Dave Bragg
Co-Head of Strategic Research, Green Street
Dave is Co-Head of Strategic Research at Green Street, the preeminent provider of actionable commercial real estate research, news, data, analytics, and advisory services in the United States and Europe. His research informs property investors’ decision-making process across real estate sectors and metro areas in the public and private markets. Frequent themes of Dave’s research reports include valuation, performance measurement, capital flows, sector and market selection, demographics, policy, and technological disruptors. He also focuses on REIT-specific themes such as capital allocation, balance sheet management, and corporate governance. Dave regularly meets with Green Street’s top clients, including leading global institutional investors, investment banks, brokers, and commercial property owners. A frequent speaker at real estate industry conferences, Dave is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) - serving as Chair of the Technology and Real Estate Council. Dave is also a member of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit), the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), and the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC). Previously, he led Green Street’s residential research team, covering the apartment, single-family rental, student housing, manufactured housing, and self-storage sectors. Prior to joining Green Street in 2013, Dave developed and led the REIT research effort at Zelman & Associates. Before that, he was a member of Institutional Investor’s top-ranked REIT research team at ISI Group and Merrill Lynch. Dave earned a Master’s in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master’s in International Business from the University of Florida, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Tufts University.
Jan Brzeski
Managing Director & CIO, Arixa Capital
Jan Brzeski is the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Arixa Capital and Crosswind Financial, which together are among California's leading private real estate lenders. Mr. Brzeski founded Arixa Capital in 2006 and has participated in more than 900 real estate transactions, ranging in value from $100,000 to over $20 million per transaction, including more than 800 transactions in co-mingled discretionary investment funds operated by Arixa or Crosswind. Prior to forming Arixa Capital, Mr. Brzeski was Vice President of Acquisitions at Standard Management Company, a private commercial real estate investment firm. Mr. Brzeski holds a B.A. in physics from Dartmouth College and an M.A. in economics (PPE) from Oxford University.
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Maggie Coleman
Managing Partner, Private Capital Advisory for Real Estate USA, Sera Global
Maggie Coleman is a Managing Partner at Sera Global. Maggie leads our Private Capital Advisory practice for Real Estate and is responsible for advising leading general partners, operating companies and managers of real assets on capital formation and fund strategy including capital raising. Additionally, Maggie oversees Sera Global’s investor coverage across institutional relationships, private equity and private capital groups.
Prior to joining Sera Global, Maggie was a Senior Managing Director and Head of International Capital, Americas at JLL focusing on advising cross-border investors on their real estate strategies, facilitating the deployment of offshore capital into JLL’s direct transactions, recapitalizations and joint ventures. Prior to JLL’s merger with Staubach Capital Markets in 2008, she was a Director within the M&A Advisory Services group of Staubach Capital.
Maggie earned a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago in Political Economy. She also has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Economics & Public Policy (BEPP) and International Business from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
Maggie is involved in a leadership capacity of several Real Estate organizations. She is a Vice Chair of the Red Flight of the Urban Development/Mixed-Use Council (UDMUC) at ULI. She is also a member of the Real Estate Executive Council. Maggie serves on the Board of Directors of SG Blocks, a publicly traded company. She is also affiliated with the Guild Board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jackson Chance Foundation.
Jonathan Grabel
Chief Investment Officer, Los Angeles County Retirement Association (LACERA)
Jonathan Grabel is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA). Mr. Grabel manages the $73 billion defined benefit pension fund on behalf of LACERA's 165,000 members, including close to 62,000 benefit recipients. He also oversees the investments for the LACERA-administered $2 billion healthcare benefits program.
Prior to LACERA, Mr. Grabel was the CIO for New Mexico PERA where he oversaw the investments for the agency’s $15 billion defined benefit fund and the associated PERA SmartSave deferred compensation plan. Previously, he was a general partner at Baker Capital, a private equity firm focused on growth-stage investments in technology, networking industries and digital communications. Earlier in his career, Mr. Grabel was an investment banker and licensed CPA (inactive).
Mr. Grabel received his BS in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Brian J. Haskin
Managing Director, Spouting Rock Asset Management
Brian Haskin is a managing director at Spouting Rock Asset Management and is the head of North American Distribution. Bringing over 20 years of industry experience specializing in distribution, product development, and investment strategy, he is responsible for the distribution of Spouting Rock Asset Management’s products, including those of affiliate firms, into the institutional marketplace.
Prior to Spouting Rock, Brian was the director of marketing and business development at Poplar Forest Capital where he managed and directed the firm’s sales, client service, and marketing activities for the intermediary and institutional channels. Additionally, he held senior management roles with Barclays Global Investors (BlackRock), Wilshire Associates, Deutsche Asset Management, and Analytic Investors. Early in his career, Brian practiced as a Certified Public Accountant with EY and served as a senior financial analyst with The Walt Disney Company.
Brian earned his MBA, with honors, from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for Bridges Academy, a Los Angeles-based school focused on providing specialized educational services for gifted students with learning disabilities.
Adrian Mendoza
Founder & General Partner, Mendoza Ventures
Adrian Mendoza is the Founder and General Partner of Mendoza Ventures an early-stage and growth venture fund based in Boston. With 20 years’ experience in building technology products and teams, Adrian is an experienced entrepreneur, operator, and veteran of the Boston startup ecosystem. Adrian founded Mendoza Ventures to take an in depth-focused approach to venture capital, looking for founders who demonstrate domain expertise in one of his three focus areas across fintech, AI, and cybersecurity. Adrian prides himself on being a hands-on investor by setting up companies for success beyond just writing a check, create strong funding syndicates, make customer introductions, and assist with partnership conversations.
His firm Mendoza Ventures investments in Fintech, AI, and Cybersecurity, with diversity playing an important role in their investment decisions—about 75% of their portfolio consists of startups led by immigrants, people of color, and women. Mendoza Ventures is both LatinX and woman owned and the first LatinX founded VC fund on the east coast. Since founding five years ago, Mendoza Ventures has raised two funds, had one successful exit, and expanded their investments from Boston to Silicon Valley. Mendoza Ventures Fund I is in the top Quartile of seed stage firms and the firm is currently raising their third fund, a $100M fintech fund focused of Series A to C funding rounds.
Adrian and Mendoza Ventures where recently covered in Forbes, Yahoo Finance, the Boston Globe, and American Banker.
Adrian is a native Angelino who received his Bachelors from the University of Southern California and is Master from Harvard University.
Ivan K. Nikkhoo
Founder and Managing Partner, Navigate Ventures
With over 38 years of investing, advising, and operating experience in various senior capacities internationally in the tech sector, Ivan is the Founder and Managing Partner at Navigate Ventures, an early/mid growth stage venture fund focused on helping entrepreneurs prepare for rapid growth, scaling, and expansion. Navigate ventures invests in B2B Enterprise & Internet companies outside Silicon Valley that are between series A & B rounds. Ivan brings domain expertise and a broad base of contacts and resources to his portfolio companies.
Ivan is also an Adjunct Professor at USC Marshall School of Business where he teaches classes on raising growth capital, venture capital, private equity, entrepreneurship, eCommerce, social media, and founding successful startups.
Ivan has deep domain expertise in software and SaaS, eCommerce, marketplaces, platforms, Internet. He has an extensive background in venture capital, private equity, operations & management, sales & marketing, and tech M&A. He has a strong global network of VC, PEG, and CEO relationships and regularly hosts a series of VC/CEO Dinners in several cities around the to discuss the latest trends and developments. He is an active member of YPO, and is the Chair for the VC Network Globally.
Ivan has been featured in numerous publications and is an advisor to several incubators, accelerators, and funds. He was a finalist for the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and professional organizations.
Ivan has served on several corporate, business, government, and non-profit boards, received his MBA from USC Marshall School of Business and his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from McGill University. He has completed executive education programs at HBS and Stanford and is a General Securities Principal licensed with FINRA/SIPC. He has lived on three continents, has travelled extensively throughout the world, speaks three languages, and is experienced in doing business globally.
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Sébastien Page, CFA
Head of the Global Multi-Asset and Chief Investment Officer, T. Rowe Price
Sébastien Page is Head of the Global Multi-Asset and Chief Investment Officer. He oversees a team of investment professionals dedicated to actively managing a broad set of multi-asset portfolios representing more than $459 billion[1] in assets, including the firm’s target date franchise. He is a member of the Asset Allocation Committee, which is responsible for tactical investment decisions across asset allocation portfolios, and a member of the Management Committee of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.
Sébastien’s investment experience began in 2000, and he has been with T. Rowe Price since 2015. Prior to this, Sébastien was employed by PIMCO as an executive vice president where he led a team focused on research and development of multi-asset solutions. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2010, he was employed by State Street Global Markets as a senior managing director.
Sébastien earned a Master of Science degree in finance and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Sherbrooke University in Quebec, Canada. He also has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.
Sébastien coauthored award-winning research papers for The Journal of Portfolio Management in 2003, 2010, and 2011 and the Financial Analysts Journal in 2010 and 2014. He is the author of the book “Beyond Diversification: What Every Investor Needs to Know About Asset Allocation” (McGraw Hill, 2020) and the coauthor of the book “Factor Investing and Asset Allocation” (CFA Institute Research Foundation®, 2016). Sébastien is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Research Committee of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance (Q Group). He regularly appears in the financial media, including Bloomberg TV and CNBC.
Robin Potts
Co-Head of Real Estate Investments, and Director of Acquisitions, Canyon Partners Real Estate
Robin Potts is the Co-Head of Real Estate Investments and Director of Acquisitions for CPRE. Ms. Potts has been with Canyon Partners for 15 years, is responsible for overseeing the origination and acquisitions of debt and equity investments across Canyon Partners’ real estate platforms and holds a seat on all Canyon Partners real estate investment committees.
During her tenure at Canyon Partners, Ms. Potts has facilitated the acquisition, financing and development of over $12 billion of commercial real estate transactions across all asset classes including multifamily, condominium, office, retail, hospitality, industrial, senior housing, student housing, self-storage and mixed-use.
Ms. Potts previously worked in the Financial Institutions Group of Credit Suisse in Los Angeles where she focused on equity, debt and M&A transactions in the mortgage real estate investment trust sector. Ms. Potts is a graduate of Harvard University, where she earned a B.A. degree in Economics.
Zaahir Syed
Partner, Sera Global
Zaahir Syed is a Partner at Sera Global. He co-leads the Real Estate practice for Private Capital Advisory and is responsible for advising real estate operators and managers on equity placements. Zaahir has over 13 years of experience in real estate finance having most recently joined from JLL where he served as Managing Director in the Funds Advisory practice. Prior to JLL, he led real estate capital raising and GP origination in the Western U.S. for Lazard and was in the Real Estate group at Blackstone.
Zaahir earned a Master of Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University California-Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science from Vanderbilt University.
James Williams
Chief Investment Officer, J. Paul Getty Trust
Jim has been the Chief Investment Officer of the J. Paul Getty Trust since December 2002. Prior to this position, Jim spent 3 years as the President of Harbor Capital Advisors and President of the Harbor Family of mutual funds. Prior to joining Harbor, he was manager of the Pension Asset Management department of Ford Motor Company. Jim serves on the boards of trustees for Ariel Mutual Funds and SEI mutual funds. He is on the board of the Toigo Foundation, which promotes opportunities for minorities in the financial services industry. Jim has a BS in engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.
