Our 2024 Speakers

Host and Founder | Best Ever Conference

A serial entrepreneur, Ben was most recently a Partner and Chief Financial Officer with Spartan Investment Group LLC, where he applied his acquisitions, capital markets, corporate finance, accounting, and data engineering skills to construct from scratch a self-storage portfolio of over $500M assets under management with accompanying property and construction management companies. Ben is also the founder and host of the national Best Ever Real Estate Investing Conference. Before Spartan, Ben founded and sold a multi-million dollar study abroad company, worked with several start-ups through IPO or acquisition, and syndicated over 30 single and multi-family deals. He graduated from Rutgers University with dual degrees in Finance and Economics where he founded the Rutgers Entrepreneurial Society.

BEC Host
President | Rehabit Homes, Inc.

Leka is a real estate developer and broker based in Seattle, WA. She is the President of Rehabit Homes, Inc. a company focused on residential and commercial redevelopment. Leka has spearheaded hundreds of transactions, totaling over $100 million in real estate development.

Beyond her achievements in the real estate industry, Leka is a sought-after speaker and has emceed prominent conferences such as BiggerPockets and MFIN!

BEC Host
Director of Development | Spartan Investment Group

Gerrit Van Maanen is the Director of Development at Spartan Investment Group, a vertically integrated self-storage investment firm. He has sourced, designed, and developed over 750,000 SF of self-storage projects across the country.

Co-Founder | Ashcroft Capital

Joe Fairless is the Co-founder of Ashcroft Capital which has over 2.7B of assets under management. In addition to his work with Ashcroft Capital, Joe created the podcast, Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show, which is the longest running daily real estate podcast in the world. Joe is also a proud Member of the Texas Tech Alumni Advisor Board for the College of Media and Communication, as well as being recognized as Outstanding Alumni at Texas Tech University, where he is a former Adjunct Professor. Joe is currently a Junior Achievement Board Member and Volunteer for the Cincinnati chapter and has been recognized by the Junior Achievement’s Free Enterprise Society. Joe volunteers at Crossroads Hospice and in 2018 he was recognized as Multifamily Investor of the Year by Think Realty Magazine.

Founder, Chairman, and CEO| Matthews Real Estate Investment Services

Kyle Matthews is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Matthews Real Estate Investment Services, a commercial real estate and technology firm with 20+ offices and over 600+ personnel nationwide. The firm is a leader in commercial real estate brokerage providing advisory services in transactions, leasing, and debt/capital markets. Since founding the company in 2015, Matthews has become the fastest-growing CRE firm in the country, is the largest privately privately held brokerage platform in the US.

CEO | Avrio Real Estate Credit

Vicky is a highly experienced entrepreneurial thinker and industry recognized C-Suite operations and investment executive. She has consistently identified emerging trends and created business models around investing before an oversupply of capital drives down investment returns. Vicky has successfully founded/co-founded 6 firms since 1996 in various sectors of the real estate and private equity industry. She’s currently the CEOof Avrio Real Estate Credit.

Senior Vice President, National Director Research and Advisory Services | Marcus & Millichap

John leads a team of dedicated real estate research professionals who produce the Marcus and Millichap’s vast array of market reports, analyses, and presentations providing insights on all major commercial real estate property types. As a seasoned commercial real estate analyst, John frequently presents at leading industry events hosted by NMHC, NAIOP, ULI, CCIM, ICSC and SSA, and is often quoted in both trade and mainstream news media. He is a graduate of Washington State University and an active member of the NMHC Research Foundation Advisory Committee, the ICSC North American Research Task Force and the NAIOP Research Foundation.

CEO | Rose City Partners

Tyler Alley is a real estate developer based in Dallas, TX where he focuses on developing retail strip centers in high-growth suburban markets. In addition to retail, Tyler also works extensively with a real estate private equity firm focused on investing in class A office. His office markets include all of Texas and much of the Southwest United States.

Managing Principal | Protean

Jacob haas 25 years experience in CRE asset management and occupier strategies. He advises investors, owners, and occupiers on navigating CREs future by monetizing and reimagining CRE assets. He drives value creation and revenue management strategies & occupier portfolio performance through workplace productivity and experience. Jacob has directly led billions in real estate transactions in the US, and in more than 70 countries globally. He's also successfuly led the fund raising of hundreds of millions, from seed to Series D funds.

EVP, Real Estate | Baceline

Dusty oversees all real estate activities on behalf of Baceline, including setting acquisition and disposition strategy based on specific portfolio objectives, monitoring and responding to global real estate trends for potential impacts to the Baceline portfolio, and effectively communicating the Baceline story to the broader market of brokers, owners, and sellers of neighborhood shopping centers.

CEO/Founder | Grocapitus

Neal Bawa is CEO / Founder at Mission10K and Grocapitus, two commercial real estate investment companies. Neal’s companies use cutting edge real estate analytics technology to source and acquire OR build large Commercial properties across the U.S., for over 1000 investors. Current portfolio over 4800 units, with an AUM value (upon completion) of over $1 Billion.

Chief Growth Officer | Carbon Nexus, LLC

Deana Berg is Chief Growth Officer at Carbon Nexus, LLC. She recently served as Investor Relations Manager at Life Bridge Capital and is passionate about the art of connection and building rapport with investors, clients, and industry colleagues. Deana now adds value to large equity partners and family offices raising capital at Carbon Nexus who produces a carbon-rich product for use in lithium production and industrial materials such as graphene. She has served on three anti-trafficking boards.

Principal | MADDPROJECT

Antonia brings a wealth of diverse knowledge to her development and professional project management firm with close to 20 years of experience in the design and development industry.

Her experience ranges from large-scale multi-family conversion and ground-up construction projects in Manhattan to branded and independent hotel renovations, and planned communities, across national markets.

Over the past 6 years, her teams have completed ~$1B of work across 3 million SF, in 35+ US jurisdictions.

CEO | Verivest

Founder, CEO and Chairman of Fairway America, Fairway Capital Markets and Verivest. Seasoned real estate executive, who started and managed 11 real estate asset based Reg D pooled investment funds over more than 23 years. Has lead advising on the creation and scaling of hundreds of funds for hundreds of managers across multiple real estate strategies and asset types. Author of "Capital Attraction: The Small Balance Real Estate Entrepreneur's Essential Guide to Raising Capital".

Principal | Centrio Capital Partners

Aleksey Chernobelskiy advises limited partners (“LPs”) on existing and future investments. He writes weekly to 3,000 LP investors at LPlessons.substack.com.

Prior to advising LPs, Aleksey ran STORE Capital’s $10 billion commercial real estate portfolio and oversaw the firm’s underwriting team. Aleksey graduated from University of Arizona with a quadruple major – Finance, Mathematics, Economics, and Accounting.

Founder and CEO | Occupancy Heroes Incorporated

Chiccorra Connor, a leading figure in the multifamily industry, is a two-time recipient of the Most Influential Women award (2020, 2021). With over 2 decades of experience, she founded Occupancy Heroes Incorporated, renowned for its nationwide services aimed at assisting multifamily real estate owners and their teams in effectively managing, maintaining, and optimizing their properties through accelerated leasing, talent placement, training, and maintenance.

Managing Partner | Anderson Advisors

Clint is a founding partner of Anderson Advisors, a nationwide tax and asset protection firm with over 500 employees, where he assists real estate investors create and implement solid entity structuring and tax planning structures. A successful attorney, real estate investor, author, and speaker, Clint has used his innovative and dynamic strategies, coupled with knowledge borne from his personal experience as an investor with over 400 doors, to help thousands of people save millions of dollars.

Director - Investor Success | DLP Capital

Andrew Davis is a Director of Investor Success at DLP Capital, a private real estate firm focused on making an impact through investing in, lending on, and developing communities that are and will remain affordable for the American workforce. Over the last 3 years, Andrew has raised over $500,000,000 from accredited investors, focused on building long term relationships grounded in trust, confidence, and service. He lives in Asheville, NC with his wife Isabel and twin baby boys.

Chairman & CEO | Diamond Wealth & Family Office World Media

Longtime investor and entrepreneur, Ronald Diamond is the Founder and Chairman of Diamond Wealth. He represents over 100 Family Offices ranging in size from $250 million to $30 billion. Diamond Wealth invests in private markets (private equity, venture capital, real estate). In addition, Diamond Wealth has divisions that focus on philanthropy, wealth transfer, investment banking, social impact, and governance.

Ronald serves on the Advisory Board of 10 privately held companies and acts as Chairman for 4 of them. Ronald is also the Chair of two TIGER 21 chapters in Chicago and Chairs a newly created Family Office Group for TIGER 21.

Senior Managing Director | CBRE Investment Banking

Andrew is a Senior Managing Director at CBRE Investment Banking, responsible for Institutional Equity. Mr. Dietz has 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry and has been directly responsible for raising over $15 billion of equity across various investment strategies, private asset classes and geographies.

Managing Partner | M1 Real Capital

Marcin is a 9 Figure Capital Raiser who started raising capital in his early 20s. On the tail end of 2008 crash Marcin raised an 8-figure fund to invest in commercial properties. Since then, Marcin has been instrumental in raising for several funds not only in real estate but also several high margin operating businesses. Today, Marcin is focused is on acquiring value-add multifamily properties and working with clients to better market, brand and to establish themselves to raise capital.

Co-Founder | The DeRosa Group

Matt founded the DeRosa Group in 2005 with the mission of "Transforming Lives Through Real Estate". DeRosa is a fully vertically integrated company controlling thousands of units of multifamily with all operations in-house and also has a thriving fund that provides short-term loans for real estate projects. Matt is the author of Bigger Pocket's best-seller "Raising Private Capital". He resides in New Hope PA with his wife Liz, founder of the Real Estate InvestHer, and their two children.

Co-Founder and Managing Director | Long Angle

Tad is the co-founder of Long Angle, a curated community of 2,500 very high net worth individuals. Long Angle focuses on collaborative alternative asset investing, private online discussions, live events, and peer "mastermind" groups. Prior to starting Long Angle, Tad was the co-founder and CEO of iLab Solutions, a software-as-a-service vendor for universities and hospitals. Tad lives in Dallas with his wife and two children.

Acquisitions Manager | DeRosa Group

Herve has been a General Partner with DeRosa Group since 2018 where he has assisted in guiding its Multifamily market & property acquisition strategy while also helping to raise over $50M for DeRosa Group led syndication deals. Since 2017, he has become a General Partner in six Multifamily deals with over $120M in value and a Limited Partner in a wide array of Multifamily, Retail & Office deals. Prior to joining DeRosa, Herve spent a 23 year career on Wall Street covering Technology stocks as a Financial Analyst & Institutional Sales Manager. In his spare time, he enjoys scuba diving, cooking & a great glass of bourbon!

Asset Manager | DeRosa Group

Justin Fraser is an apartment syndicator, asset manager, and partner in the DeRosa Group, which owns and manages apartment complexes in the Southeast US. Specializing in C and B class renovation projects, Justin is responsible for operations and asset management for all properties in the portfolio.

Vice President | CREModels

Max Garbus leads our fast-growing Managed Services division, a role that includes standardizing best practices in areas such as acquisitions, development, capital structures and asset-management and then sharing these insights with our entire analyst team.

He plays an instrumental role in all of CREModels’ complex development projects, including mixed-use properties, and works directly with a wide range of developers, from mid-tier operators to national REITs.

Managing Director | Keystone CPA, Inc.

Amanda Han is a CPA and tax strategist who specialize in helping people use real estate to save massive amounts in taxes and keep their hard earned money. She is the author of the highly rated book Tax Strategies for the Savvy Real Estate Investor and has been featured in prominent publications including the Forbes Finance Council, Money Magazine, Talks at Google, CNBC’s Smart Money Talk Radio as well as the BiggerPockets podcasts.

CEO & Co-Founder | Rise48 Equity

Zach is the CEO and Co-Founder of Rise48 Equity and Rise48 Communities. Rise48 Equity is a retail syndication Multifamily Investment company with offices in Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas. Rise48 Equity has completed over $2.11 Billion in total transactions and purchased 48 assets, 8,830+ units since 2019. They currently have $1.67Billion+ of Assets Under Management in Phoenix and Dallas and have completed 11 Full-Cycle Dispositions and returned capital to investors.

CEO | RealtyMogul

Jilliene is Chief Executive Officer of RealtyMogul and its wholly owned subsidiaries, RM Manager, RealtyMogul Commercial Capital, RM Adviser, RM Technologies, RM Admin and RM Communities. She has been involved in investments with property values over $5 billion, including over 24,000 apartment and single-family units, and is a pioneer in real estate crowdfunding.

Managing Principal and Cofounder | CREModels

Michael Jaworski is Managing Director of CREModels’ Financial Services division. He oversees numerous aspects within the company including Due Diligence Services, Financial Modeling Services and is the architect of the CREModels Microsoft Excel Consulting group. Mr. Jaworski has been responsible for steady growth in both the depth and breadth of products and services at CREModels. He has been involved in the valuation and sale over $50 Billion in commercial real estate throughout his career.

Founding Partner | Vive

Veena is the founding partner of Vive (rhymes with "five") Funds, a unique commercial real estate firm that specializes in curating conservative opportunities for investors. With a degree in Finance and over a decade of real estate experience, Veena is an expert at driving corporate strategy. She’s heavily involved in the industry as a frequent speaker, panelist, and guest on various shows.

Veena is also an avid philanthropist, serving on several boards, and was one of only three women to receive the Politico Woman of the Year award for the efforts in aiding a grassroots Hurricane Harvey disaster response.

CEO | ZMR Capital, LLC

Zamir Kazi started his career in real estate in 2013 after attending Florida State University buying and flipping duplexes. He formed ZMR Capital to acquire and redevelop multifamily real estate. In the past 9 years as CEO of ZMR Capital Zamir has acquired over $1.5B of multifamily assets. He has been the recipient of Globe Street’s 50 under 40 and is an active investor and board member of multiple early-stage companies. Zamir also contributes significant time and resources to several charities.

Founder | Think Multifamily

Mark is a seasoned real estate investor and the founder of Think Multifamily, a leading multifamily acquisition and education company that prides itself on a family-oriented approach to business. He has invested in over 4000 units with a strategy focused on acquiring, owning, and operating apartments. He provides clients with otherwise unobtainable real estate investments at reduced risk.

Vice President, Consulting | John Burns Research and Consulting

As a VP of Consulting at John Burns Research and Consulting, Kristin and her team assist executives in making informed investment decisions within the housing industry. Drawing on her experience and analysis of urban, single-family, build-to-rent, and multi-family housing markets, she provides valuable insights for development and investment decisions to help ensure success. She earned a BS degree in mathematics from the University of Utah and a master’s in economics from San Diego State University.

Founder | Accountable Equity

Josh McCallen is a nationally recognized hospitality developer & operator, conference speaker, innovator, builder & investor with a track record for development of exceptional resort properties and growing world-class operational teams. In the past 25 years Mr. McCallen has led over $170,000,000 in luxury residential and hospitality construction, served as president of a 500+ person hotel development and management company, and built numerous businesses & brands.

Managing Director | Keystone CPA, Inc.

As both tax strategist and real estate investor, Matt combines his passion for real estate investing with his expertise in tax strategies. His goal is to help investors with strategies designed to supercharge their wealth-building through tax savings. He co-authored the top selling book Tax Strategies for the Savvy Real Estate Investor and has been featured in prominent publications including g Money Magazine, Talks at Google, CNBC’s Smart Money Talk Radio as well as BiggerPockets podcasts.

Senior Vice President and Senior Banker | KeyBank Real Estate Capital

Joshua is a 25 year veteran in banking and commercial real estate, the majority spent at KeyBank Real Estate Capital, where he advises CRE clients on structuring of corporate finance solutions as SVP and Senior Banker in the Institutional Real Estate Group. The majority of Joshua's relationships are REITs and Institutional Funds where KeyBank is the Lead Arranger on a multi-bank syndicated credit facility. Joshua has a BA and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

CEO and Founder | McKenna Capital

Ryan McKenna is a real estate syndicator active in the multifamily apartment space. He is a current co-general partner in 75+ real estate syndications, totaling 15,000+ units across the United States, with a portfolio transaction value over $2 billion. Ryan has invested as a limited partner in 100+ syndications. Passive investing has always been a passion he's pursued with the ultimate goal of creating long-lasting, generational wealth.

Asset Manager | Nomad Capital

Josh has been with Nomad Capital just under three years. After reloacting his family from Michigan to North Caroina he started out as an Intern to now working full time in Asset Management Operations. Creating and building systems has been his largest impact on Nomad Capital as they continue to grow. Outside of work Josh is married with 2 kids under 2 years old and enjoys taking them to the beach as much as he can.

Managing Partner | Invest Beyond Multifamily

Ash has 15 years of non-residential CRE experience, specializing in retail, industrial, medical, warehouse, office, flex, mixed use, land etc. He has completed ground up development and also invests in startups. Ash loves teaching and watching others succeed.

I am one of the hosts for the Best Ever Real Estate Podcast.

I also host a coaching/mastermind program.

Founder, President & CEO | Left Field Investors.

Formerly a financial advisor, Jim is committed to sharing his knowledge with others eager to explore alternative ways to grow wealth. Jim believes in Community Personal Finance and founded Left Field Investors to promote passive investment in real estate syndications through knowledge sharing, networking, and continuous learning.

President and Founder | Rosenberg Research

David Rosenberg is the Founder and President of Rosenberg Research & Associates Inc., an economic consulting firm he established in January 2020. Prior to Rosenberg Research, David was Chief Economist & Strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. from 2009 to 2019. From 2002 to 2009, he was Chief North American Economist at Merrill Lynch in New York, during which he was consistently ranked in the Institutional Investor All-Star analyst rankings.

Top Equity Realty & Real Estate Essentials | ABC4
Founder and CEO | Patriot Property & Management

Christion is an award winning real estate entrepreneur based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. With over 18 years as an independent real estate investor, Christion has bought, sold, and managed projects spanning many asset classes including single family, multi family, commercial, and land. He is a nationally recognized expert and speaker with over 100 television appearances, over 50 radio and podcast interviews, and has spoken in front of live audiences reaching tens of thousands of audience members collectively. He is founder and CEO of Patriot Property & Management focusing on acquiring commercial real estate and holds multiple executive positions in PREishare; a $100m private fund that is providing incredible new solutions for sponsors and passive investors of real estate syndications.

Founder | Fully Funded

Sam Silverman is the founder of Fully Funded, the top mastermind community for capital raisers. After raising more than $75m the last three years, he has decided to build a community designed to help bring capital raisers together to level up their ability to raise through the network, education, coaching that Fully Funded provides.

Director, Business Development | Talonvest Capital

Anna Siradze Hrdina has a wide range of self storage operations and acquisitions experience from working with venture capitalized startup to an institutionally backed top operator. Having acquired $185M of self storage assets for owner-operators, Anna is currently the Director of Business Development at Talonvest, focused on providing capital solutions for self storage, industrial, multifamily, and retail owners.

Partner | Bar Down Investments

J Scott (he goes by "J") is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, author, and partner at Bar Down Investments, focused on buying and repositioning large multifamily properties. In the past fifteen years, J has bought, built, rehabbed, sold, lent-on and held over $160M in property around the country. J holds strategic advisor roles in several companies and is the author of five BiggerPockets books on real estate investing. He can be reached at www.JScott.com.

Principal | Elevation Capital Group

Ryan is the co-manager of multiple investment funds, which specialize in investing, both directly and indirectly, in mobile home parks and self-storage assets representing more than 20,000 units located in more than 25 states. He graduated from the University of Tampa with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. An athlete, he was recruited for both baseball and basketball and was drafted by both the Baltimore Orioles and the Anaheim Angels.

Founder and CEO | Tribevest

Travis Smith, Tribevest’s dynamic founder and CEO, has set a new standard with his innovative Fund-of-Funds (FoF) SPV Blocks. Leading the charge for collaborative private investing, Travis will spearhead the "Create your Fund-of-Funds (FoF) SPV program for Capital Raisers" session at the upcoming BEC conference. Introduced by passive investing authority Jim Pfeifer, the workshop promises insights into expanding investor networks, crafting efficient FoF programs, ensuring legal compliance, and evaluating economic viability. Dive into the future of capital raising and collaborative investment with Travis.

Managing Director | CBRE Investment Banking

Matt is a Managing Director at CBRE Investment Banking where he handles investor coverage and project management responsibilities. Matt’s primary focus is equity placement for prespecified investment opportunities, for which he assists in structuring a range of investment vehicles including commingled funds and customized solutions. Matt has executed >$10B in real estate transactions across equity, debt, structured finance, and property sales.

CEO | Invictus Capital

Anthony Vicino is a best-selling author, real estate investor, and serial entrepreneur committed to helping people maximize their Return on Life. He is the co-founding partner of Invictus Capital, a multifamily acquisition firm based in Minneapolis, MN with $70m in AUM, that provides busy working professionals with the opportunity to Invest Better. As the host of the Multifamily Investing Made Simple podcast and author of the bestselling book, Passive Investing Made Simple, Anthony firmly believes investing shouldn't be complicated, scary, or overwhelming.

VP, Capital Markets | MAG Capital Partners

Drew has been investing in real estate since 2011, and joined MAG Capital Partners in 2019 after 8 successful years as a risk analyst and program manager at Liberty Mutual Insurance. Drew has lead the capital markets team at MAG Capital Partners to raise over $325M in private capital and the firm now manages approximately $1B in assets. Mr. Wahlgren holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from California State University at Hayward, and lives in Fort Worth, TX with his wife and three children.

Director of Investor Development | Ashcroft Capital

Travis Watts is a full-time investor, passive income advocate, public speaker, and the Director of Investor Development at Ashcroft Capital. He dedicates his time to educating investors who are looking to be "hands-off" when it comes to real estate investing. Travis was awarded the Linda's Legacy Industry Impact Award in 2022.

Founder & CEO | DLP Capital

Don, CEO of DLP Capital, founded the firm in 2006, leading its growth to manage $5B+ in assets. Specializing in attainable housing, DLP spans real estate, property management, and construction. Wenner's "Elite Execution System" is a national success, detailed in a bestselling book. With 30,000+ transactions worth $10B, regional accolades, and diverse entities, DLP Capital reflects Wenner's vision. Residing in St. Augustine and Asheville, Wenner prioritizes faith, family, and philanthropy,

Managing Director | PassiveInvesting.com

Vice President, Goldman Sachs