Kathryn Kovitz Arnold   Law '90

Partner • Taft Stettinius & Hollister

Kathryn Kovitz Arnold is chair of Taft’s Real Estate practice group. She also chairs the firm’s Condominium practice group which provides all services necessary for the development of condominium projects, from the early planning stages through sales and post turn-over issues.

Kathryn has played a key role in shaping the landscape of many of Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods and business communities. She has a wide-ranging real estate practice, focusing in the areas of real estate development, commercial and residential condominium development and conversion, mixed-use projects, restaurants, leasing, mixed-use high-rise development, vertical subdivisions and separations, and commercial financing (lender and borrower representation).

Kathryn has been awarded an AV® Peer Review Rating (Preeminent) by LexisNexis/Martindale-Hubbell, its highest rating for ethical standards and legal ability, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Real Estate Law from 2010-2017. Additionally, Kathryn has been elected to Illinois Super Lawyers and Leading Lawyers.

Kathryn earned her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1990. She earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in Business Administration, magna cum laude in 1987.

Barrie Bloom

Senior Vice President • GEM Realty Capital

Ms. Bloom joined GEM in 2013 and is a member of both the asset management and acquisitions teams for GEM Realty Properties. As an asset manager, Ms. Bloom is involved in all facets of asset management of residential, industrial, and office assets, as well as credit investments, and is responsible for quarterly reporting and annual budget presentations to the members of the Investment Committee. For acquisitions, Ms. Bloom coordinates acquisition due diligence efforts, is involved in the deal negotiation process, and sources private-market real estate opportunities.

Prior to joining GEM, Ms. Bloom was a vice president at PCCP, LLC, a finance and investment management firm, where she focused on workouts of mezzanine loans, acquisitions of distressed properties, and originations of senior loans from 2010 through 2013. In 2008 and 2009, she was at Lehman Brothers Real Estate Mezzanine Funds where she worked to restructure leverage facilities and distressed properties. Prior to attending business school, Ms. Bloom was a loan officer at LaSalle Bank in the for-sale residential division. Ms. Bloom received a Masters of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, in 2008 and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003.

Mark Falanga

CEO and Founder • VentureMark, Inc.

Mark Falanga is the Founder and CEO of VentureMark, Inc., a Chicago-based, real estate private equity boutique.

VentureMark, Inc., focuses its investments on value-add, neighborhood-centric residential and commercial real estate. It acquires, assembles, improves and re-tenants its portfolio properties. In Chicago, VentureMark has made significant investments and contributed to the vibrancy in Chicago’s Andersonville, Logan Square, Pilsen and Lincoln Park neighborhoods.

Between 1994 and 2013 Mark managed the Kennedy family’s Merchandise Mart real estate assets, which were sold to Vornado Realty Trust. Mark ultimately became President of Vornado Realty Trust’s Merchandise Mart division. Mark was responsible for transforming Chicago’s Merchandise Mart to a technology epicenter, and managed assets throughout the U.S.

Mark taught at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, as an adjunct professor, between 1990 and 1994.

Falanga holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and resides on the North Shore of Chicago.

Brian Finerty

Chief Investment Officer • Equity International

As chief investment officer, Brian Finerty leads Equity International’s investments group, responsible for originating, executing, and managing investments.

Prior to joining EI in 2009, Brian was vice president at Madison Dearborn Partners, responsible for sourcing and executing transactions across various real estate sectors. Previously, he held positions at Merrill Lynch, ultimately as a vice president in the global commercial real estate group.

Brian serves on EI’s Investment Committee and is a director of four EI portfolio companies: Advance Real Estate, Decameron, Estapar Estacionamentos, and Terranum Corporate Properties. Brian earned an MBA with high honors in analytic finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he received the Barclays Capital Award in Finance for highest academic achievement, and a BBA from the University of Michigan.

Jonathan Glick '04

Managing Principal • Incubation Capital Partners

Mr. Glick is the founder and Managing Principal of Incubation Capital Partners, a merchant bank and capital raising firm specializing in next generation and entrepreneurial real estate investment managers. Mr. Glick is responsible for strategic direction, manager underwriting and selection, capital markets and investor relationships for the firm. Mr. Glick has spent his real estate career focused on underwriting operating partners as both a principal and advisor and has developed an extensive network of relationships with both LPs and GPs across the globe.

Prior to forming Incucap in 2011, Mr. Glick was a capital raising executive at Allegro Advisors, where he evaluated and marketed real estate investment managers globally. Prior to joining Allegro, Mr. Glick was an investment officer at Rothschild Realty Managers (now Almanac Realty), a private equity fund that provides growth capital to real estate operating companies. He began his career in the Investment Banking Division of Lehman Brothers, covering financial institutions.

In addition, Mr. Glick is the founder of the Chicago Real Estate Private Equity Network (CREPE), a networking organization catering exclusively to the next generation of real estate private equity professionals in Chicago. Furthermore, Mr. Glick is an industry mentor to Elmspring, a Chicago-based accelerator for early stage real estate technology startups, and is also a frequent guest lecturer at both industry conferences and at Kellogg.

Mr. Glick received his BS in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA with distinction from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Jack Kennedy

President and CEO • The ChrisKen Group

Jack Kennedy founded the ChrisKen Group of companies in 1982. Since inception, he has been President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of ChrisKen’s various affiliated entities. The primary focus of CK has been the selection, acquisition and management of multifamily properties.

In 1990/91 Mr. Kennedy jointly developed the Comerica/ChrisKen Fund, a group trust formed to acquire a portfolio of apartment properties for institutional pension clients of Comerica Bank. In 1997, the Comerica/ChrisKen Fund was converted to ChrisKen Residential Trust (CRT), a private REIT. ollowing CRT’s successful liquidation in December of 2007, CK Property Management, LLC was formed to take on future property management functions. Following the liquidation of CRT, CK became a consultant and Operating Partner to the GE Pension Trust. Responsibilities included selection/acquisition of institutional quality properties on behalf of the Trust that could benefit from CK’s handsÔÇÉon management and valueÔÇÉadd improvements.

CK also provides its consulting services to State Street Global Advisors regarding multifamily property acquisitions and management. In 2016 SsGA became the advisor to the GE Pension Trust. Beginning in 2017 CK became a partner with Corestate Capital, a Swiss based investment firm seeking to expand its investment horizons into the US residential market. In this new relationship CK will provide similar services to those described above—property acquisitions, management and upgrades.

CK’s investment strategy is focused in suburban locations that offer more affordable housing than infill urban locations and in secondary markets exhibiting job and population growth significantly higher than the national average.

Mr. Kennedy is a member of the Property Acquisition Committee within CK, with responsibilities that include market and property selection.

Chris Klare

Senior Advisor • Incubation Capital Partners

Mr. Klare joined Incubation Capital Partners in 2016 as a Senior Advisor, and focuses on distribution and business development. Prior to joining Incucap, Mr. Klare was Director- Capital Markets at LEM, where he was responsible for coordinating fundraising, marketing, and relationship building efforts with the firm's existing and prospective investors. Prior to joining LEM, he was Director of Capital Markets and Client Services with Grosvenor Fund Management, a London-based real estate operator and fund manager.

Prior to Grosvenor, Mr. Klare held various positions in fundraising, investment underwriting and origination, and portfolio management at the Tuckerman Group, a US multifamily focused fund manager now part of Hunt Investment Management.

Mr. Klare holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Mr. Klare holds his Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Karin Kraai

Senior Managing Director • Newmark Grubb Knight Frank

Ms. Kraai brings over 20 years of experience representing real estate owners, users and investors, with expertise across the entire spectrum of asset management, leasing and marketing services, such as repositioning, value-add and long-term hold strategies. Widely recognized for her success with managing and increasing portfolio values, Ms. Kraai is credited for growing portfolios valued in excess of $2.1 billion. Ms. Kraai leads the new business development efforts for the Chicago Agency Leasing Platform at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Since 2011, NGKF's Chicago portfolio has grown to 1.7M square feet and includes the iconic Wrigley Building. Karin has driven the performance of office portfolios in excess of seven million square feet, while managing teams of leasing professionals. Select clients include BDT Capital, GE Capital, Bank of America, Ernst & Young, CitiGroup, BfgImmoInvest, Overseas Partners Capital Corporation, Equitable Real Estate, Lend Lease, Harris Bank, Unitrin, Dorchester Corporation, Lincoln Property Company, WPP and Publicis. She has executed over 4.2M square feet of transactions valued at over $1.9B. Ms. Kraai has served on the Council for the Goldie Wolfe Miller Women Leaders in Real Estate Initiative for the past five years and was recently elected Chair of the Council for 2015-2016.

Robert Saunders

Chief Financial Officer • Kaufman Jacobs

Rob serves as President of Kaufman Jacobs, a Chicago-based real estate investment manager, where he oversees all aspects of the firm’s operations, including acquisitions, development, capital sourcing, and financial reporting. Mr. Saunders joined Kaufman Jacobs in 2010 as Chief Financial Officer. He has 15 years’ experience in real estate finance, investment management, and corporate finance.

Prior to joining Kaufman Jacobs, Rob was President of Rubicon US REIT, Inc., a real estate investment trust holding a $1bn portfolio of real estate properties and debt. While at Rubicon, Rob successfully led the bankruptcy restructuring of Rubicon’s 1.8m square foot GSA-leased equity portfolio. Rob was also the portfolio manager for Rubicon’s commercial real estate debt investments, managing a portfolio of $350m in CRE mezzanine and whole loans.

Previously, Rob was a senior financial analyst with HFR Asset Management LLC, a hedge fund of funds manager, where he was responsible for quantitative and performance analysis for the firm’s hedge fund products and for the management company. Rob is a CFA charterholder and holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management and Bachelor degrees in Finance (Honors) and German (Honors) from the University of Illinois.

Seth Singerman '05

President and Managing Principal • Singerman Real Estate

Seth Singerman is the President and Managing Principal of Singerman Real Estate, LLC (“SRE”), an opportunistic real estate investment firm that has deep experience executing complex transactions and unlocking embedded value through the ownership of properties, real estate loans and operating companies. SRE focuses on investments in both debt and equity across all major asset classes, including office, retail, hotel, and multifamily, in addition to secondary real estate asset classes. Mr. Singerman has led and sourced over $2.5 billion of investments.

In addition to his direct investment experience, Mr. Singerman has a public-private crossover background as he helped lead the formation and development of a long-short real estate securities hedge strategy.

Mr. Singerman is on the Advisory Board for the Center for Real Estate and Finance at Cornell University; the Board to the Real Estate Applied Security Analysis Program at the University of Wisconsin; Board Member of IMH Financial; and Next Generation Board Member of the United States Holocaust Museum.

Mr. Singerman received his MBA with a concentration in Real Estate and Finance from Northwestern University and his B.S. as a Ye Host Honor with a concentration in Real Estate and Finance from Cornell University.

Jeff Sobczynski

Managing Partner • Accord Group

Mr. Sobczynski, who has 25 years of industry experience, is the Managing Partner overseeing the day-to-day management of Accord Equity Advisors LLC and serves on Accord’s Investment Committee and Executive Committee. Prior to co-founding Accord in 2013, Mr. Sobczynski served as a key principal and a member of the investment committee for Mesirow Financial Institutional Real Estate (MFIRE) for six years. While at MFIRE, he led investments in the Americas and participated in approximately 30 fund investments representing $350 million in equity commitments. Prior to MFIRE, Mr. Sobczynski led the Midwest practice of the Lease Consulting Group at Deloitte & Touche. While at the firm, he served a variety of corporate and equity real estate clients with a specialization in real estate due diligence and M&A activity, ranging from single-asset and portfolio purchases to large public mergers, representing over $50 billion in commercial real estate.

Mr. Sobczynski received a Master of Education degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelors degree in Finance from Michigan State University. Mr. Sobczynski is a member of the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA).

RJ Wolney

VP Investment and Finance • Bedrock Detroit

RJ Wolney is Vice President of Investment & Finance at Bedrock, where he is responsible for managing all investment and finance aspects of current and prospective real estate projects. Detroit-based Bedrock is a full-service real estate firm specializing in acquiring, leasing, financing, developing and managing commercial and residential space. Since its founding in 2011, Bedrock and its affiliates have invested more than $3.5 billion in acquiring and developing more than 100 properties in downtown Detroit and Cleveland totaling more than 16 million square feet.

RJ leads evaluation of real estate investment opportunities including, market and strategic analysis, project underwriting, financial due diligence and capital structure execution. He is responsible for managing investment and acquisition analysis, financing execution, and new development pursuit through coordination with external resources and Bedrock’s vertically-integrated project teams. A member of the Quicken Loans Family of Companies for more than five years, RJ has been closely involved with acquisitions, development and community efforts in Detroit, as well as other Midwestern cities and has been at the forefront of the Family of Companies’ efforts to spur economic development through transformational urban investment.

RJ has over 15 years of experience working with publicly and privately-held businesses in various areas of finance including mergers and acquisitions, equity capital raising, and debt financing. Previously, RJ worked in the corporate finance department of William Blair & Company, a global investment banking firm based in Chicago but moved back to the Detroit area with his wife and son in 2012. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. RJ is also a graduate of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Larson Leadership Program, which is a curriculum-based program designed to train and mentor the next generation of real estate and land use leaders in Michigan.