belinda has consistently been ranked one of New York City’s leading real estate lawyers by Chambers USA, Super Lawyers, City & State and Real Estate Forum, which has twice named her a “woman of influence.” Belinda was named one of National Law Journal's Trailblazers in Real Estate/Construction Law in 2020. In 2019, Belinda was named one of Real Estate Weekly's, Real Estate Dealmakers, and in 2018, one of Real Estate Weekly’s Leading Ladies of Real Estate. In 2017, Belinda was named one of Crain’s New York Business’ top 100 women lawyers and for the past number of years she has been named one of Bisnow’s New York power women.

Dov Hertz is the Founder and Principal of DH Property Holdings and is responsible for the investment policies, daily management and strategic direction of the firm. Prior to founding DH Property Holdings, Dov was the Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Asset Management at Extell Development Company. During his 13+ years at Extell, Dov negotiated and supervised the acquisitions of well in excess of $20 Billion of New York real estate. Dov was directly responsible for sourcing some of the most notable transactions over the last 10 years including The Ring Portfolio, One 57, Nordstrom Tower, and One Manhattan Square. Prior to joining Extell, Dov worked as a Commercial Broker at Eastern Consolidated and as a Senior Vice President at Everest Broadband Networks where he negotiated over 250 million square feet of access deals across the United States.

Joshua J. Gopan serves as Assistant Vice President of Leasing for Simone Development Companies. A

twenty year real estate veteran, he joined the Simone organization in 2013. Mr. Gopan is directly

responsible for marketing, structuring and negotiating all lease transactions of an 8.4 million- square-

foot New York Metro Area real estate portfolio. He has completed many of the complex leases in

Simone Development’s history. He also manages a leasing and marketing department which routinely

completes over 100 transactions per year specializing in Class A Office, Industrial, Healthcare and Retail

asset divisions.

Prior to joining Simone Development Companies, Mr. Gopan began his career as an intern at Colliers

International, a major worldwide real estate advisory company. Following graduation from the

University of Connecticut’s acclaimed School of Real Estate and Urban Economics, he joined Colliers as a

Leasing Specialist, achieving great success as a commercial leasing broker and rising to the level of

Managing Director. Mr. Gopan has represented many of the region’s prominent real estate owners and

has transacted over $1 billion throughout his career.