and earlier this year was promoted to co-president, overseeing the eastern US as
well as its relationship with AmeriSphere,
a Fannie Mae DUS lender owned partially by NorthMarq. In his leadership
role at NorthMarq in Dallas, Ross serves
on its executive committee. He began
his career in 1976 with Southern Trust &
Mortgage and in 1989 was a founding
principal of Keystone Mortgage, which
in 2000 was sold to Capmark Finance.
THOMAS D. SIMMONS JR.
Tom Simmons co-founded Simmons, Vedder & Co., a real estate
development and investment firm in Austin, in 1992. Before that, he
spent more than two decades with Trammell Crow Co., joining in
1970 and moving up through the ranks to become group managing
partner in 1987. He held that position until going out on his own five
years later. These days, the firm now known as Simmons Vedder
Partners specializes in acquiring and developing commercial and
multifamily assets, with Simmons as chairman. Since its founding, it
has developed and acquired more than eight million square feet of
commercial real estate with an aggregate value of more than $2 billion in markets throughout the Southeast and Southwest.
JEFFREY L. SWOPE
Jeffrey Swope launched Champion
Partners Ltd. in 1991 (the predecessor to
Addison-based Champion Private Equity)
and, as that organization’s CEO, led the
firm to its eventual status as a developer
and investor of office, industrial and retail
properties across the US. But by the time
he’d launched Champion Partners, Swope
had already been involved in real estate
for close to 15 years. He began his career
at Trammell Crow Co. in 1973, became a
partner in 1977 and in 1980, co-founded
Centre Development Co. Inc., a Dallas-based owner and developer.
Swope’s emphasis was industrial and land development. Other additions to his resume include his role as founding chairman of the Real
Estate Council, founding chairman of the Real Estate and Finance
Center at the University of Texas-Austin and trustee of ULI.
STEVE VAN AMBURGH
In addition to his role as CEO with KDC Real Estate Development &
Investments, Steve Van Amburgh serves as chairman of the Dallas
company’s executive committee, overseeing strategic planning and
coordinating business development efforts. Van Amburgh also manages all acquisition and development activities of the firm’s regional
offices in Atlanta, Austin, Detroit and
Charlotte, NC. He assumed leadership in 2001 after leading the KDC-Texas operation for 12 years. During
his tenure, KDC has completed over
110 corporate build-to-suit office and
industrial projects valued at $3 billion
and totaling more than 25 million
square feet. KDC also partnered with
Prudential Real Estate Investors on
Intellicenter, a branded, high-perfor-mance, green office building program in multiple markets in the US.
STUART WERNICK
Stuart Wernick manages the Dallas production office of Grandbridge
Real Estate Capital as SVP. During his 20-plus years of mortgage-banking experience, Wernick has originated and participated in
over $6 billion in financings nationwide. Before joining Grandbridge,
Wernick was president of Quantum First Capital, a Dallas-based real
estate finance and advisory firm he
founded in 1998 and sold to
Grandbridge in 2009. Less than two
years after founding Quantum,
Wernick originated a $630-million
financing for the privatization of
Walden Residential Properties Inc.,
then the largest multifamily REIT
privatization ever completed. Also in
2001, Wernick originated a Master
Credit Facility for $150 million, reportedly the first closed under the Fannie
Mae Student Housing Lending Pilot
Program.
WELCOME W. WILSON SR.
GSL Welcome Group LLC is a collection of companies that own and
lease single-tenant industrial facilities in Texas and is active in build-to-suit and design/build construction. Its chairman, Welcome
Wilson Sr., has had a presence in commercial real estate since the
late 1950s, having built shopping centers, industrial facilities
and office buildings. In addition
to developing more than 150
industrial properties, Wilson has
headed up real estate firms
responsible for developing more
than 1,000 apartment units as
well as other projects. Wilson’s
resume also includes the position of chairman of three
Houston financial institutions
and shareholder of the Houston
Astros baseball franchise. He
served in the Eisenhower and
Kennedy administrations as a
five-state director of Civil and
Defense Mobilization, which included responsibility for what is now
known as FEMA. In 1966, he was appointed special ambassador to
Nicaragua by President Lyndon Johnson.
DAVID S. WOLFF
Wolff Cos. is a holding company with investments in real estate
development, financial assets, professional sports and agriculture.
David Wolff founded the Houston company, of which he’s chairman and president, in 1970. These days, it’s among the largest
developers of office, business and industrial parks, along with sites
for hospitals, hotels and multifamily projects. Current projects
include the mixed-use, 440-acre Interwood; the 55-acre regional
business center Park 10; and the 150-acre, master-planned Westway
Park, all in Houston. Outside of real estate, Wolff’s agricultural
interests center around a 1,678-acre working cattle ranch in
Independence; vineyards in California’s Napa Valley; and a partnership in the San Francisco Giants professional baseball team and
AT&T Park in San Francisco. ◆
Reprint orders: www.remreprints.com
