Industry

Todd Giannoble – President, Archon Hospitality

Todd Giannoble serves as the president of Archon Hospitality, an organization that provides hotel management and asset management services to the Whitehall Street Real Estate Limited Partnerships and currently has 250 hotels under management (and another 100 under asset management).  Previously, he served as a Vice President and Associate for Goldman Sachs & Co., overseeing more than $5 billion of hotel related investments worldwide.  Prior to Goldman Sachs & Co., Mr. Giannoble held various positions within Bristol Hotels and Resorts, which was a hotel ownership and management company with more than 120 hotels throughout the U.S. and Canada.  Mr. Giannoble was previously on the Board of Directors for Strategic Hotel Capital and has more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality and banking industries.

Mr. Giannoble received a BA (with distinction) from Cornell University and a degree (with honors) from the Culinary Institute of America. 

Sally Gordon – Managing Director,Risk and Quantitative Analysis Group, BlackRock

Sally Gordon currently is managing director in the Risk and Quantitative Analysis Group (RQA) at BlackRock. She is responsible for monitoring and managing commercial real estate risks across a variety of investment vehicles in both debt and equity segments.

Dr. Gordon currently serves on a Real Estate Finance Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve. She has performed research on commercial real estate property and capital markets for over 20 years, including for Moody’s Investors Service, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Citicorp, focusing on commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) for the last several years.

She has frequently been invited to speak or guest lecture at universities, including MIT, Cornell, and Wharton, as well as at professional conferences.  She has received several awards, including the Founder’s Award from the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA), the principal trade group for the CMBS market.

She has served on the Board of Governors of CMSA and on the Board of Directors for the Real Estate Research Institute (RERI), a non-profit organization committed to the integration of academic research and practical financial investment. She has also previously served on the Board of the Commercial Real Estate Division of the Mortgage Bankers Association (COMBOG).

Her undergraduate degree is in anthropology and her MS and PhD are in International Policy Studies, all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jeffrey Hertz – Director, The Praedium Group

Jeffrey Hertz joined The Praedium Group in 2002 and is responsible for oversight of dispositions and asset management of portfolio assets. Prior to joining The Praedium Group, Mr. Hertz worked as a senior asset manager for DRA Advisors, Inc. overseeing a value-added portfolio throughout the United States. Previously, Mr. Hertz served as a general manager at LaSalle Partners, overseeing numerous office properties in New York City and worked for The Stout & Teague Companies in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Hertz holds a BS in Finance from Villanova University and an MBA from the European University of Management in Paris, France.

David Lynn – Managing Director, Head of Research and Investment Strategy Group, ING Clarion Partners

David Lynn is an economist, institutional real estate investor, and strategist with extensive experience in national and international markets. At ING Clarion Partners, he is managing director and head of ING Clarion Partners Research and Investment Strategy Group.  He develops firm-wide and business-unit-specific investment strategy for the private equity, public debt, and public equity (REITs) platforms. He is a member of the Investment Committee, reviewing, recommending, and voting on all transactions and major investment policies in the firm including equity, development, value-add, and debt deals and initiatives.  Dr. Lynn is responsible for tactical and strategic asset allocation and portfolio construction for over $20 billion in real estate assets. He also leads the firm’s fund and product development initiatives ranging from new opportunistic funds, global strategies, new markets, and business strategies.  He directs real estate and economic market forecasts and formulates recommendations on hundreds of metros and submarkets. 

Dr. Lynn has written many articles and two books, and founded an academic journal. He has delivered numerous presentations and papers at national and international professional conferences and meetings. Dr. Lynn has published widely on the subjects of real estate investment, development, economics, and land use.  He is a noted market commentator on national and international real estate investment and is regularly mentioned and quoted in the media.

Dr. Lynn earned his PhD in financial economics at the London School of Economics where he also earned a Masters of Science specializing in finance and managerial economics. His doctoral research focused on financial distress in emerging market countries. He earned a Masters of Business Administration as a Sloan Fellow from the Sloan School of Management, MIT, where he specialized in finance and real estate. He earned a Masters in City and Regional Planning with an emphasis in real estate from Cornell University.  His thesis research explored the application of strategic planning to the real estate industry.  He earned a BA in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Counselor of Real Estate (CRE), a Certified Portfolio and Investment Manager (CPIM), a Chartered Management Analyst (CMA), a Homer Hoyt Fellow, an ISO 9000 Certified Auditor, and a Certified Planner (AICP).  He is a member of the CRE, ARES, NCREIF, NABE, ICSC, PREA, and the ULI (full member).  He serves on the Editorial Board of the Counselors of Real Estate and the Advisory Board of PREA.

Martha S. Peyton- Managing Director, Head of Strategy and Research in the Global Real Estate Equities divisions, TIAA-CREF

Martha S. Peyton is managing director and head of strategy and research in the global real estate equities division of TIAA-CREF Asset Management in New York City.  She and her team support the firm’s direct real estate and commercial mortgage investments, which total over $40 billion.

Ms. Peyton joined TIAA-CREF in 1993 from Marine Midland Bank in New York City where she was administrative vice president.  She was with Marine Midland for thirteen years beginning in 1980 as regional economist in the bank’s domestic economics group and ending in 1993 as manager of market analysis activities for the Bank’s Credit Policy division.  From 1975 to 1980, Ms. Peyton taught economics at Fordham University and Manhattanville College.

She is former president and a current board member of the Real Estate Research Institute, a member of the PREA Research Committee, an emeritus member of the International Council of Shopping Centers Research Advisory Task Force, and a member of the New York State Assembly, Ways and Means Committee, and Economic Advisory Panel.

Ms. Peyton holds a PhD in Economics from Fordham University as well as BA and MA degrees from Fordham.  She also holds the Counselor of Real Estate, CRE, designation.

Francis X. Tansey –Co-founder and President, DRA Advisors LLC.

Francis X. Tansey is co-founder and president of DRA Advisors LLC, a real estate investment advisor with $10 billion in assets under management.

From May 1986 through July 1994, Mr. Tansey was the president and chief executive officer of Dreyfus Realty Advisors, where he provided investment advisory services relating to real estate assets valued in excess of $1 billion. From 1984 to 1986, Mr. Tansey was a trustee and manager-investment financing of the General Electric Pension Trust (GEPT). In that capacity, Mr. Tansey was responsible for the management of assets valued in excess of $20 billion, as well as the investment portfolios of affiliated mutual funds, foundations, and insurance companies. From 1981 to 1984, he was the manager-fixed income of GEPT, responsible for the management of real estate, taxable and tax-exempt bonds and cash. From 1970 to 1981, Mr. Tansey was both investment manager and manager-real estate of GEPT, responsible for the management of its real estate portfolio.

Mr. Tansey graduated in 1966 from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

Steve Vittorio –Managing Director, Prudential Real Estate Investors

Steve Vittorio is a managing director, capital markets, with Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) an investment division of Prudential Financial. PREI manages over $40 billion of equity and mezzanine debt real estate investments on behalf of approximately 350 institutional clients.  Mr. Vittorio is PREI’s retail specialist responsible for shopping center and mixed-use investments throughout the U.S. In that role he sources retail developer relationships for programmatic co-investments and manages PREI’s existing developer relationships. He works closely with PREI’s acquisition and asset management professionals to invest in retail real estate opportunities and enhance the value of PREI’s investment portfolio.  e is also a member of PREI’s Latin American Investment Committee and is involved with international retail investment initiatives. Mr. Vittorio has twenty-four years of experience with shopping center investments and is a member of the ICSC and Board of Trustee member. Mr. Vittorio is also a member of ULI and on the CRC Gold Council.  

He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce and has a MBA from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.

Steven Wolf – Value Enhancement Funds Business Leader and Head of U.S. Portfolio Management, AREA Property Partners

Steven Wolf has been associated with AREA since 2004 and is the value enhancement funds business leader and the head of U.S. portfolio management.

Mr. Wolf is a member of the investment committee and serves on the Board of Directors of VEF Advisors. Mr. Wolf is the founding principal of Westside Capital Advisors LLC. Prior to his association with AREA, he held the title of director at Credit Suisse First Boston. Previously, Mr. Wolf served as managing director and head of acquisitions of Northeast investments at Federal Realty Investment Trust. From 1990 to 1997, Mr. Wolf served as senior vice president in various capacities for Equitable Real Estate Investment Management Inc.

Mr. Wolf graduated from Boston University and received his MS from New York University.

Martin Kandrac – Managing Director, Real Estate Group, The Blackstone Group

Martin Kandrac is a managing director in the real estate group based in London.

Since joining Blackstone in 2001, Mr. Kandrac has primarily been involved in hotel acquisitions throughout Europe.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Kandrac worked at Goldman Sachs in the real estate principal investment group in its New York, London, and Hong Kong offices.

Mr. Kandrac received a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.