Guest Speakers and Panelists

Finance Keynote:

Ran Duchin is the Coughlin Family Professor in the Seidner Department of Finance, Carroll School of Management, Boston College. Before joining Boston College, Duchin served on the faculty of the University of Washington's Foster School of Business and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Duchin’s primary research focus is on corporate finance and political economy. His work studies a wide range of mechanisms that influence corporations, including political economy, financial regulation, agency conflicts, and human behavior. Duchin’s work has been published in the top finance journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. His papers received best paper awards from leading academic conferences and were selected by journal editors as lead articles. According to Google Scholar, his papers received more than 8,500 citations and were cited in top journals of various disciplines, including Finance, Accounting, Management, Strategy, and Business Law. His work has also attracted attention from many popular publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, and the Washington Post. Duchin’s teaching has been recognized by awards such as the Faculty PhD Mentor Award, Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Evening MBA Professor of the Year, Carroll School Teaching Stars, and the Coughlin Distinguished Teaching Award. Duchin currently serves as a Managing Editor at the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

Real Estate Keynote:

Susan M. Wachter is the Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She also founded and currently serves as Director of Wharton’s Geographical Information Systems Lab. From 1998 to 2001, she served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the senior urban policy official and Principal Advisor to the Secretary. During her tenure at HUD, Wachter’s office was responsible for the New Markets Tax Credit, the major legislative initiative for urban revitalization with the goal of attracting private capital into low-income communities. At The Wharton School, she was Chairperson of the Real Estate Department and Professor of Real Estate and Finance from July 1997 until her 1998 appointment to HUD. At Penn, she co-founded and currently is Co-Director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research. Wachter has served on multiple for-profit and not-for-profit boards including the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee of Fannie Mae and the Office of Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Treasury. Currently, she serves on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Mortgage Roundtable and the Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Wachter is the author of more than 200 scholarly publications and co-author or co-editor of 20 books, including Perspectives on Fair Housing (2020), Shared Prosperity in America’s Communities (2016), Neighborhoods and Life Chances (2011), and The Great American Housing Bubble (2020). Wachter has been recognized as the second most cited author among academics who publish in real estate economics journals globally. She was the editor of Real Estate Economics from 1997 to 1999 and currently serves on the Board of Editors of multiple journals. She is a Faculty Fellow at the Homer Hoyt Institute. Wachter was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) in 2005 and the John M. Quigley Medal for Advancing Real Estate and Urban Economics in 2022 and was invited to deliver the 4th Austin J. Jaffe Real Estate Lecture at Pennsylvania State University in 2023. Wachter is frequently quoted in national media, including in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and the New York Times.

Welcome:

Mayor Scott Singer is honored to have served as a strong voice for Boca Raton’s residents since he was first elected to the City Council in 2014. Scott was elected as Mayor in 2018 and re-elected in 2020 with 89% of the vote, receiving the two highest vote totals in the city's history. He was re-elected without opposition in 2023. Singer graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in government and received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. A business attorney for more than two decades, Scott has earned the AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell for highest ethical standards and legal ability. Scott is also a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Mediator and owns several small businesses. Scott and his wife Bella, a certified public accountant, are proud to live in and raise their two children, Daniel and Rachel, in Boca Raton. Scott and his family enjoy Boca’s parks, beaches, and libraries. Fun fact – Scott likes fun facts and has appeared on two nationally syndicated TV game shows: “Jeopardy!,” where he was a champion, and “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?”

Welcome:

Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis is a native Floridian born and raised in Panama City. He earned his associate degree in restaurant management from Gulf Coast Community College and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Florida State University. He is a partner in a family-owned seafood restaurant called Captain Anderson’s that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017. His public service career began with experience as an intern in the Florida Senate and the United Kingdom’s House of Commons. Following Patronis' college graduation, Governor Lawton Chiles appointed him to the Florida Elections Commission, and he was later reappointed by Governor Jeb Bush. He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2006 to 2014, representing his hometown region in the Florida Panhandle. He was appointed to serve on Florida’s Public Service Commission, as well as the Constitution Revision Commission, which meets once every twenty years to propose changes to the state constitution. He and wife Katie are proud parents to two sons, Jimmy Theo III and John Michael.

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CRE Panelist:

Jason Alpert is a distinguished banking and financial services professional based in Tampa, Florida who has in-depth experience in commercial loan workouts, corporate restructuring, bankruptcy, and portfolio sales. He founded Castlebar Holdings (www.castlebarholdings.com) which is a distressed investor as well as advisor and consultant to financial institutions on a variety of services. Previously, Jason created and led the distressed portfolio sale team for Wells Fargo, pooling and selling criticized and classified commercial loans in the secondary market. In just under five years, Jason’s team was able to sell over $1 billion in assets in 38 States achieving above market results and large recoveries for the bank. Jason is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tampa and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of
the Risk Management Association Journal as well as the boards Florida Chapter of the RMA and Turnaround Management Association. Jason is a columnist in the RMA Journal “The Workout Window” and has been published numerous times in the Journal, winning Credit Risk Article of the Year. He is also a Judge in the University of Florida’s annual Next Big Idea Business Case Competition. Jason has MBA and bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Florida.

CRE Panelist:

Keith Costello is the Chairman, President, CEO, and co-founder of Locality Bank, a new digital first community bank which opened in Fort Lauderdale, FL on January 12, 2022. It was the first new bank opened in South Florida since 2009. He served as the President & CEO of First GREEN Bank, a community bank headquartered in Orlando, Florida from 2016 until its sale in 2018. He was also President, CEO, and an organizing director of Broward Bank of Commerce, a new bank chartered in Florida on January 12, 2009. He has held senior roles at Bank of Florida, City National Bank and Nations Bank throughout a 30 plus year banking career. He has a BS in Business Management from the University of Tampa an MBA from The University of Miami and holds The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He is an Army veteran, and he and his wife Denice have 7 children and live in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

CRE Panelist:

Seth Denison is a Managing Director and Vice President at Optimum Bank, which is headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and holds a portfolio of more than $700 million in CRE mortgages. During 2023, Seth was responsible for 16% of loan originations and 9% of deposit originations at Optimum. Seth is an attorney, and, from 2009 to 2018, was responsible for restructuring $5 billion of CMBS debt and facilitating the assumptions of another $3 billion. Since 2018, Seth completed the sales of $400 million of CRE and the debt/equity placement of another $1.2 billion. In 2019, Seth partnered with the CEO of Rock Creek Capital to raise $22 million for a fund to acquire distressed residential condos in Downtown Miami. Finally, Seth currently is a partner with the former CEO of TD Ameritrade, Joe Moglia, in FG Communities--a manufactured housing community owner/operator out of NC, where we have a portfolio of 40 assets and continue to grow every year.

CRE Panelist:

Jake Kramer is a senior managing director on the debt team for Kayne Anderson’s real estate group, responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and managing the portfolio of commercial real estate debt. Prior to joining Kayne Anderson in 2023, Kramer was head of commercial real estate for American Equity Life Insurance Co. (NYSE: “AEL”) overseeing the origination and portfolio management of debt and equity investments including direct lending ($500MM+ annually) and JV partnerships. Kramer previously spent five years as senior vice president at Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: “STWD”) where he originated and structured commercial real estate debt investments. Prior positions include CMBS capital markets roles at Five Mile Capital and RBS Greenwich Capital. Kramer earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University.

CRE Panelist:

Rebel A. Cole is the Lynn Eminent Scholar Chaired Professor of Finance in the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. Previously, he has taught at DePaul University in Chicago, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina in 1988, after which he spent ten years working as a financial economist in the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Cole is a special advisor to the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other non-governmental organizations, providing training and technical assistance to central banks around the world in more than 60 countries. Dr. Cole has published peer-reviewed articles in many of top academic finance journals, including The Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Review of Finance, and his research has been featured in the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. According to Google Scholar, his research has been cited more than 14,500 times. His primary areas of research are corporate governance, entrepreneurship, financial institutions, and real estate.

CRE Panelist:

Joseph Nichols is a Principal Economist with the Federal Reserve Board and is a respected expert on the commercial real estate market, commercial mortgage credit risk, and the financial institutions that originate and service commercial mortgages. His research has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Money Credit and Banking, the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, the Journal of
Financial Services Research, among other outlets. Dr. Nichols has contributed to several significant policy projects, including the development of CRE credit-risk models for the Dodd-Frank Act Stress Tests, design of the section of the TALF program for the CMBS and the FR Y-14 supervisory data collection. During 2021, he served on AREUEA Women in Real Estate Network (WREN) committee and has participated in Federal Reserve Board mentoring programs. He earned his PhD from the University of Maryland in 2005 and held doctoral student internships at both the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. He received a Masters degree in Operations Research in 1997 and Bachelors in 1994, both from The George Washington University.

CRE Panelist:

Noah Miller is a Principal and Executive Vice President of Pensam, serving in a broad range of leadership capacities across debt and equity investments, capital markets, and operations. He is responsible for accelerating the growth of Pensam’s multifamily investment platform and expanding capital raising initiatives. Noah joined the firm in 2014 and previously served as Vice President of Acquisitions and Finance. During the past 15 years, he has been involved in more than $2 billion in debt and equity transactions at both private and publicly traded commercial real estate organizations, including Equity Residential, Marcus & Millichap, Gelt Financial and Royal Palm Funding. Noah is regarded as a commercial real estate expert and frequently provides press commentary on real estate investing and lending best practices. In addition to his ongoing contributor byline in the Scotsman Guide, he has been featured in media outlets such as Bloomberg Radio, Commercial Property Executive, Bisnow, National Real Estate Investor and more. He is also a frequent moderator and panelist for Urban Land Institute, Crittenden, IMN, ConnectCRE and others. Noah is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and proudly serves as a member of the Real Estate Council at the Florida International University Hollo School of Real Estate.

CRE Panelist:

Nicholas Smith is a Financial Economist in the Financial Management Group of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank. In this role, he conducts research using bank data as part of the Supervisory, Regulation, and Credit group. He has held this role since June 2022. Nick also conducts research on commercial and residential real estate with a focus on default and lender decision making. He was awarded a PhD in Real Estate from the University of Georgia in 2022. Prior to attending graduate school, Nick spent four years as a commercial real estate appraiser working for Integra Realty Resources and Ernst & Young in Chicago, IL. He grew up in Kansas City and attended the University of Missouri for his undergraduate studies.

CRE Panelist:

Mitchell Bollinger CFA, CAIA, is the Director of Research for Middleburg and works closely with Middleburg’s Chief Economist to provide analytical support for C-level buy/sell/develop and market focus tactical decisions. Mr. Bollinger has a broad finance and real estate background which spans lending, asset management, consulting, research, and performance evaluation over 20 years. Prior to Middleburg, he worked as a researcher for Makov Processes International where he employed advanced analytical tools to evaluate fund performance, measure risk, and construct optimal portfolios. Mr. Bollinger was previously the head of research for Courtland Partners which was a real assets investment consulting firm with $65B in assets under advisement and was purchased by Stepstone Group during his tenure. While at Courtland, Mr. Bollinger performed investment research, due diligence, investment policy creation, strategic planning, manager selection, compliance monitoring and portfolio implementation. Mr. Bollinger also produced research for Vanguard assisting them in understanding the relationship between private real estate and publicly traded assets, addressing how to measure the risk of private real estate and include it in a portfolio of publicly traded assets. Mr. Bollinger co-authored a paper titled “Another Look at Private Real Estate Returns by Strategy” with Professor Joseph Pagliari at the University of Chicago which was published in the Journal of Portfolio Management’s Special Real Estate Issue. The paper examined the risk adjusted performance of core and non-core private real estate funds. Mr. Bollinger has presented the findings of the paper to the UNC Real Estate Research Symposium, the Institute for Private Capital’s Alternative Investment Conference, NCREIF’s research and plan sponsor committees, and to the real estate program at the University of Oxford. Mr. Bollinger earned a degree in Industrial Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Bollinger is both a CFA charter holder and a CAIA charter holder

CRE Panelist:

Greg Mausz serves as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Managing Director at Skyway Capital Markets. In his role, Greg is responsible for continuing to enhance Skyway’s infrastructure, oversee due diligence and work with quality asset managers to develop alternative investments for distribution to the independent broker dealer and registered investment advisor (RIA) community.  Greg has more than 27 years of experience and has been focused on the alternative investment universe since 2000.   He has worked for a variety of firms ranging from independent brokers, RIAs to third-party due diligence and multiple alternative sponsors.  Collectively, he has led more than $12 billion in capital raising for a diverse mixture of products including public and private REITs, BDCs, Preferred Stock, and fund offerings across a mix of asset classes which include real estate, private equity, credit and energy.  Greg is an industry veteran and has been active with the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives (IPA) for years and has served on the Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA) Board of Directors since 2016.  He has worked in all areas of the capital markets including executive leadership, sales, operations, product formation, and due diligence.  Greg holds a bachelor’s degree from Samford University, an MBA for Kennesaw State University and holds FINRA Series 7, 24 66 and 79 securities licenses and the Behavioral Financial Advisor (BFA) designation.