6th Annual Houston Multifamily

Nester Clark is the Founding Partner of Jade Hill Investments and is responsible for all strategic investment activities. Mr. Clark started his investment career in 1998 as an analyst for Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Asian Special Situations Group where he facilitated the deployment and management of real estate and distressed debt investments for Goldman Sachs in the U.S., Japan, China, Thailand, and South Korea involving transactions totaling over $4.0 billion. He later became the youngest partner ever at Soros Real Estate Partners, jointly managing a $1.0 billion private equity fund and where he led the build out of Ishin Hotels Group, a Japanese hotel and resort platform then owning over $500 million in Japanese hotel and resort assets. Mr. Clark and his partners at Soros Real Estate Partners spun out of the Soros umbrella in 2004 and created Grove International Partners, where he was directly responsible for new asset acquisitions and platform formations in Japan, and which currently manages over $3.0 billion in global equity capital. Mr. Clark also served as Senior Director at the Westmont Hospitality Group in North America before establishing Jade Hill Investments in 2011. Most recently, Mr. Clark served as the Director of Institutional Property Advisors/Marcus & Millichap where he was responsible for institutional multifamily investments for the Houston market. Mr. Clark received his AB from Harvard University in 1998 where he also served as Co-Captain of the Harvard Boxing Team and Captain of the Harvard Kendo (Japanese Fencing) Team.

Matthew P. Rotan, vice chairman ARA, A Newmark Company, has been involved in the multifamily industry since 1989. His responsibilities include hands-on interaction with all assignments taken on by the Houston office of ARA Newmark, as well as being in contact with equity sources and maintaining capital markets relationships. In addition to day-to-day consulting and brokerage services, Mr. Rotan is responsible for developing new business opportunities for brokerage and advisory services in Texas and across the United States. He served as a member of ARA Newmark’s Executive Committee for six years and has also frequently been asked by various organizations to speak as an expert on the Houston and Texas apartment markets. Just prior to co-founding ARA, now ARA, A Newmark Company, Mr. Rotan spent eight years with CB Commercial and before that he worked for the George Bush for President Campaign as organizational director for the state of Oklahoma upon graduation from college. Mr. Rotan is the chairman of the board of directors and the executive committee of the Boys & Girls Country Home in Katy, Texas, an organization assisting children in crisis; an active member of St. Martins Church where he recently served on the Vestry and a member of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Breeder's Greeter's Committee which supports college scholarships for Texas youth. He is a fourth generation Houstonian who has been married for over 25 years and has four children. Mr. Rotan graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing.

Mr. French is Senior Vice President and Managing Director of NorthMarq. He has been in the real estate finance industry since 1971, and has been involved in over $3 billion in real estate finance transactions during that period. Mr. French manages both debt and equity structures for a group of local and national clients. Prior to joining NorthMarq, French was a founding partner in Stockton, Luedemann, French, a Texas based real estate finance corporation, which became a part of NorthMarq in 1998. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for the Ben G. McGuire & Co., a Houston based mortgage banking firm, whose principals formed Stockton, Luedemann and French. Mr. French began his career at Pilot Life Insurance Company, where he was a Real Estate District Supervisor with responsibility for two offices. Kerry is a member of the Urban Land Institute, a director at the National Multi Housing Council, a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks, and is a frequent speaker at local and national real estate finance forums. Mr. French holds a Business Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mr. Rivas joined Allied Realty in 2001 and he has successfully directed or assisted the acquisition/development of over 2,300 multifamily units for a total aggregate value of over $240 million. Mr. Rivas’ responsibilities include all aspects of managing Allied Realty’s multifamily investment businesses that include acquisition and development. Mr. Rivas oversees the acquisition and disposition of assets, market feasibility, site selection, project design, permitting, construction management, and project financing. Mr. Rivas formed and oversees Allied’s first private equity fund launched in 2013 to develop multi-family assets in the major metropolitan areas of Texas. Mr. Rivas’ professional affiliations include being a member of the National Multi-Housing Council (NMHC) Emerging Leaders Committee, the Urban Land Institute (ULI), and the Houston Apartment Association (HAA). A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Mr. Rivas is fully bilingual in English and Spanish and he is currently C.P.A. eligible while pursuing his Master of Science in Accountancy at the University of Houston. Mr. Rivas received his M.B.A. from the University of North Alabama. He is a also a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of North Alabama and was named All-Gulf South Conference and Academic All-Gulf South Conference for two consecutive years as a 4-year member of the Men’s Varsity Tennis team (both as player and Assistant Coach).

Stan Levy serves as Chief Operating Officer of MORGAN. Stan’s responsibilities include arranging debt and equity financing, managing the property disposition process, and asset management oversight for all of MORGAN’s assets. Stan serves on the firm’s Executive Committee and Investment Committee. Stan has closed over $3.0 billion of transactions for MORGAN. Stan was one of the founding executive officers of Cadence Bancorporation, where he was integrally involved in a startup that raised $1.0 billion in equity and subsequently acquired several banks and has grown to $18 billion in assets across a six-state region. Stan began his career at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he worked for 15 years and served as Managing Director of Real Estate & Lodging Investment Banking for the Southern Region. Stan graduated with honors from The University of Texas with a BBA in Finance. Stan serves as a director of the Holocaust Museum Houston Foundation and previously served as a director of Hines Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc., advisory director of Cadence Bancorp LLC, and as an Executive Committee board member for The Emery/Weiner School. Stan is a past President of the Board of The Shlenker School in Houston. He is an active member of the National Multi-Housing Council.

A licensed professional engineer in Texas, Sherry joined WoodWorks in 2014 after more than a decade as a structural design consultant. During this time, her project work spanned a wide range of building types—from mid-rise student housing and office buildings to schools, malls, museums and high-rises—giving her a depth of knowledge that she now uses to assist architects, engineers and others involved in the design of wood buildings. Sherry earned a BS in Architectural Engineering and is a member of the Structural Engineers Association of Texas.