Event Contact
alumninetworks@wustl.edu
Speaker Information
About Catherine Chen:
Catherine Chen is a managing director in Apollo’s Real Assets Group where she is primarily responsible for the origination, structuring, and execution of commercial real estate debt investments. Prior to joining Apollo in 2013, Ms. Chen was a vice president in the Commercial Real Estate Lending group at Morgan Stanley where she was involved in all facets of commercial mortgage origination, securitization, underwriting, and syndication. During her tenure at Morgan Stanley, Ms. Chen also worked in Institutional Sales and Trading management, assisting in the management of global equities and fixed income divisions.
Ms. Chen graduated with an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Business Administration and BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Chen is a career advisor at the Columbia Business School Career Management Center, a member of CRE Finance Council, and a member of WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate.
About Russell Flicker:
Russell Flicker is co-founder/managing partner of AWH Partners, a New York City–based real estate investment firm founded in 2010. AWH is a vertically integrated hospitality platform that currently owns and manages over 7,500 hotel rooms across 18 states. Prior to AWH Partners, Mr. Flicker served as Ian Schrager Company’s chief investment officer. Prior to Ian Schrager Company, Mr. Flicker managed Blackstone Real Estate Advisors’ hospitality development, redevelopment, and repositioning team. Before Blackstone, Mr. Flicker was an executive vice president at the Trump Organization. Mr. Flicker earned his BA in Business Administration in 1994 from the Olin School of Business and his JD in 1997 from Duke University School of Law.
About Matt Kaplan:
Mr. Kaplan is a managing director of Neuberger Berman and head of Almanac. Mr. Kaplan is the chairman of Almanac’s investment committee and responsible for overseeing the activities of Almanac and portfolio management of the ARS Funds. Prior to joining Almanac in 1990, he served in the Corporate Finance Department of Rothschild Inc. He currently serves on the boards of PREP Property Group, ReNew Senior Living, and Westcore Properties. He has also served on the boards of Allegro Holdings, Ambassador Apartments Inc., CNL Financial Services, CNL Hospitality Properties, Encore Hospitality, Hallmark Holdings, National RV Communities, Parkway Properties, RXR Realty, Vanta Commercial Properties, Winter Properties, and WNY Group. He is a member of NAREIT’s Real Estate Investment Advisory Council, a research sponsor at the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center of the Wharton School, an associate member of the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Ohio State University Center for Real Estate. He has served as a management consultant at Touche Ross & Co. Mr. Kaplan graduated cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984 and earned an MBA from The Wharton School in 1988.
About Craig Kaufman:
Craig Kaufman has 30+ years of experience in real estate investing, financing, development, and management. In 1994, he founded the real estate investment company Kaufman Realty Group, now Kaufman Capital Partners, and has been a principal in property acquisitions, developments, various joint ventures, structures, and financings. He has experience from sourcing to underwriting to structuring, from execution on acquisition and development to active property and asset management.
From 1994 to 2004, Kaufman focused on the development and management of office properties. During 2006 to 2007, Kaufman was a net seller of assets as it harvested returns during the peak of the commercial real estate cycle. Since the Great Recession, Kaufman has focused primarily on value creation in the multi-family sector, land strategies, and niche lending opportunities. Prior to 1994, Kaufman worked as a financial analyst and real estate consultant in New York City and St. Louis, Missouri. He holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis (1986, 87).
Craig’s community involvement includes numerous volunteer and leadership positions. He is a member of Urban Land Institute (ULI) and previously served as Chair of its Small-Scale Development Council. He was regional chair for Washington University’s recent Capital Campaign and currently serves on the Alumni Board of Governors. He also currently serves on Sig Ep National Housing Board and is alumni board president for the Sig Ep Chapter at WashU. Craig is incoming president for American Jewish Committee in Atlanta. He is a longtime volunteer and past officer/board member of Camp Sunshine and past treasurer for JELF (Jewish Education Loan Fund). In 2012, the American Diabetes Association honored Kaufman with their Father of the Year award.
Craig resides in Atlanta with his wife and their two teenage sons (and two dogs).
About Ali Krimmer:
Ali Krimmer is a senior associate with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP and advises property owners and institutional lenders involved with commercial real estate development and finance. Recognized by Crain’s New York Business (2020) as a “Rising Star in Real Estate” and by The Best Lawyers in America (2021) as “One to Watch,” Ali regularly handles acquisitions and dispositions of lodging and hospitality properties, shopping centers, raw land, condominium projects, office buildings, and mixed-use projects located throughout the United States. She also has extensive experience representing borrowers and lenders in transactions involving mortgage and mezzanine debt, construction financing, joint ventures, workouts, debt restructuring, and note sales. Her clients include opportunity funds, foreign and domestic financial institutions, private equity groups, REITS, hotel operators, institutional investors, and developers.
Ali also maintains an active pro bono practice. In 2020, she negotiated a sublease with ICON for a New York nonprofit organization that allows sick children to get the services and equipment that they need to get well and live at home instead of in hospitals. She was involved in the filing of a Federal Tort Claims Act case on behalf of a mother and daughter who crossed the US border from El Salvador and were separated upon arrival for over one year. Ali is also an active member of the firm’s Recruiting Committee and the New Associate Committee.
