Ep. 15 Brendan Wallace

Brendan Wallace

Brendan Wallace is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall.

Brendan was Co-founder & CEO of Identified, a data & analytics company focused on workforce optimization that raised $33 million of venture capital and was acquired by Workday (WDAY) in 2014. Brendan co-founded Cabify, the largest ridesharing service in Latin America. Brendan has been an active angel investor and manages one of the largest syndicates on AngelList, having led over 60 angel investments including Bonobos, Dollar Shave Club, Lyft, SpaceX, Clutter, Philz Coffee and Zenefits.

Brendan started his career at Goldman Sachs in investment banking in the real estate, hospitality, and gaming group where he worked on $22 billion in M&A Advisory work. Brendan also worked at Goldman Sachs’ CMBS and structured finance group where he worked on over $10 billion in commercial real estate debt originations and securitizations. He then worked at The Blackstone Group in real estate private equity where he worked on the $26 billion acquisition of Hilton Hotels and the $39 billion buyout of Equity Office Properties, the 3rd largest leveraged buyout in history.

Brendan is from New York, NY, and graduated from Princeton University where he received his BA in political science and economics. Brendan received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ep. 14 Chris Kelly

Chris Kelly 

Chris is the co-founder, president, and chief development officer of Convene. He is an active thought leader and industry spokesperson, and is a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council. He has been recognized as Service Provider of the Year by CoreNet NYC, a Top Entrepreneur by Crain’s New York Business, a finalist in Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® awards, and is the only person to have been twice recognized on Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30” list of Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs. Previously, he co-founded evoJets, a leading provider of global private jet charter services.

Ep. 13 Andre Bueno

Andre Bueno

With over 10 years of real estate experience, Andre is responsible for founding and overseeing the Bueno Group, a vertically integrated real estate development company. Since 2006, he has redeveloped and repositioned 400+ apartments across three states.

Before forming the Bueno Group, he actively researched and presented strategic investment opportunities across a $500MM client base on behalf of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Additionally, he spent time working at a privately held Real Estate merchant builder.

Ep. 12 Gadi Kaufmann

Gadi Kaufmann

Gadi Kaufmann is Managing Director and CEO of RCLCO, a premier end-to-end solutions provider in the real estate sector around the world. 

Gadi joined RCLCO in 1979. He specializes in economic consulting for real estate projects and portfolios; corporate strategy planning and management consulting enterprise; transactional and negotiation services; and financing and capital formation strategy formulation/implementation.

He is an active board and committee member of several industry and academic organizations, including the PREA Board of Directors, Editorial Advisory Board Member of The Institutional Real Estate Letter – North America, Chairman of the New Programs Committee of PREA, Trustee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Governor of the ULI Foundation, and member of the boards of the Ziman Center for Real Estate and the Luskin School for Public Policy at UCLA. He previously held leadership and board positions in ULI, YPO and CEO organizations. Gadi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from UCLA.

Ep. 11 Matthew Lopez

Matthew Lopez

Matthew Lopez oversees all management activities of MBL Title, including outside sales and marketing, and manages the strategic growth and vision of the company. In 2012, he founded MBL Law, offering sophisticated real estate legal expertise and general counsel services to a broad range of local businesses and real estate entrepreneurs. With increasing client demand, MBL Law expanded to provide the full breadth of commercial and residential title services to clients in Texas and nationwide. In 2014, in order to meet ever-growing client needs, Matthew co-founded MBL Title as a fully licensed title agency in Texas.

Matthew has represented clients in real estate acquisitions and dispositions, development and financing, including interim construction and permanent financing matters. He previously served as a transactional attorney at elite Dallas-based law firm Hughes & Luce, LLP, and then at international law firm K&L Gates LLP, following the two firms’ combination in January 2008.

Matthew’s experience includes representing clients in land acquisitions for large developments; complex contract and lease negotiations; analysis of development restrictions; land use and title issues; contract disputes and pre-litigation negotiations; foreclosures, as well as negotiating and drafting loan documents, company agreements, corporate resolutions, development agreements, purchase and sale agreements, and office and commercial lease agreements.

In addition, Matthew has worked with municipalities on development agreements and tax incentives, zoning and land use; and represented hedge funds and partnerships in the acquisition and disposition of hotel properties and retail properties, including multi-state and multi-property transactions.

Matthew is a LEED Accredited Professional (LEED-AP), a distinction he earned through the Green Building Certification Institute. As a LEED-AP, he has demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles, as well as the LEED Rating System.

Matthew received his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and Cox School of Business, respectively. He graduated magna cum laude from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor of Business Administration, where he also earned recognition as a Division I Soccer Letterman and Academic All-American. In his free time, Matthew enjoys competing in triathlons (including Ironman distance), Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and traveling.

Ep. 10 Sean Burton

About Sean Burton

Sean Burton has over 15 years of experience in real estate and equity investments and has been with CityView since 2003. Burton manages CityView’s platform and operations and chairs the investment committees for CityView’s two Blackstone funds and its Los Angeles Urban Fund. Prior to joining CityView, Burton was vice president of corporate business development and strategy at Warner Bros. Before that, Burton was an attorney in the real estate and corporate groups of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP and served in the White House during the Clinton Administration. He is a graduate of University of California, Irvine and New York University School of Law.

Ep. 9 Darla Longo

About Darla Longo

Darla Longo, a top producing and successful real estate professional for over thirty-nine years, specializes in investment sales, sale lease-backs, leasing, user and land sales, and recapitalizations of institutional investment properties. Darla Longo throughout her real estate career has been involved in over $38 billion worth of real estate transactions including $30 billion of investment sales across the United States totaling over 309 million square feet, sold over 12,000 acres of land and leased over 170 million square feet. Ms. Longo is known for her creative thinking and possesses unique and proven negotiating skills that allow clients to achieve the highest and best value for their investment asset, as proven by numerous repeat business. Darla’s passion and work ethic has won her a national award every single year during her career for top performance at CBRE.

Ms. Longo is the first woman in the company’s history to be elected to the CBRE Board of Directors and she is a Managing Director of CBRE’s West Coast Institutional Group. Additionally, she has been a top 3% producer for the company for 38 out of 39 years, the only exception being her first year when she was named the national Rookie of the Year. Darla recently received Broker of the Year award from the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Darla and her partner Barbara are part of a National Partners (NP) of leading CBRE IG Professionals across the United States. The National Partners transacted $10 billion in 2016.

Ep. 8 Sonny Kalsi

About Sonny Kalsi

Sonny Kalsi is a Founder and Partner of GreenOak, based in New York. Sonny has oversight responsibility for GreenOak’s US business and is a member of the firm’s investment committees globally.

Sonny Kalsi was previously the Global Co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s Real Estate Investing (MSREI) business and President of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate (MSRE) funds until his departure from the firm in early 2009. Prior to that, Mr. Kalsi was the Global Co-Head of MSREI from 2006 to 2008. At its peak, the MSREI platform had approximately $100 billion of assets under management in 33 countries. Prior to managing MSREI globally, Sonny Kalsi and his team led the formation of Morgan Stanley’s property business in Asia and built it into a leading real estate platform in the region. Sonny has been named one of the 100 most influential people in private real estate from the past decade by PERE, and most recently, Mr. Kalsi received recognition as a finalist for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

Sonny is a graduate of Georgetown University and a member of its Board of Regents. Additionally, Sonny Kalsi serves on the boards of the following organizations: the Hirshhorn Museum, PowHerFul, TeachingMatters, and Room to Read, and is a trustee of the Asia Society, an organization formed by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Ep. 7 Connect LA 2018

This episode features the Buy, Build, Sell or Hold: Investment & Development Insights panel at the Connect LA Event on March 27, 2018 at Hotel Indigo DTLA. 

Panelists included: 

• Marc Renard, Cushman & Wakefield (moderator)
• Amy Price, President and Chief Investment Officer, Bentall Kennedy
• Jamie Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Jamison Realty Inc.
• Joon Choi, Principal,  Harbor Associates
• Chris Rising, Founder & President, Rising Realty Partners

Ep. 6 Nick Romito

About Nick Romito

Nick Romito is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of VTS. Nick started his career in commercial real estate over a decade ago as a tenant rep and landlord broker at New York City’s Murray Hill Properties. There, he expanded the U.S. presence of international companies while supporting the growth of the firm’s 8-million square-foot office portfolio. Nick went on to AM Properties, where he oversaw a 3-million square-foot office portfolio, before becoming the founder and CEO of Titan Advisors in 2009. While leading Titan, a full-service commercial real estate firm, Nick realized the need in the industry for a technology platform that could centralize leasing activity, analytics, and marketing.

Nick has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Entrepreneur Magazine. He has spoken at Harvard Business School’s Technology Cyberposium and real estate conferences around the world including Realcomm, Urban Land Institute’s Fall Meeting, and MIPIM. Nick is a self-professed outdoor enthusiast and has earned several national awards in surfing.

Ep. 5 Eli Mills

About Eli Mills

Eli Mills has over 20 years of real estate experience. During this time he has been involved in the successful execution of more than 300 transactions and advised on numerous others totaling several billion dollars. Eli has represented and advised many of the largest real estate investors in the United States. As a member of CBRE Investment Properties, he is able to access the world’s leading investment sales platform. This allows Eli the unique ability to connect aggressive capital sources from around the globe with investment opportunities in Utah.

Eli joined CBRE’s Investment Properties professionals in September of 2010. Prior to joining CBRE, he was one of the founding principles of NAI Utah Commercial Real Estate Inc. (now Newmark Grubb Acres) and was on the leadership board of NAI Global’s Investment Council.

In 1997 Eli received the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation. Only 6% of the estimated 125,000 commercial real estate practitioners nationwide hold the CCIM designation, which reflects not only the caliber of the program, but also why it is one of the most coveted and respected designations in the industry.

Eli earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah and a dual MBA from Columbia University and The University of California, Berkeley. Eli and his wife Rachel have been married for 18 years and have 6 children.

Ep. 4 Andrew McDonald

About Andrew McDonald

Andrew McDonald is the President of the West Region for Cushman & Wakefield. In this role, Mr. McDonald is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of the firm’s operations and business lines in California, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Mexico.

In his previous role as Executive Managing Director and Regional Managing Principal for Greater Los Angeles/Orange County, Mr. McDonald oversaw all facets of operations and performance of the eight regional offices which account for more than 500 employees.

Mr. McDonald is a seasoned real estate veteran with over 17 years of experience in the industry. He began his professional career as an investment analyst at ASIMCO, a Beijing-based private equity firm acquired by Bain Capital.  In 1999, he returned to the United States to work directly with brokerage legend, John C. Cushman, III at Cushman Realty Corporation. In 2001, Cushman Realty Corporation merged with Cushman & Wakefield. 

Mr. McDonald has been a perennial member of Cushman & Wakefield’s Chairman’s Circle, an honor reserved for the company’s top producers. He has been a frequent guest lecturer at The Marshall School of Business at USC, and has been recognized in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s annual “Who’s Who in Los Angeles”, and Real Estate Southern California’s “40 under 40” list.

Mr. McDonald currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Coalition, California Hospital Medical Center, The Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children, and is a member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. 

Ep. 3 Andy Cohen

About Andy Cohen

Andy is one of two Gensler Co-CEOs, whose collaborative leadership model sets itself apart in the marketplace as a leading global design firm. For his innovative leadership, he and Co-CEO Diane Hoskins rank on Business Insider’s elite “Creators” list, a who’s who of the world’s 100 top creative visionaries. A hands-on leader, Andy oversees Gensler’s global platform and its day-to-day operations, some 5,000+ people networked across 44 offices, serving clients in 120+ countries.

A champion of design, resiliency and sustainability, Andy is Chair of Gensler’s Board of Directors and leads the committee responsible for global design innovation initiatives, spearheading design excellence strategies across Gensler’s 31 diverse practice areas. Andy has been a speaker at many premier industry conferences, including the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Milken Institute Global Conference, Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) and TEDx. Andy is an active Young President’s Organization (YPO) Gold member and is also a Board Member of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. In his role as Co-CEO, Andy is one of the key contributors to what is acknowledged, by its peers, to be the most admired and largest architecture firm in the world, pioneering project types and design innovation strategies for the next century.

Ep. 2 Carl Muhlstein

About Carl Muhlstein

Carl Muhlstein is International Director in JLL's Downtown Los Angeles office. Active in Los Angeles commercial real estate for more than 30 years, Carl's background includes all forms of tenant, landlord, and investment related assignments with a special emphasis on the entertainment industry, creative office and development.  Carl has served in senior positions with Cushman & Wakefield, Cushman Realty Corporation, Insignia/ESG Capital Advisors and Tishman Speyer Properties. 

Education and affiliations:

A graduate of Cal State Northridge, Carl is a Los Angeles native. Local activities and memberships include board and advisory roles for five Mayoral administrations, ULI, and LACRA. He served as a public board member of the American Institute of Architects of Greater Los Angeles and chair of the BOMA Political Action Committee. He chairs the Citizen Oversight Committee for the Los Angeles Prop F Fire Facilities Bond advising on 18 fire stations, a regional training facility and an Air Ops facility to serve both the fire and police departments. He also assisted Public Counsel and Planned Parenthood to secure regional headquarters and is an adviser in AIA's effort to develop a Center for Architecture in Los Angeles. Carl is a past recipient of the IBD's Caliber Award for Broker of the Year, a recipient of the JLL 2013 Broker Culture Award, and a CoStar Power Broker. Carl was JLL's top producer in Southern California in 2014 and Top Ten since joining JLL. In 2016, Carl was named one of the 35 Power Players of CRE Tech by Capstak Commercial Real Estate Community.

Carl is a frequent contributor on several panels including RICS, CoreNet, AIA, AIR, USC, ULI, LACRA, NAIOP, and the Appraisal Institute. He is also frequently quoted in and contributes thought-leadership to local and national news and editorial articles. Carl's enthusiasm for the industry is well demonstrated on Twitter @CarlMuhlstein.

Ep. 1 Kevin Shannon

About Kevin Shannon

Kevin Shannon is the President of West Coast Capital Markets at Newmark Knight Frank. 

Kevin A. Shannon joined Newmark Knight Frank in December 2015 as president of West Coast Capital Markets. In this role, Mr. Shannon leads a team of 15 professionals focused on the disposition and acquisition of investment properties on behalf of both domestic and offshore investors.

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Shannon has sold and marketed more than $45 billion of office, industrial, self storage, retail, land and mixed-use assets. His experience includes 100% fee simple, partial interest recapitalizations and joint venture transactions.

Mr. Shannon has spent his career helping clients structure transactions to best meet their goals. Notably, he brokered the largest office sales in the Western United States in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the second-largest in 2013. The 2012 sale, in which Amazon.com headquarters traded hands for $1.6 billion, was also the largest commercial sale in the country.

Mr. Shannon joined NKF after nearly nine years at CBRE, where he served as vice chairman and managing director for the West Coast Institutional Investment Group and leader of Western United States Office Vertical. During his tenure, Mr. Shannon was the firm's top producing salesman on the West Coast in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015.

Prior to CBRE, Mr. Shannon served from 1999 to 2005 as a senior vice president with the Institution Investment Group of Grubb & Ellis, now a part of Newmark Knight Frank. He was that firm's top-producing broker nationally (all business lines) from 2003 to 2005. Mr. Shannon began his real estate career at Colliers Seeley in 1983, where he rose to managing director and partner in the Investment Division and was the company's top aggregate producer from 1990 to 1999.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

• Industrial and Office Park Development Council (Silver Flight), Urban Land Institute (ULI)
• Executive committee, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate
• NAIOP

PERSONAL AFFILIATIONS:

• Board of directors, Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters
• Board of directors, USC Caruso Catholic Center

Mr. Shannon attended the University of Southern California from 1976 to 1981 - Emphasis in real estate finance and development.