3rd Annual NYC Residence of the Future

Mark Richter, PE, LEED AP serves as Partner at AKF, as well as the firm’s National Residential & Hospitality Practices Leader. With over 25 years of experience, Mark is highly respected for his expertise in the planning and design of technically complex projects. He has earned a stellar reputation among developers, real estate brokers, architects, and contractors for his expertise in planning, designing, and implementing complex building systems for both residential and hospitality properties. Mark brings excellent pragmatic and constructability experience to his work and is sought after for his proficiency in engineering healthy buildings. Some of AKF's noteworthy projects completed under Mark's leadership include the ONE57 Tower, the Zaha Hadid ultra luxury condominium building adjacent to the NYC Highline, and Midtown's 5-star Park Hyatt Hotel. Mark graduated from Manhattan College with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer in various states throughout the U.S. He is a leader in many professional organizations, including having served on the Board and as President of the New Jersey Chapter of ASHRAE.

Sam is the founder and CEO of Megalith and has an extensive investment banking and private equity background having worked for Goldman Sachs and Providence Equity in the U.S. and Asia. During his career he has advised and invested in more than $100 billion of transactions. Sam is an active keynote speaker and panelist. Notable events include; The TerraCRG Brooklyn Real Estate Summit, Real Estate Weekly Young Leaders’ Forum, Michael Stoler’s New York Real Estate Summit, Massey Knakal Multifamily Summit, and has been featured in the Stoler Report as well as Bloomberg radio. Sam received an M.B.A in General Management from the Harvard Business School and a B.Sc. in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Sam sits on the board of Customers Bank (NYSE: CUBI) and is a member of Urban Land Institute and Young Presidents' Organization.

In 2001 he joined Stonehenge Partners, a New York based private equity residential real estate company and was responsible for all of the financial modeling, underwriting, due diligence, and investor reporting. In 2007, Mr. Klein was promoted to Director of Acquisitions, driving all of the company’s acquisitions, dispositions, and financings. During his 12 years at Stonehenge, he closed on thirty-eight transactions including twenty-eight acquisitions with a transaction value of approximately $1.5 billion. In October 2013, Thor Equities partnered with Alan Klein and Jon Fishman to launch a new residential division to acquire and develop multifamily properties with a focus on New York City

Ronald A. Kaplan, CPA, is a partner with CohnReznick and is the Firm’s Commercial Real Estate Industry Leader. Ron has more than 20 years of experience providing assurance, due diligence, business advisory, and tax services to clients in the commercial, residential, retail, and hospitality sectors throughout the United States and internationally. Ron regularly provides assistance and advisory services to clients as they negotiate agreements with lenders, equity partners, and fund managers. In addition, he advises clients on accounting and tax matters throughout the agreement process, from initial drafting through completion. Ron’s clients are generally private companies with multi-state operations and include real estate opportunity funds, property management firms, partnerships, contractors, institutional lenders, REITs and joint ventures, as well as other corporate and family owners and investors. Ron has a particular focus on real estate opportunity funds, with clients ranging from start-ups to established funds. His clients benefit from his experience in critical areas, such as fair value reporting, compliance monitoring, investor relations, and fund performance. Prior to joining CohnReznick, Ron was in charge of the real estate practice for the New York office of a large national public accounting firm. In this role, he oversaw the practice’s client services, account management, and team development functions. He was also active in the firm’s training activities, leading presentations on the real estate business for professionals both within the firm and at national industry conferences.