Introducing Our Sustainability Board of Advisors

Scroll through the slideshow to meet NREI's Sustainability Board of Advisors.

John E. “Chip” Akridge III, Founder and Chairman, Akridge

“Chip” Akridge founded the commercial real estate firm bearing his name in 1974 to specialize in commercial real estate in downtown and suburban Washington, D.C. Since then, he has acquired or developed more than 12 million sq. ft. of office, retail, industrial/warehouse and research and development space in the region. Currently, as the company’s chairman, he is responsible for corporate oversight and strategic planning.

Read More

Brandon Birtcher, CEO, Goodman Birtcher North America

At Goodman Birtcher North America, CEO Brandon Birtcher is leading the corporate initiative to invest approximately $1.5 billion in the development of, and investment in, prime quality logistics and industrial facilities in key locations across North America. Currently, Goodman Birtcher has secured four development sites—two in California’s Inland Empire, one in Oakland, Calif., and one in Lehigh Valley, Penn.—planned for approximately 9.8 million sq. ft. and a combined total completion value of more than $700 million.

Read More

Jay Black, Director of Sustainability, SL Green Realty Corp.

After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from Roger Williams University in 2002, Jay Black began his career working in several Top 10 commercial interior design firms before joining SL Green in 2004 as director of architecture for its suburban division, Reckon. He was appointed as director of sustainability in 2011. As a LEED AP, Black established SL Green’s market-leading sustainability program in 2007. He is responsible for a broad platform of environmental accomplishments that have been recognized by the New York State Assembly as well as received BOMA’s Best Green Practices Award in 2010 and 2012.

Read More

Gunnar Branson, President and CEO, National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers

Gunnar Branson is the president and CEO of NAREIM, an association of companies engaged in the real estate investment management business in the United States. Before joining the association in 2011, Branson worked for over 25 years in commercial real estate, professional services sales, product innovation and marketing. In addition to holding leadership roles at companies such as GE Capital Real Estate and Heller Financial, as a consultant he worked with companies such as Jones Lang LaSalle, Wells Fargo and Fidelity to develop new markets and new products including sustainability and energy conservation services.

Read More

Stuart Brodsky, Founder, Energy Star's Commerical Property Initiative, NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate; Co-Chair, Urban Land Institute-New York’s Sustainable Buildings Council; Member, BOMA International’s Energy and Environment Rapid Response Team

Stuart Brodsky launched the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program for commercial properties and led it from 1999 until 2008, overseeing the voluntary adoption of the federal program’s tools and resources by stakeholders representing over 75 percent of all U.S. office inventory and 12 percent of all U.S. commercial space. Currently, Brodsky is a visiting clinical assistant professor at NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, leading graduate level instruction in sustainable real estate development. From 2008 until 2012 he was GE Capital Real Estate’s senior sustainability leader, tasked with integrating sustainable practices throughout the property investment cycle of GE’s $80 billion global portfolio.

Read More

Kate Brown, Group Director for Environment and Design, Grosvenor

Kate Brown MRICS was appointed as Grosvenor’s group director for environment and design, then a newly created position, in January 2008. The appointment reflected Grosvenor’s focus on ensuring a consistent long-term approach to minimizing its impact on the natural environment and to making sustainable contributions to the built environment and urban communities. Following Brown’s designing and leading a program of integration for sustainability, with a long-term sustainability vision created and embedded into the strategies of all business entities, her title changed to group director of sustainability in January, 2013.

Read More

Matt Burton, Principal, Urban Partners LLC

Matt Burton is a managing principal of Urban Partners LLC and is responsible for all equity and debt relationships, joint ventures and control services. He also assumes senior project management responsibilities on key transactions. Burton has been actively engaged in the planning, development, marketing and lease-up of over 2,000 multifamily units while at Urban Partners and has sourced in excess of $1 billion of debt and equity capital for Urban Partners investments.

Read More

Sara Buss, Director of Asset Management, DivcoWest

At DivcoWest, Sara Buss is responsible for overseeing asset management activities, developing and executing investment strategies for the company’s assets. Also among her responsibilities are overseeing the integration and implementation of sustainable practices within the property level management of DivcoWest's overall investment portfolio.

Read More

Duane J. Desiderio, Vice President and Counsel, The Real Estate Roundtable

Duane J. Desiderio has advocated on behalf of the real estate community for nearly 20 years, seeking policy solutions that balance responsible economic development while conserving energy and environmental resources. He is currently vice president and counsel with The Real Estate Roundtable (RER), which represents the executive leadership of the nation’s top privately-owned and publicly-held real estate ownership, development, lending and management firms.

Read More

Sheldon Groner, Executive Vice President, Finance & Operations, and Director, Leader in the Light Program, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts

As NAREIT’s executive vice president of finance and operations, Sheldon Groner is the force behind the association’s Leader in the Light Working Forum, which was first held in March 2011. Groner not only helps organize the event but participates in the forum as well. The annual event is a collaborative working session to discuss the key drivers of sustainability in real estate, share participants’ leading sustainability practices and identify future events, initiatives and milestones in sustainability.

Read More

Kathryn Hamilton, Vice President of Communications, National Association of Industrial and Office Properties

Kathryn Hamilton has served as vice president for communications at NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association, since 2006. She leads the association’s external outreach, serving as media contact and contributing articles and columns on behalf of NAIOP to a variety of commercial real estate and news publications. Internally, she is responsible for marketing and communication strategies that support NAIOP’s initiatives, including messaging, collateral and naiop.org.

Read More

Gary M. Holtzer, Senior Managing Director, Global Sustainability Officer, Hines

Since joining Hines in 1985, Gary Holtzer has had a broad range of operating, transactions, asset and portfolio management responsibilities covering over 15 million sq. ft. of Hines-owned and managed office and retail space. He oversees the efforts of the firm’s sustainability advisory committee and is responsible for overseeing and coordinating its sustainability efforts worldwide. He is also responsible for developing, together with the firm’s executive committee and the regional and central business units, Hines’ ongoing sustainability strategy.

Read More

Geoff Kasselman, LEED AP, Industrial Specialist, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors

As SIOR’s LEED AP, Geoff Kasselman is also the president and CEO of Op2mize, a real estate services firm built on the premise of Sustainable Intelligence™. Op2mize bundles traditional real estate fundamentals with best practices in sustainability and innovation. Kasselman is also a Cisco Systems registered partner and a Realcomm Technology advisor. During his 26-year career, he has completed more than 1,000 projects totaling in excess of $1 billion.

Read More

Doug Lawrence, Managing Principal and Founder, 5 Stone Green Capital

Doug Lawrence has more than 27 years of distinguished real estate industry and investment experience. Prior to forming 5 Stone Green Capital, he was the co-portfolio manager of the green real estate Urban Renaissance Property Fund for JPMorgan Asset Management’s real estate platform. While at JPMorgan, Lawrence was a member of the real estate marketing team serving as a fiduciary to many large pension plans.

Read More

Eileen C. Lee, Vice President for Energy and Environmental Policy, NMHC

At the National Multi Housing Council, Eileen C. Lee, Ph.D., is vice president for energy and environmental policy, with responsibility for representing the interests of the multifamily industry before Congress and federal agencies. Prior to joining NMHC, Lee served as staff director of the Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Villanova University and received a Ph.D. in microbiology from The Catholic University of America.

Read More

Charles B. “Chuck” Leitner III, Chairman, Greenprint Center for Building Performance Chairman, Strategic Value Partners Real Estate

“Chuck” Leitner is chairman of the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance, a nonprofit organization created by a global alliance of leading real estate investors to spearhead the industry’s drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while creating value in property portfolios.

Read More

Alan D. Levy, Chairman, Tishman International Companies

Alan D. Levy is chairman of Tishman International Companies, headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in London, Vienna and Sofia, Bulgaria. Tishman has developed, built and managed more than 40 million sq. ft. of commercial real estate through its U.S. offices, and the firm’s joint venture partners have included many of the world’s prestigious financial institutions. Since 1985, Tishman’s European headquarters in London has developed and managed over 4 million sq. ft. of commercial property in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In addition, the firm was involved in the development of shopping centers for a major European retailer in the Czech Republic. In 2004, Tishman commenced operations in South Eastern Europe and is currently developing the premier mixed-use development in Bulgaria–Sofia Airport Center–a €350 million project offering 1.8 million sq. ft. of offices and logistics space.

Read More

Jaxon Love, Sustainability Program Manager, Property Management and Construction, Shorenstein Realty Services

Jaxon Love joined Shorenstein in 2012. He is responsible for development, implementation, and delivery of Shorenstein’s sustainability program, which includes the sustainability of the company’s corporate operations as well as all property assets under management.

Read More

Joyce Mihalik, Vice President of Energy Services, Forest City

Joyce Mihalik is responsible for developing and implementing supply- and demand-side energy strategies for Forest City’s commercial and residential portfolio. Prior to joining Forest City, Mihalik was with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., where she served as energy manager for their North American operations. She also worked for NUS consulting in New Jersey, providing consulting service to commercial and industrial users for energy and telecommunications cost control, and spent 11 years with a gas distribution facility in Northeast Ohio in the rates, regulatory and industrial sales divisions.

Read More

Brad A. Molotsky, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Brandywine Realty Trust

Along with being the executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Brandywine Realty Trust, Brad Molotsky runs Brandywine Environments, Brandywine’s portfolio-wide sustainability initiative. Brandywine specializes in the ownership, management, leasing and development of class-A commercial office properties in selected markets throughout the United States, owning and managing over 36 million sq. ft. of office product.

Read More

Karen W. Penafiel, CAE, Vice President, Advocacy, Codes & Standards, Building Owners and Managers Association International

Karen Penafiel joined BOMA International in December 1989 and serves as vice president of the association’s advocacy, codes and standards division. In this capacity, she leads BOMA’s federal and state advocacy programs and oversees BOMA’s model building codes and voluntary standards efforts. As the association’s chief lobbyist, she works with Congress and the federal agencies on a wide range of issues affecting the commercial real estate industry.

Read More

Roger Platt, Senior Vice President of Global Policy and Law, U.S. Green Building Council

As senior vice president of global policy and law at USGBC, Roger Platt is responsible for overseeing the policy aspects of the increasingly global adoption of green building and urban development practices, including those recognized by the LEED green building program. He maintains non-partisan policy relationships with the World Green Building Council, the United Nations Environment Program, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the C40-Clinton Climate Initiative, among others.

Read More

Nicholas Stolatis, Senior Director, Global Sustainability and Enterprise Initiatives, TIAA-CREF

Nicholas Stolatis is senior director of TIAA-CREF’s Global Sustainability and Enterprise Initiatives at TIAA-CREF. He leads the firm’s European and global sustainability team, which focuses on sustainability and governance for TIAA-CREF’s entire domestic and international real estate equity investment portfolio, which encompasses office, industrial, retail and multifamily properties with a total area in excess of 125 million sq. ft. Stolatis has earned Certified Property Manager, LEED Accredited Professional and Real Property Administrator designations.

Read More

Chris Wong, Property Manager, The Swig Company

Chris Wong has been with The Swig Company for more than 14 years and is responsible for developing, implementing and managing a successful sustainability program for The Mills Building, a landmark building with more than 200 tenants in downtown San Francisco. The Mills Building has been Energy Star-certified since 2007, and received its LEED-Gold certification for Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance in 2012, making it the oldest sustainable building in San Francisco. She is an active member of BOMA San Francisco, and co-chaired its Environmental Committee from 2004 to 2006.

Read More