SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM
MARC HARRIS
GENERAL PARTNER - PRINCIPAL
DIRECTOR GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
Bliss Resorts International, LLC
Manager
Mr. Harris is the Sole Administrator of DESTINAY, a Mexican land holding corporation and a General Partner of Las Islitas Partners, LP. He possesses over 30 years of hands-on, real-world business experience, and holds advanced degrees in Business, Economics, and Real Estate Law; as well as a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. Fluent in Spanish and Latin American culture Mr. Harris served from 1995 – 1996 as an Appointee to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo’s Special Commission on Agrarian Land Reforms and Foreign Investment; which developed procedural guidelines for the purchase, ownership, and development of land in Mexico by foreigners. The Commission’s recommendations were readopted by the Mexican Congress in 1995, and shortly thereafter, he consummated Mexico’s first-ever purchase of Ejido-class land by a foreign entity. Mr. Harris has spent 20-years assembling, acquiring and negotiating with the original Ejido landowners and all Mexican Governmental agencies. He is active in the Stanford Alumni Association, a member of SPIRE--Stanford Professionals in Real Estate--, a member of the Stanford Mentor Program, and also a Judge Emeritus on the Stanford Alumni Wine Program.
DAVID M. SEMAS
MANAGING GENERAL PARTNER - PRINCIPAL
Sierra Dorado, Inc.
President/CEO
Over the course of a diversified career Mr. Semas has been involved in more than $4 billion of real estate transactions. He has risen from the ranks of the construction and real estate development business to senior management positions in the real estate finance industry. As a Santa Clara County Planning Commissioner during the 1970's he witnessed first-hand the expansive growth years and rise to global prominence of Silicon Valley. As Executive Vice President Shearson/ American Express Mortgage and Development Group he was the senior executive of the joint venture, construction-lending and real estate investment banking departments with oversight of 72 residential and commercial developments throughout the U.S. with an asset value of $1 billion. The projects consisted of a wide range of properties including office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, golf resorts, condominiums, multi-family, residential developments. As President of American Realty Advisors, Mr. Semas consulted on the 1,572 room Anaheim Hilton Convention Hotel and the 1,234 room LAX Hilton Hotel. As Managing Partner of a U.S. investment group he managed operations on several resort hotels including the Canyon Hotel, Golf and Tennis Resort. Located in Palm Springs, California the Canyon was a 640-acre, 500-room property that included 400 homes under an Agua Caliente Indian tribe ground lease, two 18-hole championship golf courses, a 30,000 square foot convention center, an 18-court tournament tennis facility, 225 condominiums and 100 apartments. He also managed several other hospitality assets including the Las Casitas boutique hotel located in Avalon Harbor, Catalina Island, California. Mr. Semas is in the process of selling a 155 acre industrial project in Reno, Nevada.
RICHARD BREN
G2020 Advisors
President of the Americas - G2020 Real Estate Investments
PRINCIPAL
G2020 is a global independent investment advisory firm that offers, effective, high-impact strategic and financial advice to existing and emerging technology, health care and real estate companies. As Managing Member since 2004 of Wave Hill Investors, LLC, Mr. Richard Bren was portfolio manager for multiple institutional funds investing in various specialty finance and real estate derivative strategies. From 1996 to 2003, Richard was a partner of Best Property Fund L.P., one of several investment vehicles of KBS Realty Advisors, a registered SEC real estate investment advisor that has achieved over $30 billion of transactions since its inception in 1992. He headed KBS’s Capital Markets Group and ran the daily operations of its CMBS investment portfolio. Prior to joining KBS in 1996, Mr. Bren was a partner of Onyx Partners, Inc. He was a managing general partner of Onyx Opportunity Fund, which acquired operating real estate assets and distressed mortgages from the Resolution Trust Company. Prior to joining Onyx, Mr. Bren was an associate at Morgan Stanley Realty in New York and Los Angeles where he participated on project teams providing various real estate financial services to developers, financial institutions, pension funds and corporations. Richard started his career as a corporate finance analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert in Beverly Hills, California in 1986. At Drexel, he worked extensively with the Commercial Mortgage Capital Markets Group. Mr. Bren earned an MBA at The Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA with a concentration in real estate finance. Mr. Bren graduated with honors from Tufts University in 1985.
MARTIN BURKE
PRINCIPAL
President of Martin J. Burke & Company, Incorporated
Managing Director of FocalPoint Partners, LLC
Martin J. Burke has 35+ years of experience as advisor to, and executive officer of, specialty and asset backed finance companies, with a particular focus on real estate finance, specialty finance, asset backed finance, conventional and green energy, consumer receivables, and company restructuring. Prior to owning a privately-held real estate advisory firm, Martin worked in investment banking at Capello Group, Inc. in the role of Managing Director, Special Situations, where he was responsible for New York transactions. As a Managing Director at Wind River, LLC, he specialized in reselling and financing the acquisition of major oil company-owned gas stations to their franchisees. Previous to Wind River, Mr. Burke co-founded and served as Managing Director at Ultimate Sports, a former public company that created and published comic books based on rights acquired from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Football League. Martin holds board member and advisory positions at numerous companies, including JLB Equities (advisor to $100MM portfolio of private real estate and small business loans); Card Acquisition (lead advisor to specialty credit card company); Onyx Partners (real estate advisor); and G&L Realty REIT Finance Arm (board member and advisor, medical office REIT finance arm).
CHAD MALTBY
MANAGING DIRECTOR REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT
PHR Capital
Managing Director
Chad Maltby, the Co-founder of PHR Capital, manages over $1 billion in real estate investment opportunities. Specializing in conversion development, land development, hospitality expansion and luxury real estate properties, they have clients in the UK, US, Italy, France, Mexico, Dominican Republic and China. Chad started his career raising capital in the tech industry, allowing high growth companies reach scale. One notable deal resulted in Goldman Sachs taking a 40% stake in Fluid Inc, a commerce based tech company. With his extensive network, he then aligned himself with Martin Burke who brought 30 years of real estate investment banking and development to the partnership. With offices in New York and Monaco, PHR Capital consistently delivers over $100M in annual revenue. Their deep relationships in technology and real estate yield access to exclusive and exceptionally profitable opportunities for their clients. Their largest commercial and residential investment was valued at over $150M and was sold to a family fund in China. Chad is an REBNY member, has a real estate finance certification from NYU and has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal as a top real estate entrepreneur.
ARTHUR VALDES
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CONSULTANT
Arthur Valdes Company Inc.
President
Arthur Valdes is a native Californian who resides in Newport Beach, California. His early building designs occurred in the Southern California area. Mr. Valdes fashioned so many successful dining establishments that his initial fame and recognition derived from these achievements. Observing his keen abilities and noting that they had application to other types of building projects, owners and developers began to engage Mr. Valdes to design thematic office complexes, retail centers, hotels and resorts, health spas, custom residences, golf and tennis clubhouses and even theme parks. The Arthur Valdes Company work can now be found throughout the world. The impact of his creative talents are visible in such places as the Palm Springs desert community in California, as well as in exclusive residential communities along the California coast from La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe to Montecito, Carmel and PebbleBeach, the "gold coast" of Florida, the islands of Hawaii, Canada, the Caribbean Islands and Mexico. The designs of Arthur Valdes appeal to the public eye and capture the character, theme and mood of time and place in an unrivaled way. As one who has traveled the world studying architecture and cultures, along the way building an extensive library of books, photos and imagery for research, Arthur Valdes brings a true cosmopolitan sensitivity to his designs.
GEORGE W. GIRVIN
MASTER PLAN CONSULTANT
Girvin & Associates
Landscape Architect/Master Planner
Over the past thirty years, Girvin Associates has completed some of the most highly rated resort & branded residential properties in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. Included among them are the One & Only Palmilla Resort & Spa and the Esperanza Resort & Spa in Los Cabos, Mexico; rated by Conde Naste Traveler Magazine as the number one spa in the Americas, and the number three spa in the world In Europe, Girvin did the landscape design for the Castello di Casole Resort & Spa in Tuscany, Italy, which Travel and Leisure Magazine listed as one of the top ten resort projects in the world. Girvin world class resort and spa projects include The Montage, Chileno Bay, and Cabo del Sol in Los Cabos Mexico, Hokuala Resort in Hawaii, the Rosewood Miramar Beach Monetecito in Santa Barbara, the Amelia Island Hotel and Village in Florida, Kiawah Island Residences in South Carolina, the Westin Hotel in Guadalajara Mexico and the Viceroy Resort in Anguilla, BWI.
MARK WYMAN
CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANT
Wyman Development
General Contractor
In the span of less than 20-years Wyman Development has established itself as a leader in the construction of high quality and environmentally harmonious homes. Residential construction contract awards varied in size and scope from those individuals in the modest budget range of $2 million dollars to many of Mark’s clientele willing to entrust Mark up to $25 million dollars or more to bring their dream estate residence into a reality. Before mass-construction methods, techniques, and materials became the norm, there was a time when true craftsmen painstakingly invested the skill and attention to detail required to produce a finished product of unimaginable beauty and durability. Indeed, this time-honored tradition of craftsmanship is difficult to find today. For Mark, however, the level of dedication and to excellence necessary to achieve truly superior quality and artistic craftsmanship is the norm, rarely practiced in the modern building industry. Each Client deserves and receives individual attention on every aspect of their unique building project. Every home receives the special attention to detail required to produce a finished product of timeless quality.
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