Webinar: Moving the Needle and What to Do with Projects Underway

Experienced real estate consultant, scholar and visionary, Emery Matthews founded and serves as the principal of Detroit-based Real Estate Interests, LLC. Matthews has been a major player in the commercial real estate landscape for more than a decade, regularly managing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects and investments. Real Estate Interests, LLC provides specialized consulting services designed to help guide companies through major changes and complex deals, managing assets and property, and advising decision makers. Emery and his team are currently managing projects in the Midwest and across the U.S. in the automotive, manufacturing and education spaces, while increasing their foothold in the rapidly growing Sub-Saharan African nations of South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria. A Detroit native, Emery earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and simultaneously earned a Juris Doctorate and Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University. As a lifelong learner with a global vision, Matthews is fluent in German and currently working to improve his Chinese.

Stan Edwards is the managing principal and co-founder of Real Estate Interests, LLC, a specialized real estate consultancy designed to manage assets and property and guide companies through major changes and complex deals. With more than 20 years of expertise in real estate and financial services, Edwards is particularly focused in the areas of business development, operations and strategic planning. His experience includes spearheading the marketing and business acquisition platform for the OEM’s Tier automotive supply base while leading business development efforts at a commercial insurance firm. Later he played an integral role in increasing the assets under management of an institutional real estate advisor from $75 million to $1 billion. Stan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where he was a four year letterman and three time Big Ten Champion. After graduation, he was drafted by the NFL where he played professional football player for the Houston Oilers and the Detroit Lions.

Practice Areas: Real Estate, Business Law, Data Security, Connected/Autonomous Vehicle Security Christopher R. Martella is a shareholder practicing in the areas of real estate acquisition / disposition, development and financing transactions and data security. Along with a strong background in real estate and data security, Mr. Martella focuses on structured finance and general corporate matters related to business start-up and turn around. Prior to joining Kemp Klein, Mr. Martella worked at a boutique firm that advised mid-market qualified professional asset managers on the acquisition of commercial real estate and alternative investment vehicles. Christopher has extensive experience working with the United States General Services Administration and its real estate service providers. Prior to his boutique practice, Mr. Martella worked in the State of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for the local office of a multinational law firm. While in the Middle East, Christopher’s practice focused on real estate acquisition and development, cross border mergers and acquisitions and Islamic and traditional finance. In addition to Mr. Martella’s real estate and finance background, he is a leading advisor to many small and medium sized businesses on legal issues related to pre and post electronic data breach mitigation strategies, data security, and National Institute of Standards and Technology and ISO/IEC 27000 data security and management compliance. Mr. Martella has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2020 in the field of Real Estate Law (Copyright 2019 by Woodward/White, Inc., of SC). Prior to becoming an attorney, Mr. Martella was a founder and the chief operating officer of Microweb Inc., a mobile phone software company based in Hong Kong which was sold to a Chinese technology company in 2002. Education: J.D. (Tax and Corporate Law) Michigan State University College of Law, 2006 B.A. (International Relations) James Madison College, MSU, 2001 M.S. (Information Assurance) University of Detroit Mercy, 2015 Bar and Court Admissions: State Bar of Michigan, 2006 U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan U.S. Court of International Trade