An engineer and designer by training, Eric is drawn to innovative new ideas that make our communities better places to live. At UD+P, Eric concentrates on acquisition, development, finance, and property management. He oversees budgets and the acquisition-to-construction phase of new projects, and he initiates loans for our private real estate funds.

Before UD+P, Eric was a project manager at Pacific Bay Investments in Berkeley, California. Prior to that, Eric managed engineering projects for Cypress Semiconductor, Maple Optical Systems, Leapfrog Toys, and the National Science Foundation. Eric holds eight patents and has published several papers related to this work. He earned an MBA with a focus in real estate finance from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, as well as BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University. Eric currently serves as a Vice President of the Central Eastside Industrial Council and Urban Product Council Chair of the Portland Chapter of the Urban Land Institute.

Bruce Wood has been with the Portland Development Commission since February 2012 where he currently manages the Real Estate and Construction Services team. Bruce, originally from Longview, Washington, began his real estate career in 1988 upon graduating with his MBA from Harvard Business School. After a short time in Seattle with the Trammell Crow Company, in 1990 Bruce transferred to the Portland Trammell Crow office where he headed up leasing and development of industrial properties. From 1992-1997 Bruce worked for Harsch Investment and headed up several industrial developments including Harsch’s efforts in Las Vegas where Harsch eventually became southern Nevada’s largest Landlord. In 1997, Bruce left Harsch to head up the regional office of Opus Northwest which he grew to one of the largest developers in the region. Bruce left Opus in 2005 and founded, Foundation Real Estate Development, which continues to own and manage assets in the Portland area. With a passion to bring private real estate experience to public efforts, he joined the PDC in 2012. In addition to his real estate efforts, Bruce is an adjunct faculty member of the Portland State Real Estate program and is the longest serving Board member of PSU’s Center for Real Estate Studies.

Scott brings over 25 years of experience to every project. He built his career as a licensed real estate broker and developer before founding Edge in 2000. Since then, the company has become one of the region’s fastest-growing enterprises, establishing successful relationships with a long list of investors, lenders and clients in commercial real estate. Scott’s educational credentials include a degree in real estate finance and marketing from the University of Oregon.

Matthew Brown is a development consultant, project manager, and real estate developer based in Portland Oregon. Matt specializes in the planning and delivery of mixed-use urban neighborhoods and infrastructure, emphasizing placemaking and sustainability. His professional experience as a project manager encompasses both public and private sectors and a wide range of projects, including private real estate development and financing, public infrastructure (streets, streetscape, and utility improvements), planning (master planning, transportation and infrastructure plans, and land use actions), public outreach, and public/private partnerships.

Mr. Gooding has 34 years of commercial real estate experience, 27 of them with SKB

where he is credited with developing the firm’s “value-add/opportunistic” acquisition

platform. He was named a principal in 2002 and president and chief investment officer

in 2006. During his tenure at SKB, Mr. Gooding initiated some $5.6 billion of

acquisitions, and concomitant debt placements and restructuring, and he serves as a

member of the SKB Investment Committee. He was also responsible for initially

sourcing and maintaining SKB’s institutional capital partner relationships.

He started his real estate career as a licensed real estate appraiser with then CB

Commercial, Inc. Prior to joining SKB in 1996, he served as vice president of

acquisitions for G.E. Capital Investment Advisors and senior real estate analyst with CB

Commercial, Inc. in San Francisco. In these capacities, he underwrote over $500 million

of commercial real estate investments for clients such as General Motors retirement

funds, CalPers and the AT&T Master Pension Trust. Mr. Gooding is a member of ULI,

ICSC, and an Advisory Board member for The Center of Securities Analysis at the

University of Oregon. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the

University of Oregon.

Jill leads Edlen & Co.’s public-private partnerships and build-to-suit projects for nonprofit and for-profit organizations, facilitating the important work of nonprofits and public agencies in our communities. Her projects at Edlen & Co., and previously at Gerding Edlen Development which she joined in 2003, include affordable housing, community facilities, student housing, academic buildings and mixed-use residential. Jill sources new deals and manages all aspects of the development process, with a depth of expertise at integrating non-conventional sources of financing including low income housing tax credits, new market tax credits, historic tax credits, tax-exempt bonds and urban renewal funds. She holds a Master’s of Urban Studies from Portland State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from University of Pennsylvania. She served on the City of Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Commission and currently serves on the boards for Architectural Foundation of Oregon and Earth Advantage.

Native Oregonian Jordan D. Schnitzer is the President of Harsch Investment Properties, a Portland-based real estate acquisition, development and management company started by his father in 1950. He is a 1973 graduate of the University of Oregon and in 1976 received his doctorate degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College.

Harsch has regional offices in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas and San Diego and, in addition to properties in those markets, also owns properties in Orange County, Palm Desert, Tucson, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. With a portfolio of more than 24,000,000 square feet of office,

Proven development team leader with a track record of adding full service, luxury and lifestyle hotel rooms for two large global hospitality companies by way of hotel acquisitions, management agreements, and franchise agreements. Grounded in a feasibility background and opportunistic and creative with targeting opportunities, managing internal resources, and negotiating contracts. Well versed in capital structures with involvement with over $4B in real estate development and deployment of over $750MM in equity, preferred equity, mezzanine debt, debt guarantees, and key money.

Throughout his career, he has worked closely with some of the top brands in the industry, directing the design, planning and project management for five-star properties, boutique hotels and luxury resorts around the world. As the hospitality market leader for MG2, Ron captures the story each client wishes to tell through their site, architectural design and guest experiences. His work reflects an expertise in creating spaces that are not only memorable for guests, but also highly reflective of the needs of hotel owners and operators.

“My People used to say, when a stranger appears at your door, feed him for three days before asking who he is, where he's come from, where he's headed. That way, he'll have strength enough to answer. Or, by then you'll be such good friends, you don't care.”

Bashar Wali is a founder, a father, and a hotel fanatic. He’s a pragmatist—hungry to experience life not as it is packaged and sold, but as it is. His vested interest in hospitality, culture, and design, is cut with curiosity of what’s possible, beyond the status quo.

Bashar is always looking for that spark—that perfect symmetry of an idea and its physical manifestation—to make human experiences as we know them, better. He’s the consummate Host of the Soirée—ever in pursuit of a shared humanity among friends, colleagues, and total strangers. This is perhaps his greatest gift: bringing together a group that’s more inspiring than the sum of its parts.

As founder and CEO of This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar draws upon expertise honed over a 30-year career in hospitality. An expert in the lifestyle space, Bashar is known for pushing limits in his philosopher-meets-hotelier kind of way. Whether helming the TEDx stage, hosting a Global YPO event, or collaborating on Clubhouse, Bashar’s message is unwavering: service is what you deliver, hospitality is how you make people feel.

Bashar has done every job in a hotel—from frying an egg to negotiating a deal—working for Starwood Hotels before leading acquisitions and development globally at Grand Heritage Hotels. Prior to launching This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar served as President/CEO of Provenance Hotels, where he remains a partner, for 15 years, growing the company from five to 15 hotels, 1,500 team members, and expanding the collection from the Pacific Northwest to an award-winning national brand, with annual revenue in excess of $150 million.

When Bashar isn’t traveling to 50+ countries and 45+ states, he’s home in Portland, Oregon with his wife and kids, dreaming up the hotels of tomorrow.

John Oppenheimer is Founder and Chairman of Columbia Hospitality. Columbia Hospitality operates over 100 properties in 12 states including hotels and resorts, residential, golf, distinctive venues, and restaurants and bars. Under John’s leadership, Columbia Hospitality has received countless awards in 2024 including: Fastest Growing Companies and Washington Best Workplaces (Puget Sound Business Journal), Family Business Award Honoree (Puget Sound Business Journal), as well as Best Company Work-Life Balance and Best Company Happiness (Comparably). In addition to launching Columbia Hospitality in 1995 (to manage Bell Harbor International Conference Center for the Port of Seattle), John has also founded five successful, private hospitality-related businesses.

John was a founding general partner of Seattle Hotel Group, the investment group that developed the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Seattle.

John currently sits on the following boards: Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Board, Smoke Tree Corporation, Four Seasons Seattle Homeowners Association, UW Center for Leadership Studies Advisory Board, Anthony’s Restaurants, Northland Properties, and Chelan Valley Farms. Examples of John’s past non-profit boards included Chair of the Woodland Park Zoo, Chair of YPO Gold, board member of 5th Ave Theater, among others. He served as a past member of the advisory board of Northern Trust. John was also recognized as a 2024 Director of the Year honoree and selected as a Power 100 honoree every year since 2019 by Puget Sound Business Journal.

Joslyn is a Senior Interior Designer and Architect with over 15 years’ experience in workplace, commercial, hospitality, retail, and multi-family design. She is a strong proponent of B+H's Advance Strategy approach that upends the traditional design process and begins instead with an exploration of the client's business and organizational goals. She believes that when designers drop their egos and start listening to their clients, everyone is happier. Joslyn's data-driven approach allows her to meet people in their own space, witness daily interactions, and immerse herself in their culture. She rejects the notion of a pristine, photo-ready workplace and instead believes that the kinds of spaces that support and grow organizational culture are meant to be hacked, pulled apart, and put back together in unexpected ways. In Joslyn's experience, it is frequently possible to bring a project in under budget when the focus is on culture and business performance rather than the proforma. Joslyn's recent clients include Microsoft's Studio H, B34 Café and the B34 Executive Refresh as well as the highly popular new co-working space, the Coterie Worklounge in downtown Seattle

Murray Dow has dedicated his entire career to the hospitality industry, working both on the front lines and behind the scenes of prestigious hotels across the country. His passion, vision and experience led him to found The Dow Hotel Company in 1997.

Under his guidance, DHC has grown into a successful, nationwide hotel investment and management company with a substantial collection of popular hotels and an innovative restaurant division. Dow leads corporate strategy, investment opportunities, capital formation and investor relations, as well as hotel design and construction.

Dow launched his career in the management development program of Westin Hotels & Resorts more than four decades ago. After working his way through all departments of the famed Benson Hotel, he became the opening assistant director of rooms at the 1400-room Westin Detroit Plaza. He spent over five years in senior management at Four Seasons Hotels, including the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, the Four Seasons Clift Hotel in San Francisco, and the historic Four Seasons Olympic Hotel in Seattle. Dow then served as managing director for Christensen Hotels in the Seattle area and as opening general manager of the Boca Raton Marriott in Florida.

Prior to founding DHC, Dow was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of HEI Hotels & Resorts. Under his tenure, the company grew from a single property to 20 properties with over $200 million in sales.

Dow is a graduate of Western Washington University's College of Business and Economics. He currently serves as chair of their College of Business and Economics Center for Excellence in Business Education. In 2007 he received the college’s most distinguished executive award, presented by Sigma Iota Epsilon.

Dow is a member of the Hilton Advisory Council and is involved in Seattle’s Lodging Roundtable, which is concerned with travel and tourism issues impacting the lodging industry. He is a frequent speaker for industry-related organizations. Additionally, he is active in several community and charitable organizations. Dow is the father of three daughters, and enjoys discovering new wines and spending time on the golf course.