2017 Winter Alumni Profiles

Aron Angel is an entrepreneur in the world of residential real estate, taking undervalued and dilapidated properties in the Los Angeles and Denver metro areas and turning them into highly desirable, family-oriented homes.

Prior to working in real estate, Aron spent ten years managing marketing and editorial endeavors in the world of digital media and sports.

Following the conclusion of the Ross Minority Program in Real Estate, Aron is looking to become more involved in mixed-use development in the Los Angeles area. Aron lives in Studio City.

Email: aron.angel@gmail.com

YP is a Singapore registered real estate professional and concurrently General Manager at Ohana Capital Management. The latter is a global property investment arm of a Japanese holding company with the intent to expand their global property investment portfolio overseas. The focus is to pursue the right opportunities to develop small scale multi-family homes in the East Coast of US.

As a real estate salesperson since 2011, YP has secured over $43mil worth of transactions, mainly from commercial and industrial sectors. His forte is in asset enhancement for commercial conservation shophouses. His passion in properties, reading and making strategic moves and acquisitions have earned him loyal clienteles.

Prior to real estate, YP had an industrious 20-year career in a few global multinational semi-conductor and telecommunications companies. It brought him to many places, many challenges. The progressive responsibilities range from industrial engineering, demand planning, strategic planning, customer fulfillment, account management, marketing and sales.

In 2002, YP earned his MBA in Strategic Marketing with distinction from the University of Hull, UK. A year later he was recognized by the Semiconductor Industry Association (USA) President Award with the implementation of his dissertation. Prior to this, he attained the Bachelor of Manufacturing Engineering with Honors in 1991 at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Through USC’s Ross Minority Program, YP hopes to garner strong friendships from fellow participants, industry experts and faculty members, and to familiarize on the intricacy with the real estate laws and regulations. Upon completion of the Program, YP intends to apply the acquired knowledge on real estate acquisition and development, implement debt structuring and equity partnership for opportunities in California. YP lives in Singapore, but hopes to move to Los Angeles one day.

Email: ypchan318@gmail.com

Caitlan Cullen is an urban planner with a background in entitlements and resort master planning. Working in planning since 2013, Caitlan has helped to shepherd projects from their earliest conceptual stages through acquisition, design and entitlements. With experience on both national and international projects, she has been a part of efforts ranging in size from standard ministerial permitting to fostering the development of multi-million dollar projects.

Caitlan most recently worked for Walt Disney Imagineering as an associate predevelopment manager supporting the development Disney’s global portfolio of theme park properties. Prior to working for Disney, Caitlan served as an assistant planner for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency where she led the creation and implementation of a region wide commodity tracking system meant to facilitate movement of growth within the Tahoe Basin to more economically and environmentally sustainable areas. Caitlan’s professional passion lies in the nexus between economic and environmental sustainability particularly as it relates to urban development and tourism.

Caitlan holds a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California with a focus in transportation as well as Bachelors in Environmental Design from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  She is a member of ULI, is a licensed California real estate salesperson and a recipient of the California Planning Foundation Honorary Scholarship.

Caitlan is continually seeking opportunities to step into new situations and take on unique tasks to further the development of a project while contributing to efficient and effective teams. Caitlan currently spends her time between Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe.

Email: caitlan.cullen@gmail.com

Vahid Davoudi is currently an associate Broker Lic. #0188993 with the Soroudi Team, Charles Dunn Company Lic. #01201641 in Century City, CA specializing in the sale of multi-family apartment buildings in the prime West Side areas of Santa Monica, West Los Angeles, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. With over 10 years’ experience in commercial lending and real estate consulting, Vahid combines vast business acumen with the enterprise of a very strong and successful team to be an advantageous resource to his clients. 

Committed to understanding his clients’ needs, Vahid works to develop and implement a strategic plan for each unique property situation and places a great emphasis on communication and follow-through. Able to offer the innovative, entrepreneurial creativity and individualized client attention expected from a commercial real estate professional, Vahid provides the accountability and reliability of a major commercial real estate service company.

Vahid is a graduate of USC Lusk Center for Real Estate’s Ross Program in Commercial Real Estate and award winner of the “Best Development Proposal”. Prior to joining Charles Dunn, one of the first commercial brokerage firms establishes in Los Angeles, Vahid was the in-house lender with for Coldwell Banker working with real estate partners as part of the RMR Financial family with First Capital in Santa Monica, CA. Additionally, Vahid worked as a Home Mortgage Consultant for Wells Fargo with bank locations in Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles, Brentwood and Santa Monica.

Vahid welcomes the opportunity to discuss how he can serve all of your specific real estate investment needs and  with the Charles Dunn Company.

Email: vdavoudi1@gmail.com

Email: vdavoudi@charlesdunn.com

Luis Duran is a municipal planner with the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning.  Prior to working for the County, Luis was an environmental consultant for a small environmental firm in Santa Fe Springs, CA. Luis Duran has been working with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and environmental documentation since 2012.

He received his B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara and just recently completed his M.S. in Environmental Studies from California State University, Fullerton.  He was an official scholarship recipient in the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) Scholars Program in 2014. He is a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA).  Luis hopes to use the skills he learns in the Ross Minority Program to make recommendations for development projects that will assist in affordable housing in minority communities.

He also would like to create and invest in a chain of family businesses with his brother in the South Bay area of Los Angeles.  Luis Duran lives in Hermosa Beach, CA.

Email: Lduran@planning.lacounty.gov

After graduating from Pepperdine University, he worked for the property developer in Los Angeles to develop medium size condominiums. After returning to Japan in 2006, he worked for Citibank’s Tokyo branch as an officer in charge of wealth management and from 2007, worked for one of the biggest independent property asset management firm in Japan, called Atlas Partners, to execute U$150 mil acquisition of Japanese properties for foreign institutional investors such as French bank, middle east pension fund and Singapore REIT. As an asset manager, he was also involved in a wide variety of assets classes such as office, residential, logistics etc. and managed U$180 mil investments by implementing a wide range of value-up strategies. Since 2010, he has been managing his family investments in various commercial properties in Japan.

Currently, he is based in Singapore and run OHANA Capital Management which is a global property investment arm of his Japanese companies to expand their global property investment portfolio as CEO.

Email: shigenori.ezaki@toyo-keito.com

Jessica Horrell is a real estate agent who works primarily in the South Bay area of Los Angeles at Horrell Realtors.

Prior to working at Horrell Realtors, Jessica worked at a real estate investment start up that found short term housing solutions for corporations in downtown Los Angeles. Jessica graduated from the University of Southern California in the Price School where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate Development. Shortly after graduation, she got her real estate license and joined her family’s real estate company.

She now works in residential and multifamily real estate, where she finds a particular interest in real estate investment with future development opportunity. Due to being involved in several multifamily deals, Jessica would like to gain a more thorough understanding of the development process through the Ross Minority Program.

Jessica currently lives in Redondo Beach, California.

Email: jessica@horrellrealtors.com

Michael Julius possesses 25 years of residential mortgage trading and leadership experience. Most recently Michael was a Managing Director and Head of Agency Trading at Auriga USA, responsible for all CMO, Derivative, Collateral and ARM trading.

Prior to joining Auriga, Michael was a founding member of a team that purchased a controlling interest in CRT Capital Group in Stamford, CT and subsequently raised $225MM of private equity working capital. Michael was responsible for all fixed income trading focusing on: Non-Agency Fixed & Hybrid securities, Prime, Alt A, Pay-Options, Subprime, Agency CMOs and Derivatives. Michael identified, recruited and grew the sales and trading talent pool from 87 employees to 225 employees in 18 months.

From 1999 to 2008 Michael was an Executive Vice President and Head of Non-Agency Trading overseeing 25 traders and assistants at Countrywide Securities Corp. Michael managed all aspects of purchasing, hedging, marketing and selling of a $13 billion dollar position of fixed rate and adjustable rate non-agency securities comprised of: Prime, Alt A, Subprime, ABS, Pay Options and raw loans. Michael was responsible for coordinating the efforts of 45 sales people targeting banks, insurance companies, money mangers, hedge funds and mortgage originators.

Prior to Countrywide, Michael led various trading desks in NYC at Oppenheimer & Co., Mabon Securities and Yasuda Trust. Upon successful completion of the Ross Minority Program in Real Estate, Michael plans to pivot his career from residential mortgage trading into the commercial real estate arena.

Michael graduated from Duke University in 1989 and holds Series 24, 7 and 63 securities licenses.

Michael is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Children’s Fund for Glycogen Storage Disease Research.

Email: mjulius66@gmail.com

Nick Kim is a vice president of WIN Realty & Properties, a full service commercial real estate firm in Los Angeles, where he specializes advising investment groups from Asia and supporting Landlords selling and leasing commercial real estate in Southern California.

Prior to working at WIN Realty, Nick had been working with Sperry Van Ness as a managing director of Korea town branch where he dedicated his efforts to Korean American landlords and international investment groups.  His dedication and commitment to bringing new business has awarded him over $50 million in commercial real estate transaction.

Nick served as a planning commissioner in the city of Cerritos for many years where he has dedicated his efforts to the approval and advising of 500 units of multifamily projects and tens of million dollar shopping centers projects for the community. He also has been serving as an interpreter for the Apartment Association of Great Los Angeles.

Nick has earned a master’s degree in business administration(MBA) from Chapman University in 1987.  He is a member of International Council of Shopping Center(ICSC). Among all his achievements, he has a passion in Marathon running, finishing the Boston Marathon and IRONMAN 70.3 in Oceanside in 2015.

Email: nickkimbroker@gmail.com

Tyler Kim is an acquisitions analyst for Investors Management Group, Inc. that specializes in acquiring and managing multi-family assets on a national platform. In the role of acquisitions analyst, Tyler performs market analysis, financial modeling, and cash flow projections.  Tyler also creates asset management reports that track actuals, budget, and proforma of current and future assets.

Tyler graduated from USC with a Master of Planning degree focusing on Economic Development which provided him an excellent foundation in urban planning, redevelopment, and finance.  Following the completion of the Ross Minority Program in Real Estate, Tyler plans to utilize his increased knowledge in real estate finance and enhance valuation analysis of potential investments thereby improving investment decisions. He will also look to optimally structure debt and equity.  Tyler Kim currently resides in Cypress, California.

Email: tyler.kim@imgre.com

Bridgett Miller is the Director of Business Development at Regional Investment & Management (RIM), a real estate investment firm that specializes in the acquisition of value-add multifamily communities through a vertically integrated owner-managed platform. With 1,500 units in RIM’s portfolio, Bridgett is charged with conducting market due diligence on new investments, and designing and implementing revenue enhancing solutions that diversify our investor base, drive occupancy, and decrease turnover costs.

Bridgett has played an active role in the acquisition and sale of 3 assets to date in San Antonio, Texas (328 units; 252 units; 293 units). In addition to preparing quarterly distributions and investor financial reports, she also is tasked with implementing RIM’s first crowd funding initiative and increasing resident retention. Her goal is to enhance investor returns and support the company’s vision, by creating an environment in which automation where appropriate, is ubiquitous and technical bottlenecks are scarce.

Bridgett earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University (SCU), located in the heart of Silicon Valley. Post-graduation, she earned a certification in Business Administration in the International Management Program at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo, Brazil.

Simultaneously, Bridgett worked in the international startup arena at a seed and early-stage investment fund company, Bolt Ventures (formerly known as Mountain do Brasil) as a deal flow analyst.

Bridgett is a former Division I soccer player for SCU and an active member of the San Francisco-based Olympic Club.

Email: bridgettm@rimcompany.com

Jacqueline Monterrosas has worked for East LA Community Corporation for over 8 years in different capacities.  Jacqueline has served as ELACC's Project Manager for over 9 months, prior to joining ELACC’s Real Estate Development team; Jacqueline was ELACC’s Asset Manager for the past 6 years.  As Asset Manager, she was responsible for all aspects of asset and property management including, leasing, marketing, compliance and maintenance working along with over 4 staff in-house and over 15 staff in 3rd party managed properties consisting in over 800 units of housing.

Prior to joining ELACC, Jacqueline worked for the National Farm Workers Service Center, Inc. in different capacities in affordable housing development and property management.  Jacqueline’s passion for affordable housing and community development began in her teens as she volunteered with her mother in different community events to revitalize Hollywood, the community where she grew up.

Jacqueline holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a minor in Geographic Information Systems from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California.  Jacqueline is currently working towards obtaining her LEED Professional Accreditation.

Email: jmonterrosas@elacc.org

Ashley Ng has worked for Gaw Capital USA since its inception in 2013, assisting with capital markets, acquisitions and asset management.

Previously, she worked as an assistant to the Executive Vice President of Asset Management at Downtown Properties for two years.

She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Ashley lives in the greater Los Angeles area.

Email: ang@gawcapitalusa.com

Peter Noonan currently manages City of West Hollywood’s Housing and Rent Stabilization Programs. Peter works to get housing built by private developers using the City’s on-site inclusionary housing program, and by non-profit housing providers using low-interest loans from the City’s affordable housing trust fund. West Hollywood is committed to rent stabilization and Peter is exploring incentives to encourage landlords to reinvest in aging rent stabilized buildings.

Peter’s background is in land use planning, transit-oriented development, and housing policy. He has more than 12 years of experience in the public sector and close to 20 years of experience in community development. Peter has participated in several major land use projects, the purple line subway extension, and zoning code and comprehensive plan updates. Peter developed the City of Beverly Hills historic preservation ordinance and program, sustainability plan, and explored economic reinvestment options for different areas.

Peter holds a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington and is certified as an environmental planner (AICP CEP) by the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Email: pnoonan@weho.org

Emmanuel Nwani is founder and CEO of Definitive Business Solutions International Inc.; a California based real estate investing company. Emmanuel Nwani holds a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communications and Public Relations from California State University, Los Angeles.

Mr. Nwani is an entrepreneur with a unique blend of business experiences ranging from property leasing and management, acquisition of distressed real estate, contract negotiations, business development, healthcare, and international business exports.

Prior to real estate investing, Mr. Nwani worked in the healthcare industry, starting and operating a nursing agency that provided over quarter of a million dollars’ worth of nursing services to hospitals throughout the Los Angeles county area. Some of his major clients included the Keck Hospital of USC and Dignity Health Systems.

Mr. Nwani’s leadership has enabled the company to extend its reach internationally, fulfilling vehicle orders for foreign clients including engineering firms and transportation network companies in Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Nwani hopes to invest in emerging communities and expand his business to include commercial real estate development upon completion of the Ross Minority Program in Real Estate.

Mr. Nwani looks forward to the opportunity to connect with other business professionals while broadening his knowledge and skills in real estate finance and development.

Email: emmanuel.nwani@defbsolutions.com

Gregory Preer Jr. is assistant coordinator at the Los Angeles Jim Gilliam Recreation Center in Baldwin Hills.

Previous to this, he was involved with sports promotion and played professional basketball in Latin America from 2012 to 2016. Gregory also Co-Founded Youth Strong an organization celebrating youth by encouraging and empowering them to be their best self.

His current real estate venture is the purchase and managing of a 4-unit apartment building. His future goals include redeveloping a single family lot into four small lot subdivisions in Los Angeles, and further developing Youth Strong into becoming one of the official sponsors and outfitters for Los Angeles City Parks and Recreation’s Seasonal Youth Programs.

Gregory will be receiving his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Whittier College in 2017. Gregory Preer Jr resides in Los Angeles, California.

Email: Gpreer1@gmail.com

Cynthia Rodriguez is a Real Estate Broker of City Lights Realty, Inc. Mortgage Broker of Heartland Mortgage, Inc. and an Insurance Agent for Farmers Insurance from 2007-2015. Her background is in both Residential and Commercial Property with a specialty in financing since 1996. Cynthia has helped hundreds of families realize the American dream to become homeowners by being a voice for Hispanic Real Estate and help Hispanic Communities achieve homeownership.

In 2007 Nationstar and Bank of America assigned Cynthia as a REO Specialist and handled hundreds of Distressed Bank Owned Homes. She was heavily involved in redevelopment of homes by renovating, re-constructing, upgrading, designing, pulling permits, obtaining occupancy certificates from various cities in order to make the homes financeable for FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.

Cynthia’s biggest accomplishment and passion was by serving on the Board of Directors as the Director of Events for the National Association of Hispanic Realtors Montebello South East Los Angeles Chapter.

The monthly educational events were put together for hundreds of local real estate professionals serving Hispanic buyers and sellers. In addition, she helped put together Resource Fairs for consumers who were in danger of losing their homes through foreclosure. She worked side by side with the Montebello Housing Development Corporation along with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase and Nationstar who handled on the spot Loan Modification approvals helping hundreds of Hispanic Families sustain homeownership and stay in their homes.

Cynthia’s passion is to help others and is continually seeking opportunities to do so by education and stepping into new developments that will help her achieve that.

Email: brokercynthiarodriguez@gmail.com

Garen G. Srapyan is an Associate Planner in the Long Range and Mobility Planning Division within the Community Development Department for the City of West Hollywood in California. Garen handles a number of complex projects for the City, including working on changes to the City’s zoning ordinance, leading extensive community outreach efforts and developing projects and processes to improve workflow within and outside of City Hall.

Prior to joining West Hollywood, Garen worked as an Urban Designer with Perkins+Will in San Francisco. At P+W, Garen worked on a wide range of projects, including developing design guidelines for a large waterfront development in San Francisco and coordinating and managing a sustainability master plan for an airport in Dubai.

Garen earned with distinction his Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He previously attended Woodbury University in Burbank, earning his Bachelor of Architecture degree.

Garen is currently leading a community process to develop an Eastside Community Plan which addresses economic development, housing, mobility, sustainability and other topics in a former Redevelopment Area. Additionally, Garen is supporting a major outreach program to identify community concerns around multi-family development projects in West Hollywood.

Garen hopes to use his experience in the Ross Minority Program to think critically about the complex social, technical and economic challenges associated with real estate development projects. Garen resides in Los Angeles.

Email: gsrapyan@weho.org

Lanisha Stubbs, the Founder and Broker of Wesity, Inc. (Wesity), specializes in commercial and residential sales and consulting. She is an accomplished Realtor® with over 12 years of experiences, and has negotiated over $12M in sales transactions. Wesity offers educational resources, consulting, and sales services to new and seasoned investors.

For the past 10 years, Lanisha was a Realtor® with a private brokerage, A Job Well Done, where she specialized in short sales and pre-foreclosure sales and consulting. As a national investor, she has experience identifying emerging markets, increasing property values and accurately analyzing equity investments.

Lanisha is a Certified Distressed Property Expert, a Certified Commercial Real Estate Investment Specialist, and a Certified Short Sale/REO Specialist, and a Certified Women-Owned Business-owner. In 2001, Lanisha earned her B.S. in Accountancy from Loyola Marymount University. In 2006, she earned her Master’s Degree in Business Taxation from Golden Gate University.

For the past 15 years, she has been serving at the Department of Defense’s Defense Contract Audit Agency, where she oversees annual audits of Aerospace and Space Technology contracts to ensure compliance with federal regulations.

Lanisha is now channeling her experiences into improving the lives of urban families by sharing the wealth principles she’s learned. She is committed to sharing financial literacy tools and to leading urban development through strategic investments. Lanisha lives and operates predominantly in the Los Angeles market.

Email: LStubbs@WesityInc.com

Sara Tsai is an attorney with Tsoi & Associates.  She is currently involved with the General Plan Amendment and Rezoning of a 30+ acre parcel in San Jose, the entitlement of 13 properties in the City of Los Angeles, and the development of 3 multifamily apartment buildings in the City of Los Angeles.

She has been practicing law since 2005 and began focusing on real estate practice in 2014. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 2000 and received her Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles in 2004.

Email: saralee@us-attorneys.com

Roland Wahlroos-Ritter is an architect and co-principal of the architecture firm WROAD. Interested in digital technologies, sustainability and design innovation, his professional and academic work focuses on collaborative environments between architects, engineers and fabricators. Current research, is directed towards the development of new, integrated design workflows.

In addition to his professional work, Prof. Roland Wahlroos-Ritter has been actively engaged in academic research, publishing and teaching over the past 14 years. He has taught at numerous academic institutions such as Cornell University, Bartlett School of Architecture, TU Vienna and SCI-Arc.

Email: wahlroos@usc.edu

Based in Los Angeles, Terrence Watkins is Founder and Managing Principal of Watkins & Company, a boutique management consultancy firm, which offers comprehensive and cost effective interim and project based solutions in Finance and Accounting. A seasoned finance professional, Terrence has overseen Watkins and Company's growth for nearly ten years.

Terrence possesses a wealth of business experience having served in various managerial positions in the areas of Corporate Finance and Strategy. He has assisted both public and private companies, applying a diverse set of skills to improve performance, such as creating multi-national budgets and forecasts, developing complex business models and management dashboards to evaluate and monitor business performance; utilizing technology to improve overall management efficiency.

Terrence began his career working as a financial analyst with Motorola at their corporate headquarters based in Schaumburg, IL.  From there, he went on to work in management consulting with Marsh & McLennan, transferring to their Los Angeles Office.  While in Los Angeles, Terrence transitioned into fixed income securities working at Payden & Rygel and later with IndyMac Bank (now OneWest Bank).  Soon after earning his M.B.A., Terrence went back to working in consulting at DLC Inc., and after years working there started his own consulting practice.

Terrence received his Bachelor's degree in Finance from Howard University and his M.B.A. in Finance from the Graziadio School at Pepperdine University.

Email: terrencewatkins@gmail.com