ElmTree Funds

Mr. Koman is the founder and a Managing Principal of ElmTree Funds, LLC with 33 years of experience in the real estate industry. As Managing Principal of ElmTree Funds, Mr. Koman oversees all aspects of its business activities, including acquisition, management and disposition of the company’s assets. Mr. Koman provides the strategic vision of the Investment Committee which is responsible for reviewing and approving all potential projects and ongoing investment activity. As a founder, Mr. Koman leads the organization to ensure the quality of each investment fulfills the maximum potential returns for investors and aligns with ElmTree’s strategy. Through affiliated operations, Mr. Koman has established a series of joint venture and business relationships encompassing over $3.6 billion of net lease and other real estate assets. Mr. Koman sits on the Boards of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, The Logos School and Verifi, Inc.  Mr. Koman is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR), National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and has participated on the panels for ULI, the St. Louis RCGA, and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).  Mr. Koman was recently featured as one of the Net Lease Real Estate Icons in the Real Estate Forum.  Mr. Koman holds an AB degree in Economics from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An entrepreneur by nature, Mr. Koman has built a vast array of contacts and strategic relationships with investors, developers, lenders and overall active members of the real estate community.
 
314-828-4200
jkoman@elmtreefunds.com

Joseph Yiu is the Managing Principal of ElmTree Funds, LLC and serves on the Fund’s Investment Committee. As Managing Principal, Mr. Yiu oversees all facets of the business including marketing, strategy, acquisitions, dispositions, research, and fund raising.  Providing key expertise in the Fund’s acquisitions, Mr. Yiu spends most of his time branding ElmTree’s National Built-to-Suit Program to regional developers, Tenant Representatives, and Fortune 500 corporations.  Mr. Yiu has over 14 years of real estate experience and has acquired, advised, and financed over $4.0 billion dollars of single tenant properties.  Previously, Mr. Yiu was the Chief Investment Officer of Equity Capital Management (“ECM”), a real estate private equity fund investing in net lease properties.  Yiu was instrumental in ECM’s initial public offering (ECM Realty Trust) in 2011 and subsequently sold the portfolio to Realty Income Trust (“O”) for $550 million.  As Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Norseman Group, a mezzanine lender in the single tenant marketplace, Yiu financed and advised on over $1.5 billion dollars of net lease properties.

Yiu is currently a member of the Penn Club of NY, Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center, Zell-Lurie Real Estate Mentor Program, International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), NAIOP’s E-Commerce Forum, and Advisory Council for Marcus & Millichap’s Institutional Property Advisor’s Division. In 2002, Mr. Yiu published the “The Irony in Investing in Tenant Improvements in Leased Space” in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate; and again in 2004, he published “Single Tenant Net Lease Guidelines” in Briefings in Real Estate Finance.  In 2013, Mr. Yiu was featured in Real Estate Forum as one of the top 45 under 40 in the industry. Mr. Yiu holds a BS in Real Estate and Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
 
314-828-4217
jyiu@elmtreefunds.com

David Piasecki is Chief Investment Officer of ElmTree Funds. He is responsible for all aspects of setting investment policy, overseeing the underwriting of new acquisitions and monitoring the portfolio for adherence to policy and allocation targets. Mr. Piasecki was initially hired in 2014 to be Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all day-to-day aspects of the Funds business including accounting, asset management and transaction review. Mr. Piasecki sits on the 5-person Investment Committee.

Mr. Piasecki has a 40+ year history of investment experience ranging from equipment finance, asset based finance and with the last 30 years allocated solely to commercial real estate finance. He has experience in all aspects of real estate finance, including acquisitions, investment analysis, capital markets and dispositions. He has direct experience for over $4.5 billion of transactions including acquisitions, finance and dispositions. During this time, Mr. Piasecki’s focus has been on net leased corporate real estate transactions.

Mr. Piasecki was SVP/Real Estate Division Risk Management for Greyhound Financial, a subsidiary of then Fortune 100 Greyhound Corporation. He served as SVP/Corporate Real Estate at UTF. He was a co-founder of Mesirow Realty Sale-Leaseback and later the Senior Managing Director of Highland Equity Group in Atlanta. From 2007 thru 2013 he was engaged as Senior Managing Director of Inflection Point Acquisition Group, a small boutique private equity shop engaged in acquisition and repositioning of small private companies.

Mr. Piasecki is often a speaker at various industry conferences and has been published as a writer for the Monitor Journal of Asset Based Finance, The Journal of Corporate Real Estate Finance and the Real Estate Forum. He was awarded a BA from Saint Louis University with Areas of Concentration in History and Economics.

314-828-4204
dpiasecki@elmtreefunds.com

Jason Ridgway serves as Senior Vice President for ElmTree Funds, LLC. As Senior Vice President, Mr. Ridgway is responsible for financial modeling, underwriting prospective acquisitions, and assisting with fund management. Mr. Ridgway is also responsible for sourcing debt at the property and fund levels for the firm’s capital market initiatives. In addition, Mr. Ridgway serves on the firm’s Investment Committee. Mr. Ridgway has worked on over $2.0 billion of net lease transactions during his career. Prior to his work with ElmTree Funds, Mr. Ridgway was an Analyst at Equity Capital Management (ECM) and assisted with underwriting, due diligence, and financial modeling. Mr. Ridgway graduated with honors with a BSBA degree in Finance and a minor in Real Estate from the University of Missouri.

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(314)261-7353
jridgway@elmtreefunds.com

Wesley T. Walker is Executive Vice President of Investors Relations for ElmTree Funds, LLC. As Executive Vice President, Mr. Walker’s main role is investor relations and institutional capital raise. Mr. Walker was formerly President and COO of Bridge Trading Company, an institutional brokerage firm, with $150 million in revenues and in excess of 500 institutional clients. Mr. Walker was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bridge Trading from 2000-2005. Following the Bridge/Instinet merger, Mr. Walker managed the Midwest regional offices of Instinet/Nomura and was responsible for $200m in revenue. Mr. Walker holds a BA degree in Neuroscience from Oberlin College.

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314-828-4202
wwalker@elmtreefunds.com

Kerry Gawrych is Controller of ElmTree Funds, LLC. As Controller, Ms. Gawrych is responsible for all aspects of accounting including financial reporting, analysis, and administration. Her duties also include managing the construction draw process for build to suit properties, spearheading the external audit process, and ensuring the maintenance of internal controls. Ms. Gawrych serves on ElmTree’s compliance committee. She has almost 20 years of progressive accounting experience in the commercial real estate industry. Her extensive experience includes development and operating accounting responsibilities for retail, office, industrial, and multi-family properties. Most recently, she served as Controller/Director of Accounting for Koch Development Co., Inc. Her previous experience includes THF Realty, The John Buck Company, General Growth Properties, and Midland Development Group. Ms. Gawrych is a graduate of the University of Dayton with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and a minor in International Business.

314-828-4212
kgawrych@elmtreefunds.com

Dan McEver serves as Vice President, Corporate Direct at ElmTree Funds, LLC. With over 15 years of experience in commercial real estate in acquisition, corporate tenant representation, and landlord leasing, Mr. McEver has a unique, experience based understanding of the perspectives and objectives of all participants in leasing and development transactions. In 2015 he transacted $83 million in acquisitions of both build-to-suit and existing properties. As Vice President, Mr. McEver’s main role is the identification, acquisition and underwriting of investment grade properties meeting ElmTree’s criteria. Beginning in 2007 Mr. McEver served in the Corporate Real Estate department at FedEx where he managed all real estate transactions for a group of 112 leased and owned properties, including FedEx’s World Headquarters and World Tech campuses. He also led the design and development process of the state of the art FedEx Package Laboratory. Beforehand, he served as a tenant representative for Cushman & Wakefield servicing prestigious clients such as FedEx, Service Master, Baker Donelson Law Firm, and Wright Medical. Mr. McEver’s initial experience in the industry began in 2001 providing landlord representation services at Trammell Crow and later at Cushman & Wakefield for large institutional owners of premier, Class A industrial and office parks. Mr. McEver holds an M.B.A. and B.A degree from the University of Memphis.

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314-828-4216
dmcever@elmtreefunds.com

Brian Boehm serves as Vice President of Acquisitions at ElmTree Funds, LLC.  He is responsible for the identification, evaluation, underwriting and acquisition of net lease industrial, office and healthcare real estate investments throughout the United States. Prior to joining ElmTree, Brian was Managing Director of Net Lease Business Development at Ten-X, an online platform for real estate transactions. At Ten-X, he was responsible for product development and client management for net lease institutions. Prior to Ten-X, Brian was Director of Acquisitions for VEREIT/Cole Real Estate Investments where he was responsible for sale-leaseback and structured transactions across the US. While there, he completed nearly $4 billion of transactions across retail, office and industrial asset classes including the largest ever retail sale-leaseback transactions.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from North Carolina State University as well as an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.  Additionally, he is an active member National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

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704-712-5166
bboehm@elmtreefunds.com

Andrew Truetzel serves as Vice President of Acquisitions at ElmTree Funds, LLC.  He is responsible for the identification, evaluation, underwriting and acquisition of net lease industrial, office and healthcare real estate investments throughout the United States. Prior to serving as Vice President Acquisitions, Mr. Truetzel served as a senior analyst for ElmTree Funds. As a Senior Analyst, Mr. Truetzel underwrote approximately $1 billion of net lease investments. Prior to working at ElmTree, Mr. Truetzel worked at Commerce Bancshares, a regional commercial bank, where he was responsible for underwriting over $600 million in commercial real estate loans. Mr. Truetzel graduated with honors from Miami University where he received his B.S. in Finance. Additionally, he is an active member of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP).

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314-828-4201
atruetzel@elmtreefunds.com

MaCauley Studdard is an Analyst for ElmTree Funds, LLC. Mr. Studdard is primarily responsible for extensive credit underwriting for current and prospective tenants as well as underwriting prospective acquisitions and performing net lease market research. Mr. Studdard’s prior experience includes M&A consulting and business valuation and advisory services with CBIZ Valuation Group, a national valuation advisory firm, as well as several years of equity research experience with a prominent equity investment firm based in St. Louis. Mr. Studdard graduated summa cum laude from Webster University where he received his B.S. degrees in Finance & Accounting.

314-828-4207
mstuddard@elmtreefunds.com

Mason Bikshorn is an Analyst for ElmTree Funds, LLC. Mr. Bikshorn is primarily responsible for performing extensive net lease market research as well as assisting with the underwriting of prospective acquisitions. Prior to ElmTree Funds, Mr. Bikshorn worked as an Analyst at Schnucks Markets, Inc. where he assisted with financial modeling, product rationalization, and leveraged data and analytics to drive business decisions. Mr. Bikshorn graduated with honors from the University of Missouri – Columbia where his areas of concentration were Finance, Economics, and Real Estate.

(314)880-7204
mbikshorn@elmtreefunds.com

Stephen Baxter serves as Senior Asset Manager at ElmTree Funds, LLC.  Baxter is responsible for the management of asset management functions for ElmTree’s funds and separately managed accounts.  Baxter brings nine years of real estate experience to ElmTree.  Prior to joining ElmTree, Baxter spent four years at McKinley, Inc. where he was responsible for asset management, client relations, and workouts of approximately 2.5 million square feet of distressed third party commercial real estate assets.  Prior to joining McKinley, Inc., Baxter worked at Jones Lang LaSalle in Chicago, Illinois, where he was responsible for advising public sector clients’ real estate portfolio decisions, generating extensive market studies, and brokering office lease transactions for the United States Federal Government.

Baxter holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from DePaul University’s Driehaus College of Business and is working towards his CCIM designation.

314-880-7203
sbaxter@elmtreefunds.com

Zak Hotz serves as the Asset Manager of ElmTree Funds, LLC. Mr. Hotz is responsible for managing the day-to-day activity between the tenants and landlords for all of ElmTree’s assets. Mr. Hotz also manages third party vendor contracts required by the company’s leases. Prior to joining ElmTree Funds in 2014, Mr. Hotz served as the Staff Accountant and Property Manager for Koman Properties, Inc. and KP Development, LLC for 9 years. Mr. Hotz graduated from Hickey College with a degree in Accounting in 2005.

314-828-4209
zhotz@elmtreefunds.com

Hope Weber is a Staff Accountant at ElmTree Funds, LLC with more than twenty years of accounting experience in both the private and public sectors. Her experience includes ten years with a real estate management company.  Ms. Weber’s duties include the daily operations of general accounting and financial reporting.  Ms. Weber received her MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University.

314-828-4211
hweber@elmtreefunds.com

Amie Richter is a Staff Accountant for ElmTree Funds, LLC. Ms. Richter is responsible for construction draws for build to suit properties, financial reporting and statement preparation. She has over 10 years of accounting experience in the commercial real estate industry, which includes retail, office, industrial and multi-family properties. Previously, Ms. Richter was the Senior Accountant for Colliers International, where she was responsible for the operating accounting for a portfolio of retail, office and industrial properties. Her previous experience includes Koch Development Co. Ms. Richter graduated from the University of Missouri – St. Louis where she received her B.S. in Accounting.

314-828-4214
arichter@elmtreefunds.com

314-828-4207
kgerling@elmtreefunds.com

314-446-0237
cmattingly@elmtreefunds.com

314-828-4206
kalthoff@elmtreefunds.com