SPEAKERS

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Alice Rivlin
Former Vice Chair, Federal Reserve Board and Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

Alice M. Rivlin is a visiting professor at the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. She is the director of the Greater Washington Research at Brookings. Before returning to Brookings, Rivlin served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board from 1996 to 1999. She was director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 1994 to 1996, and deputy director (1993-94). She also chaired the District of Columbia Financial Management Assistance Authority (1998-2001).

Rivlin was the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office (1975-1983). She was director of the Economic Studies Program at Brookings (1983-1987). She also served at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as assistant secretary for Planning and Evaluation (1968-1969).

Rivlin received a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship, taught at Harvard, George Mason, and The New School Universities, has served on the boards of directors of several corporations, and as president of the American Economic Association. She is currently a member of the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange.

She is a frequent contributor to newspapers, television, and radio, and has written numerous books. Her books include Systematic Thinking for Social Action (l971), Reviving the American Dream (1992), Beyond the Dot.coms (with Robert Litan, 2001), and The Economic Payoff from the Internet Revolution (also with Litan, 2001). She is co-editor (with Isabel Sawhill) of Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget (2004), Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2005: Meeting the Long-Run Challenges; and Restoring Fiscal Sanity: 2007: The Health Spending Challenge (with Joseph R. Antos March 2007).

Rivlin was recently appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform which was established to help solve the nation's budget problems.

Rivlin was born in 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. She received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Bryn Mawr College in 1952 and a Ph.D. from Radcliffe College (Harvard University) in economics in 1958. She is married to economist Sidney G. Winter, who is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She has three children and four grandchildren.

Macro Trends/Real Estate Fundamentals panel

Henry Cisneros (moderator)
Executive chairman, CityView and former secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Henry Cisneros is Executive Chairman of the CityView companies, which work with the nation’s leading homebuilders to create homes priced within the range of average families. Mr. Cisneros’ community-building career began in urban public service. After serving three terms as a City Councilmember, in 1981, Mr. Cisneros became the first Hispanic-American mayor of a major U.S. city, San Antonio, Texas. In 1992, President Clinton appointed Mr. Cisneros to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is credited with initiating the revitalization of many of the nation’s public housing developments, with formulating policies which contributed to achieving the nation’s highest ever homeownership rate, and with upgrading the nation’s strategies to reduce homelessness. After leaving HUD in 1997, Mr. Cisneros was president and chief operating officer of Univision Communications, the Spanish-language broadcaster which has become the fifth-most-watched television network in the nation. Mr. Cisneros has been awarded the President’s Award by the National Council of La Raza and the Mexican Order of the Aguila Azteca, the highest award bestowed by the Government of Mexico to a person who is not a citizen of the nation.

Mr. Cisneros holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University. He earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, studied urban economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holds a Doctorate in Public Administration from George Washington University, and has been awarded more than 20 honorary doctorates from leading universities.

Sam Chandan, PhD, FRICS
Global chief economist and executive vice president, Real Capital Analytics

Dr. Sam Chandan is Global Chief Economist and Executive Vice President of Real Capital Analytics and an adjunct professor of real estate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his primary role as RCA’s Chief Economist, Dr. Chandan oversees RCA’s Analytics Team and is a member of the firm’s Management Committee.

Dr. Chandan’s commentary on commercial and residential markets, the economy, policy and regulation, and capital and credit markets is regularly featured in national and global print publications. Named one of the industry’s most influential people by Multi-Housing News magazine, Dr. Chandan is also a regular speaker at industry events and a contributing author to many of its preeminent publications. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and was a Doctoral Scholar in the Economics Department at Princeton University.

M. Leanne Lachman
President, Lachman Associates LLC and executive-in-residence, The Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School

M. Leanne Lachman is president of Lachman Associates, an independent real estate consulting company. Previously, Ms. Lachman spent 13 years as a partner at Schroder Real Estate Associates, a boutique real estate manager that was acquired by Lend Lease, a global institutional investment manager, where she spent four years. Her early career was with Real Estate Research Corporation, where she served as chief executive officer. A highly sought after speaker and widely published author of books and articles on the real estate industry, Ms. Lachman is also a member of the Urban Land Institute and a governor of the Urban Land Foundation, a director of Lincoln National Corporation and a trustee of Liberty Property Trust.

She received her BA from the University of Southern California and her MA from Claremont Graduate University. Areas of interest: real estate, demographics (U.S. and global trends), corporate governance, and offshoring.

Wendy Silverstein
Executive Vice President of Capital Markets and Co-Head of Acquisitions, Vornado Realty Trust

Wendy Silverstein is Executive Vice President of Capital Markets and Co-Head of Acquisitions for Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO), the nation’s third largest REIT. Wendy is responsible for a diverse range of capital market activities including all equity, debt and derivative transactions and is actively involved in Vornado’s acquisition activities. Wendy is a member of the Investment Committee for Vornado’s private equity fund, Vornado Capital Partners, LP. She also serves on the board of directors and the audit committee of Toys R Us, Inc, and on the board of directors of LNR Property, LLC.

Prior to joining Vornado in 1998, Wendy spent eight years as a Vice President and Senior Credit Officer of Citicorp Real Estate and Citibank, N.A., where she completed billions of dollars of real estate and operating company restructurings. From 1986 to 1990, Wendy was with the Leveraged Capital Group at Citibank, N.A. providing sponsor financing for leveraged buyouts.

Wendy earned a Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, and an MBA with Distinction, from The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Philip Swagel Phillip Swagel
Professor, University of Maryland and former assistant secretary for economic policy, U.S. Treasury Department

Phillip L. Swagel is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, where he teaches classes on international finance and the relationship between financial markets and the economy. He is also a non-resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Mr. Swagel was Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department from December 2006 to January 2009. In that position, he served as a member of the TARP investment committee and advised Secretary Paulson on all aspects of economic policy. Mr. Swagel previously worked at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the International Monetary Fund, and the Federal Reserve, and taught economics at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.

On the Ground: Public & Private Real Estate Capital Markets panel

Devin Murphy (moderator)
Managing director, investment banking, and vice chairman, Morgan Stanley
Mr. Murphy currently serves as the managing director and vice chairman in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley. Previously, he was a managing partner of Coventry Real Estate Advisors – a real estate private equity firm headquartered in New York which has invested in over $2.5 billion of properties since its inception.

Prior to joining Coventry, Mr. Murphy was the Global Head of Real Estate Investment Banking for Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. and a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley & Co where he worked for 15 years. While at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Murphy was Co-Head of their US real estate investment banking business, and head of the private capital markets group (PCM). He also served on the Investment Committee of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds.

Mr. Murphy is a Director of Grubb & Ellis Company, and an advisory director of TriGate Capital, a real estate private equity firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. He received a BA with honors from the College of William and Mary and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Ric Clark
President & Chief Executive Officer, Brookfield Properties Corporation

Ric Clark has been with Brookfield and its predecessors since 1984 in roles of increasing seniority and responsibility. Since 2002, he has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Office Properties. In 2009, he assumed the additional role of Senior Managing Partner & CEO of global real estate holdings for Brookfield Asset Management, the principal shareholder of Brookfield Office Properties.

Mr. Clark also co-heads a $5 billion real estate turnaround consortium tasked with investing in equity and debt in under-valued real estate companies or real estate portfolios. In 2009, he led an oversubscribed $1 billion equity raise for Brookfield.

With Mr. Clark at the helm, Brookfield Properties has demonstrated growing financial strength, consistently reporting revenue growth and high occupancy rates throughout the company’s premier portfolio of office properties. Brookfield Properties’ gross market value has increased from $8 billion to $16 billion since Ric’s appointment as CEO.

He is a member of the board of directors of Brookfield Properties Corporation and General Growth Properties. He serves on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). He is a long-time board member of the Mental Health Association of New York City. He also serves on the New York City board of Dignitas International, a medical humanitarian organization working in Southern Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Maey Ellen Egbert Mary Ellen Egbert
Managing director and head of the restructuring group, JP Morgan Chase

Mary Ellen Egbert's career at JPMorgan and its predecessors spans over twenty-six years. Currently, Ms. Egbert is the head of the Restructuring Group of JPMorgan, the market leader in DIP and Exit Financings. She and her team provide lending and advisory services to Investment Banking clients and lead high profile debt restructurings both in and out of court. Prior to joining the Restructuring Group, Ms. Egbert served as one of three group heads in the firm's Special Credits Group, the area responsible for managing the Investment Bank's distressed credit exposures worldwide. She and her team led restructurings of large, syndicated credit facilities for which JPMorgan served as administrative agent. In addition, Ms. Egbert managed the securities portfolio that held the debt and equity positions JPMorgan received in exchange for restructured loans.

Prior to joining the Special Credits Group, Ms. Egbert spent several years in leveraged finance, focusing on large corporate clients in a variety of industries. She graduated summa cum laude from Boston College's School of Management in 1984. She later attended Columbia Business School's summer MBA program, graduating in 1994 with honors.

David Hodes
Founder and managing partner, Hodes Weill & Associates

David R. Hodes is a founder and Managing Partner of Hodes Weill & Associates (HW&A). HW&A is a New York-based, advisory and principal investment business providing advice and solutions for a wide range of challenges impacting a rapidly changing real estate private fund industry. The company leverages the principals' global network of investor and fund manager relationships, and knowledge of the real estate private equity and private funds market.

From 2000 through 2009, Mr. Hodes was a Managing Director of Credit Suisse, based in New York, where he co-founded Credit Suisse’s Real Estate Private Fund Group (REPFG). In 2008, Mr. Hodes assumed responsibility for co-managing Credit Suisse’s Real Estate Investments Group (REIG). REIG had over 250 professionals and approximately $37 billion of assets under management in a range of core, opportunistic and securities (long and hedged) funds and separate accounts.

Previously, Mr. Hodes was a Principal at Morgan Stanley, and the Director of Private Real Estate Capital Markets. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Hodes was a Principal of The Yarmouth Group from 1985 through 1996, where he was also a Member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

Mr. Hodes received a BA in Urban Studies from Brandeis University. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the International Business School at Brandeis University, and a past Board member of the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA). He is a frequent lecturer at the Columbia University Business School and at Brandeis International Business School.

Alan M. Leventhal
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Beacon Capital Partners

Prior to founding Beacon Capital Partners in 1998, Mr. Leventhal served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Properties Corporation, a publically traded real estate investment company which was merged with Equity Office Properties in 1997.

Mr. Leventhal received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Northwestern University in 1974 and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College in 1976. Mr. Leventhal is Chairman of the Board of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Mr. Leventhal is a trustee of Boston University and chairs the Investment Committee. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2008. He is a life trustee of Northwestern University and also serves on the board of the Friends of Post Office Square.

Mr. Leventhal was awarded the Realty Stock Review's "Outstanding CEO Award" for 1996 and 1997, and the Commercial Property News "Office Property Executive of the Year" for 1996. In 2004 he received Ernst & Young's New England ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award.

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS

Lynne Sagalyn
Earle W. Kazis And Benjamin Schore Professor Of Real Estate and Director, Paul Milstein Center For Real Estate, Columbia Business School

Lynne B. Sagalyn is the Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate Development, at Columbia Business School where she is director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate and the MBA Real Estate Program. This most recent position marks a return to Columbia, where she had been a professor of finance and economics for more than twelve years, and to the MBA Real Estate Program, which she developed during that period.

Prior to returning to Columbia in July 2008, Professor Sagalyn held appointments at the University of Pennsylvania in both the School of Design (City Planning Department) and the Wharton School (Real Estate Department).

An expert in real estate development and finance, Sagalyn has published extensively on a broad range of issues in the fields of real estate, urban development, and public/private partnerships. In addition, she has developed numerous cases for graduate-level teaching of real estate development, investment strategy, and finance.

She is widely known for her research on public/private partnerships and city building. Her recent work includes Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon (MIT Press, 2001) and essays addressing the politics of rebuilding the World Trade Center site, the political fabric of design competitions, and the politics of the Kelo backlash. Her current projects include a book of on the politics of rebuilding of the World Trade Center (supported by the Russell Sage Foundation), a book on public/private development (to be published by the Urban Land Institute) and research on the media and urban issues.

Professor Sagalyn’s activities outside academia are diverse. She has been a litigation expert, a consultant to both private firms and public agencies and a member of the New York City [Board of Education] Chancellor’s Commission on the Capital Plan. She has done extensive executive teaching, particularly for Tishman Speyer Properties, and serves as a director of several real estate companies, including UDR (NYSE:UDR), where she is Vice Chair, and Capital Trust (NYSE: CT), where she serves as the chair of the audit committee, and the Goldman Family Enterprises Advisory Board (in NYC).

Professor Sagalyn received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980, a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University in 1971, and was graduated from Cornell University in 1969 with distinction. Prior to her appointment at Columbia Business School, she was on the faculty of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at M.I.T.

Gil Menna
Partner, Goodwin Procter LLP

Gil Menna is a partner in the firm’s Business Law Department and serves as co-chair of its Real Estate, REITs & Real Estate Capital Markets Group. Mr. Menna participates in the M&A/Corporate Governance, Securities & Corporate Finance, Private Investment Funds and Tax Practices. He is a prior member of Goodwin Procter’s Management and Executive Committees.

Mr. Menna is nationally recognized for his representation of some of the nation’s leading publicly traded real estate operating companies in connection with their corporate finance, corporate governance, and merger and acquisition transactions. In addition to his extensive knowledge of the REIT industry, Mr. Menna also has significant experience representing a variety of real estate investment managers in connection with their fund formation, portfolio acquisition, and merger and acquisitions transactions.

Since 2005, Mr. Menna has been involved on behalf of the firm’s clients in structuring and executing REIT transactions totaling more than $109 billion, with $94 billion in M&A transactions and $15 billion in equity or debt securities transactions.

Mr. Menna is a member of the board of directors of New York University’s Real Estate Institute’s REIT Center, a Board Associate member of NAREIT and a member of the Real Estate Roundtable. In November 2010, NAREIT honored Mr. Menna with the industry Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to the REIT industry.

Rob Insolia
Partner, Goodwin Procter LLP

Rob Insolia, co-chair of the firm’s Real Estate Private Investment Fund Practice, represents and advises a wide range of clients involved in the capitalization of real estate through public and private capital markets. A member of the firm’s nationally recognized Real Estate and Real Estate Capital Markets Practice, Mr. Insolia has assisted clients with the formation of domestic and international private equity and real estate funds, REIT IPOs and follow-on public offerings, the formation and capitalization of investment managers and finance companies, mergers and acquisitions of real estate operating companies, and the purchase, sale, financing and restructuring of real estate and real estate-related assets.

In 1997, Mr. Insolia was a founding partner of Goodwin Procter’s New York office, which he chaired through 2004. He chaired the Business Law Department of the New York office through 2007, and has served on the firm’s Executive Committee.

Mr. Insolia has represented a variety of financial institutions such as sponsors of commingled funds, investment banks, insurance companies and commercial banks, as well as issuers, underwriters, joint ventures, REITs, partnerships, other public and private real estate operating companies and investors in capital markets real estate transactions.

Mr. Insolia received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and his B.A. from the New York State University College at New Paltz.