DLA Piper's 8th Israel Real Estate Summit is a half day event that will bring together major Israeli institutions active in the global real estate markets, leading real estate professionals from around the world and DLA Piper partners from the profiled regions. The Summit will provide an opportunity for insightful discussion on the key trends and issues driving change, creating opportunities for growth, challenging market participants and shaping the future of real estate in Israel and around the world.
The Summit harnesses the extensive experience of our distinguished panellists and DLA Piper’s many years of experience working across all aspects of the real estate sector, on behalf of Israeli and other global real estate investors, to deliver this important event.
Sam Zell is the Chairman of Equity Group Investments (EGI), the private investment firm he founded more than 40 years ago. The firm's investments span industries and continents and include interests in finance, energy, transportation, communications, health care and real estate. Mr. Zell is recognized as a founding father of today's public real estate industry after creating three of the largest REITs in history.
He is also Founder and Chairman of Equity International, a private investment firm focused on building real estate-related businesses in international emerging markets. Mr. Zell has been particularly active in bringing Equity International's companies to the public markets.
Three of these investments are listed on the New York Stock Exchange: Gafisa, a leading homebuilder in Brazil; Xinyuan, a fast-growing regional homebuilder in China; and Homex, Mexico's leading homebuilder. A fourth, BR Malls, Brazil's largest retail property owner and operator, is listed on the Bovespa.
Eran has over 20 years experience in the technology and telecommunications industry. He began his career in the Israeli branch of Standard & Poor’s Equity Services. He was a key member of the founding team of Med Nautilus where he oversaw the implementation of a $500m submarine cable and data centres project and helped scale the company from infancy to a $200m a year Multinational managing telecom assets in Latin America, Europe and the Mediterranean. Following a takeover by the Telecom Italia Group, Eran served in a number of executive positions in strategy and corporate development. He later served as commercial director for Xelemax, a leading provider of network optimisation solutions for the telecoms industry. He has key experience in international operations, corporate & business development, leadership and strategy.
He is a board member of several of Cloudscraper subsidiaries
Ben Barbanel is the Head of Debt Finance at OakNorth where he leads a team that, since its launch in September 2015, has grown to 13 originators who have collectively transacted £2.6bn of loans and hundreds of transactions, without a single default to date. Together, the team have won multiple awards, including Estate Gazette's Financier of the Year (2018), PROPS Financier of the Year (2018), Property Week RESI Awards Residential Financier of the Year (2017), and City A.M.'s Bank of the Year (2017). He recently won Norwood Property’s Financier of the Year award. Prior to joining OakNorth, Ben spent almost six years at Santander Corporate Bank, where in his most recent role, he was the Divisional Head of Business Development for London and the South East. Prior to Santander, he was at Clydesdale Bank where he focused on real estate finance. He also spent time working in a privately-owned real estate business helping to source, arrange, and manage debt. Previously, he worked as a Manager in the commercial banking division of the Royal Bank of Scotland. He started his banking career at Mizrahi Bank in London.
Massimiliano co-founded Frontis NPL in 2009 managing NPL portfolios for leading banks like UBI, BNL and Deutsche Bank.
He successfully led Frontis NPL to become an industry-leading company by offering primarily investment and management services to institutional investors. Since 2014 the company has managed more than Euro 3 billion credits purchased across more than 150 deals.
From 2002 to 2009 Massimiliano was the Head of NPL department of Pirelli Real Estate SpA and the CEO and President of Pirelli Real Estate Crediting Services, a company with 8 offices across Italy and more than 250 staff members.
He has built successful business partnerships with several major institutions like Morgan Stanley, General Electric, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Calyon by purchasing credits with a total GBV of more than Euro 12 billion from major Italian banks like BNL, Banco di Sicilia, Banca Antonveneta, Banca Popolare Verona e Novara.
Doron is the CEO & Co-Founder of Covercy, where he helps creating the world’s largest network of real estate investment GPs and LPs, by digitizing fundraising, investor reporting, preferred distributions and reinvestments. Covercy processes over $300M / year in transactions, has a team of 30 and is backed by Fintech and Proptech leaders like SGVC and Silvertech Ventures.
Before Covercy, Doron co-founded Leverate, a software powerhouse providing cutting edge trading solutions which are the driving force of over 120 FX & CFD globally spread brokerages. As Co-CEO (and later Chairman) at Leverate - he grew the company to a 120 people team across 5 countries.
Doron is a mentor at the FinTech focused Accelerator Frankfurt, and has a Management & Computer Science Degree from the Open University of Israel.
Mr. Coles is a Founder and Managing Partner of Vanbarton Group and a Member of the Investment Committee. Mr. Coles plays a key role in developing the firm's investment strategy, as well as sourcing acquisition opportunities in both credit and equity and overseeing the firm's asset management and value enhancing strategies. He is a member of Vanbarton Group's Management Committee, Investment Committee, Portfolio Strategy and Valuations Committee, and the Investment Strategy Committee. Mr. Coles is a National Trustee of The Enterprise Foundation, the nation's leading non-profit provider of affordable housing. In addition, he is a Trustee of The Nature Conservancy. Mr. Coles is an active member of the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) and the Partnership for New York City. Mr. Coles holds a B.A. from Boston College and a M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Paul is the fund manager of M&G Real Estate UK Enhanced Value Fund. He is responsible for delivering the overall strategy and performance, and overseeing the investment team to meet the Fund’s objectives. Paul joined M&G Real Estate in 2015 as head of the Industrial & Logistics team. With responsibility for £2.5 billion of industrial assets, the team successfully transacted around £300 million of assets under Paul’s leadership, including the development of approximately 1.5 million square feet of industrial assets. Paul has 20 years’ industry experience. Before joining M&G, he spent nine years at the UK fund manager Rockspring, working in a fund management and asset management capacity across a range of their property funds. Prior to this, Paul worked at CBRE both in London and Dubai, focusing on investment valuations and development across all sectors. Paul graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Land Management from the University of Portsmouth. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Investment Property Forum.
Michael Eisenberg is an equal partner at Aleph, an early stage venture capital fund with $330MM under management. Aleph focuses on serving Israeli entrepreneurs who want to build scalable, global businesses. Since its founding in 2013, Aleph has invested in more than 20 companies including WeWork, CommonSense Robotics, Lemonade, Windward, Honeybook and Nexar.
Prior to Aleph, Michael was a general partner at Benchmark Capital which he joined in July 2005 and continues as the partner responsible for Benchmark’s Israeli portfolio. Michael has focused on Internet investments since 1995 and has invested in and sat on the board of Israel’s leading companies and start ups, such as Shopping.com (Nasdaq SHOP, acquired by eBay), Conduit, SeekingAlpha, Gigya, WeWork, Wix (Nasdaq WIX), Answers.com (Nasdaq ANSW), Tradeum (acquired: VERT), and Picturevison (acquired: EK).
Michael writes a blog on Medium, is a contributor to Themarker.com (Hebrew) and is the author of the Hummus Manifesto, the seminal piece on Israel’s innovation scene. Michael has authored two books: Ben Baruch, an exposition on topics in the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Brachot; and The Vanishing Jew, a new exposition on the Book of Esther (עברית: ״ככה יעשה ליהודי״).
Michael also serves on a few education-oriented non-profit boards including Yeshivat Har Etzion and the Shomer Hachadash and lectures frequently on the topics of Venture Capital, Israel and Entrepreneurship. Michael lives in Jerusalem, Israel with his wife and eight children.
Jay Epstien represents local and national owners, developers and users in all aspects of real estate transactions involving urban office buildings, shopping centers and mixed use projects.
He has been the lead lawyer on many of the largest office leases in Washington, DC, representing both landlords and tenants, including numerous law firms that have sought his counsel. He has represented major corporations in corporate real estate facilities matters throughout the United States, involving corporate relocations and disposition of significant existing facilities.
Jay is a member of DLA Piper's US Executive Committee and co-chairs the Global Real Estate practice. In addition, he is a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, currently serving as President, and a member of the Anglo American Real Property Institute.
Jonathan is the COO of Knotel. Prior to Knotel, Jonathan served as VP of the D.E. Shaw Group and as Managing Director of Teach for America. Jonathan received his B.A. from Columbia in History and M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in Germany.
Eli Groner is a Managing Director at Koch Disruptive Technologies, the technology investment arm of Koch Industries. Mr Groner was previously the Prime Minister's Director-General, a position he assumed after being confirmed by the Israeli Cabinet in June 2015 through September, 2018. The Director-General serves as the Prime Minister's interface with all government agencies, oversees Israel's federal bureaucracy, and is responsible for formulation and implementation of most domestic policy decisions.
Rasheed has worked for Savills since 2004 and has worked in the real estate capital markets for his entire career. He is based in London and runs Savills Global Cross Border Investment business.
His focus is helping international investors identify opportunities, providing the full spectrum of advisory services and marketing assets globally.
Rasheed works on projects from US through to Asia and across sectors. In the last 5 years he and his team have worked on over $30bn of transactions with over 20 different nationalities.
Paul is based in the London office and has experience in all aspects of commercial real estate, with particular emphasis on investment and corporate occupier work. He advises a wide range of clients on their real estate transactions and strategy and often leads multi practice teams of lawyers on complex deals. Paul is heavily involved in cross border work in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pac.
Paul has a special interest in sustainability in the built environment and disruption in the real estate industry. He leads DLA Piper's Green Real Estate team, innovating and developing suites of documentation and best practice in this dynamic area, including the creation of a UK Green Lease and advising both investors and occupiers on their sustainability strategy.
Paul is the client relationship partner for Unicef UK.
Paul has been at the forefront of developing DLA Piper's work involving business from Israel. He acts for many clients based in Israel as they embark on diverse business opportunities around the world. Paul manages the relationship with several Israeli clients in relation to their global business and also assists clients from outside of Israel looking for partners or advisers in Israel.
Nina Kampler has 35 years of industry experience as a lawyer, broker, restructuring advisor and business development expert. She formed Kampler Advisory Group in 2012 to provide strategic advisory services to the retail real estate industry.
From 2010 through 2012, she was Senior Managing Director of CBRE’s Retail Services Group, managing the New York Tri-State retail brokerage platform and heading the Urban Retail Group in the Americas, integrating the high-street retail practice across the US with the practice groups in Europe.
Prior to CBRE, Ms. Kampler served as Executive Vice President for Hilco Real Estate from 2004 to 2010. She directed their strategic retail and corporate solutions group and led retail business development. Ms. Kampler collaborated with major national and international retailers and commercial companies to implement real estate portfolio restructuring strategies, and includes Starbucks, Tumi, and GEOX, amongst her clients.
Previous to that, she spent 16 years at Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, serving as their Vice President, Retail and Real Estate Counsel. In that capacity, she negotiated all store and corporate real estate transactions throughout the U.S. and Canada. She also held the position of acting General Counsel for Club Monaco.
Early in her career, Nina practiced law at Coudert Brothers and Richards & O’Neil, both in New York.
Ms. Kampler is a current member of the ICSC US Law Conference Committee, and former member of the Advisory Board of the Georgetown University School of Law Advanced Commercial Leasing Institute, as well as the Board of Governors (founding member) of the National Retail Tenants Association. She has also served as Associate Dean of the School of Retailing of the University of Shopping Centers at Wharton. She is a frequent panelist, lecturer and guest columnist for many organizations, including ICSC, ICSC Law Forum Europe, ICSC Canada, Shopping Center Roundtable, NYU Stern School of Business MBA program, Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit, New York State and City Bar Association and other industry conferences and publications.
Nina is a graduate of New York University School of Law and the University of Pennsylvania, where she received both a B.A., summa cum laude, and an M.A. in International Politics.
With 21 years’ experience in real estate and fund management, Louise a Managing Director based in Hong Kong working across the Asia Pacific region. She is responsible for fund investment strategy and overall performance of assets, including day-to-day operations, acquisition analysis, asset management, client and reporting-related matters.
Louise joined the company in 2017 from Invesco Real Estate having been the Fund Manager for the Invesco Real Estate Asia Fund since its inception. Prior to joining Invesco Real Estate in 2013, she was a Director at Deutsche Bank, RREEF Real Estate Asia Pacific. In her role as Head of Acquisitions and Asset Management for Asia Pacific, Louise was responsible for origination, due diligence and monitoring investments across the identified regional markets. Prior to this, Louise held a number of roles at Investa Property Group, Colonial First State Property and Royal Sun Alliance in Australia and Hong Kong.
Louise sits on the Urban Land Institute’s Hong Kong Executive Committee and is Chair of the Women's Leadership Initiative. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Land Economy and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment.
Strategic, smart and flexible, Fortis Property Group, under the leadership of Jonathan Landau, is known for identifying and optimizing underutilized assets. An accomplished national real estate investment, operating and development company, with Fortis’ portfolio that encompasses the ownership, development and management of Class A office, parking and multi-family residential condominiums and rentals, and industrial properties in key markets including New York, Connecticut, Boston, Dallas and Austin.
Mr. Landau is a founding member and the Chief Executive Officer of Fortis. He is responsible for sourcing and negotiating real estate transactions and overseeing Fortis’ myriad operating, development and leasing activities.
As Fortis’ CEO, Mr. Landau has been successful in developing important real estate opportunities based on the significant real estate relationships and network which he first generated while practicing law and later expanded at Fortis. Signature Fortis achievements include developing the first luxury condominium tower in New York’s Seaport District and securing the most desirable redevelopment opportunity in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn creating River Park, a new multi-block place-making residential destination.
Prior to joining Fortis, Mr. Landau practiced corporate / transactional and tax law with DLA Piper LLP for six years, primarily advising real estate companies on acquisitions, dispositions, syndications, joint ventures, entity-level investments and tax-structured transactions. Mr. Landau holds a JD from the University of Maryland.
Simon Levine is the Global Co-CEO of DLA Piper. He has extensive experience of intellectual property, media and sports law, advising on all aspects of copyright and related rights, advertising and sponsorship, design rights, trade mark rights, passing off, breach of confidence and patents.
Simon has many years' experience of acting for well-known individuals, trusts and charities, and companies in many industries, in particular media, new media, sport and manufacturing.
Simon advises on both commercial and litigation matters. He has been involved in all aspects of litigation and arbitration and has experience in the High Court, the Copyright Tribunal, the Court of Appeal, the House of Lords and Privy Council, as well as the Trade Mark Registry. A number of these matters have been reported and have been the subject of media interest.
Jeremy Lustman helps lead the firm’s global Israel Country Group.
Jeremy spends much of his time physically on the ground in Israel, where he has developed a strong international network of Israeli companies, investors, entrepreneurs, bankers, accountants and local lawyers. He currently coordinates and helps lead DLA Piper's development efforts and initiatives cultivating international business emanating from Israel, serves as a liaison for Israeli clients seeking legal guidance in non-Israeli jurisdictions where DLA Piper has a presence, and provides guidance to non-Israeli clients evaluating business relationships and strategic partners within Israel.
Jeremy directly represents and oversees a significant number of key Israeli relationships that have touched upon more than 35 different international jurisdictions and more than 40 DLA Piper global offices. These clients cover virtually all sectors of the Israeli economy, including leading venture capital and private equity funds, institutional real estate investors and multiple companies in the biotech, high tech (software, Internet and semiconductors), telecommunications, industrial, food/beverage, agro-tech, defense, homeland security and gaming sectors.
In addition, Jeremy maintains a focused US-component of his practice that operates at the intersection of corporate, real estate and hospitality law. He assists public and private companies, private equity funds and cash flow lenders in business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, senior and mezzanine debt financings, equity investments and joint ventures. In addition, Jeremy has significant experience in the hospitality industry, including transactions on hotels involving franchise and management portfolios (development and ongoing operations) as well as joint ventures and equity investments in hotel/resort projects. He also provides general corporate representation to a number of clients, among them real estate development companies.
Naomi Maryles is the Director of Israel Business Development. She is responsible for facilitating new client generation through intelligence gathering and networking, and proactively generating new business opportunities for DLA Piper colleagues around the world.
Naomi brings a unique perspective to business development, as she began her career as an attorney at a number of NY-based law firms focusing on corporate and securities work before joining DLA Piper in a business development role. She meets regularly with clients/prospective clients, plans and hosts events, assists attorneys with obtaining and refining proposals and attends conferences and events to support brand enhancement in the region. Naomi has also launched DLA Piper's Israel WIN series and Israel Women's Leadership series.
Lior Mor oversees Silverstein’s operations in Israel which includes analysis of various opportunities both in Israel and the US, developing relationships with Israeli financial institutions and managing ongoing relationships with Israeli institutional investors. Prior to joining SPI, Lior led the real estate division at Menora Mivtachim Group for over six years and closed deals in excess of $1.5 billion in transactions. Lior was the asset manager for a real estate portfolio of over 40 assets in Israel, Europe and the USA. Prior to Menora, Lior was a senior analyst at Giza Singer Even, Israel's largest financial advisory and investment banking firm. He specialized in real estate transactions in Israel and abroad. Lior serves as a board member on various traded companies on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
Fabian Mühlen focuses on complex real estate transactions. He is equally familiar with share deal and asset deal structures. His work also covers sale-and-lease-back transactions, portfolio transactions and project developments, as well as advising purchasers and banks in connection with acquisition finance.
Besides Fabian's real estate transaction experience, he advises real property owners on all matters relating to asset and facility management, starting with the conclusion of lease agreements, the arrangement and negotiation of agreements with project managers, development and construction companies, legal advice during construction works and real estate related litigation.
Fabian heads jointly with Lars Reubekeul the German Real Estate group of DLA Piper.
Jonathan Ross is a Head of International Real Estate for Migdal Insurance, Israel's largest combined insurance company and pension manager. Since early 2016 he has been responsible for the planning, execution and ongoing management of Migdal's global (non-Israel) real estate investment strategy.
Prior to Migdal, Jonathan spent 5 years as VP of Profimex, a real estate investment house, responsible for investments and operating partner relationships. Jonathan is a creative investment professional that spent the first 20 years of his career in the capital markets specializing in options, structured products and securitization.
Jonathan grew up in New York and Chicago, and then moved to Israel in 1991, initially working for the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to create their traded options market (MAOF).
Jonathan is a licensed portfolio manager by the Israel Securities Authority and he holds a B.G.S., from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Ilan Rubinstein is the Founder and Chairman of Ruby Capital
Ilan has extensive experience in acquisitions, financing, development, sales and management of real estate assets
Ilan was a co-founder of Ruby Ventures in 2013. In that role, he spearheaded the majority of the property transactions handled by the company. Prior to that, he also served as a principal of several real estate development companies in New York City, including HFZ Capital Group, First Dominion Developments and Dalan Holdings. Over the course of his career, he was actively involved in dozens of real estate deals in Manhattan and the surrounding areas
Born in Toronto, Canada, Ilan earned a BA cum laude in Philosophy and History from Yeshiva University. In addition, he holds a Master's degree in Real Estate Development and Investments from New York University (NYU)
Ilan lives in Ra'anana with his wife and four children
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Jay Zwiebel serves as Executive Managing Director of HGI and of Harbor Group Israel (H.G.I) Ltd. He works extensively with HGI’s overseas institutional investors and is actively involved in the company’s overseas acquisition initiatives. Mr. Zwiebel serves as a member of HGI’s Investment Committee. Prior to joining HGI, Mr. Zwiebel was a partner at a law firm in Hertzila, Israel, specializing in the representation of public and private high-tech companies in addition to venture capital funds. His practice specialties included venture capital investments, mergers and acquisitions, securities and corporate law. Prior to practicing law, Mr. Zwiebel was a consultant at Meitav Corporate Finance Ltd., where he was responsible for preparing due diligence reports and valuations for private and public companies. Mr. Zwiebel graduated from Yeshiva University in 1992 with a B.A. in Economics (cum laude), and received his law degree from Bar Ilan University in 1996. He was a member of the Israeli Bar Association, and retired as a Major from the Israeli Air Force.
2018 was a year of record investment levels around the world. Our opening panel will explore what drove the high levels of activity last year and what they see over the horizon for the coming year, including capital flows in and out of the US, Asia, Europe and Israel at a time when investment returns for traditional, core real estate are under intense pressure.
With the search for yield and income, the real estate industry is being forced out of its historic comfort zone. Some are moving into niche or alternative areas, such as student accommodation which requires more operational expertise, others are considering development or value add to reach their required rates of return. Combined with the threat of trade wars, the continuing uncertainty surrounding BREXIT and overall geopolitical risk, our panel of experienced investors from around the world will discuss how they are navigating the many challenges confronting commercial real estate in 2019.
As the pace of innovation increases in an effort to keep up with rapidly evolving technology, the PropTech industry comes of age and is developing new applications on a daily basis. These applications bring opportunities and challenges to the traditional ways of doing business in the CRE industry. At the same time, the meteoric growth of co-working spaces is changing many of the assumptions relating to the office sector and more. The panel of experts will explore the intersection between technology, innovation and investment in commercial real estate.