Entrepreneurial Women Host Panel at Cornell’s Entrepreneurship Celebration
Ithaca, NY On Thursday, April 15 and 16, Cornell was host to the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration 2010. Entrepeneurship@Cornell is a “milestone annual entrepreneurship event that brings together over 700 students, alumni, faculty and staff. With eleven colleges and programs participating, this year’s event promises to be the most collaborative and comprehensive yet,” according to the event’s website.
Several panels presented at the Celebration, including the Entrepreneurial Women in Real Estate Panel organized by Khari Buck, a first-year graduate student in the Cornell Program in Real Estate. “We are so lucky to have had the opportunity to host four amazing women this year as part of the entrepreneurial celebration,” said Buck.
Lynn Gray, Founder and CEO of Campus Scout, LLC moderated the panel comprising Deborah Friedland, Managing Director, Goldin Associates, LLC; Carolyn Pianin, Senior Consultant, Focus Management Group; and Swati Sharma, Founder and Principal, Grove Street Investment, LLC.
The panel was attended mainly by Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration attendees as well as many graduate students from the Program in Real Estate.
Panelist biographies from the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration’s website follow:
Moderator:
Lynn Z. Gray, Founder and CEO, Campus Scout, LLC
Email: lynnzgray@gocampusscout.com Web site: www.gocampusscout.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lynn-gray/9/a2/840
In April of 2009, Gray launched Campus Scout, LLC, which provides strategic services for employers on campus recruiting and career coaching and transition coaching for generation “y.” Gray was a senior vice president and global chief administrative officer of Lehman Brothers’ Global Real Estate Group and was with the firm for more than eleven years. As chief administrative officer for more than 400 real estate banking and finance professionals and administrative staff, Gray was involved with business strategy; recruiting, development and retention of employees; mentoring; technology; space planning and management; business continuity; budgeting; and performance management and all other administrative matters for the group. Gray joined Lehman Brothers in 1997 to launch the Lehman Brothers credit tenant loan group, (the “CTL Group”), which specializes in the structuring and execution of credit tenant and sale-leaseback transactions. During Gray’s tenure with Lehman Brothers, the CTL Group has completed more than $3.7 billion of financings, including major transactions involving buildings 100% leased to IBM Corporation, Wachovia Bank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, General Electric Corporation, and Sun Microsystems, Inc. As chair of the career services and placement committee of the Advisory Board, Gray is very involved with students in Cornell’s Program in Real Estate. She travels, speaks and lectures often, and for many years has taught classes and seminars on real estate finance. One of her favorite venues is Cornell 5
University’s Program in Real Estate, where she lectured recently on CMBS issues. Gray is a graduate of Tufts University and the Cornell Law School and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Graduate Program in Real Estate of Cornell University and the MBA Program in Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin. She has written extensively and is a frequent speaker on credit tenant lending, CMBS and other real estate finance topics.
Panelists:
Deborah Friedland ’88, MS ’95, Managing Director, Goldin Associates, LLC
Email: dfriedland@goldinassociates.com Web site: www.goldinassociates.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/deborah-friedland/1b/59/70
Deborah Friedland is a 1988 graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration where she also earned her MS degree in 1995. She is a Managing Director at Goldin Associates where she specializes in feasibility and benchmarking studies, operational strategy analysis, property conversion analysis, asset management, valuation and transactional due diligence for investors and lenders. Friedland joined Goldin from FTI Schonbraun McCann Group where she was a managing director and responsible for launching the firm’s hospitality practice. Earlier, she was a director at Horwath Horizon where she focused on real estate development and conversion projects for hospitality and condominium properties. Previously, Friedland was a senior equity research analyst at ABN Amro, where she co-headed the REIT research team. Her responsibilities included industry and company research for the institutional investment. Prior to joining ABN Amro, she launched the REIT equity research effort at Dain Rauscher Wessels and assisted in successfully marketing several company IPO’s and secondary offerings. Friedland began her Wall Street career as an associate at Smith Barney in their gaming and REIT groups. In 2006, “Real Estate New Jersey” recognized Friedland as one of the most influential women in commercial real estate. She serves on the School of Hotel Administration career advisory board.
Carolyn Pianin MBA ’87, Senior Consultant, Focus Management Group
Email: c.pianin@focusmg.com Web site: www.gocampusscout.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/lynn-gray/9/a2/840
Pianin brings over twenty years of experience to Focus Management where she supports the firm’s work in providing turn-key support to underperforming companies, including secured lenders and equity sponsors. Previously, Pianin was a vice president at Square Mile Capital, responsible for the asset management of real estate investments and platforms, including Mezzanine, B-Notes, and Senior Secured and Equity positions. As vice president for NewStar Financial’s commercial real estate group, Pianin was head of the underwriting team, responsible for underwriting acquisition loans, property refinancing, and project and portfolio recapitalizations in a variety of asset classes. During ten years at AIG Global Real Estate, Pianin was involved in management, mortgage finance, and special projects. She structured and managed joint ventures, equity investments, senior financings, debt restructurings, acquisitions and sales of real property, loan portfolios and managed retail and office assets. Pianin is a certified commercial investment manager (CCIM), a certified property manager (CMP) and a licensed real estate salesperson in the state of New York. She is active in numerous professional organizations, including the Cornell Real Estate Council. Prior to earning her MBA at Cornell, Carolyn received a BA in political science and economics from Wellesley College. She also holds a MS in real estate from New York University.
Swati Sharma, Founder and Principal, Grove Street Investment, LLC
Email: swati.sharma@grove-st.com Web site: www.grove-st.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/swati-sharma/1b/8b1/873
Swati Sharma is a principal and the founder of Grove Street Investment, LLC. She has valued, structured and closed over $5 billion of commercial real estate for both private equity and capital markets transactions. Prior to forming her firm, Sharma was responsible for underwriting and a voting member of the investment committee at Natixis Real Estate Capital Inc., a subsidiary of Natixis, the second largest banking group in France. She managed underwriting and due diligence for all banking team transactions in the firm’s New York and other U.S. offices along with valuation and monitoring of European and U.S. credit facilities. This included portfolio management, valuation and regular reporting to senior officials of a $1.1 billion collection of revolving and repurchase facilities. Sharma also underwrote and managed the bank’s relationships in syndicated debt transactions and reviewed asset management reserves and future funding commitments. Earlier, she worked at Capital Trust, Inc. where she was responsible for underwriting and closing of mezzanine loans, b-notes and preferred equity positions. Sharma’s involvement in commercial real estate finance began at Moody’s Investors Service where she conducted credit analysis, underwriting and structuring of large-loan transactions. Earlier in her career, she was active in Brownfield remediation and redevelopment. She holds an undergraduate degree from The University of Michigan and dual Master’s Degrees from Michigan State University in environmental engineering and resource development.