Jennifer Litwak is the Executive Director of Housing on Merit and has successfully managed the closing of over $475 million in multifamily acquisitions and overseen the development, preservation and renovation of over 4,674 units of affordable housing nationwide. She is an active member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law and serves as Vice Chair of the Residential, Multi-Family, and Special Use Group. Ms. Litwak serves as an appointed member to Urban Land Institute’s Affordable & Workforce Housing Council.

In addition, Ms. Litwak is a Board of Trustee of the National Housing Conference and serves on their Research Committee, which advises the Center for Housing Policy. She has taken on numerous roles with Commercial Real Estate Women Network (CREW) and served as an appointed member of various National Committees including, Network Industry Research, Member Education, and Scholarship Selection since 2016. In 2020, Ms. Litwak was inducted into the CREW Visionaries program.

Ms. Litwak is recognized as an innovative thinker and disrupter within the affordable housing industry. In 2019, Ms. Litwak became a Fellow of the American Bar foundation, a global honorary society of legal professionals and scholars who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, and received the Gamechanger Award from Connected Women of Influence. She was also selected by GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum as a Women of Influence for her achievements in the Humanitarian category in 2020 and in the Independent/Non-Business Professional of the Year category in 2019. In 2017, Ms. Litwak was profiled by the Daily Transcript’s Influential Women Report as one of the most influential women in San Diego County, and in 2016 she was chosen as one of the Top 100 Business Professionals in San Diego. Ms. Litwak was recognized as one of Real Estate Forum’s Fifty Under 40 in the commercial real estate industry in 2015.

Locally, Ms. Litwak serves as an Advisory Committee Member for CREW San Diego’s Board of Directors and is the Chief Financial Officer on the Board of Directors for Home Start, a local non-profit child abuse prevention and treatment agency. An avid philanthropist, she is a member of San Diego Women’s Foundation and Women Give San Diego.

Ms. Litwak earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wake Forest University, where she graduated magna cum laude, and holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. She is a graduate of the prestigious Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) program of the Council of Development Finance Agencies and completed an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Ms. Litwak is also an active member of 2020 Women on Boards, Corporate Directors Forum, Junior League of San Diego, and National Women’s History Museum’s Council XIX.

Jay Rey-Hipolito is Vice President of Residential for Kilroy Realty Corporation and is responsible for the firm’s multifamily strategy and asset management. Before joining Kilroy, Mr. Rey-Hipolito worked as Vice President of Operations for MWest Holdings, where he led the organization’s Southern California residential portfolio. In the years prior to MWest Holdings, Mr. Rey-Hipolito worked for various REITs including UDR Inc, Archstone Communities, and Equity Residential

Mr. Rey-Hipolito received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona and master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

As Director of Real Estate Development, Ryan is responsible for site selection, land acquisition, constraint analysis, due diligence, financial feasibility, municipal approvals, design and construction coordination and lease/sale negotiations. With over 18 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, Ryan has facilitated over 700 sale and lease transactions exceeding $800 million in value and representing approximately 9.2 million square feet. As an industrial and office specialist, he understands current market trends and implements mutually beneficial solutions for customers and project stakeholders. His attention to detail and strong leadership skills along with his past experience allow him to execute creative, effective strategies on behalf of his customers

Living life by the motto that “family is everything,” Pete Sciarrino Jr. is the son of a Sicilian immigrant who first came to the U.S. at 17 years old with nothing before opening his own surfacing company in 1978. By the age of 11, young Pete kept busy sweeping the floors of his parents’ shop, then started fabricating countertops at 13 years old. He did his first jobs for free to gain experience, and by 16, he was a full-time worker in the surfacing business.

After crossing paths with Moderno CEO Roberto Contreras in 1998, Mr. Sciarrino was entrusted to bring Silestone to the Southern California market, a widespread territory covering not just San Diego but everywhere from Los Angeles to Palm Springs to the borders of Arizona and Mexico. Through blood, sweat, and tears, they rolled out 155 Home Depot stores, jumped from 100 employees to over 250 employees, and increased their annual revenue from $10 million to over $24 million. Having left his mark on the quartz and stone world, Mr. Sciarrino was drawn to the Moderno leadership team’s current mission and remains dedicated to now expanding the large-format porcelain industry.

Ben Badiee is the founder and CEO of Badiee Development Inc. (“BDI”) and several other successful business ventures. Mr. Badiee formed Badiee Development in 2003 and currently has upwards of $1 Billion dollars of Industrial real estate development pipeline in Southwestern markets, which offers compelling investment structures in up & coming markets with high quality amenities and customer service.

Mr. Badiee’s vision for Badiee Development is to create a long-term real estate firm and operation that creates valuable outcomes for those with a financial relationship with the company as well as through the company’s strategic corporate philanthropy.

He is responsible for developing private and equity investment strategies, acquiring the land and hiring professional firms as well as securing construction and permanent financing, leasing and positioning of assets. He believes that taking a hands-on approach to all phases of the development process is the best approach to delivering the highest quality real estate products.

Ben earned a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Tennessee Technical University

Paul joined MG Properties Group in 2010 and is responsible for the firm's acquisition, disposition, and capital markets activities. At MG, he has been involved with the purchase of approximately 22,000 units totaling $4 billion in total consideration. Paul has 20 years of experience in real estate private equity investment, capital markets, and corporate M&A. Prior to joining MG, he held various roles in commercial real estate debt and equity acquisitions, development, and financing. He has a background in corporate M&A and venture capital investing at Northrop Grumman (NOC). Paul holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Julie Kilpatrick is a Senior Managing Director for CBRE’s Project Management Advisory team for the West Region, overseeing operations and teams in Southern California, Arizona and Hawaii. Ms. Kilpatrick brings over 25 years of expertise to CBRE, with experience in leading, managing and delivering complex real estate projects. Her expertise encompasses a diverse range of specialties, including leading acquisitions, valuations, appraisals, entitlements, zoning changes, space lease and ground lease negotiations, design management, construction management and administration, budgeting/financing, asset management, and capital program & portfolio facilities management for both large global Fortune 500 companies all the way down to start-up’s and privately held growing companies across a diverse sector of asset classes including ground up, redevelopment, major infrastructure, office, life science/research, labs, academic buildings, retail, hospitality, industrial, performance venues, medical office buildings including OSPHD/HCAI, and multi-family.

Prior to joining CBRE, Ms. Kilpatrick served as the Director of Real Estate, Acquisitions & Public-Private Partnerships (P3) for the University of California San Diego. In this role, she was responsible for managing over $5 billion in P3 development over a 10 year capital plan including overseeing the University's new investment portfolio of off-campus properties totaling 600,000SF and collaborating closely with prominent UC San Diego institutions such as the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the Natural Reserves System and UC San Diego Health. Ms. Kilpatrick led large-scale real estate projects that played a vital role in UC San Diego Health's ambitious $4 billion redevelopment of the Hillcrest Campus and the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley. Her contributions significantly improved access to faculty, visitors students and quality patient care for residents throughout the region.

Ms. Kilpatrick began her career, and spent nearly two decades, at JLL’s Project Development Services group and was a Senior Vice President leading the Southwest Region, based in San Diego. Ms. Kilpatrick was named a Top Performer at JLL every year since 2003, excelling at client service and operational excellence. She received the company's coveted DaVinci Award—the highest honor awarded to professionals in Project and Development Services—for being instrumental in the development and execution of a single currency procurement program for the firm's multi-national global clients located across 5 continents.

A graduate of Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, David formed McCullough Landscape Architecture as a sole proprietorship in 1999 while consulting for another firm. After wife and partner, Catherine joined the business in 2001 and became Chief Executive Officer and President in 2002; the firm became a woman-owned corporation and a certified Small Business by the State of California.

With offices in San Diego and the Bay Area, McCullough creates spaces for hospitality, retail, mixed-use and institutional properties around the world. As principal landscape architect, David oversees all aspects of the design and production of firm projects at McCullough. He serves as head designer on all projects and maintains quality control on all work completed. Previous projects have earned awards and recognition in several national publications.

David finds time in his schedule to take leadership in creative organizations such as the the San Diego Architecture Foundation (SDAF) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) local Urban Design Committee. He currently serves as Chair of the Pecha Kucha Night program, which is on its sixth successful year. He finds it inspiring to take part in such a diverse mix of creative minds while bringing them together to share with the public their wild ideas.

In addition, recently David was appointed by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer to serve on the Historical Resources Board as Chair, which governs the identification, protection, retention and preservation of historical sites in San Diego. Concurrently, he has been invited to serve on the city’s Code Monitoring Team (CMT).

David’s design philosophy is centered around merging context and creative passion with grit, soul, and style. The firm takes every project with a uniquely creative approach that centers around diversity, discovery and conservation. David feels it’s important to engage the human spirit with nature, while expressing empathy.

Recent projects include a large waterfront development in Shanghai, China, Seaport San Diego redevelopment, several multifamily projects in Calgary and Vancouver, along with other notable hospitality, entertainment, and mixed-use collaborations in the Western US and Canada.