ElmTree Funds
Management
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James G. KomanCEO & Founder -
Joseph C. YiuManaging Partner, Chief Investment Officer -
David LeavittManaging Partner, General Counsel & Head of Strategy -
Kerry GawrychChief Financial Officer -
Annie HsiehExecutive Vice President, Investor Relations -
Rick EisemanExecutive Vice President, Portfolio Management -
Jason RidgwayExecutive Vice President, Portfolio Management
Mr. Koman is the CEO and Founder of ElmTree Funds, LLC with 36 years of experience in the real estate industry. As CEO of ElmTree Funds, Mr. Koman oversees 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.
Joseph Yiu is a Managing Partner of ElmTree Funds, LLC and serves on the Fund’s Investment Committee. As Managing Partner, Mr. Yiu oversees 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 Build-to-Suit Program to regional developers, Tenant Representatives, and Fortune 500 corporations. Mr. Yiu has over 17 years of real estate experience and has acquired, advised, and financed over $4.0 billion 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. 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 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. Mr. Yiu published the “The Irony in Investing in Tenant Improvements in Leased Space” in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate in 2002 and “Single Tenant Net Lease Guidelines” in Briefings in Real Estate Finance in 2004. 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.
David Leavitt is a Managing Partner and General Counsel of ElmTree Funds, LLC. He is responsible for overseeing the fund’s operations, including the finance, strategy, and legal aspects of the Fund. He is also the Chief Compliance Officer of ElmTree Funds, LLC. Mr. Leavitt has over 13 years of experience in the real estate fund management industry. He began his career as an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and most recently was a partner and national leader of PwC’s real estate tax practice. In these roles, Mr. Leavitt worked on numerous real estate transactions, including the formation of several multi-billion dollar open and closed end real estate funds, strategic acquisitions by non-US institutional and sovereign entities, and mergers and acquisitions involving non-traditional real estate platforms. Mr. Leavitt has presented at numerous real estate industry events on a variety of topics related to the acquisition, ownership, and disposition of real estate investments. Mr. Leavitt holds a BA in Liberal Arts from the New School University, a JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law (with high honors), and an LLM in Taxation from New York University School of Law.
Kerry Gawrych is the Chief Financial Officer of ElmTree Funds, LLC. As Chief Financial Officer, 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.
Annie Hsieh is an Executive Vice President on the Investor Relations team. Prior to joining ElmTree Funds, Ms. Hsieh covered U.S. institutional investors as a Director on the Client Relations team at ZAIS Group. Prior to ZAIS Group, Ms. Hsieh managed Investor Relations and Business Development at Five Mile Capital from 2012-2017. Prior to Five Mile, she worked at Barclays Capital in commodities sales covering oil and natural gas producers. Prior to Barclays, Ms. Hsieh worked at Credit Suisse in the Real Estate Private Funds Group, where she focused on a variety of a fundraises across multiple strategies and geographies. Ms. Hsieh began her career at Citigroup, working for three years as a trader in high-grade credit and structured debt products. Ms. Hsieh holds a BS in Finance from New York University, the Stern School of Business and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Rick Eiseman is an Executive Vice President, Portfolio Management for ElmTree Funds, LLC. As Executive Vice President, Mr. Eiseman is responsible for oversight of the Asset Management department including the leasing and disposition of properties, portfolio operations and property management functions. In addition, Mr. Eiseman sits on ElmTree’s Investment Committee, assisting in identifying and evaluating investment opportunities through his extensive broker network throughout the country. Prior to joining ElmTree, Mr. Eiseman was a Senior Vice President of Asset Management for the office portfolio of Gramercy Property Trust from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that role, Mr. Eiseman was the National Office Leasing Director of Gramercy’s predecessor Gramercy Capital from 2008 to 2016. Before his roles at Gramercy, Mr. Eiseman was a Managing Director of Leasing and Sales for American Financial Realty Trust from 2004 to 2008, and a Vice President at Jones Lang LaSalle from 1998 to 2004. During his career he has been involved in the lease or sale of over 10 million square feet of office, industrial and retail bank space with a total transaction value in excess of $2 billion. Mr. Eiseman has a Bachelors’ Degree in Political Science and a Masters Degree in Public Policy from St. Louis University.
Jason Ridgway serves as an Executive Vice President, Portfolio Management for ElmTree Funds, LLC. As Executive Vice President, Mr. Ridgway is responsible for financial modeling, underwriting prospective acquisitions, and 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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Team
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Wesley T. WalkerSenior Vice President, Investor Relations -
David PiaseckiSenior Vice President, Acquisitions -
Brian BoehmSenior Vice President, Acquisitions -
Stephen BaxterVice President of Asset Management -
MaCauley StuddardVice President, Investments -
Mason BikshornAssociate -
Zak HotzAsset Manager -
Hope WeberStaff Accountant -
Amie RichterStaff Accountant -
Karen GerlingAccountant -
Austin DavisAnalyst -
Mark ClintonAnalyst -
Christine MattinglyExecutive Office Administrator -
Kathy AlthoffAdministrative Assistant
Wesley T. Walker acts as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations for ElmTree Funds, LLC. As a Senior 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.
In David Piasecki’s role as Senior Vice President, Acquisitions, he is responsible for aspects of setting investment policy and the sourcing and underwriting of new acquisitions. Mr. Piasecki was initially hired in 2014 to be Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all day-to-day aspects of the Fund’s business including accounting, asset management and transaction review. Mr. Piasecki has a 40+ year history of investment experience ranging from equipment finance, asset based finance and 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 through 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.
Brian Boehm serves as Senior 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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Stephen Baxter is the Vice President of Asset Management at ElmTree Funds, LLC. In this role, Mr. Baxter manages and is responsible for the asset management functions for ElmTree Funds and its separately managed accounts. Mr. Baxter maintains oversight responsibility of the internal asset management team and external partners, including 3rd party property managers, brokers, attorneys, construction managers, architects, engineers and various vendors. Prior to joining ElmTree Funds, Mr. 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., Mr. 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. Mr. Baxter is working towards his CCIM designation and is currently enrolled in Georgetown University’s Masters in Real Estate program.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from DePaul University’s Driehaus College of Business.
314-880-7203
sbaxter@elmtreefunds.com
MaCauley Studdard is the Vice President of Investments & Corporate Development for ElmTree Funds, LLC. In this role, Mr. Studdard manages and oversees the underwriting and evaluation of potential investment opportunities, which includes fundamental real estate analysis, tenant credit underwriting, and extensive financial modeling. Mr. Studdard also manages and oversees ElmTree Funds’ Analyst department and net lease market research. Additionally, Mr. Studdard works with ElmTree Funds’ senior management team on strategic corporate development opportunities that are aligned with ElmTree’s long-term growth strategy. Prior to serving as Vice President, Mr. Studdard served as an Analyst for ElmTree Funds. As an Analyst, Mr. Studdard underwrote approximately $1 billion of investments. 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 Kennedy Capital Management, Inc. Mr. Studdard is currently an MBA candidate at Washington University 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 Associate for ElmTree Funds, LLC. As a part of the Investor Relations team, Mr. Bikshorn’s primary responsibilities are focused on providing best in class service to our investors and institutional capital raise. Prior to serving as Associate, Mr. Bikshorn served as an Analyst for ElmTree Funds. As an Analyst, Mr. Bikshorn performed extensive net lease market research and assisted in underwriting approximately $1 billion of investments. Prior to ElmTree Funds, Mr. Bikshorn worked as an Performance Analyst at Schnucks Markets, Inc. where he focused on 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
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
Austin Davis is an Analyst for ElmTree Funds, LLC. In this role, Mr. Davis assists in underwriting and evaluating potential investment opportunities. This process includes preparing financial models to value properties and forecast returns, perform fundamental real estate analysis and detailed market research, participating in the due diligence process of acquisitions and dispositions, and tenant credit underwriting. Prior to ElmTree Funds, Mr. Davis worked as an Acquisitions Analyst for StorageMart LLC where he forecasted cash flows and conducted valuations of commercial real estate across the US, Canada, and United Kingdom. During his tenure with the acquisitions team, Mr. Davis underwrote successful closings in excess of $150 million. Mr. Davis graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Missouri – Columbia where he received his B.S. degree in Finance & Banking.
314-828-4216
adavis@elmtreefunds.com
Mark Clinton is an Analyst at ElmTree Funds, LLC. As an Analyst Mr. Clinton assists in underwriting and evaluating potential investment opportunities, which includes preparing financial models, performing fundamental real estate analysis, completing detailed market research, participating in the due diligence process of acquisitions and dispositions, and tenant credit underwriting. Prior to ElmTree, Mr. Clinton worked in Commercial Real Estate Underwriting at Stifel, where he assisted in underwriting nearly $1 billion of real estate portfolios. Prior to Stifel, Mr. Clinton worked at KP Development where he completed market research and due diligence on real estate development opportunities across the U.S. Mr. Clinton received a BBA from Southern Methodist University with a major in Finance and a Concentration in Real Estate.
314-828-4210
mclinton@elmtreefunds.com