Katie Bergen is a Senior Vice President of AEW’s Investor Relations Group with responsibility for capital formation, client service and broader firm initiatives. Katie joined AEW in 2024 from Corten Real Estate, where she served as a Principal of Capital Strategies. Before that, she was Senior Director of Capital Strategies and Investor Relations at Sagard Real Estate (formerly known as EverWest Real Estate Investors), fundraising for core through value-added mandates and debt strategies. Prior to Sagard, she spent eight years at CenterSquare Investment Management in a variety of roles, most recently as Director of Capital Markets, focused on capital raising for multiple strategies.

Katie was featured as one of the "8 to watch under 40" alumni in the Update Magazine Spring / Summer 2021, Wisconsin School of Business. She is a Founder and Board Member of Project Elevation, an institutional real estate industry group supporting inclusion initiatives, and a Founder and Executive Committee Member of Real Estate Women of Denver (REWD).

Katie earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics as well as Finance, Investments, and Banking.

Jaime Fink is a Senior Managing Director in HFF's Chicago office with more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, including investment advisory and equity placement. In addition, he is a Senior Managing Director and co-founder of HFF’s Global Capital Team, which coordinates the marketing of assets to international investors and develops strong relationships with clients seeking to invest outside their home region. Jaime also serves as co-leader of HFF’s National Office Group.

Jaime specializes in the disposition, financing and re-capitalization of investment real estate as well as multi-market portfolios through investment advisory, equity placement, financing and structured transactions. During the course of his career, he has completed in excess of $22 billion in transactions and more than 115 million square feet spanning all property sectors and regions of the United States. Prior to his career in commercial real estate, Jaime served as an officer in the United States Air Force.

Jaime received both an MS (1997) in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and a BS (1991) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to his role on the WREAA Board of Directors, he is active in the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Chad Messer is a Managing Director, Portfolio Management & Deputy Chief Investment Officer. Chad currently serves as portfolio manager for three separate accounts with large pension fund clients. He has previous experience as a Portfolio Manager on the U.S. Property Fund & Plus Strategies and three additional separate accounts with Sagard Real Estate.

Prior to his role at Sagard Real Estate, Chad started his career in real estate at Kroger Co. and he has 15 years of commercial real estate investment experience. Chad received a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. in Real Estate from the University of Wisconsin. He remains active in the Wisconsin real estate program as a board member of the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association.

Since 1992, Christine Dicks has led the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association, Inc., a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to the advancement of the Real Estate and Urban Land Economics Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As Executive Director she works with the Board of Directors in developing vision and strategic direction that guides the alumni association and oversees management of association operations. Prior to joining the alumni association, Christine served as Managing Director for Pi Sigma Epsilon, a national professional fraternal organization specializing in sales, marketing and management with more than 60 chapters. She earned a B.B.A. from the University of Illinois.

Michael Zelin is a Managing Director in the Washington, D.C. office of Cushman & Wakefield. He specializes in debt placement and the financing of commercial assets across all product types. He joined C&W in 2019. Prior to C&W, Michael spent 12 years with Eastdil Secured, also in Washington. Prior to joining Eastdil Secured, Michael was with Jones Lang LaSalle for 4 years and worked in JLL’s San Francisco, Hong Kong and Shanghai offices. Michael has over 15 years of commercial real estate experience and has participated in more than $50 billion in transactions. Michael holds a B.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, double majoring in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Management.

Tim Slater is a Senior Vice President with Amstar, a private equity real estate investor based in Denver. He joined the firm in 2017 and is currently responsible for sourcing new acquisitions and asset managing Amstar’s portfolio across Southern California, the Midwest, Denver, and Texas. Previously, Mr. Slater worked in the Acquisitions group at LaSalle Investment Management and for Wells Fargo in the Real Estate Debt Originations group, both in Chicago. Mr. Slater graduated with distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.B.A in Real Estate and Finance. He is a member of NAIOP and is WREAA’s Board Member for Colorado and Texas.

Jake Griswold (MBA 2005) is a Vice President and member of the investment committee at Irgens Partners with a primary focus on capital markets and investment strategy. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the acquisition, development and structuring of assets in the four main sectors of real estate as well as master planned development.

Jake received his MBA in Real Estate and Urban Economics, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Bachelor of Business Administration degrees in both Finance, Investment & Banking and Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jake is a Certified Public Accountant.

Megan May is a Vice President in Heitman's Acquisitions group. Based in Chicago, Heitman is a global real estate investment management firm with over $53 billion in assets under management. Megan's responsibilities include originating, negotiating, and executing investments in private equity real estate across the risk spectrum and throughout North America with a focus on multifamily and single-family rentals. Prior to joining Heitman, Megan worked in the Real Estate Equity group of Allstate Investments sourcing and underwriting multifamily and industrial programmatic joint ventures across the U.S. She also worked at Bond Companies as a Development Associate and began her career at BlackRock in the Real Estate group.

Megan received a BBA in Real Estate and Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. In addition to her role on the WREAA Board of Directors, she is a Real Estate Finance Forum (REFF) board member, active in The Goldie Initiative, and a Goldie Scholar alumna.

Lamar Newburn is a Principal at Lee & Associates, Twin Cities. Lamar specializes in the acquisition, disposition and leasing of investment properties on behalf of institutional and private capital clients. He joined Lee & Associates Twin Cities as a Vice President in January 2017 and was promoted to Principal in October 2020. Lamar leverages the Lee national platform to represent multi-market clients across a variety of property types including office, industrial, medical office, multi-family and student housing.

Prior to joining Lee & Associates, Lamar was the founder and managing principal of Sett Properties, LLC, a boutique brokerage and investment advisory firm based in Chicago, Illinois, and also served investment sales roles with Cassidy Turley (now Cushman & Wakefield) in Washington DC, and Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (now JLL) in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to brokerage, he has held capital markets roles with Tishman Speyer Properties and Riverview Realty Partners, both based on Chicago, Illinois. Since 2004, he has collaborated on more than $2.6 billion of closed capital transactions and is a licensed broker in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Education
• Master of Business Administration in Real Estate from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin School of Business
• Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences

Community Involvement
• Minnesota Regional Board Member – Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association (WREAA)
• Advisory Board Member, Minnesota Commercial Association of Realtors (MNCAR)
• Church Councilmember – Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN
• Licensed private pilot with the Federal Aviation Administration
• Avid musician and vocalist for charity events

Kendra is a real estate professional with over twenty years of development, finance, property management, and consulting experience. She has an expertise in multifamily residential and mixed-use properties including sustainable, historic, and affordable housing development and financing, and has a passion for transformation.

As Principal of Fresh Coast Real Estate Development, established in February 2022, Kendra consults on development-based engagements. Her main client is Gro Dev where she assists mission-based organizations, like YMCAs, on real estate strategy and development partnerships.

Prior to consulting with Gro, Kendra was most recently the Vice President of Development at The NHP Foundation where she was part of the team responsible for evaluating over 50 multifamily investment opportunities in ten states, ultimately closing the acquisition and/or development of ten properties totaling over $200 million in portfolio value. Her previous experiences while working at Jonathan Rose Companies, Matthew Adam Properties, HallKeen, and Ernst & Young enhanced her specialty skills in green building, historic preservation, affordable housing, mixed use development, financing, tax credit and bond financing, excel modeling, responsible property investment, on-site property management, market study and valuation, and partnership valuations.

Kendra earned a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Business Administration (Economics / Real Estate & Urban Land Economics) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has also completed coursework in real estate and historic preservation through continuing education programs at Boston University and Boston Architectural Center. She served on the board of Women in Housing and Finance (WHF) in New York City for seven years and is both a LEED-AP and a Certified Credit Compliance Professional (C3P). In addition to WHF, Kendra is also a member of Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association (WREAA).

Originally from a small town in Wisconsin, to Hell’s Kitchen in NYC where Kendra currently resides, strong communities are what she believes keep us healthy and connected.

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

Louis DeFino is a director of acquisitions located in Newport Beach, CA, whose primary focus is acquisitions and development of industrial properties along the west coast. His responsibilities include sourcing new acquisitions and development opportunities, negotiating PSA’s/term sheets on joint ventures, communicating with clients, investors, and brokers, presentations to investment committee and navigating internal approval processes, and facilitating the entire acquisition process all the way through closing. His primary markets include Northern California, Seattle, Portland, and San Diego. He also assists on dispositions of existing assets within these selected markets. He has worked on and closed 43 industrial acquisitions totalling $1.6 billion and 9 dispositions totalling $945 million as of Q2 2023, on behalf of 7 different institutional clients.

Mr. DeFino’s previous role at Nuveen Real Estate was as an associate focused on both office and industrial acquisitions from 2017 to 2018 and as an analyst on the multi-family team from 2014 to 2016. He was responsible for investment analysis, underwriting/ financial modelling, coordination of all due diligence efforts, preparation of investment memos, and completing pro-rations for closings. During this time as an associate/analyst, he worked on an additional 28 acquisitions totalling $1.43 billion in volume and $675 million in dispositions. Prior to joining Nuveen Real Estate, Mr. DeFino worked at Duff & Phelps in the real estate services group and worked on valuation of all types of commercial real estate.

Mr. DeFino graduated in December 2011 from the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor’s degree in real estate and Entrepreneurship. He is the current Southern California Board Member of the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association (WREAA) following his tenure as the Senior Market Director for Orange County. Mr. DeFino is also active within NAIOP Southern California YPG alumni committees, having graduated from the program in 2019, and currently leading the Selection Committee for the Young Professionals Group within NAIOP SoCal.

Ashley is a Senior Vice President and member of the Investor Solutions team at Blue Vista. In this role, she is responsible for developing relationships with existing and prospective Blue Vista investors and raising capital for the firm’s various real estate strategies.

Prior to her current role at Blue Vista, Ashley held various roles in Asset Management, Acquisitions, and Portfolio Management. Most recently, Ashley was an Asset Manager with responsibility for Blue Vista’s student housing real estate equity investments, which included monitoring investment performance, oversight of ground-up developments, valuations, developing and directing investment-level strategies, and sourcing and closing loan transactions. Ashley began her career at Blue Vista as an Acquisitions analyst on the real estate equity acquisitions team, where she was responsible for financial modeling, market research, and supporting all aspects of the acquisition and underwriting process, in addition to supporting portfolio analytics for the firm’s various real estate equity strategies.

Ashley earned a BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with dual majors in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Marketing.

Mr. Carroll is a Senior Vice President at Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital in Chicago. Chris has more than 25 years of experience in commercial real estate finance. He is responsible for the origination and placement of real estate capital nationwide. Mr. Carroll’s primary focus during his career has been structuring and placing first mortgage debt, mezzanine financing and equity financing for owners and developers of commercial real estate.

Prior to joining Bellwether, Mr. Carroll was in a similar role at both JLL and HFF and also at Cohen Financial where he was a partner and ran a team of professionals as head of Cohen's Chicago production office.

Daniel Soyka is a Director at Northwestern Mutual Real Estate, where he has worked since 2010. He is responsible for originating debt and equity investments, focusing on Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Madison. During his time at Northwestern Mutual, he has originated over $5 billion of investments across all major property types. Prior to attending graduate school at UW, Dan was a process engineer at Kimberly-Clark Corporation for five years. He holds a M.B.A. in Real Estate from the University of Wisconsin and a B.S. in both Chemical Engineering and Economics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a CFA Charterholder.

Caity Tirakian (BBA 2020) is a Senior Analyst in the Chicago, IL Jones Lang Capital Markets office. She specializes in Retail Investment Sales across the Midwest. Caity has been a part of that team since March of 2022. Prior to her current role, Caity spent nearly 2 years with ShopCore Properties in their Chicago office. She worked as a National Accounts Research Analyst during her time there.

Caity graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.B.A., double majoring in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Finance, Investments, and Banking.