Atlanta Leadership Team
CHRIS MAIER
PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, CCC
Chris is the Founder of the CCC and launched the 1st Chapter in 2019 in Atlanta, and has since helped to launch over a dozen Chapters throughout the United States.
He is a Founder of the Atlanta, New York City & Nashville Chapters of CCC.
The Executive Leadership Teams that he formulates are primarily comprised of real estate development, investment and finance professionals to establish uniformity across the brand.
In Atlanta alone, Chris possesses a database of over 10,000+ active commercial real estate contacts that frequent his private events.
He formerly served the commercial real estate development industry as Director of Acquisitions at The Montalto Group, formerly served the commercial construction industry at the Director level of Cooper & Company General Contractors, and also gained facility management experience as a Department Manager of Lone Rover Construction.
Chris gained experience working on behalf of BOMA (Building Owners & Managers Association) where he first gained an understanding as to the inner-workings of a successful real estate association, and utilized this experience in order to formulate the CCC.
He has been involved in the successful brokerage & development transactions under the role of “consultant” for multifamily, industrial, office and retail asset classes.
Chris is also a commercial real estate investor into multifamily developments as a Limited Partner.
He and his wife own and operate a short-term residential real estate vacation rental business, Stargazer Hideaway Rentals.
Chris is currently a Board Member of FREED (Freedom through Real Estate Education for Doctors) and RARE (Real Athletes in Real Estate).
Chris formerly served 501c3 non-profit charities on the Board of Directors Member for Mentor Me North Forsyth to mentor young men and women in the community where he was raised, and as Vice President of Hands Across Atlanta to assist the less-fortunate homeless population in Atlanta. Chris previously sat on the Board of Directors for LAI (Lambda Alpha International) Land Economics Society in Atlanta.
He received his undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University and an MBA from University of The Rockies. He is a fitness enthusiast, and an avid supporter of United States veterans.
Chris is extremely passionate about serving others through the CCC by assisting professionals to establish new relationships, uplifting them in their careers, and improving their overall quality of life.
Matt Ornstein
CEO, Ornstein-Schuler INVESTMENTS
Matt Ornstein grew up in Massachusetts and Georgia and currently resides in Jacksonville Florida. Matt graduated with a Business degree in 1990 from the McIntyre School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and began his career at The Home Depot and transitioned into real estate investing and development in the mid-1990s. After winning multiple 1st place awards at The Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Association in the early 2000s for his multi-family developments, Matt formed Ornstein-Schuler Capital Partners with his friend Frank Schuler and still continues as the CEO today.
In 2020, Matt Ornstein & Frank Schuler co-founded and became Co-Chief Executive Officers of Fortem Holdings, a private equity and investment firm that has a portfolio of several operating businesses and real estate development companies. Fortem Holdings LLC owns the following operating companies:
-Intersect Development Group (With active Development Projects in Florida, Alabama & North Carolina)
-Amerishine Car Wash (9 fully automated car wash facilities in Louisiana)
-David Patterson Homes (High End Home Building Company in Georgia ~ 60+ Homes built & sold in 2023)
-Oak Dental Partners (Owns Over 60 Dental & Orthodontic Offices across 9 states)
KRISTINE HERNANDEZ
VP of DEVELOPment, BRIDGE INVESTMENT GROUP
Kristine Hernandez has experience in all facets of development, including site selection, market and financial analyses, due diligence, product design, entitlements, permits, financing, construction, property and asset management, and disposition of projects. During her career, she has developed numerous multifamily and mixed-use projects throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions including over 6,500 apartments.
Kristine has started her own development and consulting company with a focus on multifamily, build-to-rent, and townhome communities throughout the sunbelt region. She grew up in the industry as her dad’s (former Florida developer) side kick on job sites and city council meetings. Her dad would take her flying on the weekends to look at sites from the sky. She learned from a young age how to spot good land opportunities. Kristine is a graduate of Rollins College Hamilton Holt program.
JUSTIN GOLSHIR
CEO, GRIND CAPITAL GROUP
Justin is a serial entrepreneur, private equity investor and commercial real estate developer. A native of Augusta, Justin is a product of Georgia public schools and the Zell Miller HOPE scholarship. He began his career as a National Security and Foreign Policy Fellow to U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss in Washington D.C. He later joined Lehman Brothers as an investment banking analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group in New York where he advised private equity clients. Following Lehman Brothers, Justin joined Dubai International Capital in both their Dubai and London offices, where he managed middle market private equity investments in consumer, industrial and entertainment industries. During this time, Justin was a board observer to Mauser, the world’s second largest industrial packaging manufacturer and Merlin Entertainments, a Blackstone portfolio company and the world’s second largest visitor attractions company after Disney. Justin later joined the London office of GI Partners, a leading middle market private equity firm based in San Francisco that has raised over $29 billion in capital from leading institutional investors around the world to invest in private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies.
Recognizing significant opportunities in real estate during the Great Recession and inspired by Sam Zell, Justin acquired bank foreclosed properties to build a student housing real estate portfolio, which was later acquired by a private investor. Justin eventually left private equity to start a software company providing social media management and analytics tools for the music industry, which was later acquired by TuneCore, the world’s largest digital music distributor. Justin also worked as a finance associate with the Techstars Disney Accelerator in Los Angeles.
Justin graduated with Honors from the University of Georgia with a B.B.A. in Finance and A.B. in International Affairs, where he was a Leonard Leadership Scholar and commencement speaker of his graduating class. He is also a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology where he studied full stack web development. Justin previously served as the Technology Chair of the Young Alumni Board of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He is a graduate of the Center for Leadership Class of 2022 at the Urban Land Institute Atlanta Chapter.
DOUG STEVERSON
President, boardwalk development group
Doug joined Boardwalk Development Group as the Director of Acquisitions in 2018, bringing over 10 years of Commercial Real Estate sales experience to the role. Within 3 years of joining the firm, he helped grow Boardwalk’s real estate holdings by 600%.
Since joining Boardwalk Development Group, Doug has been instrumental in the acquisition and disposition of over $300M in assets. He is responsible for sourcing new investment opportunities, building relationships with owners/sellers, negotiating deals, and successfully bringing transactions to Closing. Doug’s tenacity, vision, and ability to navigate complex transactions has been a critical component to the company’s success.
Doug began his career in commercial real estate in 2007 as an Associate with NAI Brannen Goddard where he specialized in Industrial Tenant and Landlord representation. He went on to earn the title of Vice President and became a multi-year recipient of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors’ Million Dollar Club.
Straight out of high school, Doug enlisted in the United States Marine Corp and was attached to the 4th Battalion, 14th Marine Artillery Division. While still enlisted, Doug earned his B.B.A. from Georgia State University with a concentration in Real Estate.
RYAN BOWERSOX
CHAIRMAN & CEO, BOWERSOX INNOVATION GROUP
Ryan brings over two decades of visionary leadership in business creation and management to Bowersox Innovation Group. An authority in distribution, supply channel management, and brand development, he has leveraged these skills to position BIG as a trailblazer in the sustainability sector.
Specializing in real estate investing, sustainable development, and property management, Ryan has curated a comprehensive ecosystem at BIG that spans Solar Project Development, Carbon & Water Management, Sustainable Built Environment Consultancy, and General Sustainability Planning . His passion lies in networking and business development, always with an eye toward innovative solutions that advance both social responsibility and environmental sustainability.
MATT LIETZAN
MANAGING PRINCIPAL, HIGHLAND COLD
Matt is a Managing Principal at Highland Cold, responsible for Build-to-Suits in the industrial food and beverage manufacturing markets. Lietzan comes from Primus Builders, a national leader in cold storage design-build, where he led their Business Development team. During his twelve years at Primus, the ICC Group, and Sidel, Lietzan has worked with prominent F&B companies including MillerCoors, KraftHeinz, and Mars, expanding their manufacturing capabilities throughout the US.
Lietzan partners with food and beverage manufacturers and distributors to alleviate their real estate and infrastructure challenges by providing fit-for-purpose build to suit and sale-lease-back transactions.
NICK PATEL
PRINCIPAL, BRICK STREET CAPITAL
Nick is a Wall Street veteran who began his career as a private client banker . He migrated to Atlanta over 20 years ago where he began his entrepreneurial journey. Over the past 20 years, Nick has built and continues to operate a portfolio of Georgia based commercial real estate assets . In addition, his entrepreneurial journey has also granted him international business experience in creating two unique import and export businesses between Dubai, India, and the US. Nick has a deep knowledge of the south east region which will allow us to expand our operations in the region.
Brick Street Capital is a multifamily investment and management group based in Northern Virginia. Their vision is to leverage technology and 30+ years of collective experience in real estate to create communities that are high quality, affordable, safe, and laden with convenience for today’s families whom are always on-the-go, whilst yielding high investment returns for their investors & improving quality of life for tenants.
Brick Street Capital strives to achieve those goals by leveraging our team’s extensive real estate investment, management, and development experience to acquire and operate fundamentally sound multifamily assets with potential for value-add improvement and market appreciation.
RICHARD TAYLOR
MANAGING PARTNER, ARRC Capital Partners
Richard is the founder and managing partner of ARRC Capital Partners (ARRC Capital), a real estate development firm focused exclusively on the Atlanta metro area. His specialty is multifamily housing with a strong emphasis on affordable housing and homelessness prevention. Prior to founding ARRC Capital, he worked in the private equity industry at NextGen Growth Partners. Before that, he was an investment banker, first at Raymond James, then at Robert W. Baird. During that time, he worked with both publicly- and privately-held companies on mergers and acquisitions advisory and strategic corporate advisory mandates.
Richard earned a Master’s in Finance from Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor’s in Finance and Accounting from Clemson University, cum laude. Richard is dedicated to giving back to the community: he sits on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Ovarian Cancer Alliance (GOCA), is in the Center for Leadership at the Urban Land Institute, is a member and part of the Emerging Leadership Initiative at the Council for Quality Growth and is a member of NAIOP.
Never one to turn down a challenge, Richard backpacked around the world, during which time he was in the running of the bulls, jumped off the highest bungee jump in the world and stayed months in the jungles across South America and Asia. He spends his free time following his Clemson Tigers and is never shy about cooking a new recipe.
Richard was awarded the 2022 CoStar Group Community Impact Award for Best New Multifamily Development Project in the Atlanta Market.
BRANDON WOODS
PRESIDENT, EDGELINE
As a Founding Partner and President of Acquisitions and Development at EdgeLine, Brandon enjoys making connections that leads to successful deals. With 17 years of career experience, Brandon’s diverse background includes project management, real estate financing and underwriting, investor relations, business development, and sales and marketing.
Beginning his career in financial services, Brandon transitioned to the commercial office sector, where he consulted end-users, commercial real estate professionals, furniture dealers, and interior designers, working with such clients as the Atlanta Braves, Georgia Institute of Technology, ThyssenKrupp, and GE Energy. In his development career, Brandon has acquired and sold over 100,000 s.f. of residential projects and managed over $75 million in capital and construction, totaling 1,000,000 s.f. in successful commercial and residential real estate projects overall. An entrepreneur at heart, Brandon is happiest when solving a problem or finding the “upside” of a challenge.
His varied skills came from his extensive experience and significant education: Brandon has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a minor in Finance from Auburn University. A Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) candidate, he also holds certifications in initiating, planning, scheduling, and budgeting projects as part of Project Management Professional (PMP) training.
When not crunching numbers or making introductions, one can find him coaching youth sports, competing in the local wiffle ball league or hitting the tennis courts with his father-and-law and business partner, Eric McConaghy. His wife Haley and kids (Gunnar and Blythe) are his biggest fans.
Nicholas Zuchegno
PRESIDENT, ASPEN CAPITAL SOLUTIONS
Nicholas Zuchegno is the founder and managing partner of Aspen Capital Solutions, a commercial finance company focused on providing alternative lending solutions to small businesses, developers, investors, and other projects that require more than basic banking needs.
Prior to founding Aspen Capital, Nicholas spent 14 years in the automotive space as part of a team that acquired underperforming dealerships, turning them around and making them profitable. A big part of this success was combining dealership talent with proper financial management, which ultimately led his team to managing the number one Infiniti dealership in the country.
After becoming a father in 2016 to a beautiful little girl, he decided to leave the automotive industry and take on a new challenge in the residential mortgage space, quickly establishing a dominant presence in the Atlanta market. Building his residential brokerage from the ground up, he realized many self-employed clients were also in need of alternative commercial lending options for their businesses. As a successful investor himself, navigating the narrow lending banking patterns through his entire career, he decided to invest in the commercial outlet including partnering with major commercial lenders out of New York, and expanding his financial education.
Nicholas is an avid sports fan. In his free time you can find him cheering on the Atlanta Braves, frequenting an Atlanta United game, or coaching his daughter’s soccer team.
Nauman PANJWANI
EVP, SNS INVESTMENTS
Nauman is a passionate and dynamic owner/operator/developer in the commercial real estate space. He is currently the Executive VP and a partner at SNS Investments, a family office specializing in the hospitality and retail asset classes, as well as the private equity space. He most recently developed and now manages an award-winning hotel in Greenville SC, led the acquisition of a beautiful downtown hotel in Jacksonville FL, and is spearheading an adaptive reuse project in the heart of Atlanta GA. Nauman has worked with all major hotel brands and many national retail anchor tenants while managing the full lifecycle of over $100M of assets.
Raised in NC, Nauman received his Bachelors from UNC with a joint degree from Duke University. He started his career consulting for some of the largest financial institutions in the world and then led a Global Sales Operations team at Uber (pre-IPO).
Outside of work Nauman is dedicated to shaping the future of the communities he’s involved in. He sits on a number of industry boards, including the SC Restaurant and Lodging Association, VisitGreenvilleSC Tourism Board, Choice Hotels Owners Council, and the largest hotel association in the world- Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) Franchise & Industry Relations Board. Recently, Nauman also received the AAHOA Outstanding Young Professional award and served as the youngest of a 10 member committee that designed the new prototype for Choice Hotels’ flagship brand. He was subsequently nominated as an industry “Rising Star”.
Nauman is passionate about financial literacy, storytelling, and connecting with people of all kinds. In his spare time, he loves to dance and is an avid traveler.
THOMAS MARKS
ELITE CONSULTING PARTNERS
Thomas brings to Elite Consulting Partners 25 plus years of experience raising over $1.8 billion in equity by working with family offices, Registered Investment Advisors, wirehouses, independent and bank
brokerage firms as a top institutional sales/wholesaler for the best real estate, mutual fund, and insurance companies.
He served as a Vice President for Partner and Co-Investor Relations at CIM Group®, a $30 billion owner-operator, developer, and lender on real assets. CIM is the master developer for Atlanta’s Centennial Yards, the city’s largest commercial real estate project in history, which will transform the area into a vibrant live, work, play environment.
In this position, he worked with CIM’s Institutional Partners and Co-Investors Group, serving family offices, RIAs, endowments and foundations, pensions and other strategic investors. CIM’s offerings
included real estate credit/fixed income, an interval fund, Opportunity Zone fund, Opportunistic and Core limited partnership funds.
Prior to joining CIM, Mr. Marks served as a Managing Director at IFS Securities, where he worked with institutional investors to place debt financing on commercial real estate projects. His experience also includes raising capital for 1940 Act funds, private debt, BDC’s, non-traded REIT’s, and insurance companies for their suite of protection products.
For over 30 years his extended family owned and operated a hardwood flooring manufacturing company and was majority shareholder of a community bank, exiting those businesses in 2007 and 1998, respectively.
Mr. Marks received a Bachelor of Science in Finance from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He holds Series 7, 63 and 66 licenses.
RYAN ROGUSKY
OWNER, AJC CONSULTING
Ryan Rogusky is the founder and owner of AJC Consulting, LLC. Ryan is a Construction Expert and Third
Party Owners Representative. AJC Consulting provides complete Development Project Management to
Owners and Developers from pre-development budgeting, designer and contractor selection, through
turnkey construction management.
Ryan was born and raised in PA where he attended Bucknell University and played on the offensive line.
He attributes his management techniques to these early years of playing organized sports which teach
young minds Teamwork, Leadership and that with Hard Work comes High Rewards. Ryan and his family
moved to Atlanta area in 2000 following his career with the contractor that managed and built Atlantic
Station and never left. Ryan believes that Atlanta is the best city in the nation to raise a family and follow his career after building in 17 States across the US. Ryan worked for local contractors including VCC, Choate and Winter Construction Co. while starting up AJCC in 2014.
Halcyon in Alpharetta, GA is AJCC’s most prominent development that he was honored to have built and continues to manage new commercial construction on behalf of Roca Point Partners completing Phase II last year and working on predevelopment of Phase III today.
He is also assisting Roca Point Partners on the Greenville County Square Redevelopment in South Carolina, and 244 Perimeter Center Pkwy in Atlanta, GA.
bill bishop
EVP, winston atlantic
Bill manages the day to day operations of a real estate development and investment firm which provides a unique blend of acquisitions, advisory services, real estate solutions, and build-to-suit development. Winston Atlantic are developers of retail, hospitality, residential and mixed-use projects for equity investment partners and their own portfolio.
Winston Atlantic manages all aspects of client engagement, planning, budgeting and forecasting while overseeing business operations to ensure that all corporate guidelines, objectives, and investor mandates are successfully met. Frequent advisor and consultant to retailers, restauranteurs, convenience store and car wash operators.
STEVE WOHL
SVP, OAKHURST REALTY PARTNERS
Mr. Wohl is a Senior Vice President with Oakhurst Realty Partners and has over 24 years of experience in commercial real estate with a focus on development, brokerage (leasing and sales), site selection and consulting. At Oakhurst Realty Partners, Mr. Wohl is active in retail and office leasing, investment and land sales.
Prior to Oakhurst Realty Partners, Mr. Wohl was a Principal with Village Realty Group, LLC where he focused on advising developer and investor clients and a variety of business clients in acquisitions, leasing, and financial analyses. Previously, he served as a lead Development Manager with Atlantic Realty Partners where he was active in overseeing the development of over 650 multifamily units and 40+ acres of land development in Atlanta over a four year period. Mr. Wohl also has extensive experience in site selection for the telecommunications industry.
Mr. Wohl is the Board Chairman for Member of Resources for Residents and Communities of Georgia, a 501(c)(3) affordable housing and community development organization, and was a participant in Urban Land Institute’s inaugural class for the Atlanta District Council’s Regional Leadership Development Program. Mr. Wohl holds a Master of Business Administration (concentration in Finance) from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts in Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs (Cum Laude) from University of Michigan.
SIMON NORTH
Principal, NORTH STAR DEVELOPMENT
Simon was born & raised in the UK. Growing up in a family Development firm, from a young age he was on a construction site, developing high end subdivisions, country cottages, vacational villas and office buildings. Being a vertically integrated family company, Simon had the opportunity to work and learn multiple facets of the trade from daily operations , acquisitions, site selection and data analysis to dispositions and community outreach.
Simon studied Mathematics and Marketing & Business Administration at Cambridge Regional College, Cambridge UK. After graduating Simon obtained a license from the Imperial College London to translate Spanish-English specifically for the Oil industry and Development & Construction fields, working for large British firms in South America like Tavistock, Trident-Scott Holdings, and PDVSA on exploration projects and master planning developments later obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the Universidad Central de Venezuela while translating for Presidents and upper-echelon government officials. Simon then moved on to the US State Department and Foreign Service. For a little over a decade he travelled extensively, working in different countries & cultures on logistics, data analysis, border contracts and risk mitigation while earning the most prestigious DOS honors and merits for professionalism, dedication and problem solving across the globe.
Simon never steered away from Development and the Real Estate space, operating a number of investment companies, strategically acquiring properties for long term strategies. With a natural gift for numbers and understanding patterns, Simon worked for years in multifamily acquisitions and site selection for ground up multifamily developments, with multiple successful transactions and projects from hotel conversions to brownfield cleanups for a French private Investment firm.
Eventually settling in Atlanta GA after years of working between the Georgia & Florida markets, Simon currently owns and operates North Star Development Group, the second US expansion of the North-Woodard family firm. North Star is currently working on a number of projects in the local market ranging from Land development and entitlements to Townhome subdivisions, Commercial retail development and flex industrial space. North Star is dedicated to providing much needed development space to Atlanta communities through local outreach programs and thoughtful planning based on data and facts for years to come. Simon fervently believes in community and the sense of community – Working closely with local charities and forming their own 501c3 non-profit to engage personally and give back directly, Simon & his family will also be opening North Star Dog Sanctuaries in the near future.