Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Jeannie Vu
The Wharton Club of Southern California together with our co-hosts USC, UCLA Anderson, Kennedy Wilson, and Savills invite you to join us for a panel discussion on the state of the market with leaders from Savills, BrightSpire, and Oaktree.
Date & Time: Wed, November 30, 2022, 6:00PM to 8:30PM PST
Location: Kennedy Wilson, 151 S El Camino Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
RSVP Notes:
- To secure admission, when you RSVP, you must enter your company affiliation in the "Address 2" space
- Attendees are limited to 1 ticket per person, any additional tickets will be deleted
Our Sponsors:
Panelists:
Daniel E. Katz W'98, Managing Director – Head of Originations, BrightSpire
Daniel E. Katz is Managing Director – Head of Originations, based in Los Angeles. Mr. Katz is responsible for the identification and evaluation of new real estate investments in the United States and oversight of the investment management team. Previously, Mr. Katz served as Managing Director, Investment Management at Colony Capital, Inc. until April 2021. Prior to joining a predecessor of the Colony Capital business in 2014, Mr. Katz was a First Vice President at OneWest Bank where he was responsible for loan originations. Previously, Mr. Katz held investment positions at Barclays Capital, Och-Ziff and Blackstone. Mr. Katz received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and his Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated summa cum laude.
Jason Keller WG00, Managing Director and Head of Residential, Oaktree
Jason Keller joined Oaktree in 2007. He is a managing director and Head of Residential investments for Oaktree’s Real Estate group. In this role, Mr. Keller oversees homebuilder acquisitions, land development, homebuilding, destination resorts, non-performing residential loans, residential loan servicing, homebuilder lending, land banking and other similar investments. Prior to joining Oaktree in 2007, Mr. Keller held various roles at DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, Salomon Brothers, CIBC Oppenheimer and D-Street Investments. He holds a B.A. degree in finance from Utah State University and an M.B.A. in finance and real estate from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Keller previously served on the Board of Taylor Morrison Home Corp (TMHC) and currently serves on the boards of Make-A-Wish of Greater Los Angeles, the Park Century School, and the Utah State University Foundation.
Michael Soto, Senior Director, Head of Office Research, Savills
As Research Director for Savills in Southern California, Michael Soto oversees the development and execution of market research for Savills offices across the region. Based in Los Angeles, he is part of a national team that produces Savills quarterly reports and periodic insights on market trends for Savills clients and brokers, including the proprietary effective rent index.
Michael supports the region’s brokerage teams by providing timely market research, economic insight, comparative analytics, and other data designed to inform clients and strengthen thoughtful decision-making. With over 12 years’ experience studying office and industrial real estate trends, Michael has intimate knowledge of capital markets and real estate development. He is a recognized source for market commentary and trends in such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Globe St., Los Angeles Business Journal, Connect Media, Bisnow, The Real Deal, and CoStar News.
Michael joined Savills in 2020 from Transwestern’s Los Angeles office, where he was the Research Manager for Southern California for seven years. Prior to that, he was the Senior Research Analyst for Colliers International in Los Angeles for five years.
Michael is a member of CoreNet Global, the Urban Land Institute, and the National Association of Business Economics. He is also active in the University of Chicago Alumni Association of Los Angeles, as well as Filipinos in Institutional Real Estate (FIIRE), where he is a mentor in its industry mentorship program. In 2017, Michael was awarded Transwestern’s National Team Support Award as the firm’s National Researcher of the Year. He served on Transwestern’s National Board of Directors and was previously named Transwestern’s Newcomer of the Year in 2013 in the West Region.
Alexandra Edell Widick, Director of Debt Originations, Kennedy Wilson
Alexandra Edell Widick is a Director of Debt Originations at Kennedy Wilson, based in Los Angeles, CA. Mrs. Edell Widick is responsible for sourcing and evaluating debt opportunities in the Western United States. Previously, Mrs. Edell Widick served as a Vice President/Relationship Manager at Wells Fargo, where she was responsible for loan originations in the Commercial Real Estate balance sheet lending group until March 2021. Mrs. Edell Widick received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.
Moderator:
Patrick McGrath WG13, Vice Chairman, Chief Information Officer & Head of Client Technologies, Savills
As Chief Information Officer and Head of Client Technologies, Patrick McGrath is leading and executing a digital transformation of the Savills real estate services platform. He works across departments to deploy best-in-class systems to integrate and capture key data flows that give the Savills brokerage teams the edge they need to compete in the rapidly changing real estate industry. Among his responsibilities is the continued development of the firm’s customer-facing global data visualization and analytics platform — Knowledge Cubed.
Patrick’s extensive training in economics, technology, corporate finance, corporate valuation and quantitative analysis enables him to rigorously analyze the array of complicated financial and organizational needs of Savills global clients. Patrick specializes in financial transactions, developing robust statistical forecasts and models, as well as distilling meaningful trends from large data sets.
Patrick joined Savills in the San Francisco office in 2002 as a market and financial analyst following his graduation from Emory University. He then moved to the Philadelphia office in 2003 as an associate. After completing his MBA in Finance at the Wharton School of Business, Patrick joined the corporate headquarters team in New York, where he has had a hybrid role of executing commercial real estate transactions in conjunction with developing company wide thought leadership, global best practices and the growth of Savills global corporate real estate services platform. He will continue his role as an executive sponsor to the iTeam, a global tenant representation network that serves clients with multinational footprints and geographically diverse real estate portfolios.
Patrick is an active member of the New York Wharton Alumni community, is on the board of the Philadelphia Civil War Museum, Curtain Call Productions, and has been recognized for his volunteer work with Philadelphia Futures, Best Buddies of America, and the MDA Society. Patrick is also a former chair of the Emory Alumni Association.
Our Hosts:
Jeannie Vu WG19
Jeannie Vu is Vice President, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Real Estate lead for Wharton So Cal. Jeannie was most recently the Chief Financial Officer of JRK Property Holdings, a $7 billion AUM vertically integrated operator of multifamily and hospitality assets. As CFO, Jeannie oversaw accounting, finance, business intelligence, purchasing, and asset management. Prior to JRK, Jeannie was most recently a Senior Vice President at Colony Capital, which was a $60 billion AUM real estate private equity firm at its peak. She held various roles in acquisitions, originations, and corporate finance and has acquired over $1 billion of assets spanning the capital stack and across all asset types. Prior to Colony Capital, Jeannie was an investment banker at FBR Capital Markets and auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jeannie received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California and a Masters of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Jeannie is a certified public accountant (inactive).
Eric Frankel W'04, Managing Director of Validus Capital
Eric Frankel serves as a Managing Director at Validus Capital with the focus of helping clients craft investment strategies and identify investment opportunities in both the public and private markets.
Prior to joining Validus, Mr. Frankel served as a Director at Camden Capital, a wealth management firm serving individuals and families. Prior to Camden, Mr. Frankel was a senior analyst at Green Street, a leading real estate research and analytics firm. Throughout his tenure at Green Street, he led coverage of the industrial property sector. He also managed coverage of other property sectors including cold storage, self-storage, and cell towers. He has also been extensively quoted for his expertise in real estate and REIT valuation in news publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Bloomberg, and other leading real estate news publications. Prior to Green Street, Mr. Frankel was a member of the investment team at KTR Capital Partners, a real estate private equity firm that was sold to Prologis for $5.6 billion.
Mr. Frankel graduated with a Bachelors of Economics degree Magna Cum Laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in real estate and finance. He serves as an active member of the CFA Society of Orange County and the Wharton Club of Southern California.
