Debt Panel

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  Garrett Thelander

  Executive Managing Director

  Cushman & Wakefield

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  Sam Zabala

  Sam Zabala is a Managing Director in the Capital Advisory Division at Eastern Consolidated. Prior to joining Eastern, Mr. Zabala was the founder and Managing Principal of Prospect Capital Group, a boutique mortgage brokerage and capital markets firm specializing in structured finance. He previously worked for 15 years as a commercial real estate finance professional on both the equity and debt sides. While at CapitalSource, PB Capital, and Tishman Speyer Properties, he developed extensive expertise in structuring and closing senior debt, mezzanine debt, and equity involving all types of commercial and residential real estate in markets throughout the U.S. Mr. Zabala has an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business with a concentration in Finance, and a BA from Tufts University with double majors in Economics and International Relations.

  Eastern Consolidated

  Managing Director

  Sam Zabala

  Managing Director

  Eastern Consolidated

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  Dan Hartman

  Dan Hartman has over 25 years of commercial real estate experience investing throughout the capital stack. At Terra Capital Partners, Mr. Hartman is a Managing Director responsible for transaction origination focusing on mezzanine and preferred equity on virtually all property types. His most recent previous position was at Ares Management, a successor to Wrightwood Capital, a position he held for nine years investing debt, mezzanine and equity. He has also held positions at GE Capital Corp, Mercedes Benz Capital, ORIX and JP Morgan Chase. Mr. Hartman is a graduate of Cornell University, Fordham Graduate School of Business and New York University Real Estate Institute.

  Terra Capital Partners

  Managing Director

  Dan Hartman

  Managing Director

  Terra Capital Partners

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  Mark Fawer

  Mark Fawer is a partner in the Real Estate group, where he focuses on matters including the representation of real estate developers, funds, REITs, CDOs, investors, and lenders in the acquisition, financing, development, refinancing, recapitalizing and sale of single-asset and portfolios of multifamily, retail, industrial, office, and hotel properties and the origination, purchase, disposition and restructuring of senior and mezzanine real estate and corporate loans and loan participation interests.

  Arent Fox

  Partner

  Moderator

  Mark Fawer

  Partner

  Arent Fox

Equity Panel

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  Mark Van Zandt

  Mark Van Zandt is a Partner based in New York and is responsible for the Firm’s investment activities on the East Coast. Mark has been with GreenOak since its founding in 2010 and is involved in the sourcing, structuring and management of GreenOak investments on the East Coast. Prior to GreenOak, Mark was a Vice President of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and a member of the team responsible for new investments in the US on behalf of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and MSRE Special Situations Fund III. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2004, Mark worked in the real estate group of LaSalle Bank, based in Chicago.

  GreenOak Real Estate

  Partner

  Mark Van Zandt

  Partner

  GreenOak Real Estate

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  Dwight Arnesen

  Mr. Arnesen, based in New York, has 33 years of experience in the real estate industry. Mr. Arnesen leads the firm's East Coast acquisitions. Prior to this current role, Mr. Arnesen was responsible for the firm's portfolio and asset management group. Mr. Arnesen serves on various portfolio management and investment committees, as well as Rockwood's Investment Strategy and Research Committee. Mr. Arnesen has 33 years of experience in the real estate industry. Prior to joining Rockwood, Mr. Arnesen held senior roles in both acquisitions and asset management. Mr. Arnesen was most recently a Managing Director of Acquisitions in North America at JER Partners as well as interim head of Asset Management for JER's European funds, where he leveraged his earlier experience of workouts and restructuring on numerous troubled assets. Prior to JER, he was a Managing Director and co-Head of US Acquisitions at Starwood Capital Group Global LLC. Before joining Starwood, he was a Principal at JPMorgan Partners FKA Chase Capital Partners and a senior officer in the Real Estate Workout Group of Chemical Bank/Chase Manhattan Bank for 11 years. Mr. Arnesen is a member of the NY State Bar Association, the ULI and the ICSC and has spoken on numerous real estate panels. Mr. Arnesen received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from Washington and Lee University.

  Rockwood Capital

  Senior Managing Director

  Dwight Arnesen

  Senior Managing Director

  Rockwood Capital

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  David Bistricer

  CEO

  Clipper Equity

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  Alex Foshay

  Senior Managing Director

  Newmark Grubb Knight Frank

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  Helen Hwang

  Helen Hwang is Senior Executive Managing Director at Meridian Investment Sales, LLC and is head of the Institutional Investment Sales Group. Ms. Hwang has executed over 85 institutional sales and recapitalization transactions exceeding $26 billion in value. Prior to joining Meridian, Ms. Hwang spent 16 years at Cushman & Wakefield as an Executive Vice President, as the head of NYC Investment Sales. Ms. Hwang has worked on numerous prestigious sales assignments throughout her career, including 1865 Broadway, 220 East 72nd Street, 22 River Terrace, 101 Murray Street, 400 Madison Avenue, One Court Square, 60 East 12th Street, 510 Madison Avenue, 511 Fifth Avenue, Glenn Gardens, the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue, 666 Fifth Avenue, the portfolio sale of Park Avenue and 850 Third Avenue, and the ground leases under 625 Madison Avenue, 2 Herald Square and 75 Rockefeller Center. For the sale of 88 Leonard Street, Ms. Hwang was honored with the Real Estate Board of New York’s highest achievement, the 2012 Most Ingenious Sales Deal of the Year (Robert T. Lawrence Memorial Award). Ms. Hwang has marketed significant New York assets for clients such as Africa Israel Investments, Ashkenazy Acquisitions, Capmark Financial, Daishin Securities, Dermot Company, Epic UK, Five Mile Capital, Istithmar, J.E. Robert Companies, Paramount Group, Park Tower Group, Rockrose Development Corp, SL Green, Spitzer Enterprises, Vornado Realty Trust, and Macklowe Properties. She has been a trusted strategic advisor to numerous domestic and international family offices, institutions and not-for-profits, including American Bible Society, Archdiocese of New York, Children’s Aid Society, MTA, New York University, St. John’s University, and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, and Fortune 50 Corporations such as Bank of America and Verizon. Ms. Hwang has been presented with numerous awards over her career for both her professional achievements and charitable contributions, including the Top Broker of the Year by Real Estate Forum Magazine, a leading trade publication, CoStar’s prestigious Power Broker of the Year award, Bisnow’s New York Power Women award, Rebuilding Together NYC ‘s Patty Johnson Outstanding Leadership Award, and Friendship Circle’s Humanitarian Award. She was also named one of the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business by the Asian American Business Development Center. Ms. Hwang serves as Chair of the Membership Committee and member of the Executive and Advisory Committees for the Urban Land Institute’s New York City Chapter and as an industry expert guest speaker for numerous conferences and some of the top REIT equity research teams in the nation, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, ISI Group, FBR Capital Markets & Co, JMP Securities, and UBS. Ms. Hwang received her Bachelor of Science degree from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (Real Estate Finance), where she graduated “With Distinction.” She also holds a Master’s degree in Real Estate Investment and Development from New York University. Ms. Hwang is a New York State Certified Real Estate Appraiser and is a New York and New Jersey Licensed Salesperson.

  Meridian Investment Sales

  Executive Managing Director

  Helen Hwang

  Executive Managing Director

  Meridian Investment Sales

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  Ronald Kaplan

  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.

  CohnReznick

  Partner

  Moderator

  Ronald Kaplan

  Partner

  CohnReznick

Global Outlook

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  Greta Guggenheim

  Greta Guggenheim is Chief Executive Officer and President of TPG Real Estate Finance Trust (“TRT”) and a Firm Partner of TPG. TRT is a NYSE listed commercial mortgage REIT (ticker TRTX) that originates commercial real estate mortgage loans in major markets throughout the U.S. Previously, Ms. Guggenheim was Co‐Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Ladder Capital. Ms. Guggenheim’s prior experience includes positions at Dillon Read Capital Management, UBS, Bear Stearns and Credit Suisse. Ms. Guggenheim serves on the ULI Board of Trustees, Board of Governors of CREFC as well as several charitable foundations. Ms. Guggenheim has a MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from Swarthmore College.

  TPG Real Estate Finance Trust

  CEO

  Greta Guggenheim

  CEO

  TPG Real Estate Finance Trust

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  Jeffrey DiModica

  Jeffrey F. DiModica, CFA, has been the Company’s President since September 2014. He has also served as a Managing Director of an affiliate of the Manager since July 2014. Mr. DiModica served as a director of the Company from its inception in 2009 to July 2014. From 2007 to 2014, Mr. DiModica was a Managing Director and the Head of MBS/ABS/CMBS Sales and Strategy for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). In that role, he was responsible for the distribution of mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”), asset- backed securities (“ABS”) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) to institutional clients, including banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and money managers. Previously, from 2001 to 2007, Mr. DiModica headed the Boston sales office for RBS. Prior to joining RBS, from 1993 to 2001, Mr. DiModica sold derivative and MBS products to institutional clients for Merrill Lynch in Boston. Mr. DiModica began his career in the Merchant and Investment Banking Group of the Commercial Real Estate Department at Chemical Bank from 1989 to 1991. Mr. DiModica received a B.S./B.A. degree with a concentration in Finance from Boston University, an M.B.A. degree from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College and received his Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1995. Mr. DiModica is an active member of YPO (Young Presidents Organization), and serves on the board of Virtual Enterprises International (VEI), a non-profit focused on teaching career and entrepreneurial skills to inner city high school students.

  Starwood Property Trust

  President

  Jeffrey DiModica

  President

  Starwood Property Trust

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  Jonathan Pollack

  Senior Managing Director

  Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies

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  Jon Trauben

  Jon Trauben is a Senior Managing Director who is focused on expanding Hunt Mortgage Group’s capital markets activities and its overall commercial lending business. Mr. Trauben joined Hunt Mortgage Group from Barclays where he was most recently a Managing Director and held titles including Head of Large Loan Origination and Head of Subordinate Debt Origination and Distribution. While at Barclays he was a senior member of the Real Estate Finance group, and was a participant in all major business decisions including: hiring, business management, strategic growth and capital allocations. Under his leadership and as part of the senior management team he re-launched Barclays real estate finance business post the financial crisis first focusing on the conduit business, that prior to his departure, had originated and sold more than $7 billion, then establishing and growing the large loan business originating and distributing several billion dollars of volume. Additionally, he was the key liaison to the firm’s real estate investment banking division and was integral to Barclay’s expansion into warehouse financing. Prior to Barclays, Mr. Trauben was with Cantor Fitzgerald & Company’s real estate finance business CCRE where he was a Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets and High Yield Real Estate and Loan Syndications. In this role he was a member of the senior management team that established all aspects of a newly launched CMBS lending business. Prior to Cantor he was with Credit Suisse Group AG where he was a Managing Director and Head of High Yield Real Estate and Loan Syndications for the Americas. At Credit Suisse he managed one of Wall Street’s largest and most active subordinate debt and loan syndication businesses managing more than a dozen professionals with an annual running balance of $5 billion and a total volume of more than $30 billion. Earlier in his career he was Vice President at APC Realty Advisors, and Manager at Ernst & Young. Mr. Trauben earned a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University.

  Hunt Real Estate Capital

  Senior Managing Director

  Jon Trauben

  Senior Managing Director

  Hunt Real Estate Capital

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  Bruce Meyerson

  Bruce Meyerson is a real estate attorney. He counsels real estate owners, developers and lenders with interests in multifamily, office, mixed-use, industrial and condominium properties. He closes a broad range of transactions involving joint ventures, permanent loans, construction loans, mezzanine loans, private equity investments, securitized lending, workouts, commercial real estate, development and acquisitions and divestitures.

  Goulston & Storrs

  Director

  Moderator

  Bruce Meyerson

  Director

  Goulston & Storrs

Tech Keynote

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  Richard Sarkis

  An avid entrepreneur, Rich has launched and run numerous businesses including an international arbitrage textbook company, a college marketing network, and an offshore technology outfit. Most recently, Rich was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company specializing in Financial Services.

  Reonomy

  CEO

  Richard Sarkis

  CEO

  Reonomy