Real Estate Program

 

Real Estate & Economics Symposium

 

Speaker Bios


33rd Annual Real Estate & Economics Symposium
Monday, November 22, 2010— 8:00 am ~ 5:00 pm
San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel





 Severin Borenstein
E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration & Public Policy
& Co-Director of the Energy Institute
Haas School of Business University of California at Berkeley

Severin Borenstein is E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business and Co-Director of the Energy Institute at Haas.  He is also Director of the University of California Energy Institute.   He received his A.B. from U.C. Berkeley and Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T.  His research focuses on business competition, strategy, and regulation.  He has published extensively on the airline industry, the oil and gasoline industries, and electricity markets.  His current research projects include the economics of renewable energy, economic policies for reducing greenhouse gases, equity and efficiency effects of electricity pricing, and competitive dynamics in the airline industry.  Borenstein is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA. He served on the Board of Governors of the California Power Exchange from 1997 to 2003. During 1999-2000, he served on the California Attorney General's Gasoline Price Task Force.  In May 2010, Borenstein was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to the DOT's Future of Aviation Advisory Committee.  He also is a member of the Supply and Infrastructure Task Group of the National Petroleum Council's Future of Transportation Fuels Study, which has been commissioned by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.


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Paul E. Chandler, MAI
President & CEO
Property Sciences

Mr. Chandler is a recognized industry leader whose 30 years of experience have turned Property Sciences into a national brand. Both the company's residential and commercial divisions continually benefit from his background in valuation, appraisal, lender-platform technology development, and online and print media. Prior to forming Property Sciences, he was Senior Vice President of Corinthian Real Estate, where he provided financial institutions with market analysis, branching strategy and site acquisition consulting.


Mr. Chandler founded Commercial Lender magazine in 1995 and C-Lender.com in 1999, and grew them both into market share leaders prior to their purchase by Scotsman Publishing in 2001. He is the former publisher of the California Housing Report, a frequent speaker at real estate events throughout the United States, and host to many professional educational venues. Active within the mortgage industry, Mr. Chandler has received numerous industry awards including the Affiliate of the Year Award, the highest honor presented to a non-mortgage broker by the Association of Mortgage Brokers.


Mr. Chandler holds an MBA with an emphasis in real estate from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, he holds a California Real Estate Broker's License and previously was an N.A.S.D. General Securities Registered Principal. He is a member of the Appraisal Institute holding the MAI designation and is a state certified appraiser with the General Certification.


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Granger Cobb
President, Co-Chief Executive Officer
Emeritus Senior Living, Inc.

Granger Cobb has served as President and Co-Chief Executive Officer and as director of Emeritus since joining the company in September 2007, effective with the merger of Summerville Senior Living, Inc. Mr. Cobb has 24 years of senior management experience in the senior residential, assisted living, and skilled nursing industries. Prior to joining Emeritus in 2007, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a director of Summerville. Mr. Cobb joined Summerville in 1998 with its acquisition of Cobbco, Inc., a California-based assisted living company, which he founded in 1989.


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Robert H. Edelstein
Co-Chair
Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics
Professor
Haas School of Business
University of California at Berkeley

Dr. Edelstein joined the University of California at Berkeley in 1985 and is active in the fields of real estate economics, finance, and property taxation; energy and environmental economics; public finance; and urban financial problems. He is a prodigious researcher and writer with work that addresses the major issues facing the real estate industry today. He has been published widely in prestigious economics and business journals on such topics as residential financial analysis and residential real estate markets. He has testified before the United States Congress on many issues including the viability of variable rate mortgages for savings and loan associations, the fiscal soundness of the V.A. Revolving Loan program, the determinants of the loan size limits for the FHA Single-Family Loan Program, the restructuring of the FHA Multi-Family Loan Program, the imposition of capital requirements on FNMA and FHLMC, and the impact of the Rodash decision upon the housing finance system. Dr. Edelstein received a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.


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Donald J. Herrema
Executive Vice Chairman of Kennedy Wilson

Donald Herrema is executive vice chairman and CEO of KW Capital Markets Group. Mr. Herrema is responsible for Kennedy Wilson’s capital markets and fundraising activities. Prior to joining Kennedy Wilson, he founded BlackSterling Partners, LLC, served as CEO of Bessemer Trust, Loring Ward, Atlantic Trust (subsidiary of Invesco), and was head of Private Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley.  He began his career at Wells Fargo Bank, where he ultimately served as president of Wells Fargo Securities and head of the Mutual Funds Division.  Mr. Herrema received a B.A. from Whittier College and an M.A. in economics from the University of Southern California. Mr. Herrema is a director of TD Bank Asset Management USA Funds and Lepercq, de Neuflize and Co., serves as a senior advisor to Stone Point Capital and is a member of the USC Marshall Board of Leaders.


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Robert G. Kramer
President
National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry (NIC)

Mr. Kramer is founder and president of the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry (NIC), a non-profit education and resource center that serves debt and equity investors interested in the seniors housing and long term care industry. NIC is the leading provider of research as well as business and financial performance data on this segment for capital providers. NIC’s focus is to advance the quality of seniors housing and care by facilitating informed investment decisions through driving increased transparency for investors. Mr. Kramer, a frequent writer and speaker on trends in seniors housing and long term care, has directed NIC since its inception in 1991.

A former county government official and Maryland state legislator, Mr. Kramer was a leader on health and environmental issues while representing the state capital of Annapolis in the 1980s. Mr. Kramer was educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities and also holds a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary.


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Nori Gerardo Lietz
 Partner & Chief Strategist for Private Real Estate Investment Management
Partners Group

Nori Gerardo Lietz is a Partner and chief strategist for private real estate. She is a member of the global portfolio investment committee and of the private real estate investment committee. Prior to joining Partners Group in the San Francisco office, she was Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Pension Consulting Alliance, a global leader in real estate investment consulting, which she co-founded in 1988. Previously, she co-founded Public Storage Management, Inc., an institutional money management firm deploying pension capital to acquire real estate assets. Furthermore, she was an attorney specializing in SEC and ERISA matters on behalf of pension funds, real estate managers and real estate pension consultants. She graduated with honors from Stanford University and holds a juris doctorate from the UCLA School of Law. She is a former member of the Pension Real Estate Association Board of Directors and of the Real Estate Research Institute. She is a Lecturer at the Harvard Business School, and has guest lectured at the Wharton Business School and MIT Center for Real Estate. In 2007, she was named second most important global industry figure in Private Real Estate worldwide.


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Mark D. Monte
Managing Director – Syndicated Capital Markets
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Banc of America Securities LLC

Mark Monte manages Banc of America Securities’ industry-leading Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging Syndicated Finance business. In this capacity, he and his team are responsible for the origination, structuring, distribution and execution of debt capital strategies for real estate-focused Clients located throughout North America.

Clients include opportunity funds, public pension funds and institutionally-sponsored entities and include REITs, REOCs, healthcare and specialty-finance REITs, gaming and lodging companies and national homebuilders. In total, the Firm counts over 300 companies in the Americas among its Real Estate Clients.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Monte held management positions in Bank of America’s Real Estate Structured Finance group and held various other positions in the Bank of America organization. Mr. Monte worked in management consulting prior to joining Bank of America in 1986 (through its predecessor NationsBank). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Loyola University.



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Mark L. Myers

Executive Vice President, Group Head
Special Situations Group
Wholesale Banking
Wells Fargo & Company

Mark Myers is an executive vice president and group head of the Wells Fargo Special Situations Group, a unit that includes a group of special assets from Wachovia’s Wholesale businesses that, due to the current market environment, benefits from being managed separately. Formed in January 2009, the group focuses on managing risks and losses, and executing on various restructuring, disposition and workout strategies to maximize the value of these assets.

Based in San Francisco, Mark most recently was the division head of Real Estate Merchant Banking, a national business unit that sources, structures, underwrites, and manages a portfolio of structured senior commercial mortgages, subordinate mortgage participations, mezzanine loans, preferred equity financings, and private real estate equity fund investments. During Mark’s 27-year affiliation with Wells Fargo, he has held a number of senior positions in the Real Estate, Corporate and Capital Market Groups. He was promoted to his current position in January 2009. Mark serves on the Wells Fargo Management Committee. Mark earned his B.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and his M.B.A. from the University of Oregon.

With a strong commitment to the community, Mark is chair of the board of trustees of the Jewish Home of San Francisco, and he also serves as a board member of the Jewish Community Federation and of the Saints & Sinners Charitable Fund, which provides grants to organizations and projects focused on serving children in the San Francisco Bay Area.



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Randal J. Richardson
 President
Vi
& Vice Chair
National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry

Randy Richardson leads Vi's strategic growth initiatives, which are designed to enhance the economic value of the company and further position the company as an industry leader. Under his leadership, the company has completed or initiated over $1 billion of new development. Richardson's operations experience has enabled the company to establish itself as a first-class operator of senior living communities.

Richardson has an extensive background in property development, management, and marketing. Before joining Vi, he served as senior vice president of asset management for General Growth Properties, Inc. In this position, he was responsible for a portfolio of properties located nationwide with a market value in excess of $4 billion. Richardson was responsible for all operational issues as well as several development, acquisition, and expansion projects in his portfolio.

Richardson also serves on several industry trade organizations and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, majoring in marketing/economics.



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Kenneth T. Rosen
Chairman
Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics
University of California at Berkeley

Ken Rosen is chairman of Rosen Consulting Group, a real estate market research firm, and chairman of Rosen Real Estate Securities, a REIT money manager with over $300 million in assets under management. Rosen Real Estate Securities has the Government of Singapore Real Estate Group and DB RREEF as minority partners. He was formerly chairman, founder and portfolio manager of Lend Lease Rosen Securities, a $3 billion REIT money management firm. In addition, Mr. Rosen is chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics and Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Rosen is also the special real estate advisor to The Davos World Economic Forum.

In prior business ventures, Mr. Rosen co-founded Regional Data Associates (RDA) in 1976, a leading real estate forecasting firm. RDA was sold to Chase Manhattan Bank in 1982, and became part of the Chase Econometric forecasting system. From 1985-1990 he was Consultant/Managing Director of Salomon Brothers’ Real Estate Research Department, which was recognized as Wall Street's leading real estate research group.

Mr. Rosen received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974 and a B.A. with highest honors from the University of Connecticut in 1970. He was a professor of economics at Princeton University from 1975 to 1979. In addition, he was a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley from 1979 through 2004. Mr. Rosen is a trustee of the Urban Land Institute and a member of the board of directors of several non-profit and for-profit entities that deal with real estate finance and development. He has authored over 100 articles and four books on real estate and real estate finance.



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James J. Saccacio
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
RealtyTrac, Inc.

James J. Saccacio joined RealtyTrac as Chairman and CEO in October 2000. Since then he has transitioned the company from a local provider of foreclosure data to the nation’s leading online foreclosure marketplace, with more than 1.5 million foreclosure properties and more than 3 million unique monthly visitors.

Jim was named one of the 100 most influential real estate leaders in 2009 by Inman News and received a 2009 Excellence in Entrepreneurship award from the Orange County Business Journal, recognizing him for his entrepreneurial vision, execution and accomplishments. He was an Executive of the Year finalist for the 2009 American Business Awards, and he was selected as one of the “Hot 25” people in Orange County in 2007 by OC METRO BUSINESS magazine.

In his 20-year career, Jim has developed a knack for bringing structure to chaotic environments and repurposing existing assets in creative ways to take advantage of new market opportunities. Prior to joining RealtyTrac, Jim was the principal of the Transition Management Group (TMG), a turnaround specialty firm. While at TMG, Jim managed the successful turnaround of a $75 million consumer products company and orchestrated the strategic acquisition of an $11 million foam fabrication business by a $50 million privately held company. At Elite Leather Company, a manufacturer of leather furniture, he served at various times as COO, EVP sales, VP finance and operations, and controller. Before joining Elite, Jim was an assistant vice president with Bank of America, in the Corporate Banking Division, where he was responsible for lending programs to Fortune 1000 companies. Jim began his career at Bank of America as one of only 50 undergraduates chosen to receive accelerated training within the company’s North American Division, which catered to Fortune 500 corporations.

Jim has a B.B.A. in Accounting and Finance from Southern Methodist University and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Irvine.

James Saccacio Speaking History:

As CEO for RealtyTrac, James is a sought-after industry expert on mortgage and foreclosure-related topics. Most recently, James has been interviewed by Fox Business Network, NBC, SmartBusiness and TIME. He has also appeared on CNBC’s Power Lunch, the Forbes.com Video Network and Dialogue with Jim Doti. Prior speaking engagements include the 2010 UC Berkeley Fisher Center Real Estate Conference, the SMU Cox School of Business Real Estate Society Spring 2010 Meeting, Sunwest Bank Economic Outlook in November 2009, the Forum of Corporate Directors of Private Companies in November 2009, the DS News Distressed Asset Roundtable & Exchange in May 2009, the American Financial Services Association’s 10th Annual State Government Affairs Forum in October 2008, , the Future of Online Real Estate at the Inman Conference in 2004 and the 2005 REO 5 Star Conference.


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Kenneth Sayre-Peterson , Esq.
Acting General Counsel
California Department of Financial Institutions

Kenneth Sayre-Peterson was appointed Acting General Counsel on June 8, 2007. Prior to the appointment, Mr. Sayre-Peterson was the Assistant General Counsel since September 1, 2004.

Mr. Sayre-Peterson has over 23 years of service with the State of California. He has been with the Department of Financial Institutions since 1988, after transferring from the State Board of Equalization where he had worked for four years. Prior to entering state service, Ken's experience was in private practice, specializing in appellate work and lobbying.

Mr. Sayre-Peterson graduated from McGeorge School of Law, with distinction, in 1983. His undergraduate work in history resulted in a Bachelor of Arts degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in 1977.



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Alexander Villacorta, Ph.D.
Senior Statistician
Clear Capital

Alexander Villacorta, Ph.D., is Senior Statistician for Clear Capital, a premium provider of data and solutions for real estate asset valuation, investment and risk assessment. Dr. Villacorta is responsible for research and development of innovative statistical methodologies in real estate analysis. His efforts helped produce the Clear Capital Home Data Index™ (HDI)—a powerful tool that delivers the most current and accurate market measures possible. Dr. Villacorta also contributes his insight to the company's monthly HDI Market Report which offers a near real-time look at pricing conditions at the national, metropolitan, and local market levels.

Dr. Villacorta works with some of the top banks, investment firms and mortgage servicers, providing them analytical insight into local markets so they can make vital business decisions with confidence. His analysis provides localized market information for portfolio acquisition, short sale decisions, non-performing loan repurchases, and REO valuation assessments. Dr. Villacorta is currently focused on researching spatial dynamics of real estate data and forecasting methodologies. Some of his recent work has been applied to tracking the impact of the Gulf Coast BP oil spill on real estate values.

He is a published author and has been featured in industry trade publications and on National Public Radio as an expert in real estate trends. Dr. Villacorta received his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in Applied Probability and Statistics from University of California, Santa Barbara


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Arnold Whitman
 CEO & Co-Chairman,
Formation Capital LLC

Arnold Whitman is the founder and CEO of Formation Capital, a leading equity investor in the seniors housing and healthcare services for the elderly business. Over the past 10 years, Mr. Whitman has strategically led Formation Capital in its growth and execution of over $6 billion in transactions.  Mr. Whitman is Chairman Emeritus of NIC, a current board member for the second time, and has participated in all 20 NIC conferences.  His other interests in the “seniors” business include being a Principal in Primecare Properties, and a board member of Care Institute and Simple C.  Mr. Whitman’s 25-year career has allowed him extensive speaking engagements both domestically and internationally.  He has written and been featured in many publications including National Real Estate Investor, McKnight’s Long Term Care News, SeniorCare Investor, Contemporary Long Term Care, Assisted Living Today, Modern Healthcare and Real Estate Forum.  Among his personal accomplishments, Mr. Whitman won a gold medal for basketball at last year’s National Senior Games and has run 44 marathons.


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Bernard Winograd
Executive Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer
U.S., Prudential Financial Inc.

Bernard Winograd is executive vice president and chief operating officer of Prudential’s U.S.-based businesses, comprising Prudential Investment Management, Prudential Retirement, Prudential Annuities, Individual Life Insurance and Group Insurance, which together had approximately $616 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2010. Winograd is also responsible for Prudential’s Real Estate and Relocation Services business.

Before he assumed his current role, Winograd was president and chief executive officer of Prudential Investment Management, Prudential Financial’s asset management and investment management business. Previously, he was chief executive officer of Prudential Real Estate Investors.

Prior to joining Prudential, Winograd was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Taubman Centers, Inc., a national regional shopping center company. He was a key architect of the company’s initial public offering in 1992, the first UPREIT IPO, which set the stage for the dramatic growth of the REIT industry. Before that, he was treasurer of the Bendix Corporation, a multinational Fortune 100 industrial company. Winograd previously served as executive assistant to W. Michael Blumenthal when he was CEO of Bendix Corporation and subsequently Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.

Winograd has a Bachelor of Arts degree in social sciences from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the University of Chicago’s Visiting Committee on College and Student Activities. He also serves on the board of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a community development financing organization.


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Richard G. Wollack
 Co-Founder & Principal Managing Director
Premier Pacific Vineyards

Dick Wollack, and partner Bill Hill, co-founded Premier Pacific Vineyards in 1998.  It has now become the largest developer of high-end vineyards in the U.S. with 37 properties in California (Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Napa counties), Oregon and Washington.  Premier Pacific Vineyards manages assets for CalPERS and Commonfund.  Dick has been in the real estate investment business since 1971 as a principal in dozens of real estate entities with a combined capitalization of more than $7 billion. Mr. Wollack was the founder and Chairman of Global Real Analytics (GRA), that since 1980 specialized in forecasting real estate market prospects and managing money in REITs and related publicly traded real estate debt and equity securities. GRA was sold to Charles Schwab Investment Management in 2007. The author of two books on real estate and investing, he has also been an adjunct professor at both Stanford Graduate School of Business and the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Business and was a member of the California Senate Commission on Corporate Governance, Shareholder Rights and Securities Transactions.  Mr. Wollack holds an M.B.A. with distinction from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (1969) and a B.A. from the University of Illinois (1967), where he was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Wollack is a licensed California Real Estate Broker. He lives in St. Helena, California with his wife, Sue.  And he drinks a lot of wine.


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Maureen A. Young
Partner
Bingham McCutchen LLP

Maureen A. Young is a member of Bingham’s Financial Institutions Corporate and Regulatory Group and the Commercial Technology Group, and is the co-chair of the firm’s Privacy and Security Group.

Her practice focuses on corporate matters involving financial institutions, including:


Maureen regularly advises on compliance with the USA PATRIOT Act, Bank Secrecy Act and Office of Foreign Assets Control requirements; federal/state law preemption issues; privacy, data protection and security matters; Fair Credit Reporting Act compliance; Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters; Right to Financial Privacy and Freedom of Information Act requests; Regulation E; e-commerce and E-Sign compliance; a wide variety of cyberlaw issues such as information security breach, anti-spam compliance and identity theft matters, including the Red Flags for Identity Theft regulations; and cybersecurity, protection of critical infrastructure information and other Homeland Security Issues. She is also Bingham’s privacy administrator.

With respect to commercial technology matters, Maureen structures and negotiates a wide variety of commercial technology agreements, including licensing and development agreements, technology acquisitions, strategic alliances, and major outsourcing arrangements. She also advises on both domestic and offshore outsourcing agreements and vendor management issues, conducts website reviews, and advises on e-commerce matters.