Featured Speaker:

Keith Hall, Managing Partner, Structured Finance Group, KBS Capital Advisors Keith Hall is a co-founder of KBS Capital Advisors, and is chief executive officer of the board of directors of KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT. Mr. Hall also serves as executive vice president of the board of directors of both KBS REIT and KBS REIT II. Mr. Hall is also co-founder of Willowbrook Capital Group, LLC, an asset management company located in Los Angeles. Prior to forming Willowbrook Capital, Mr. Hall was a managing director at CS First Boston, where he managed distribution strategy and business development for the Principal Transaction Group’s real estate securities portfolio. In this capacity, Mr. Hall’s two primary business unit responsibilities were mezzanine lending and commercial real estate development. The KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT focuses heavily on opportunistic CMBS instruments.

Speaker Faculty:

		Marc Benezra, Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP Marc Benezra is a partner in the law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP. He was selected as a Southern California Super Lawyer by the Global Strategy Group in its first annual list published in the Los Angeles magazine in February 2004 and its 2006 list published in February 2006 of top area lawyers. Marc has been named to National Register’s “Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals” and to “Madison’s Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals.”
		Tom Bohlinger, Executive Vice President, CB Richard Ellis Tom Bohlinger is a Los Angeles Office Market expert and leader within the CB Richard Ellis Investment Properties-Institutional Group. Mr. Bohlinger is a member of Kevin Shannon’s West Coast investment sales team. Mr. Bohlinger specializes in major office investment sales in the Greater Los Angeles region. He has also lead portfolio dispositions in California, Arizona, Texas, Massachusetts, and Hawaii. His ability to articulate emerging market trends, find hidden value, and reduce the perceived risk in an investment has resulted in pricing that has consistently exceeded his client’s expectations. He offers over 30 years of diversified real estate investment, finance, and development experience and has completed transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $4.0 billion. Mr. Bohlinger received his BS and MBA from the University of Southern California.
		Mark Omid Bolour, CEO & Principal, Bolour Associates As Chief Executive Officer and Principal of Bolour Associates, Mark Bolour has been responsible for designing and implementing many of the Company’s successful investment strategies. Bolour Associates has over 30 years experience in all areas of real estate. With Mr. Bolour’s expertise in acquisition, asset management, development, disposition and the entitlement process, the Company has experienced exponential growth over the past 10 years. Under his direction, Bolour Associates has become a fully integrated real estate investment, development and syndication firm, as well as a well-capitalized private lender making bridge, acquisition and construction loans between $1M to $10M on distressed residential and commercial properties in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. Capitalizing on the Company’s comprehensive infrastructure and multifaceted executive team, he developed Bolour Associates’ Distressed Lending Program, providing innovative strategies, flexible programs and custom solutions for borrowers seeking a trusted and strategic capital partner. The Company’s integrated approach to structuring deals provides borrowers the value of a one stop shop, offering debt as well as equity.
		Martin Bronstein, Founding Principal & Chairman, The Situs Companies As a Principal and Chairman of the Board, Martin Bronstein currently directs the business development efforts of the company. Since founding Situs in 1985 as a local commercial real estate brokerage firm, Mr. Bronstein has transformed the company into a leading provider of comprehensive real estate consulting services. A creative entrepreneur, Mr. Bronstein has a unique talent for recognizing unmet needs of the commercial real estate finance industry and then designing new lines of business to effectively and efficiently meet those needs. Prior to founding Situs, Mr. Bronstein worked in commercial real estate brokerage, management, development and investment.
		Marc Brooks, Executive Vice President, MARA Escrow Marc Brooks has been working continuously in the California Escrow Business for three decades and is currently the Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of MARA Escrow Company as well as MARA Exchange, Inc. both of which were established over 25 Years ago in Southern California. Marc has experience with recievership of broken condos and residential subdivisions. Clients include, among others, Related Companies, Equity Residential, Carlyle Group, KOR Group, Pardee Construction, and Forest City.
		Barbara Champoux, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP Barbara Champoux is a partner in Crowell & Moring’s New York office and is a member of the Financial Services Group, heading up its commercial real estate team. Ms. Champoux is highly experienced in both Real Estate and Corporate law, but has primarily concentrated her practice in a wide variety of commercial real estate transactions, as well as associated debt and equity financing, joint ventures, ownership structuring and reorganization, and work-outs and restructures.
		David Frank, CEO, The Merrill Companies Mr. David Frank is Chief Executive Officer of The Merrill Group of Companies, LLC, a real estate development and property management company founded in 1985. Mr. Frank’s career began in the legal field in 1984 after earning a Juris Doctorate in Law at Pepperdine University Law School and a Bachelor’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles in 1982. Mr. Frank continues to hold commercial real estate broker’s licenses in both California and Nevada as well as a contractor’s license in California. As the principal as well as the founder of the Company, Mr. Frank has a 24-year history of working in retail, multi-family, and commercial real estate.
		Sam Freshman, Chairman, Standard Management Mr. Freshman founded Standard Management in 1961. Since Standard’s formation, Mr. Freshman’s responsibilities have included Standard’s investment strategy, business development and negotiations. Mr. Freshman is a principal of all entities established by Standard and is responsible for their oversight. During his career, Mr. Freshman has been responsible for the acquisition, development and management of approximately $500 million of real property in 11 states and more than 25 cities. Prior to his decision in 1983 to devote the majority of his time to Standard, Mr. Freshman founded and was the managing partner of the law firm of Freshman, Marantz, Orlanski, Cooper & Klein, which recently merged with Kirkpatrick and Lockhart.
		Steve Fried, Principal, Mesa West Capital Steve Fried is a Principal of Originations at Mesa West Capital, overseeing loan origination in Southern California and the Southwestern US. Since joining the firm Steve has financed over $700MM in commercial real estate transactions on all major property types. Prior to joining Mesa West Capital, Steve worked in Credit Suisse First Boston’s CMBS group in New York underwriting commercial real estate loans. Steve began his career as an auditor for Deloitte & Touche’s financial services group in New York. While at Deloitte & Touche, Steve earned his CPA and managed and implemented financial audits for private equity funds including Morgan Stanley’s real estate funds, The Blackstone Group’s mezzanine funds and JC Flowers & Co and Rockefeller & Co funds.
		Richard Gollis, Principal & Founder, The Concord Group Richard M. Gollis is a co-Founder and Principal of The Concord Group based in the firm’s Newport Beach office. Mr. Gollis oversees all phases of strategic analysis including market and financial feasibility, consumer focus groups and economic feasibility. He is also responsible for the overall company operations of all the offices. He has a wide range of experience in the analysis of residential and commercial development. In particular, his experience with product program development for urban multi-use projects and large-scale master planned communities has positioned him as a leading authority in the field.
		Keith Hall, Managing Partner, Structured Finance Group, KBS Capital Advisors Keith Hall is a co-founder of KBS Capital Advisors, and is chief executive officer of the board of directors of KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT. Mr. Hall also serves as executive vice president of the board of directors of both KBS REIT and KBS REIT II. Mr. Hall is also co-founder of Willowbrook Capital Group, LLC, an asset management company located in Los Angeles. Prior to forming Willowbrook Capital, Mr. Hall was a managing director at CS First Boston, where he managed distribution strategy and business development for the Principal Transaction Group’s real estate securities portfolio. In this capacity, Mr. Hall’s two primary business unit responsibilities were mezzanine lending and commercial real estate development. The KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT focuses heavily on opportunistic CMBS instruments.
		Robert C. Hazard III, Vice President of Acquisitions and Development, Hersha Hospitality Trust Robert C. Hazard III, Vice President of Acquisitions and Development, is responsible for sourcing and closing new business opportunities for Hersha Hospitality Trust. Prior to joining Hersha, Mr. Hazard was the chief executive at MetroVision Community Development, an advisory firm specializing in assisting governmental jurisdictions in the development and management of its tourism infrastructure. Mr. Hazard has also held development and acquisition positions at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Interstate Hotels and has over a decade of industry consulting experience with top hospitality and tourism consulting firms including Pannell Kerr Forster and Kenneth Leventhal & Company. Mr. Hazard holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing from Arizona State University.
		William Hoffman, President & CEO, Trigild William Hoffman is president and CEO of Trigild, a San Diego-based company he founded in 1976. He has over 30 years experience as an attorney, is a California licensed real estate broker and has served as the court appointed receiver for over 1,500 assets, among them hotels, commercial office buildings, retail shopping centers, residential projects and restaurants. In addition, Mr. Hoffman is recognized by the American Hotel and Lodging Association as a Certified Hotel Administrator, and is a former president of the California Lodging Industry Association (CLIA), serving seven years on CLIA’s Board of Directors. Currently, he serves on the American Bar Association’s Hotels, Resorts & Tourism Executive Committee, as well as on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Receivership Forum. He is also a member of the Turnaround Management Association, the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association, and the American Lodging Industry Association and served on the California Tourism Selection Committee.
		Stanley Iezman, Chairman & CEO, American Realty Advisors Mr. Iezman is responsible for the strategic planning and direction of American Realty Advisors, an SEC registered investment advisor and ERISA fiduciary for tax-exempt investors. American currently has over $3.5 billion of assets under management, utilizing core, enhanced core and value-added strategies. Mr. Iezman has directed the acquisition, structuring and management of approximately $8 billion of real estate located throughout the United States. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Planning, Policy, and Development where he teaches real estate asset management in the Master of Real Estate Development Program.
		Stephan Kachani, Vice President, Lone Oak Fund LLC Stephan Kachani is Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Lone Oak Fund, LLC, a private mortgage fund making short-term bridge loans between $250,000 and $10,000,000 on properties in California. Stephan is responsible for developing and managing hundreds of relationships throughout the state to structure and fund loans while providing an additional profit center to institutional banks, commercial banks, mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers, attorneys, life insurance companies, equity funds, CPAs, financial advisors, estate planners, and money managers. As an investor in the fund itself, Mr. Kachani brings a unique perspective to his role at Lone Oak Fund, having also spent many years on both the residential and commercial sides of real estate and as both broker and lender. He generated over $100 million in loans for Lone Oak Fund before joining the firm late in 2002. Since then, he has closed over $300 million in commercial, residential, and REO real estate loans with Lone Oak Fund.
		Bob Kline, Chief Executive Officer, RW Kline Companies Mr. Robert Kline is CEO of R.W. Kline Companies. He is a savvy, experienced executive with over thirty years in the commercial, retail, hospitality and residential industries. His experience as a CEO, a developer, a workout specialist and his national team provide both the knowledgeable entrepreneurial perspective needed for a financial and professional resolve. His has experienced the challenging aspects of market fluctuations, which helped his own workout of $200,000,000 in Debt in the early 80’s. Mr. Kline provides asset solutions (including Balance sheet / CMBS workouts and restructuring), mergers and acquisitions (note sales) brokerage and development. His experience was gained as founder and owner of several companies, as the National Senior Vice President for Pulte Homes, as a RTC workout provider, his commercial and residential development experience. Mr. Kline is a guest speaker and panel member at real estate and financial conferences nationally. He provides quarterly updates to the Senate Advisory Committee and the FDIC. Mr. Kline recently closed on a $140 million note for only $81 million.
		Mark Laderman, Managing Director, Tishman Speyer Mr. Laderman is responsible for Tishman Speyer’s activities in the Southern California region. This includes overseeing the acquisition, disposition, development and operations of the Southern California portfolio. During his tenure at Tishman Speyer he has been responsible for the acquisition and disposition of 8.2 million square feet, totaling over $2.7 billion. Prior to joining the company in 2002, Mr. Laderman spent four years as director of acquisitions covering the Western U.S. for Thomas Properties Group (TPG). Before joining TPG, Mr. Laderman was an investment sales broker at both SACA Commercial and Coldwell Banker Commercial. Mr. Laderman is a member of ULI, NAIOP and REIAC, as well as president of the Wilshire Real Estate Club. Mr. Laderman earned a BS from the University of Oregon and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Irvine.
		Mark Levinson, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig Mark Levinson has substantial experience in a broad range of corporate, securities, real estate and finance matters including an emphasis in municipal finance. Mr. Levinson routinely structures, negotiates and documents the public and private placement of a range of securities offerings; loan restructurings; defaulted bond workouts on behalf of issuers, indenture trustees and bondholders; venture capital and private equity investments. Mr. Levinson also provides guidance to businesses on Securities Exchange Act reporting obligations and general corporate and contract matters. Mr. Levinson has handled all types of real estate transactions, representing syndicators, developers and owners in their projects including shopping centers, office buildings, warehouse distribution facilities and residential property. He has particular experience representing syndication companies, lenders and others in a range of acquisitions, dispositions and private offerings and sale-leaseback arrangements.
		Howard Liggett, President, Distressed Real Estate Consulting Services, Inc. In addition to working with GFI’s Tax Receivables Brokerage Division, Howard Liggett also serves as Executive Director for the National Tax Lien Association (NTLA). The NTLA is a 501(c)(6) business league which represents the political and business interests of institutional investors holding municipal and county tax lien certificates. Firms represented by Mr. Liggett include J. P. Morgan Chase, BankAtlantic, U.S. Bank, and MD Sass. He has served in this capacity since 1999. Mr. Liggett has over 30 years of experience in the distressed property and tax lien/tax foreclosure investment field. For twenty-one years, he served as Tax Administrator for Escambia County (Pensacola), Florida, where he orchestrated the sale of over $300 million in tax lien certificates. In 2003, he was appointed by the Jeb Bush administration to serve on the Florida Department of Revenue Property Tax Administration Tax Force for his expertise in establishing public tax policy for state and local governments.
		Raymond Lowe, Senior Vice President, Real Estate Banking Group, Wells Fargo & Company Ray Lowe is a senior vice president for the Wells Fargo Real Estate Banking Group (REBG). Mr. Lowe has been in commercial real estate since 1976. He began his career with a west coast-based developer of industrial parks and strip retail centers, where he learned construction management, leasing, and property management. In 1985, he joined Wells Fargo Realty Advisors as an asset manager in the pension advisory group, managing a diverse portfolio of equity and debt investments for third-party institutional clients. He eventually became head of the asset management department. In 1995, Ray transferred to the then-newly formed Asset Origination Group of Capital Markets as an underwriter and originator. Renamed Real Estate Merchant Banking (REMB), that group became Wells Fargo’s non-recourse commercial real estate lender for senior and junior balance sheet bridge loans, with more than $8 billion in commitments nationwide.
		Leslie Lundin, Managing Partner, LBG Realty Advisors, LLC Leslie Lundin is Managing Partner of LBG Realty Advisors, LLC, a privately-held real estate company that specializes in the acquisition, investment and development of commercial real estate properties in the western United States. The company focuses exclusively on opportunistic investments, with a strong preference for retail properties. The company’s investment strategy concentrates on the direct acquisition of commercial real estate properties and distressed debt as a principal as well as third party transactions. Prior to founding LBG, Leslie was Senior Vice President-National Director of Originations for Inland Mortgage Capital Corporation, under the REVCAP national direct loan program (Real Estate Venture Capital Program) which she formed for Inland in 1995.
		Alan Mark, Founder & President, The Mark Company A pioneer of high-end urban condominium marketing, Alan Mark is recognized today as one of the country’s leading experts in real estate marketing and consulting. Under his guidance, The Mark Company (TMC) has shaped the living landscape of California and established itself as a premium resource for brokers, developers and financial institutions by successfully designing, marketing and selling some of the most prestigious and innovative developments of the past decade. Prior to founding The Mark Company, Mr. Mark served as the Marketing Director for Pacific Union Marketing Company, where he oversaw marketing and sales efforts. He also spent several years at The New York Times and Wall Street Journal before entering the real estate development field.
		Matthew May, President, May Realty Advisors Matthew May founded May Realty Advisors in 2000 after running the retail divisions for some of the most prominent boutique companies in Los Angeles. His 25-year career has involved the sale and lease of more than $1,000,000,000 worth of property throughout the United States. May was instrumental in the liquidation of the real estate portfolios for many prominent Banks and Savings & Loans during the RTC period and is active today assisting property owners, lenders and servicers. Most recently, May was partner with Madison Partners, specializing in the sale and lease of retail and commercial properties throughout the United States.
		Joel K. Mayer, Managing Director, Head of Retail, Rockwood Capital LLC Joel K. Mayer is currently Managing Director – Head of Retail for Rockwood Capital, based in its Los Angeles office. In his role at Rockwood, he leads the firm’s retail real estate investments throughout the country. Prior to joining Rockwood, he served as a Director at BlackRock Realty. In early 2007, Mr. Mayer and his colleagues established the BlackRock Retail Opportunity Fund, a $500 million (equity raised) closed-end real estate equity fund sponsored by BlackRock and funded by several large institutional investors. Mr. Mayer’s responsibilities included sourcing new acquisitions, identifying and working with joint venture partners on new retail investments and managing the investments on a portfolio basis. He also directed asset management, development activities, and leasing for new acquisitions and development projects.
		Scott McClave, Acquisitions Principal, The Bascom Group Mr. McClave is a Principal of Transactions and Finance for the Bascom Group. Mr. McClave is involved with the acquisitions, financing, and dispositions of multifamily assets for Bascom. His duties include underwriting, due diligence, debt & equity financing, loan restructures, broker selection, and property disposition. He has overseen over $1.3 billion in transactions and finance during his tenure with Bascom. Prior to working with Bascom, Mr. McClave was Development Manager and Analyst for Bascom’s parent company, Chenco Holding Company, in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was responsible for scheduling and coordination of professional services and due diligence, financial and market analysis of potential investment projects, budget forecasting and management, and contract review. Additionally he oversaw the planning, and predevelopment of over 500,000 square feet of industrial parks and the full development of 223,000 of flex office/industrial product.
		John McDermott, Senior Vice President, Sperry Van Ness John McDermott’s real estate experience encompasses all facets of the business including construction, development, brokerage, management, leasing, acquisitions, dispositions, and finance. He and his team have personally brokered over 400 transactions exceeding three billion dollars in transactional sales volume and in the past twenty three (23) years has managed, coached, trained and mentored commercial brokerage professionals for both Marcus and Millichap and Sperry Van Ness nationwide including many of each respective firm’s “Top Ten”.
		Tom McOsker, Head of Tax Receivables, GFI Group Thomas McOsker heads GFI’s Tax Receivables Brokerage Division, connecting both buyers and sellers in a centralized, independent secondary marketplace for tax lien certificates and tax deeds. In 2008 Mr. McOsker founded Sycamore Capital Partners, LLC, a New York based tax lien hedge fund, where he continues to serve as Managing Partner and Co-Portfolio Manager. Prior to establishing the Fund, Mr. McOsker held positions with Morgan Stanley, Lazard Asset Management, and J. W. Seligman.
		Mark Mersel, Partner, Bryan Cave LLP Mark Mersel is a partner of Bryan Cave LLP and head of the firm’s California Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Creditors’ Rights practice group. He represents large and mid-sized corporations in complex business disputes in both state and federal courts and involving a variety of matters such as breach of contract, fraud, shareholder litigation, and business torts. Mr. Mersel represents banks, mortgage companies, and other financial institutions in consumer class actions and other financial services matters and also represents the nation’s largest servicers of commercial mortgages in foreclosure, receivership, work-out and lender liability matters.
		Philippe Phaneuf, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig Philippe Phaneuf’s practice is focused on U.S. and international real estate and corporate law matters. His clients include private equity funds, private investors, real estate developers and operators whom he advises on complex M&A transactions relating to the hospitality industry, real estate acquisitions and development, joint ventures, real estate finance, hotel franchise and management agreements and regulatory matters in connection with the sale of real estate. Having attended law school in both the United States and Canada, he is dually qualified and experienced in cross-border transactions. In addition to North American matters, Philippe provides counsel to clients with projects and transactions in Central America, the European Union, North Africa and the Caribbean.
		Eric Remensperger, Partner, Proskauer D. Eric Remensperger is head of the West Coast Real Estate Group and a Partner in the Los Angeles office. With more than 25 years of experience, working on some of the most complex and difficult real estate transactions, Eric is able to counsel clients with the confidence and experience needed to bring such transactions to a speedy and successful close. Eric has a comprehensive understanding of the constantly changing business climate and real estate markets. He has represented lenders, insurance companies, pension funds and fund advisors, private equity and venture capital funds, developers, and both public and private companies (including REIT’s) in connection with asset purchases and dispositions (including multi-site portfolio transactions involving both loans and hard assets), large and complex development projects, structured finance and CMBS loan transactions, multi-tranche secured and mezzanine financings, sale-leaseback transactions, and the formation and disposition of joint ventures, limited partnerships, limited liability companies including equity sharing and other participation arrangements. Eric also has significant experience working with distressed assets, including foreclosures, receiverships, rescue capital, and workouts and restructurings.
		Charlie Rose, Assistant Vice President – Acquisitions, Canyon Capital Realty Advisors Charlie Rose is an Associate for Canyon Capital Realty Advisors LLC. Mr. Rose is responsible for analyzing debt investment opportunities, assisting in deal execution, and monitoring Canyon’s current portfolio investments. Prior to joining Canyon, Mr. Rose worked for The Marcus & Millichap Companies (TMMC) in the Capital Markets and Multifamily Acquisitions groups. Prior to TMMC, Mr. Rose was Vice President at Rosen Consulting Group, where he was responsible for national real estate market research, covering the office, retail, industrial, and residential sectors. Mr. Rose is a graduate of Stanford University (B.A., English) and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (M.B.A., Honors, with a concentration in Real Estate). He is also an active member of the Urban Land Institute.
		Michael Rosenfeld, Founder & CEO, Woodridge Capital Partners, LLC Michael Rosenfeld is the founder and chief executive officer of Woodridge Capital Partners, LLC – a leading Los Angeles-based real estate development and investment company. Mr. Rosenfeld has been active in real estate development and investment for over 20 years and is an acknowledged leader in the industry. He received the 2008 Single Asset Transaction of the Year Award by the Americas Lodging Investment Summit for his acquisition of The Century Plaza Hotel and was recently selected to Builder & Developer Magazine’s “Who’s Who in Homebuilding.” Mr. Rosenfeld has extensive relationships throughout the financing and investment communities. In addition to his real estate activities, he is an owner and director of a private utility company. Prior to his real estate development and investment activity, Mr. Rosenfeld founded a real estate finance corporation which provided over $1.5 billion of capital to the California development community.
		Phil Seymour, Managing Director, The Seymour Group and Executive Vice President, Elite Properties Realty Phil Seymour is Executive Vice-President of Elite Properties Realty located in Beverly Hills, California, and Managing Director of The Seymour Group. For more than 32 years Phil has been working with investors, providing guidance and expertise in the analysis and disposition of real estate assets. He has worked for some of the top brokerages in the nation, including: Prudential, Merrill Lynch and Coldwell Banker. The Seymour Group has the breadth of experience and depth of knowledge in providing fiduciaries guidance and expertise in the sale of investment and residential properties. The Seymour Group has represented sales of assets in numerous receivership and/or partition actions over the years.
		Kevin Shannon, Vice Chairman, CB Richard Ellis Kevin A. Shannon is widely considered to be one of the premier investment sales brokers in the Western United States. As Vice Chairman of CB Richard Ellis with 28 years of experience, Kevin leads a team of nine professionals focused on the disposition and acquisition of investment properties on behalf of domestic and offshore investors. Kevin was CBRE’s top producing salesman on the West Coast in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (Kevin’s first three years at CBRE). Since 1996, Mr. Shannon has sold and marketed more than $16 billion of office, industrial, self storage and retail properties including more than $6.5 billion of assets in 2007 alone. Mr. Shannon was a Senior Vice President at Grubb & Ellis from 1999 to 2005. He was Grubb & Ellis’ top producing broker nationally (all business lines) from 2003 to 2005 and the top investment broker nationally from 2000 to 2005.
		Brian Shniderson, Managing Director, B & A Capital Partners Brian Shniderson is an entrepreneurial business leader with broad experiences in restructuring and building companies. Over his 20 years of corporate life, Brian has created and sold several businesses in the service, technology, manufacturing and distribution industries. Twice Brian has landed his companies on the INC. 500’s Fastest Growing Companies List – Both awards were achieved before the age of 30. Most recently Brian was a Partner in a commercial real estate development company where he was responsible for fnancing and investment activities, including overseeing the underwriting and risk management functions.
		Robert Smylie, Founder, Smylie & Associates For more than 30 years, Robert Smylie has been involved in all aspects of real estate development, including acquisition, the entitlement procurement process involving all levels of governmental entities, financing, construction, insurance and sales. Mr. Smylie has also personally been involved in the creation, document preparation, and processing of all types of subdivision interests which require registration with the Department of Real Estate (“Department”), including, but not limited to, master planned communities, condominiums, mixed-use and high-rise condominiums, condominium conversions, and planned developments. Mr. Smylie spends much of his time today advising and developing strategies for the handling of problem assets for real estate investment firms, financial institutions, investment funds and portfolio managers.
		David Stapleton, Founder, Stapleton Group Mr. Stapleton is a nationally recognized restructuring and work out expert. He is the founder of Stapleton Group which provides receivership, work out and consulting services to troubled companies and properties on behalf of lenders across the nation. Prior to forming Stapleton Group, Mr. Stapleton underwrote and acquired troubled companies, land, condominium, and resort assets at a subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation. Mr. Stapleton began his career as a Certified Public Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, where he specialized in financial and restructuring services for Fortune 500 clients at PwC’s New York, London, Frankfurt and Los Angeles offices.
		Robert Stiles, EVP & Principal, Head of Western Region, Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman Robert Stiles, Executive Vice President and Principal, is the Head of the Western Region for Cushman Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman. Mr. Stiles oversees the origination, structuring and marketing of all commercial real estate and lodging debt and equity finance transactions across the Western Region. Mr. Stiles joined Sonnenblick-Goldman Company as a Managing Director in early 1999 and with the opening of offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney, has played a critical role in establishing the firm as an international leader in both commercial real estate and hotel capital transactions. Prior to his tenure with Sonnenblick-Goldman Company, he was a founding partner and Group Managing Director of Horwath Asia Pacific – where he was responsible for advising both U.S. and Asian clients on over US$5 billion in development, finance and investment transactions since 1986.
		Mark Strauss, Managing Director and Partner, Cohen Financial Mark is responsible for managing the origination, analysis, and placement of real estate debt and equity throughout the United States. Mark has participated in the placement of debt and equity, as well as the acquisition and disposition of approximately $3 billion of real estate assets. He has financed approximately 5 million square feet of office space for sponsors nationwide and has participated in structuring the financing for over 20,000 apartment units, as well as approximately 3 million sq. ft. of retail.
		Gregor Watson, Principal, McKinley Partners Gregor Watson manages the fund raising activities and is responsible for acquisitions and deal structuring at McKinley Partners. Before McKinley Partners, Watson co-founded ADD Ventures Inc. – a real estate group involved in residential land sales and development throughout California with a focus on golf course related projects and restaurant development and management. Watson co-founded River K, a quick serve restaurant chain. He is currently an active board member of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, a non-profit developer. TNDC owns and manages over 25 apartment buildings throughout San Francisco.
		Kev Zoryan, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Kev Zoryan is the Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, in the Merchant Banking group, focusing on acquisitions and asset management for the Firm’s various private equity real estate funds. Kev established the Firm’s Los Angeles real estate investing office in 2005. Kev joined Morgan Stanley in 1997, starting in the Los Angeles office in the private equity investing area of the Firm’s real estate businesses. He has been involved in many of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate investments on the west coast and in Mexico. After returning from business school in 2001, he rejoined the Firm in the Investment Banking Department in Los Angeles as a generalist in Corporate Finance. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Kev was employed by the JE Robert Companies. Kev is actively involved in the southern California real estate community. He received an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS from the University of Southern California. Kev is a member of the Executive Council of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, and is a member of the ULI LA Executive Committee.

For speaking opportunities, contact:

Ryan Slack
Chief Executive Officer
(646) 862-9389
ryan@greenpearlevents.com