Agenda - Pacific Daylight Time

Matt Friedrich draws on deep market knowledge and long-standing relationships to deliver practical, business-oriented advice. Matt advises clients on a broad spectrum of commercial real estate transactions, spanning various asset types and markets nationwide. He works with private equity firms, family offices, institutional investment advisors, REITs and real estate operating companies on a range of matters, including:

• Programmatic and single-asset joint ventures
• Property acquisitions and dispositions
• Real estate financing

With over 20 years of industry experience, Matt began his career as a commercial real estate broker before transitioning to legal practice.

Matt is active in the community, serving on the board of Make-A-Wish Greater Los Angeles and serving as a Vice Chair in the Jewish Federation Los Angeles Real Estate & Construction (REC) Network.

Lisa Middleton is a neighborhood advocate and City Councilmember who has delivered pragmatic, common-sense solutions to some of our region’s greatest challenges. She’s an Independent Democrat with a track record of working with Republicans and Independents to get things done. Now Lisa is running for State Senate to advocate for hard-working families across Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, defend reproductive freedom, rebuild our roads and bridges, and demand accountability on California’s homelessness spending.

Lisa grew up in a working-class community and understands the challenges that families are facing from inflation and rising housing costs. She comes from a family of union members and went on to become the first in her family to graduate from college and earn a Master’s in Public Administration.

After graduation, Lisa worked as an auditor for California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund, where she helped investigate fraud and waste. She worked her way up to becoming Senior Vice President of Internal Affairs and served as Chair of California’s Fraud Assessment Commission. In the Legislature, Lisa will use this expertise to eliminate wasteful spending of our tax dollars.

In 2017, Lisa was elected to the Palm Springs City Council, where she has helped improve local transportation and infrastructure, combat climate change, build more affordable housing, invest in public safety, and address our homelessness crisis. As Mayor of Palm Springs in 2022, Lisa led the City’s economic recovery from the pandemic — helping small businesses reopen and create good-paying jobs.

Lisa also represents Palm Springs on the Riverside County Transportation Commission, where she is known as a hard-working, nonpartisan leader who invests in rebuilding roads, bridges and public transportation throughout Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, while creating good-paying, middle-class jobs.

In April 2019, Lisa was appointed to the Board of Administrators of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), which helps build retirement and health security for 2 million California state and local school employees, retirees, and their families. She serves as Chair of the Finance & Administration Committee and the Vice-Chair of the Risk & Audit Committee.

​Lisa Middleton has long been a leader in the LGBTQ+ community for decades, working to protect and advance civil rights. She serves on Equality California Institute’s Board of Directors and will be the first out transgender person to serve in the California Legislature if elected.

Together since 2000, Lisa and her wife Cheryl married in 2013 shortly after they moved to Palm Springs. Lisa is also the proud parent of two accomplished educators.

Alain R’bibo is a real estate partner in the Firm’s Century City office and serves on the Firm’s Management Committee. Since joining Allen Matkins in 2006, Alain has advised the nation’s leading real estate firms including Blackstone, Hines, Tishman Speyer, Silverstein, EOP, JPMorgan, Kilroy, and Brookfield. Clients rely on him for high-stakes real estate matters including complex acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, and joint ventures, and is a leading expert on EV-related real estate projects. Alain is known for his strategic guidance through market cycles, risk mitigation, and practical deal structuring.

Damian Gancman

Chief Investment Officer at Cityview

Damian Gancman oversees Cityview’s acquisition, asset management and joint venture strategy while managing the operations of Cityview and its investments. A 19-year veteran of the firm, Damian is also a partner at Cityview and a member of its investment committee. 

As Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Gancman oversaw asset management, property management and accounting. He also helped create a multitude of strategic initiatives to support Cityview’s rapid growth, including the launch of Cityview’s property management division, the creation of its opportunity zone fund platform and the build out of its finance and capital markets teams.

In addition to his role at Cityview, Damian serves on the University of Southern California (USC) Lusk Center for Real Estate Executive Committee and is a guest lecturer for the USC Master of Real Estate Development program.

Mike Gatto, a former California State Assembly Member and current overseer of LACERA's $75 billion retirement fund, boasts a career marked by legislative prowess and legal victories. With eight successful elections and four terms in the Assembly, he chaired influential committees, shaping policy in consumer protection, privacy, and utilities. Gatto authored 55 laws, including significant legislation, showcasing expertise in government finance, technology, and cybersecurity.

Gatto's commitment to public service extends to various roles in congressional and mayoral administrations, alongside active participation in boards and educational institutions. Mike also remains dedicated to community and family life in Southern California.

As global co‐head of research and strategy of real estate private markets, Erin is responsible for developing and executing the real estate platform’s overall research strategy and house view, leveraging predictive analytics and proprietary modeling that guide the acquisition and asset management real estate lifecycle. She works closely with the regional chief investment officers and functional teams in these efforts, contributing investment decision‐making insight and working toward an increasing level of sophistication and quality with regard to evaluating and advancing the investment thesis. In her role, Erin sits on the global real estate leadership team.

Previously, Erin was director of real estate research and strategy at Wafra Real Estate, responsible for executing and maintaining a research and strategy platform in support of the Wafra real estate team, fund, and portfolio investments. Before that, Erin was a senior vice president at JLL, where she led and managed engagements with major global corporate occupiers in various real estate portfolio and organizational transformation strategies. She also managed principal and investor‐side engagements that included real estate investment/portfolio strategy, feasibility analysis, and market impact studies. Prior to that, Erin worked at DWS, where she was responsible for leading research and strategy for office investments across the United States.

Dean Allara serves as Vice Chairman of Bridge Investment Group. He has experience in the real estate investment process including analyzing, raising capital, acquiring, financing, developing, managing, improving and selling properties beginning in 1986. Dean is responsible for capital raising, investment analysis, and investor relations. Dean is directly responsible for investing in over $4 billion in real estate assets. Property types include multi-family and single family residential, commercial, seniors housing, resort golf properties, hotel, and retail properties. Dean has been with Bridge Investment Group since March 2009, where he is involved in raising capital from high net worth individuals, family office and institutional partners in addition to responsibilities related to ownership, investment analysis, development, asset management, investor relations, and legal & tax issues. Dean is also responsible for real property development including permits and zoning, master planning, debt financing, insurance, construction management, home owners’ association management, marketing and residential sales. Dean’s previous experience includes a ten-year career with Trace Digital, a leading global supplier of software manufacturing equipment, where he rose from a Regional Sales Manager to President and CEO. Dean earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the St. Mary’s College in 1984, which included one year at Loyola University of Rome, Italy. He also earned his Master of Business Administration from Santa Clara University in 1986 with a semester at the Tokyo University studying Business Law.

Jason Clouet is a Senior Vice President of Originations at Petros PACE Finance. He is a seasoned real estate and hospitality executive with 30+ years of experience managing 1B+ in transactions. As President of Hotel Capital Management, he grew a 300M+ hospitality portfolio and led complex acquisitions, renovations, and dispositions. Previously, he held leadership roles at Laurus Corporation, Neptune Hospitality Advisors, and Allegiance Hospitality, specializing in debt/ equity financing, asset management, and investor relations. Most recently, as VP at Bayview Asset Management, he originated Florida’s largest CPACE loan.

Jason holds a BS from Florida State University and is recognized for driving value through strategic growth, operational excellence, and deep industry networks.

Mr. Lucas is a senior vice president in the Product Specialist group, where he focuses on Oaktree’s real estate strategies.  In this capacity, he is responsible for Real Estate group’s product marketing, investment strategy reviews, portfolio communications and new product development for the firm’s Real Estate Income business.  Mr. Lucas joined Oaktree in 2020 from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he was most recently an investment specialist for the Real Estate Americas business.  In his previous role, Mr. Lucas was responsible for real estate client strategy and new business development, including advising clients on U.S. real estate equity and debt strategies.  Prior thereto, Mr. Lucas worked in J.P. Morgan’s Institutional Advisory and Sales division.  He received a B.B.A. in accounting and finance from Ohio University and has completed Level II of the CFA program.

Jonathan is a Managing Partner, Head of U.S. at BGO. In addition to providing overall leadership to all aspects of BGO's business in the U.S., Jonathan is also responsible for BGO’s temperature-controlled logistics investments globally, and responsible for co-leading the firm’s US Core Plus investing platform.

Prior to the merger of Bentall Kennedy and GreenOak Real Estate in 2019, Jonathan was a Partner of GreenOak. Mr. Epstein led the firm’s investment efforts in the Western U.S. and was responsible for the firm’s investment strategy, sourcing, structuring and asset management for the Western region.

Jonathan has over 35 years of experience in a broad range of real estate activities, including principal investing, finance and Investment Banking. During his career, he has been responsible for the acquisition, development, financing and management of over $70 billion of commercial real estate assets and companies, representing all asset classes, in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Jonathan is a current member of Urban Land Institute (ULI), International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) and is a past member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Fisher School of Real Estate at the University of California, Berkeley, and past Vice Chairman of ULI in Japan. He is a Professional Advisory Board Member of the Rett Syndrome Research Trust.

Jonathan is a graduate of the School of Management at Boston University.

Tarrell V. Gamble is 1st Vice Chair of the Board of Retirement. Mr. Gamble is Vice Chair of the Investment, Audit, CEO Evaluation, and CEO Succession Committees. He is a member of the Operations and By-Laws Committees.

Anthony Russo ’15, a seasoned real estate professional with over a decade of experience, is a Partner and Managing Principal at CSFG Real Estate. A graduate of Duke University (2015) and NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate (2020), Anthony began his career at Sterling Project Development, where he honed his skills as a project manager from 2015 to 2020. In 2020, he joined CSFG as its first full-time employee, playing a pivotal role in expanding the firm's real estate investment portfolio across the United States and Europe. His expertise spans various sectors, including multifamily, industrial, hospitality, and retail, with deals ranging from $10 million to $100 million.

Jennifer Halvas is a member of the firm’s investor relations team, where she is responsible for maintaining relationships with the investor community and helping to develop investment strategies and initiatives. Over the years, she has been instrumental in securing capital needs for several Cityview funds across a broad base of institutional investors, foundations and endowments, family offices and high-net-worth investors. A 14-year veteran of the firm, Jennifer is also a partner at Cityview and a member of its investment committee.

She was previously at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where she represented a variety of clients in real estate, project development and finance transactions. Jennifer holds a B.A. with honors from the University of Southern California and a JD from Vanderbilt Law School.

Marc D. Renard serves as Executive Vice Chair of Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Capital Markets Group in Los Angeles and leads one of the nation’s most successful capital markets teams focused on investment sales throughout Southern California and the broader West Coast. Mr. Renard and his dedicated team have closed over 550 transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $40 billion.

Since joining Cushman & Wakefield in 1983, Mr. Renard has completed some of the largest, highest profile, and most complex deals in the Western United States and has consistently ranked as one of the firm’s top producers over the past 20 years.