Thomas Arnold
Managing Director and Principal
Cerberus Capital Management LLC

Mr. Arnold joined Cerberus Capital Management in 2004 and is currently a Managing Director responsible for identifying, analyzing and negotiating potential equity and debt investments, as well as the management of selected Cerberus Capital Management equity and debt positions. Prior to joining Cerberus Capital Management, Mr. Arnold was a Managing Director at ING where he served as a senior acquisitions officer, oversaw portfolio management, coordinated various lender relationships and financing facilities, and was responsible for investor communications. Prior to ING, Mr. Arnold was a Director at Credit Suisse and a senior acquisitions officer at The Praedium Funds. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Mr. Arnold was associated with Salomon Brothers (now, Citigroup) as a Vice President in the Real Estate Finance Group. While at Salomon, Mr. Arnold completed over $9 billion of capital markets and financial advisory assignments while working for major domestic financial institutions. Prior to Salomon Brothers, Mr. Arnold practiced law for six years, principally with Holland & Knight, specializing in securities, tax, and real estate matters. Mr. Arnold graduated Cum Laude from the University of Florida in 1980, received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida School of Law in 1983, received a Masters of Law (Taxation) from New York University in 1986, and received a Masters of Business Administration from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College in 1991. Mr. Arnold is a licensed attorney, registered securities principal and also holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

 

Michael D. Fascitelli
President & Trustee
Vornado Realty Trust

Michael D. Fascitelli, 50 is President of Vornado Realty Trust a NYSE listed real estate company. He is a member of the Class of 1978 of the University of Rhode Island where he received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering Summa Cum Laude. After graduating from URI, Mr. Fascitelli joined the Bristol Myers Company. In 1982 he received his M.B.A. with highest distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. After graduating from Harvard in 1982, Mr. Fascitelli joined McKinsey & Company, Inc., a management-consulting Firm.

In 1985 he joined Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the Real Estate Department. He became partner in 1992 and was head of the real estate investment banking business. He served on the Investment Committee for the Whitehall Investment Committee. In December 1996 he became President of Vornado Realty Trust.

 

Peter C. Krause
Chairman
Barrow Street Real Estate Funds

Peter joined Greenhill as Founding Member and Managing Director in 1996. He serves as Chairman of its Barrow Street Real Estate Funds, a real estate value-added private equity firm which invests in the U.S. with local partners in development and redevelopment projects across all property types. Prior to co-founding Barrow Street, he was Managing Director in the Real Estate Department of the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley & Co. He was a member of the Investment Committee of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and in that capacity served as Chairman of the Board of Red Roof Inns, a New York Stock Exchange corporation. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Peter had practiced real estate law at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and Schulte, Roth & Zabel. Peter has 32 years of experience in the real estate and financial services fields and has closed over 250 transactions during that period.

Peter graduated first in his class (out of 1,100 students) with a B.A. with Highest Honors from Manhattan College in 1970, served in the United States Army in 1970-1971 and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1974. Peter is a member of The Urban Land Institute, the American Society of Real Estate Counselors, the Real Estate Board of New York and the American Hotel and Lodging Association. He has served as Co-Chairman of the Industry Real Estate Financing Advisory Council. Peter was a Lecturer at Cornell University for many years, teaching real estate accounting, finance and valuation. Peter is Chairman of the Harvard Law School Fund, Co-Chair of the Harvard College Parents Fund, a Knight (and NYC Area Chair) of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Vice President of the Honorary Ushers of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He is a prior trustee of The Convent of the Sacred Heart School. Peter and his wife, Alice, have three children and live in New York, New York.

 

Daniel Neidich
Chairman and Co-CEO
Dune Capital Management

Mr. Neidich is Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Dune Capital Management. Dune runs two funds with combined capital of over $2 billion; a broad based credit opportunity hedge fund; and a real estate opportunity private equity fund.

Prior to joining Dune, he was at Goldman Sachs where he was a member of the firm’s Management Committee, co-head of the Merchant Banking Division, and Chairman of the Whitehall Investment Committee. Mr. Neidich joined Goldman Sachs in 1978 in the Real Estate Banking Department. In 1984 Mr. Neidich became a partner of Goldman Sachs and in 1990 he became head of Goldman’s Real Estate Department. In 1992 he formed the Real Estate Principal Investment Area, in 1998 he became co-head of the Merchant Banking Division, and in 1999 he joined the firm’s Management Committee.

In 1991, under Mr. Neidich’s direction, Goldman Sachs raised the first Whitehall fund to invest in real estate opportunities. Mr. Neidich ran the Whitehall funds through his departure from Goldman in 2003. During this period, the Whitehall Funds raised over $12 billion of total equity and purchased over $50 billion of real estate interests worldwide. In addition to his responsibilities for running Whitehall, during his time at Goldman Sachs Mr. Neidich acted as the senior deal leader for a number of Whitehall’s ground breaking transactions including the $1 billion acquisition of CenterMark Properties, the $1.2 billion acquisition of Rockefeller Center Properties and the $5 billion restructuring of Cadillac Fairview Corp.

Mr. Neidich is member of the Board of Directors of Capmark, the successor company to GMAC Commercial Mortgage. He is the former Chairman of the Board of Cadillac Fairview Corp. and a former board member of Rockefeller Center Properties Trust, Strategic Hotel Capital, and Thomas Property Group.

Mr. Neidich is a member of the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Real Estate Roundtable, serves as Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Real Estate Academic Initiative at Harvard University and is a member of Columbia Business School’s MBA Real Estate Program Advisory Board as well as the International Advisory Board of Eurohypo AG. He is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute and a past Trustee of the International Council of Shopping Centers, as well as a former member of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Mr. Neidich serves on the boards of Prep for Prep, the New York University Child Study Center, and is a former member of the Board of Governors of The Nature Conservancy and the Museum of Modern Art. He received an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1974 and a B.A. from Yale University in 1972.

 

Michael E. Pralle
President and Chief Executive Officer
GE Real Estate

Since joining GE Real Estate as President & Chief Executive Officer in 2000, Michael Pralle has transformed a little-known, largely domestic business into one of the world’s largest and most diversified commercial real estate investors and financers, with a presence in 26 countries and a portfolio of secured amount valued at $54 billion. During his tenure, he has built a record of industry expertise, product and technology innovation and disciplined risk management to deliver consistent earnings growth. Today, GE Real Estate contributes 9 percent of GE’s total net income.

The company’s strong financial performance—net income tripled over the past five years to more than $1.8 billion—is the direct result of Michael’s core growth strategy: manage the business through real estate cycles; establish a deeper presence in large, underserved countries, including Mexico and in Eastern Europe and maximize opportunities in emerging markets, particularly India and China. His vision is for GE Real Estate to be the world’s premier commercial real estate company—a global leader within what he predicts will be a truly global industry, in the manner of investment banking or law.

Under Michael’s leadership, GE Real Estate has grown substantially—while some growth was organic, the firm made 17 significant acquisitions since 2000. To Michael, it is the diversity of the business that helps control portfolio risk while fueling earnings growth. From a company focused principally on debt financing, he fashioned a business that is 53 percent equity investments. From a modest, domestic portfolio, he orchestrated investment in 7,500 properties worldwide—three-quarters outside the United States. From a more narrow income stream, he broadened the company’s sources of revenue, substantially expanding, for example, its property management business—which today oversees more than 105 million square feet of commercial space in the United States.

Perhaps one of Michael’s most significant contributions is his relentless focus on customer service, something for which GE has long been known. He capitalized on one of GE’s most distinctive strengths—the fact that it lends its own money to tailor transactions for customer needs in a way others cannot match. He continues to seek joint ventures with other world-class real estate companies to broaden GE Real Estate’s product scope. And, he has used the power of technology to meaningfully improve service quality in what remains essentially a face-to-face business. The $50 million Michael has spent on technology since 2002 has reduced transaction cycle times by 65 percent and markedly enhanced the accuracy and reliability of deals.

A disciplined manager, Michael is also largely responsible for honing the company’s already superb risk management orientation. With non-performing assets at an industry-low 0.55 percent in 2005, GE Real Estate is a recognized expert at measuring, managing and exiting the risks inherent in real estate. He believes this risk management discipline will be a critical competitive advantage as the real estate business expands into emerging markets characterized by differing legal systems, currency regulations and concepts of property rights. More than a bottom-line leader, Michael Pralle is a strong team-builder. He has helped develop a senior leadership team marked by long tenure at GE and deep expertise in the real estate industry. His team of 15 direct reports has an average length of service of 15 years.

A 17-year GE veteran with extensive international experience, Michael has served in a variety of senior leadership positions with the company, including as President of GE Equity. Prior to that, he was President, GE Capital Asia Pacific, where he supervised the company’s activities in 15 countries across North and Southeast Asia. He joined GE in 1989 as Vice President, Business Development, responsible for merger and acquisition activities. Before joining GE, Michael spent eight years with McKinsey and Co. in its London and Hong Kong offices.

Michael graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1978 with a B.A. in Economics and received an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1982, where he was awarded the Arthur D. Little Fellowship.

 

Jeffrey Schwartz
Chief Executive Officer
ProLogis

Jeffrey H. Schwartz is chief executive officer of ProLogis, a Denver-based real estate investment trust that trades on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is the world's largest owner, manager and developer of industrial warehouse facilities, with 400 million square feet of distribution space under management in 81 global markets and a total capitalization of more than $22 billion.

Mr. Schwartz has more than 20 years’ leadership experience in industrial real estate in North America, Europe and Asia. At age 29, he co-founded The Krauss/Schwartz Company in Tampa, Fla., which grew to become the state’s largest provider of distribution facilities. The company was acquired by ProLogis in 1994.

Over the next 11 years, Mr. Schwartz was appointed to a series of executive positions at ProLogis. From 1994 to 1997, he served as Managing Director with responsibility for the company’s U.S. development pipeline, and also oversaw its expansion into Mexico. In 1997 he was named Vice Chairman, spearheading ProLogis’ entry into the European market and establishing the company as Europe’s largest provider of warehouse facilities. In 2000, he became Chief Executive Officer of Vizional Technologies, a ProLogis affiliate focused on supply-chain management and logistics services.

Mr. Schwartz was named President of International Operations for ProLogis in 2002. In addition, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer for Asia, with responsibility for building the company’s real estate portfolio in both Japan and China. Today, ProLogis is the leading provider in both markets, and has also established operations in South Korea.

In January 2005, Mr. Schwartz was appointed Chief Executive Officer, succeeding founding CEO K. Dane Brooksher. Today, he also serves on ProLogis’ 12-member Board of Directors.

Mr. Schwartz is active in real estate industry associations. He is Treasurer and a member of the Board of Governors of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and a member of the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Roundtable. He was named Developer of the Year by Commercial Property News in 2006, and frequently serves as an industry spokesman in the national and international business media, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg Television, CNBC and the BBC.

Mr. Schwartz graduated from Emory University in 1981 with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. He also holds a Master’s of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

 

 

April 25, 2007
8:00am–5:30pm

New York, NY

Event location will be disclosed to attendees upon completion of the registration process.

 

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