Aaron Joseph is Senior Vice President of Investor Solutions at Blue Vista Capital Management, a Chicago-based real estate investment manager focused in particular on middle market equity, student housing and real estate credit. He previously worked as Deputy Sustainability Officer in the Office of the Mayor in the city of Chicago, and as a Strategy Manager at Urban Partnership Bank focused on providing banking services for impact capital and urban real estate investors.

Kristin Staffeldt is a Senior Portfolio Analyst in the Real Assets area at the University of Chicago endowment, which has around $8.5 bn in assets under management. She has spent most of her career in a range of roles in real estate, having focused on land economics in her university degree.

A deep dive into the characteristics of the real estate asset class, how to approach it as an institutional investor and perspectives of the profession for a mid-level vantage point.

If you have heard the term abundance of riches, that is what we have been experiencing this year in terms of our guests. So we are very pleased to bring you this bonus series, sponsored by Sound Mark Partners, a women led real estate debt firm that exemplifies so much of what we endorse and promote in the investment industry. We learn about accidental career paths, innovative strategies such as funds focused on positive change, climate engagement, GP-led private equity secondaries and carbon credit trading.

Eddie Welch is an alternative asset specialist at Nuveen, a role he has held since April 2021.  He previously worked as an Associate at CIM Group, focused on real estate investing, and prior to that and his degree at Ohio State University worked in a wide variety of roles and played college football.

Adam Demuyakor is the founder and managing partner at Wilshire Lane Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm that focuses on PropTech solutions based in Los Angeles California. Born in the US to a family originally from Ghana, Adam started out on Wall Street in investment banking and held a number of private equity and venture capital roles before found in Wilshire Lane. He also holds a number of Board roles and is a Board of Trustee of the education nonprofit 9 Dots.Our conversation starts with his family roots, and the expectations that accompanied his schooling and career choices. We hear how he came to be interested in real estate and how he gained experience in both the private and public side of the business, and ultimately the vision with which he launched his own firm. This is an opportunity for our discussion to dive into PropTech and discuss what the technology that is transforming real estate looks like, and how these theses are playing out. Among some of the concepts discussed are Ghost Kitchens and the new look Self Storage outfits, and we discuss some of the business models that are exciting him most at this juncture.As an early stage venture capital firm, Wilshire Lane Capital, is highly focused on the entrepreneurs and their vision that they support, and many of them are diverse founders themselves. In fact in an industry in which female and black and brown founders are poorly represented, Wilshire Lane is breaking the mould – 36% of their companies are led by women outright, 29% of their companies have a black founder on them, and 79% of their companies have an underrepresented minority or a female in the C suite. Wilshire Lane Capital recently entered into a strategic partnership with Nile Capital which sponsored our original diverse founders and VCs series, and we speak about how these ideas came together. We speak about 9 Dots, a nonprofit, based in Los Angeles, that focuses on providing subsidized computer science courses for the poorest students in the city. Adam shares why this is one of the most fulfilling of all of his roles. Finally, we discuss some highs and lows of his career so far, what Adam looks for in a founder and what it means to pass the “Shower Test”. This podcast will feature in our mini-series featuring professionals from the Ghanaian diaspora as well as our second diverse founders and venture capitalist series.

Constance Freedman is Founder and Managing Partner at Moderne Ventures as well as Moderne Passport – an early-stage investment fund and industry immersion program which is focused on investing in technology companies in and around the multi-trillion dollar industries of real estate, finance, insurance, hospitality and home services. It has just closed its (over-subscribed) second fund at over $200 m. She sits on numerous boards and has received several awards including Crain’s Business 40 under 40 and Chicago Top Tech 50 (on three occasions).

A fascinating discussion of PropTech and how creating a networking and mentorship ecosystem has been the secret to a successful venture capital fund.

Emanuel Arbib is the Chief Executive Officer of IAM Capital Group in London, an asset manager whose product range includes real estate, hedge fund of funds and green opportunity products. Prior to founding IAM he was a director at a NASDAQ listed company that controlled an Italian motorcycle manufacturer, and prior to that a director of a family office based in Jersey and Monte Carlo. He works extensively across Israel, Italy, the US and the UK.

A serial founder describes his global background and his love of doing deals and building partnerships.

Jenna Gerstenlauer is founder and managing partner of Sound Mark Partners, a commercial real estate investment firm based in Connecticut, which focuses on investing in real estate debt for an institutional client base. The firm is notable for its all female executive team.

A discussion of a career in real estate, the entrepreneurial journey of a start-up asset manager with an all-female executive team and why at times change is coming too slowly in the industry.