Speakers

D. Sam Chandan, PhD FRICS FRSPH is Professor of Finance and Director of the Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance at  the NYU Stern School of Business; Founder and Non-Executive Chairman of Chandan Economics; Economist Laureate of the Real Estate Lenders Association; Forbes contributor; and, host of the Urban Lab.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (FRSPH) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), and a Contributing Member of the American Society for Microbiology.  Prior to joining Stern, Dr. Chandan was the Silverstein Chair and Dean of the NYU SPS Schack Institute. 

Mr. Coles is a Founder and Managing Partner of Vanbarton Group. Mr. Coles plays a key role in developing the firm's investment strategy, as well as sourcing acquisition opportunities and overseeing the firm's asset management strategies. He is a member of Vanbarton Group's Management Committee, Investment Committee, Portfolio Strategy and Valuations Committee. Mr. Coles was a National Trustee of The Enterprise Foundation, the nation's leading non-profit provider of affordable housing. In addition, he was a Trustee of The Nature Conservancy. Mr. Coles is an active member of the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) and the Partnership for New York City. Mr. Coles holds a B.A. from Boston College and a M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Ms. Holden joined ShopCore in September 2022 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. She has nearly 20 years of experience working with open-air neighborhood and community centers, high street, enclosed malls, and mixed-use assets. Ms. Holden has primary responsibility for all ShopCore assets, including asset management, leasing, development, property management, and marketing.

Previously, Ms. Holden worked at Clarion Partners as an Equity Partner, Managing Director, and Head of Retail Asset Management. During her time at Clarion, she was on the Steering Committee of Clarion’s Women’s Leadership Network and ESG committee, an Advisory Peer Group member to five separate accounts, and a Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) Mentor.  Prior to joining Clarion in 2014, Lauren was Executive Vice President of Investment Management and Acquisitions at Equity One, which has since merged with Regency Centers. Before joining Equity One in 2008, Ms. Holden was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Kimco Realty. She joined Kimco in 2003 as an Acquisitions Analyst.

Ms. Holden holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University. She is an active member of ICSC and ULI and currently serves on the board of directors for WX, Inc., an organization that promotes the advancement of women in commercial real estate.

Stephanie Lessick is a real estate executive with over 20 years of experience in asset management, portfolio management, development, acquisitions, dispositions, and property operations across multi-family, office, and retail asset classes. She currently is a Vice President of Asset Management at AvalonBay Communities, Inc. and oversees the Northeast portfolio. Prior to her current role, Stephanie was a Senior Vice President at Resource REIT and worked at multiple private equity real estate firms in various capacities throughout her career. She holds a Master of Science in Real Estate degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree from Temple University.

Sherrii Webb has been with TIAA for 5 years. She is currently Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships for TIAA. In this role, she works to identify, cultivate, and grow key external relationships and partnerships that strengthen the company brand promote TIAA as an employer of choice, and increase s employment access to diverse talent pools.

Previously, Sherrii served as Vice President of HR Special Programs and Business Execution for TIAA Bank where she was responsible for providing strategic and tactical leadership on human capital aspects of the bank’s initiatives, and well as supporting bank board and regulatory presentations.

Before joining TIAA, Sherrii spent more than 20 years in community and communications roles in Fortune 100 and nonprofit companies. She joined TIAA in 20 18 as Director of HR & Associate Communications for TIAA Bank, and has also supported the Chief Human Resources Officer,

Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and their associates.

Sherrii believes in empow ering young people and financial literacy and has worked to encourage them to gain the knowledge they need to succeed. For more than 15 years, she taught foundational financial literacy classes both in the secular and religious communities.

Sherrii i s a Silver Star, Life Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Vice President of the ALO Foundation which provides educational and community services through scholarships, donation and outreach programs.

Sherrii holds a Master of Science in Leadership and Organizational Change from Pfeiffer University, and a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications with a specialization in Public Relations from East Tennessee State University.

Jill Popovich is a Senior Managing Director at TIAA (www.tiaa.org), a Fortune 100 financial services organization. TIAA is a leading provider of asset management and retirement services for the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields.

As a Senior Managing Director, Jill is responsible for the teams managing relationships with TIAA’s retirement clients in the Northeast region, serving 189 Institutions and 748,000 participants with over 100 billion in assets under management and administration. These teams develop strategic business plans to execute successfully in support of client needs and business goals.

Jill has been with TIAA since 2000. After her very first client interaction, it became abundantly clear to Jill that she was destined for a career in financial services. Prior to her current role as Senior Managing Director, Jill was the Head of Field Advisory Services. In this role, Jill had the privilege of combining her passion and love of financial planning with her plethora of knowledge and expertise to lead like- minded individuals and develop high performing teams committed to helping others achieve their goal of financial wellness.

Jill holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Business from Villanova University. She holds FINRA Series 7, 24 and 66 registrations while maintaining Life, Health and Variable Annuity licenses from the States of CT, DE, MA, ME, NJ, NY, PA and WV. Additionally, Jill is the Co-Executive Sponsor of Alliance BRG (LGBT) and a proud member of Chief, an organization that unites powerful executive women leaders across industries and is steadfast in leadership development and networking.

Ray Bellucci is the senior TIAA leader in our Dallas office and his roots are founded in the mailroom; having grown with the company to Executive Vice President and Institutional Retirement General Manager. He’s served TIAA in client relationships, operations, product management and technology leadership roles working in our four major hubs over his career.

Joining TIAA in 1983, Ray is responsible for leading the design, development and execution of TIAA’s retirement strategy across our 15,000 clients; representing over $700 billion in assets under management and administration. He was formerly responsible for leading client relationships for all individual and institutional clients across the Western Region. Prior to leading client relationships, he led business and technology divisions in the design & delivery of TIAA’s recordkeeping services and capabilities to institutional and individual clients. This included ownership of all plan sponsor related processes, design, development, installation and recordkeeping of all new products and services for institutional clients. He was also responsible for managing and modernizing all new business and client transitions, contracts, plan administration, ERISA reporting, audit and regulatory support.

Over the years, he has grown and developed in leadership positions in clientfacing, operations and product management capacities. As a founding director of the Personal Consulting Group, he built the operating model and led the teams focused on relationship management for high net-worth clients.

Ray has also served as Vice President and Head of Strategy, Oversight & Integration for Individual Products, working across the broader organization with P&L responsibility to rebuild and position our IRA product line, expand our brokerage capabilities and built our managed account products. He was also responsible for alignment of Individual Products with the overall firm strategy, implementing a formal product development process for Individual Client Services, leveraging best practices across the organization to optimize and improve operational controls throughout these business lines.

Mr. Chilelli is a Managing Director at Vanbarton Group, where he oversees the asset management of office, multi-family and mixed-use assets.  Prior to joining the firm in 2016, he served as a Senior Associate at East River Partners, a multifamily-focused real estate private equity company, where he oversaw acquisitions and asset management of a multi-state multifamily portfolio.  He also was a Director of Project Management at Sugar Hill Capital Partners, a multifamily-focused real estate private equity company, where he oversaw the redevelopment of multi-family and condominium assets in New York City.  Mr. Chilelli received his B.A. from Northern Kentucky University, a M.B.A in finance from Xavier University and a M.S.R.E.D. from Columbia University.

Joy Ryoo is an Associate on the New York multi-family team at Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets. She is responsible for sourcing and underwriting investment sales advisory, debt placement, and structured equity transactions in New York City. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor Relations with a minor in Real Estate from Cornell University where she graduated with honors. 

Cole Weston (New York) joined KKR in 2020 and is a member of the Real Estate team. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Weston was a senior associate at Dune Real Estate Partners where he focused on acquisitions and asset management of real estate private equity investments. Prior to Dune, he worked at Morgan Stanley on the commercial real estate lending team, where he focused on large loan CMBS and balance sheet debt underwriting. Mr. Weston holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. with high distinction, as a Baker Scholar, from Harvard Business School. 

Victor Amoo is an investment professional with Basis Investment Group serving as a loan officer responsible for originating and underwriting debt investments primarily consisting of senior and subordinated mortgage loans. Mr. Amoo also serves as the loan officer for the Emerging Developer Loan Fund, a public private partnership between Basis and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. 

Apart from Basis, Mr. Amoo serves as a Co-Chair of the Real Estate Technology and Innovation Council of the Urban Land Institute NY Chapter (ULI). Mr. Amoo previously served as Chair of the Sponsorship Committee of the Mortgage Bankers Association of NY (MBA of NY) and as a Co-Chair of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) Young Professionals. Mr. Amoo was a 2018 Mortgage Bankers Association Future Leader and has earned the Accredited Mortgage Professional and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations.

Prior to joining Basis he was a private equity investment professional with Island Capital, and its affiliate C-III Capital Partners focused on principal investments, mergers & acquisitions, and commercial mortgage lending. Mr. Amoo began his career at Banc of America Securities in the structured finance group. Mr. Amoo received an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College where he completed a magna cum laude thesis. While an undergraduate, Mr. Amoo studied at Columbia University's Reid Hall in Paris in addition to studying Labor Economics at Paris 7 (Jussieu), and History at Paris 4 (Sorbonne).