Bruce Schonbraun is the Group Head of Real Estate at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), an international real estate consulting firm, headquartered in New York City.  Mr. Schonbraun is the founder of SMG, which was acquired by FTI in 2008.  He is a nationally recognized real estate leader and business advisor to the public and private real estate sectors, providing counsel on strategic real estate matters, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, REIT transactions, and capital markets transactions.   He is also the co-founder and co-CEO of EdgeRock Realty Advisors (an FTI related company), a boutique investment banking firm dedicated to the real estate industry. Prior to founding SMG, Mr. Schonbraun was associated with Price Waterhouse & Co. He has instructed at both the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and the Seton Hall University Graduate School of Business on subjects related to real estate merger and acquisition strategies and federal taxation of real estate transactions.  Mr. Schonbraun holds a B.S. in accounting, an M.B.A. in both economics and international business and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York, New Jersey and Florida. Mr. Schonbraun has authored numerous articles and is a much-sought after resource to the press on a wide variety of real estate matters related to capital markets, finance, strategic business planning, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Schonbraun has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Dow Jones News Service, FOX National Business News, Bloomberg – Business & Financial News, Real Estate Forum, Real Estate New York, Real Estate New Jersey, Commercial Property News, Real Estate Portfolio, Private Equity Real Estate, National Real Estate Investor, The Institutional Real Estate Letter, REIT Street, Crain's New York Business, Development, The Real Deal, The Star-Ledger, New Jersey Business, NJBIZ, The Daily Record, and Nikkei News (Japan). Mr. Schonbraun is a member of the board of various charities and community groups and a member of NAIOP, NAREC, NAREIT and IRETO, as well as the Zell-Lurie Real Estate Institute at Wharton, where he has served as a mentor in the Wharton Real Estate MBA program.  Mr. Schonbraun has been recognized by NAIOP with its “Industry Service Award,” and a number of publications have named him among its “Who’s Who” of business leaders. Among the honors he has received is the “Torch of Learning Award” from the Lautenberg Cancer Research Center at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, presented to him by President Clinton. 

Barry M. Barovick is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York. Mr. Barovick leads the firm’s Global Real Estate Advisory Services platform and co-directs the Real Estate Advisory Group. He is a recognized leader in the business community and real estate industry.  With over 30 years experience in management, operations, strategic planning, business development, and client service, Mr. Barovick has successfully built and operated global businesses that provide innovative and profitable business and real estate advisory, transaction, development and management services.Under Mr. Barovick’s direction, SMG has successfully undertaken complex real estate advisory projects in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Alexandria, Egypt, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Dublin, Ireland, Dominican Republic, Panama and other countries throughout Europe, Asia and South America. The scopes of engagements have included urban redevelopment, master planning, market and financial feasibility, public-private partnership creation, and asset and entity restructuring and repositioning.Before joining SMG, Mr. Barovick co-founded HelixGlobal, LLC, a boutique firm that provided business and real estate advisory, development and financial solutions for companies, investors and public sector clients.Mr. Barovick’s unparalleled reputation for increasing shareholder and company value for clients across all industries, borders and stages of growth was further exemplified while working as CEO of Grubb & Ellis and as Partner & Global Director of Corporate Real Estate Advisory Services at Ernst & Young LLP. As CEO of Grubb & Ellis, Mr. Barovick oversaw global operations and built an integrated platform of advisory, transaction and management services. He also reestablished the firm’s international footprint through partnership agreements with Knight-Frank in Europe and Asia, Avison-Young in Canada, and Best White in Mexico.  While leading Corporate Real Estate Advisory Services at Ernst & Young, LLP, Mr. Barovick launched the practice from startup to become the industry’s leading provider of global services expanding the firm’s integrated real estate advisory services nationally as well as in Europe and in Asia..Mr. Barovick is an often sought after speaker at conferences and seminars around the country, addressing industry organizations, companies and boards of directors, as well as government agencies. Mr. Barovick is the author of The Ernst & Young Almanac and Guide to Business Cities (John Wiley Press) and has contributed articles published in Fortune, Forbes, Real Estate Forum and Site Selection magazines.Mr. Barovick holds a B.S. in Business Administration and a Masters of Science in Economic Geography from the University of Rhode Island. He is an Advisor to the Board of CS Defoe Capital and to the University of Rhode Island, College of Business Administration.  Mr. Barovick is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, where he holds the designation of Fellow & Eminent Professional.

Philip L. Brady is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York where he is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group.  Mr. Brady plays a leadership role in providing tax consulting, structuring and compliance services to a broad range of real estate clients including publicly-held real estate investment trusts (REITS), real estate opportunity funds, and privately-owned real estate investment and development companies. Mr. Brady has also been instrumental in providing tax consultation for private equity and real estate funds involved in corporate reorganizations, debt restructuring, and merger and acquisition transactions. Most recently, Mr. Brady served as Chief Financial Officer/Tax Director of a privately held real estate development and investment firm in South Florida.  Prior to that he was a Tax Partner in the Financial Services Industry Group at Deloitte & Touche’s New York office where he specialized in the real estate, securities and banking industries working with public companies, buyout/opportunity funds, broker-dealers and other financial firms.  Mr. Brady holds a B.B.A. degree in Accounting as well as a Masters in Taxation Degree from Pace University. Mr. Brady is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the National Association of Real Estate Companies. Phil is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.

Jahn Brodwin is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City. Mr. Brodwin is in charge of the firm's New York office and is part of the firm's Real Estate Advisory Group. He advises the firm's public and private clients on debt and equity transactions, real estate acquisitions, property and corporate due diligence and capital markets matters. Mr. Brodwin has expertise in all property types, including retail, office, residential, hospitality and industrial.Mr. Brodwin has more than 25 years of broad-based financial, accounting and SEC experience. He has earned a national reputation for guiding noteworthy transactions in the real estate and financial services industries and has assisted companies through public and private offerings.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Brodwin was with Ernst & Young’s, Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group where he focused on auditing, REIT IPOs and financial due diligence, as well as forensic accounting.Mr. Brodwin is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars around the country and is often quoted in industry publications.  Some of his topics have included real estate opportunity fund formations, financial due diligence, general real estate market conditions and compensation structuring.Mr. Brodwin holds a B.A. in Accounting from the State University of New York, and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York and New Jersey.  He is a member of NAIOP, NAREIT, the Urban Land Institute and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  

Mark Chertok is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Mr. Chertok is a member the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group and directs the Financial Outsourcing practice.Mr. Chertok is a well-known expert in the real estate industry. Mr. Chertok has over 20 years of experience in forensic accounting and real estate partnership dispute issues. Most recently, Mr. Chertok led an engagement for a large investment bank regarding computations of distributions from a series of real estate funds, foreign tax payments made by those funds and assessment of the bank’s underlying internal controls regarding these processes. He has over 30 years of experience within the domestic and international real estate and financial services industries and is widely regarded for his expertise in outsourcing, crisis management, investigations, and forensic analysis, real estate finance, IPOs, M&A and due diligence. Mr. Chertok also has extensive experience working-out complex defaulted real estate loans.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Chertok worked as an independent financial consultant with such companies as Petra Capital, Ruben Companies, Ladder Capital Finance and MUUS Asset Management. Prior to this he served as the executive vice president and CFO for the El-Ad Group in New York, a fully-integrated real estate company that acquires, redevelops, converts, develops, and owns primarily residential properties for sale or rent in urban, high-density markets in the United States and Canada.  Prior to El-Ad, Mr. Chertok was Chief Financial Officer of NorthStar Realty Finance Corp., a mortgage real estate investment trust and NorthStar Capital Investment Corp. where he led its successful IPO in 2004. Prior to Northstar, he was the chief financial officer and a principal of Emmes & Company LLC, an opportunistic real estate investment company.  Previous to Emmes Mr. Chertok was a partner at two public accounting firms, Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP and Laventhol & Horwath and was involved in all aspects of client service including accounting, tax and management advisory services, with a specialization in providing services to the real estate industry.Mr. Chertok holds a B.S. in Accounting from New York University, and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.  He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of CPAs.

Joseph V. Falanga is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York where he is part of the firm’s Private Client Advisory Group and directs its Private Client Tax and Advisory Services Practice.  He has over 25 years of experience as an industry leader in estate planning, the administration of estates and trusts and individual taxation matters.  Mr. Falanga also has extensive experience in supporting family offices and consulting family groups as well as providing expert testimony in litigation support involving estate and trust matters. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Falanga was at Goldstein Golub and Kessler (GGK) where he was Partner in Charge of the Estates and Trusts Group; subsequently, he was at GGK successor firms American Express Tax and Business Services and RSM McGladrey as a Managing Director. Mr. Falanga gives numerous speeches and presentations at conferences, seminars and forums around the country.  He has lectured for the New York State Society of CPA’s, New York City Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, New York City Estate Planning Council and various Estate Planning councils across the nation.  His topics have included Individual Income Taxation, Efficient Charitable Gifting, Estate Planning, Fiduciary Income Taxation, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, and Uniform Principal & Income Act.  Mr. Falanga has a B.B.A. in Accounting from Pace University, an MBA from Fordham University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.  Mr. Falanga is an officer and board member of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils.  He served as chair of the Estate Planning and Fiduciary Income Taxation Committee of the NY State Society of CPA’s, also chaired the New York City Estate Planning Council and was a member of the Pace University Alumni Association.  He is currently on the Rapid Response Tax Legislation committee and the Estate Planning and Taxation of Individuals committees for New York State Society of CPA’s. 

Paul Griesmer is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City and Boston.  Mr. Griesmer is part of the Real Estate Advisory Group at SMG and brings over 28 years of extensive experience in real estate, hospitality and gaming including valuation, due diligence, consulting, deal structuring, financial restructuring, bankruptcy and expert witness testimony.Mr. Griesmer brings significant experience in the following areas to his role at SMG: workouts and bankruptcies of troubled companies, properties and portfolios, valuation of properties, portfolios and leasehold interests, valuations of complex equity interests in real estate projects and entities, valuation and analysis of mortgage portfolios and interests, and market studies and financial feasibility studies.  He also has experience in due diligence on acquisitions, investments, and development projects, owned and leased corporate real estate, deal structuring, negotiation and fairness opinions, dispositions of properties and non-performing loan assets, and litigation support and expert witness testimony.Mr. Griesmer has worked with hotels, resorts, office buildings, retail, residential, mixed use projects, lease-hold interests, development projects, real estate options, property portfolios, loans, loan portfolios, securitizations, complex partnership interests, equity and condominium interests, cellular towers, real estate management companies and casinos.  His corporate real estate work includes site selection, location analysis, portfolio rationalization, headquarters financings and deal structuring, lease negotiations, and sale leaseback and disposition of real property. His clients include property owners, lenders, developers, private equity firms, REITs, law firms, retail corporations, biotech companies, cellular companies, homebuilders, hotel owners and operators, casinos, insurance companies, banks, real estate funds and pension funds.Before joining SMG, Mr. Griesmer was a Principal in the National Transaction Advisory Services – Real Estate Group of Ernst & Young. Prior to that he was a partner with Kenneth Leventhal & Company.Mr. Griesmer holds a B.S. in Agricultural Economics, an M.P.S. in Hotel Administration, and an M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Cornell University.  He is a member of the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, NAIOP, Urban Land Institute and the Real Estate Finance Association of Boston.

James E. Helmus is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York where he is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group and directs its State and Local Tax Practice. Mr. Helmus has over 20 years of experience as a nationally recognized state and local tax specialist. He has been a leading consultant on all areas of state and local taxation including income, franchise, net worth, gross receipts, sales, use, property, payroll and realty transfer.  He has assisted many companies on a variety of state and local tax issues, including representing clients in audit defense and controversy matters and voluntary disclosures to taxing authorities, formulating and implementing state and local tax minimization strategies and compliance enhancement. Mr. Helmus also has significant experience in securing and negotiating valuable business incentives with state and local governments on behalf of companies in a variety of industries. Mr. Helmus also works extensively with businesses in providing transactional advisory and due diligence services regarding property acquisitions and dispositions. He has consulted on many of the most significant real estate transactions in New York City’s history involving recognized trophy properties, including Rockefeller Center, the Met Life Building, Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village and the Chrysler Building. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Helmus was with the New York office of Ernst & Young, where he served as the national leader for real estate state and local tax services.  He also spent a number of years in the New York office state and local tax practices of both Arthur Andersen and KPMG. Mr. Helmus is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars around the country and has been quoted on several occasions in The Wall Street Journal and other related publications.  Some is his topics have included “The Importance of State & Local Tax Due Diligence” “Reactivated New Jersey Real Estate Transfer Fee Rules”, “New York State Sales & Use Tax: A Hidden and Costly Pitfall” and “Complying with State Pass-Through Entity Withholding Rules” . Mr. Helmus has a B.B.A. in Accounting from Adelphi University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.  Mr. Helmus is a member of the NAREIT State and Local Tax Subcommittee, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. 

Elizabeth Kulik is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York where she is a leader in the Global Real Estate Advisory Services platform, and leads the firm’s Strategy Group and Sustainability practices. In her tenure with FTI/SMG, Ms. Kulik has led complex real estate advisory and capital markets projects in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Dubai, UAE, the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, Spain, the United States, among others in the MENA region and Europe.  Projects include urban redevelopment, sustainable and smart cities, master planning, market and financial feasibility, economic impact analysis, debt/equity sourcing, public-private partnerships; M&A integration, asset, entity & operations optimization, restructuring/repositioning; sustainability, green building and energy.With over 30 years experience in the national and international real estate industry, Ms. Kulik is dedicated to the principle that real estate is a catalyst for significant social, economic and environmental benefit through the built environment, its use and investment. She is widely regarded as an innovator and has extensive principal and advisory expertise throughout the real estate lifecycle of investment, development, operations and value creation.  Ms. Kulik has experience in all asset classes, and with global public and private investors, developers, corporations and governments.Ms. Kulik has held senior and executive management roles in public and private real estate investment and operating companies, including Aetna Realty Investors, BGK Management, Inc. and Glenborough Real Estate Investment Trust. She has developed and executed development, acquisitions, dispositions, repositioning and growth strategies for over $30B of real estate investments, while building real estate organizations with best in class portfolio & asset management, leasing, development and acquisitions/dispositions operations.Additionally, Ms. Kulik was Chief Strategy Officer of Grubb & Ellis, a publicly traded, international full service real estate firm, where she led the architecture, development and implementation of G&E’s globally integrated consulting, transactions and facilities management service model.  During the first year strategic alliances were established in Europe, Canada and Mexico, and the platform generated $15M in cost savings and $50M in top line revenue.  New clients included United Technologies, IBM, Microsoft, Gillette and Adelphia among other Fortune 1000 companies.Ms. Kulik has a unique entrepreneurial background and has launched several real estate service and technology companies before joining SMG. She co-founded HelixGlobal, LLC, a New York-based business and real estate advisory firm providing strategy, capital markets and implementation solutions to global companies with significant investment and operating value in real estate. She co-founded Matrix Advisors, Inc., a full-service real estate advisory & transaction firm in Boston, MA, winning global client accounts for the firm’s transaction, capital markets and advisory business. In 2000, she developed the real estate industry’s first online portal (www.realestateprofessor.com) with a community platform that included networking, tools, e-commerce, industry specific content aggregation and search capabilities to the real estate community.  Ms. Kulik received her B.A. in Economics from Trinity College, Hartford, CT and is active in numerous philanthropic, real estate and women’s organizations, including ULI, and weallneedsomething.com.

Ingrid R. Noone is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Ms. Noone co-directs the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group. She advises the firm’s real estate clients in key areas including debt and equity transactions, transaction structuring, property and corporate due diligence, real estate development and strategic business planning. Ms. Noone has over 20 years of experience, focused exclusively on the real estate industry. She has extensive experience with real estate property and portfolio underwriting, transaction structuring, cash flow modeling, waterfall computations, asset valuation, and fair value reporting of real estate assets and return analyses (IRR and equity multiples). Ms. Noone has advised many clients on transaction disputes within partnership structures and has worked on various forensic assignments.  In addition, she has structured working capital settlements in corporate level acquisitions.  Ms. Noone has worked on many of the real estate industry’s leading transactions serving clients such as Beacon Capital Partners, Broadway Partners, Investcorp Properties Ltd, Stonehenge Partners, SL Green Realty Corp., Gramercy Capital Corp., Mack-Cali Realty Corp., JP Morgan Real Estate, and Westbrook Partners, LLC.  Ms. Noone began her career at SMG in the assurance and tax compliance area where she focused primarily on real estate owners, operators and developers and developed a strong background in related accounting and tax issues. She then transitioned to the firm’s transactions group and was named a partner in 2003. Ms. Noone holds a B.S. in Accounting from Rutgers University School of Business and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.  She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New Jersey State Society of Certified Public Accountants as well as NAREIT, ICREW, ICSC and NAIOP.  

Larry Portal is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New Jersey where he leads the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group, co-heads the Executive Compensation practice and is involved with several SMG initiatives. Mr. Portal has achieved industry-wide recognition for his tax expertise in the structuring of corporate and private real estate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions.  In addition, he is widely considered a leading expert in the field of REIT and real estate executive compensation and has consulted over 75 leading public and private real estate companies in the design and implementation of their compensation programs. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Portal served as Corporate Secretary and Vice President of Taxation at Vornado Realty Trust, the largest publicly-traded diversified real estate company in the United States.  At Vornado, Mr. Portal was a member of the Senior Executive Management team and was in charge of all executive compensation and tax-related matters. Mr. Portal is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars around the country where he has spoken on Executive Compensation Practices and M&A Transactions.  Mr. Portal is also regularly quoted in and/or contributes to articles and studies on Executive Compensation that have appeared in publications such as The Mann Report, Real Estate Weekly and Crain’s New York Business, among others, and he is the publisher of the SMG Executive Compensation Quarterly Newsletter. Mr. Portal has a B.S. in Accounting from Yeshiva University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.

Mark B. Rubin is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Mr. Rubin is part of the firm's Private Client Advisory Group and leads its Private Client Tax & Advisory Services Practice overseeing service delivery to private enterprises, family businesses, family offices and high net worth executives in the following areas: Income Tax Planning and Compliance, Asset Protection and Estate Planning, Multigenerational Succession and Governance Planning, Financial Planning, Philanthropic Advisory Planning, Family Office Services and Trust Accounting Services.  Mr. Rubin is a recognized leader in the field of advising multigenerational families regarding tax planning and, broadly speaking, their long-term wealth preservation.  He is known for his work in developing tax and governance structures for multigenerational groups concerned about long-term protection of their shared assets. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Rubin was a founding partner of The Metropolitan Group LLC, where he developed a model for working with families of wealth who own and manage substantial assets, including operating companies, real estate, investments, and foundations.   Previous to that he was with the tax practice at Price Waterhouse & Co., where as a Senior Manager, he guided Fortune 100, as well as significant family enterprises, in creating and implementing complex tax strategies.  Mr. Rubin has also taught several continuing education courses, including Property Transactions, and S Corporation Taxation, and was a contributor to the Model Tax Returns section of Consolidated Tax Returns, by Fred W. Peel.Mr. Rubin is broadly quoted and interviewed for publication.  Much of his leading edge thinking is contained in his upcoming book, Beneath the Skyline, which focuses on the contributions that real estate families have made to social institutions globally and the impact those contributions have had on the families themselves.  He has authored a number of articles and has been widely quoted in national publications, including the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.  Mr. Rubin is also a much sought after speaker on topics related to Family Tax Planning, and Governance and Next Generation leadership. He hosts a series of Informal Conversations held semi-annually at the Harvard Club on topics relevant for Private Clients, and has presented at various industry conferences, including: "An Evening of Family Philanthropy with Michael Steinhardt" (JCF of MetroWest), "Wealth, Family Values & Philanthropy" (Institute for Institutional Research), "Tax and Real Estate Update - Future of Family Owned Real Estate" (IPI Spring Forum), "Large Family Office Facilitation" (FOX Member Event).Mr. Rubin holds a B.S. in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University, and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.  He is a member of several organizations including American Institute of CPAs, Family Office Exchange, Institute for Private Investors and he previously served as a board member for Family Firm Institute and for a private company.

Dr. Mark A. Smith is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Shanghai, China where he will lead the firm’s real estate advisory practice for Asia.  Dr. Smith specializes in business risks, capital funding, and program advisory for multinational clients with critical needs in real estate, construction, and infrastructure assets. Dr. Smith has a distinguished professional career spanning over 25 years serving in key positions in both academic and corporate settings worldwide.  As a widely acclaimed financial expert within the real estate and construction industries, he has advised Fortune 500 property owners, investors and large construction companies on projects around the globe. Clients have included Guy F. Atkinson, Perini Construction, General Electric, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Intel, Sun Microsystems, American Airlines and the Walt Disney Company. In China, in particular, Dr. Smith led major engagements for both multinational companies as well as state-owned enterprises, including Proctor & Gamble, Duracell, China Far East Trading, Xinyuan Real Estate, and the Las Vegas Sands Macau.Prior to joining SMG, Dr. Smith was with Ernst & Young for 22 years where he helped direct the development and growth of its global real estate and construction practice.  Most recently, he headed up the firm’s Shanghai office where he had launched the Real Estate Advisory Services practice for mainland China and the Far East region which served a multitude of major capital investment programs in China in the areas of both multinational corporate development and domestic infrastructure programs. From 2005 to 2007, Dr. Smith led Ernst & Young’s Construction Disputes Services where he assisted major corporations and their outside counsel by providing project risk avoidance and economic damage analyses related to all aspects of complex real estate and construction disputes. Dr. Smith also led multi-disciplinary teams that investigated allegations of fraud on complex public and private construction projects and was frequently called upon to testify as an expert witness in construction disputes for jury trials, arbitrations and mediations.   In 2001, he was named Ernst & Young’s Managing Partner and Global Leader of Real Estate Advisory Services in New York. Dr. Smith first started his consulting career by lecturing in mainland China in the mid 1980s on innovative construction management methods with the then Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  His long association with China is well respected by many of the region’s leading authorities. Dr. Smith has also served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland where he was instrumental in creating the first- ever Construction Engineering and Program Management course of study for both the undergraduate and graduate programs at the College of Engineering.He has delivered more than 100 papers and presentations for national publications and industry conferences and is the co-author of the textbook Construction Accounting and Financial Management, 5th edition, as well as a contributing author to numerous books, such as Construction Litigation – Representing the Contractor, Construction Insurance, Bonding and Risk Management, and Construction Change Order Claims. Dr. Smith earned a Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from Oklahoma State University.  He is a distinguished Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, a registered professional engineer and a certified public accountant.

Scott Tannenbaum is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New Jersey.  Mr. Tannenbaum is part of the firm's Business Tax Advisory Group and leads its Business Tax Practice.  He has specialized in real estate taxation for over 20 years.Mr. Tannenbaum has considerable experience in the areas of REITs including IPO transactions, real estate opportunity funds and foreign investment in real estate.  His expertise also includes structuring partnership roll-ups, disguised sale strategies, Section 704(c) planning, partnership income and debt allocation issues, UBIT planning, debt restructuring and related matters.Scott received a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany, Juris Doctorate from Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, and his LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law.

Harvey Weinreb is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York. Mr. Weinreb is part of the firm's Business Tax Advisory Group and directs its New York Business Tax Practice. He has more than 35 years experience in the real estate industry, specializing in the taxation of real estate partnerships, opportunity funds and REITs. His other areas of experience include UBTI, financial instruments and reporting for foreign investments and investors.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Weinreb was a Tax Principal in Ernst & Young’s New York Real Estate Practice, serving public and private REITs and opportunity fund clients, investing both domestically and internationally. Prior to that he served as Director of Taxation for Arlen Realty & Development Corporation, a $2 Billion NYSE real estate company, which developed, owned and operated a diverse portfolio of real estate holdings, including office buildings, shopping centers, residential properties and condominiums, owned through corporate, partnership and joint venture structures. Mr. Weinreb has also served as the general partner of a real estate investment group which formed limited partnerships to acquire investment properties and secure financing for acquisitions.Mr. Weinreb has a B.B.A. in Accounting and an M.B.A. in Taxation from Baruch College, City University of New York.  He is a Certified Public Accountant in New York, belongs to the New York Society of CPAs and is a member of AICPA.

Harvey Berenson is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Mr. Berenson is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group and brings over 30 years of real estate tax experience to the firm. He is nationally recognized for his expertise in real estate and partnership taxation, sale leasebacks, lease financing, tax-free exchanges; bankruptcy, workouts and debt financing transactions. Previous to joining SMG Mr. Berenson was a leader of the Ernst & Young National Tax Consulting Department where he specialized in leasing and structured finance transactions. Previously to that role, he was a Tax Partner at the New York law firm of Berlack, Israels & Liberman where his practice specialization included corporate and partnership bankruptcy and restructuring, real estate investment, debt restructuring, tax-free exchanges and financing transactions. Mr. Berenson has often spoken at businesses and tax conferences and seminars, including the New York University Annual Tax Institute and the American Bar Association.  His topics have included bankruptcy tax issues, like kind exchanges and partnership allocation questions. He has also written a number of articles on various tax topics, including like kind exchange, leasing and bankruptcy. Mr. Berenson has a B.A. from Yale, an LL.B. from Harvard Law School and an LL.M. from New York University.  He is a member of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association.

Glenn Brill is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York City. Mr. Brill is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group and is an experienced real estate professional with strong expertise in real estate finance, transaction management, and development and operations for office, retail, multifamily and mixed-use assets. He is skilled in a diverse range of real estate and program management disciplines including stakeholder and client relations, market and financial analysis, appraisal review and valuation, benchmarking, project management oversight and strategic planning for corporate real estate and mixed-use development.Mr. Brill has more than 17 years of experience in the real estate industry. Prior to joining SMG, he  was a private real estate consultant providing financial advisory & asset services to clients including valuation, capital planning and restructuring, due diligence, investment and risk management strategies for non-performing assets, strategic planning, market and financial feasibility analysis and program review. Mr. Brill was previously a Transaction and Asset Advisor at Cherokee Investment Partners, LLC, a Senior Manager with Ernst & Young Real Estate Advisory Services, and a Senior Consultant with Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Services.Mr. Brill holds a B.S. from the State University of New York, College at New Paltz. He is a licensed real estate broker in New York State.

Sharon H. Goodman is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York where she is part of the firm's Private Client Advisory Group.  She has more than 25 years experience as a lawyer, including more than 20 years in the estate planning and estate tax, gift tax, and generation-skipping transfer tax compliance areas.   Prior to joining SMG, Ms. Goodman was a Managing Director in the Estates and Trusts Group of RSM McGladrey and prior to that was a Director in the Estates and Trusts Group at American Express Tax and Business Services.  Ms. Goodman has a B.S. from the State University of New York - Buffalo and her Juris Doctorate from SUNY Buffalo School of Law and is an Accredited Estate Planner.  She is also a member of and on the Board of Directors of the Estate Planning Council of New York City and is a member of the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils Foundation Committee.

Mark Halpern is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Mr. Halpern is part of the firm’s Private Client Advisory Group and has more than 22 years of federal and state tax experience.   Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Halpern was Tax Director at J.H. Cohn in New York where he was responsible for a wide range of federal, state and international tax issues, including the review of individual, partnership, corporate, fiduciary, foundation, and pension tax returns. Prior to that he was Director of Taxation at Lazar Levine & Felix where he was responsible for, among other things, reviewing tax returns and representing clients under federal and state audits; and Tax Director of Berdon, LLP.  Mr. Halpern has also held management positions at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells and U.S. Trust Company of N.Y. Mr. Halpern is a member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York State Bar Association and American Bar Association. He has a BS in Accounting from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a Juris Doctorate from New York Law School and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.

Kenneth J. O’Brien is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Mr. O’Brien is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he specializes in Financial Outsourcing services.  He has over 15 years of public accounting experience and has focused exclusively in the real estate industry for the past 10 years. During this time his responsibilities have included auditing, tax consulting, financial due diligence and advisory services for private real estate companies and real estate funds.  Prior to joining SMG, Mr. O’Brien was with O’Reilly, Baime, Walch, Backer & Company, LLC, a certified public accounting firm located in West Orange, New Jersey which merged into SMG in 2000. Mr. O’Brien holds a B.S. and M.S. in Accounting from Rutgers University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.  He is a member of both the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Tabish Rizvi is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group’s Real Estate Advisory Group.  Based in New York, he advises domestic and international clients facing event driven business issues related to the acquisition, capitalization, leverage, asset management, turnaround, and/or bankruptcy of real estate portfolios and companies.  Mr. Rizvi joined FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) in 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in analyzing the capital markets implications and profiling strategic business decisions of investing in and owning real estate, gaming, and lodging/hospitality portfolios.  During this time, he has interfaced with a pipeline in excess of $60 billion dollars; including representing the unsecured creditors as a senior advisor in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.  Mr. Rizvi is currently playing a lead advisory role in valuing and underwriting $41 billion of commercial and residential real estate investments held by the estate and its non-filing affiliates to maximize returns for all stakeholders. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Rizvi was a Principal at Henna Capital | Associates, which was an integrated real estate private equity firm with a mandate to raise a $300 million real estate opportunity fund targeting a range of investments focused on: (i) value creation, (ii) distressed/restructuring, and (iii) new market opportunities.  By launching Henna Capital | Associates, Mr. Rizvi built on his experience as an Associate in Deutsche Bank’s Real Estate Group, where he advised corporate clients on mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and other types of transactions.  Mr. Rizvi’s introduction to the capital markets started with a ground floor opportunity with Capco, where he was a part of a team that raised over USD $100 million in mezzanine debt from Thomas Weisel Partners for a fund that made strategic investments in the e/finance technology sector. In 2007, Mr. Rizvi was invited by the Chinese International Banking Federation and sponsored by the Handen China Real Estate Company to speak at the 2007 Chinese International Finance Forum (C.I.F.F.) on the topic of different real estate investing platforms in the United States, with an emphasis on operating models, project selection process, investment decision, and management team formation of real estate private equity funds. Mr. Rizvi has a B.S. in Economics with Honors, Concentrations in Finance and Management, from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A with Honors in Real Estate Finance from Columbia University. He maintains licensing as a real estate broker in the State of New York; and, is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Young Real Estate Professionals (“YREP”), and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (“AAHOA”). 

Anthony Saitta is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in Roseland, New Jersey. Mr. Saitta is part of the firm’s Capital Markets Advisory Group and co-heads its Executive Compensation Practice. Mr. Saitta has over 17 years of public accounting and consulting experience within the real estate industry. During this time his responsibilities have included auditing, financial due diligence, financial outsourcing and advisory services including initial public offering planning and structuring, litigation support and compensation planning and structuring for public and private companies. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Saitta was with Ernst & Young’s Real Estate Advisory Services practice where he played a senior role in conducting financial audits of public and private real estate entities, including REITs, owners, developers, and pension funds; performed and supervised due diligence engagements in connection with asset, portfolio and corporate acquisitions; managed the successful IPO and secondary offerings of a retail REIT; and managed due diligence assignments related to the securitization of performing and non-performing commercial loan portfolios. Mr. Saitta holds a B.B.A. in Accounting from Baruch College and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Marc R. Shapiro is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in Roseland, NJ.  Mr. Shapiro is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he specializes in providing Valuation Services for clients. He is a knowledgeable real estate professional with over 18 years of experience in all aspects of the analysis and valuation of commercial real estate. Mr. Shapiro has experience in the appraisal of industrial, commercial, multi-family residential property including high-rise, garden apartments and condominium units, farms, right-of-way condemnation, and special purpose property including service stations, waterfront property and lab facilities.Mr. Shapiro’s responsibilities include valuation of individual properties and portfolios for financial reporting, lending, estate planning, gifting, partnership issues, eminent domain, purchase price allocations, ad valorem taxation, litigation support, public offerings, and portfolio analysis. Additional responsibilities include historical analyses of financial statements and budgets, market studies, lease by lease analyses of multiple tenant real estate and discounted cash flow analyses.Mr. Shapiro’s consulting and appraisal assignments have included marketability and feasibility studies, valuation for financial reporting, fair market value analysis, litigation support, pre-trial analysis and counseling, negotiations, and settlement conferences. Clients served include agencies of the Federal and State Governments, municipalities, financial institutions, insurance companies, corporations, public utilities and individuals.Prior to joining FTI Mr. Shapiro was a Director with the Valuation Advisory Services division of Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets Group. Prior to that, he was a Vice President with Albert Valuation Group, Inc. in New YorkMr. Shapiro holds a B.A. in Economics from Rutgers College, is a designated member of the Appraisal Institute (MAI), and has served on the Board of Directors of the Metro NJ Chapter of the Appraisal Institute. In addition, he holds general certified real estate appraiser licenses in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas.

Jeffrey Strauss is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Mr. Strauss is with the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he directs SMG’s lease consulting services and specializes in providing clients with expert lease knowledge for various business situations. Specific services include lease audits for tenants and landlords, acquisition due diligence, lease abstracting and REIT lease compliance projects, preparation of operating expense reconciliations and litigation support for lease audit disputes. Mr. Strauss has over 20 years of experience in financial services and accounting with the last thirteen years focusing on real estate and lease analysis. Mr. Strauss has audited, analyzed and managed the audits of thousands of leases with significant recoveries and has participated in the resulting settlement negotiations for most of these audits. He has played a significant role in designing and developing the resources and analytical techniques utilized by the SMG team in their lease consulting engagements. He has provided litigation support regarding the interpretation of leases and has been part of a team of individuals who provide due diligence services to the real estate community.  Mr. Strauss has worked on numerous engagements for Fortune 500 companies regarding lease analysis and interpretation of lease language.  Mr. Strauss’ client list includes Toys R Us, Babies R Us, The Gap, Liz Claiborne, Home Depot, Office Depot, Barnes & Noble, Petco and The Family Dollar Store. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Strauss was the VP of Operations with Three M’s Corp which owned and operated a number of restaurants and hotels. Prior to that, he was a senior associate with Alfred Sperber & Co., which is currently part of MR Weiser & Co., where he began his career.  Mr. Strauss has authored numerous articles regarding leases which have appeared in Real Estate New Jersey and Commercial Investment Real Estate. Topics of his articles have included Formulating Lease Audits and Lease Audits Can Help Landlords Recapture Expenses. Mr. Strauss holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the State University of New York. He is a Certified Public Accountant in New York and New Jersey as well as a Certified Financial Planner.  He is a member of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, The New York and New Jersey State Societies of CPA’s, The Financial Planning Association (FPA), National Retail Tenant Association (NRTA), and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). 

David Z. Wang, P.E., is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Shanghai, China where he is a member of the firm’s global real estate advisory practice. Mr. Wang specializes in providing strategic counsel to clients in Asia with significant operating or investment capital in complex real estate assets.Mr. Wang has over 20 years of experience advising multinational companies on major capital improvement programs, including program management, risk assessment and advisory, construction audit, and cost management.  He is a civil engineer who has over 16 years holding senior positions with construction and engineering firms throughout California and China.Prior to joining SMG Mr. Wang was with Ernst & Young (China) Advisory Limited where he was executive director of the firm’s construction and real estate advisory service and directed a team that provided advisory services to clients on major capital development projects. Prior to that, he was project director at Jones Lang LaSalle in China managing two large R&D campus projects for a global software company in Shanghai and Beijing.A registered professional civil engineer, Mr. Wang has a M.S. degree in civil engineering from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the Southern China Institute of Technology. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Donald B. Zief is a Managing Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York where he is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group.  Mr. Zief assists equity REITs in efficient tax structuring of acquisitions, dispositions and the operation of rental properties and advises mortgage REITs with respect to structuring the acquisition and holding of mortgage loans and related investments.  He has assisted both the acquirer and target in taxable and non-taxable mergers and acquisitions.  Among other REIT tax services, his group performs due diligence services with respect to property acquisitions, prepares and reviews the quarterly and annual REIT tax compliance requirements, advises REIT clients as to methods to retain and improve REIT status and prepares federal and state tax compliance documents.   Mr. Zief has had in-depth experience in all types of real estate-related transactions, including REIT and non-REIT securitizations, opportunity fund structuring, IPO disclosure documents, workouts, non-taxable exchanges, and debt/equity offerings.   Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Zief was Director of Real Estate Services at the New York office of KPMG. Prior to that, he held senior positions in the real estate groups of nationally recognized law firms. Mr. Zief is a nationally recognized leader in the REIT tax area and is a co-author of the Real Estate Investment Trusts Handbook.  He is also a frequent lecturer on REIT and partnership tax issues, and has authored numerous articles for various real estate and tax publications.  Mr. Zief appears regularly at annual REIT and opportunity fund conferences.  Some of Mr. Zief’s recent speaking topics have included “Legal & tax aspects of project-level real estate workouts, defaults & foreclosures,” “Private REIT Structures” and “Capitalizing on the Growth of the Global REIT Market.” He has also authored articles for Taxes Magazine, Journal of Taxation and Journal of Taxation for Accountants. Mr. Zief holds a J.D. from Rutgers Law School and an LL.M. (Taxation) from New York University School of Law.  He is also a Certified Public Accountant in New York.  Mr. Zief is a member of the  New Jersey and the American Bar Associations and the New Jersey and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Jason Basedow is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Mr. Basedow works in the firm’s Real Estate Consulting Group where he leads a broad range of real estate engagements providing financial due diligence, transaction management, lease consulting, and forensic accounting services.  Since joining the firm in April 1999, Mr. Basedow has specialized in performing financial due diligence services on a broad spectrum of asset types, including corporate level M&A transactions. Mr. Basedow’s clients include public companies, banks, and large private equity groups and has assisted in the acquisition of assets valued in excess of $15 billion. Mr. Basedow has advised on a variety of real estate related matters including billing disputes, working capital settlements, and forensic review of failed real estate projects. His financial auditing background allows him to participate in a range of assignment types. Prior to joining SMG Mr. Basedow worked in the Property Accounting Groups of Tishman Speyer Properties and Insignia/ESG. Mr. Basedow holds a B.A. in Accounting from the University of Scranton and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Michael Bauer is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York City.  Mr. Bauer is a member of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he develops strategic real estate operating and capital markets solutions for both domestic and international clients. Since joining the firm, Mr. Bauer has worked on real estate advisory projects across the United States as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Bauer was a Manager at Apax Partners, a global private equity buyout firm where he was responsible for financial analysis and reporting for global investment funds. Prior to that, Mr. Bauer was a Financial Controller for a financial outsourcing firm where he performed a full range of financial advisory and tax related services. Mr. Bauer started his career as an accountant for a private accounting firm where he worked on various audit, tax, and accounting engagements. Throughout his career, Mr. Bauer has had extensive experience in financial reporting, creating cash flow pro-formas, tax analysis, entity formation and financial due diligence. Mr. Bauer has been responsible for reviewing and managing legal matters for clients pertaining to financing and closing documents. Mr. Bauer earned a J.D. from Brooklyn Law and a B.A. from Binghamton University. He is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bar and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.

Kenneth Bernice is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Mr. Bernice works in the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group and has over 12 years experience including the last 7 years specializing in the REIT and partnership area of real estate.  He provides expertise in REIT compliance, partnership taxation, §754 adjustments, and 704(c) allocations.  Mr. Bernice services clients including SL Green Realty Corp, Gramercy Capital Corp and Northstar Realty Finance.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Bernice supervised review and compilation engagements for Wurdemann and Associates, LLC.  He has also participated in a variety of client services including financial forecasts and projections, as well as tax compliance for partnerships, corporations, trusts and high net worth individuals.Mr. Bernice has a B.S. in Accounting from William Paterson University and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and Young Real Estate Professionals.

Stephen Bertonaschi is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Mr. Bertonaschi works in the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group where his focus is on tax compliance.  He advises the firm’s real estate clients in key areas including entity formation and structuring, corporate structuring, and REIT compliance.Mr. Bertonaschi has over 6 years of experience, focused exclusively on the real estate industry.  He began his career at SMG in the tax compliance area where he focused primarily on real estate owners, operators and developers and developed a strong background in related accounting and tax issues.Mr. Bertonaschi holds a B.S. in Accounting from William Paterson University, a M.S. in Taxation from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New Jersey State Society of Certified Public Accountants.  He is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.

Ted Bomba is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York where he is a part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group. Mr. Bomba has extensive experience as a state and local tax specialist and significant experience in securing and negotiating valuable business incentives with state and local governments in a variety of industries.  Other areas of expertise include income, franchise, net worth, gross receipts, sales, use, property, payroll and realty transfer tax (both statutory and negotiated).Mr. Bomba has assisted many companies on a variety of state and local tax issues, including representing clients in audit defense and other controversy matters, voluntary disclosures to taxing authorities, formulating and implementing state and local tax minimization strategies and compliance enhancement.  He also works extensively with businesses in providing transactional advisory and due diligence services regarding property acquisitions and dispositions.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Bomba was with the New Jersey office of Mintax (currently a division of ADP), where he served as a leader for state and local tax incentives.Mr. Bomba has a B.S. in Business Management and Finance from Monmouth University.

Beth Brody is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Ms. Brody is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where she works on a wide range of client engagements including financial due diligence, forensic accounting and strategic real estate advisory.Since joining the firm in January 2007, Ms. Brody has worked on many diverse projects where she has provided analysis and strategic solutions for the first lien holders for a bankruptcy case for one of the nation’s largest homebuilders.  Ms. Brody has extensive experience working on major due diligences for companies looking to acquire premier office, retail shopping centers and hotels across the United States.  Recently, she was involved in a forensic internal investigation for an international investment banking firm.Ms. Brody has approximately 10 years of experience in the real estate industry.  Prior to joining SMG, she was the Assistant Controller at Gramercy Capital Corp and worked at ING Clarion in the real estate property and portfolio accounting group.  Ms. Brody began her career at Ernst and Young in the real estate assurance group.Ms. Brody holds a B.A. in Accounting from Binghamton University.

Arthur D’Alessio is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, NJ.  Mr. D’Alessio works in the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group and specializes in the corporate REIT and partnership areas of real estate taxation. Over the past nine (9) years with SMG, he has provided his consulting expertise to a wide range of clients including public and private REITs and real estate investment funds.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. D’Alessio worked in the tax practice at Moore Stephens, PC, servicing both public and private clients in a broad range of industries, including construction, hospitality, manufacturing and professional services.Mr. D’Alessio holds a B.S./M.S. in Accounting from Seton Hall University, and is a member of both the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Mark Dunec is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Mr. Dunec is a member of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he develops strategic real estate operating and capital markets solutions for both domestic and international clients. He has over 8 years of experience in the real estate industry, specializing in underwriting pro forma cash flow, valuation, acquisition due diligence, financing, recapitalization, asset and entity restructuring and repositioning. Since joining the firm, Mr. Dunec has worked on complex real estate advisory projects totaling over $3.0 billion, across the United States as well as England, Ireland, United Arab Emirates and Panama.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Dunec was a Financial Analyst in Lend Lease’s Project Finance Group where he led the underwriting efforts for acquisitions and developments totaling over $500 million. Mr. Dunec was also a Real Estate Analyst for Shurgard Storage Centers – a self-storage REIT prior to the acquisition by Public Storage. He was responsible for over $70 million of acquisition and re-development capital of the Company’s portfolio. Mr. Dunec began his career as a consultant in KPMG’s Compensation & Benefits Practice specializing in executive compensation and the calculation of golden parachutes.Throughout his career, Mr. Dunec has created and maintained pro forma cash flow models, calculated various sensitivity analyses, determined the profitability of investments and assisted with the management of the entitlement, closing and due diligence processes. Mr. Dunec has in depth experience across the various property types including office, retail, industrial, multi-family, master planned communities and self storage.Mr. Dunec earned an M.B.A in Finance from New York’s Pace University and a B.A. in History and Biblical Studies from Toronto’s York University.

John Ennis is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Mr. Ennis is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where his responsibilities include the valuation of individual properties and portfolios for financial reporting, lending, estate planning, gifting, partnership issues, eminent domain, purchase price allocations, ad valorem taxation, litigation support, public offerings, and portfolio analysis. He both sources and leads a broad range of client engagements including forensic accounting, financial due diligence, and other real estate related matters.Mr. Ennis has over 17 years experience providing real estate consulting and valuation services for retail, office, industrial, multifamily, hospitality and development land valued in excess of $8.0 billion, including valuation for financial reporting, acquisition underwriting, estate planning, gifting, partnership issues, purchase price allocations, cost segregation, ad valorem taxation, litigation support, public offerings, market and feasibility studies, and portfolio analysis.  Mr. Ennis has worked with banks, insurance companies, CMBS lenders, funds, developers, property owners and law firms.Prior to joining SMG Mr. Ennis worked in the Valuation Advisory Services Group at Cushman & Wakefield. Mr. Ennis holds a B.S. in Finance from Farleigh Dickinson University. He has completed all coursework toward the MAI designation, has completed all experience reviews, has taken the comprehensive exam, and is preparing the demonstration appraisal report.

Charles L. Friedman is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York.  Mr. Friedman is part of the firm’s Private Client Advisory Group and has over 23 years of experience in trust, estate and individual tax planning. He has advised owners of closely held businesses, family offices, and high net worth individuals in minimizing their tax liabilities while developing strategies to achieve their business and personal objectives. Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Friedman  was at a regional CPA firm, where he held a management position developing and implementing estate and financial planning strategies; overseeing estate, fiduciary, individual, gift, foundation and partnership tax compliance; performing tax research; chairing its Trusts & Estates committee; and lecturing at continuing education classes. Prior to that, Charles was associated with the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges in its Trusts and Estates department. Mr. Freidman has a B.B.A from Baruch College and a Juris Doctorate from New York Law School and is a member of the Connecticut Bar.

Mark Golden is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York City.  Mr. Golden works in the firm’s Private Client Advisory Group and specializes in complex personal tax, estate planning and trust matters.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Golden served as a Director with RSM McGladrey, Inc. in their Family Office Services practice. Prior to that he was a Senior Tax Manager in the Private Client Services Group at Arthur Andersen LLP. Previous to his role at Arthur Andersen Mr. Golden was a Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche, where he worked in the Trust and Estate Group, focusing on providing comprehensive estate, gift and trust tax, and succession planning services for affluent individuals. Mr. Golden also previously served as a Tax Manager at Ernst & Young. Mr. Golden has been a guest lecturer on the subject of tax and financial planning for high-net-worth individuals for the California Bar Association.Mr. Golden has a B.S. in Accounting from Providence College.

Sydney Hilzenrath is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New Jersey. Ms. Hilzenrath works in the firm’s Capital Markets Advisory Group for its Executive Compensation Practice.Ms. Hilzenrath brings an extensive background in real estate financial analysis. She previously worked as a Real Estate Investment Trust Equity Analyst at UBS and prior to that at Solomon Smith Barney. Ms. Hilzenrath specialized in the office/industrial REIT subsector, and worked with the multifamily, manufactured homes and shopping center REIT subsectors.Ms. Hilzenrath has a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Spanish, with honors, from The University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of NAREIT and a Certified Equity Professional.

Laura Jackson is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Ms. Jackson works in the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group and specializes in the REIT and partnership area of real estate taxation, providing expertise in due diligence, REIT compliance, §754 adjustments, and partnership taxation. Since she joined the firm, Ms. Jackson developed the firm’s REIT due diligence group which now serves numerous public and private REIT’s.  She also has extensive experience with deal structuring, creating §704(c) models, and handling complicated tax compliance for numerous large public and private real estate clients.Prior to joining SMG, Ms. Jackson worked in the tax practice at both Arthur Andersen and Deloitte & Touche LLP primarily servicing the gaming/lodging and banking industries.Ms. Jackson graduated summa cum laude and first in her class with a B.S. in Business Administration and concentration in Accounting from Monmouth University and an M.S. in Taxation from Fairleigh Dickinson University.  She is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey and is a member of the AICPA, NPSCPA, NAREIT, ICREW and AWSCPA.

Jae Kim is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York City. Mr. Kim is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he both leads and participates in a broad range of client engagements including transaction advisory and strategic advisory. His clients have included some of the industry’s most successful REIT’s, hedge funds, investment banks, commercial banks and privately-held firms.Mr. Kim has conducted financial due diligence for the following deal types:   real estate company M&A, private equity acquisition, JV partnerships, and restructuring/recapitalization for a distressed entity. His responsibilities have included analyzing financial and operational business plans, reviewing financial performance and forecasts, reviewing cash flow forecasts and JV partnership structure and helping a client make a business decision for its real estate investments.Prior to joining SMG in 2006, Mr. Kim was a financial analyst at Marcus & Millichap, where he was responsible for financial analysis, market research and compilation in support of the underwriting of more than $600 million in commercial properties.Mr. Kim received a master’s degree of real estate with concentration in Real Estate Finance and Investment from New York University and holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Architecture from Hong-Ik University, Korea.

Brett Lake is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey. Mr. Lake is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he focuses on financial due diligence, valuation services, and other real estate related matters.Mr. Lake’s current responsibilities include acquisition due diligence for investment grade real estate assets, preparing discounted cash flow models utilizing Excel, Dyna, and Argus software programs to determine appropriate purchase price, and conducting the appraisal review process for institutional clients.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Lake was a Senior Appraiser at Value Research Group where his chief responsibilities entailed analysis and valuation of real estate including office, retail, industrial, and special purpose properties such as hotel-casinos, research and development facilities, and service stations. His appraisal assignments have included fair market value analysis, litigation support, pre-trial analysis, negotiations, and settlement conferences.Mr. Lake holds a B.S. in Finance from Rutgers College and an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University.  He is an Associate member of Appraisal Institute.

Michael Marzano is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey where he works in the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group managing both Tax and Outsourcing clients. His responsibilities include managing real estate investment funds with assets in excess of two billion dollars and overseeing tax preparation and planning for several real estate companies.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Marzano served eight years as Vice President of Finance for Starwood Heller, LLC and G. Heller Enterprises.Mr. Marzano has a B.S. in Accounting from Montclair State University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.

Jami Neary is a Director in the Business Tax Advisory Group at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York City.  Ms. Neary has over nine years of experience in cost segregation, insurance replacement cost studies, fixed asset scrub studies, cost allocation and in litigation analyses including expert witness preparation.Ms. Neary’s experiences includes work on various engagements including, multi-tenant commercial office buildings, restaurants, residential complexes, hotels, mixed-use retail developments, theaters, sports venues, warehouse/distribution centers, financial institutions, data recovery centers, food product manufacturing facilities, and pharmaceutical research facilities. She has prepared cost segregation studies on newly constructed assets, acquisitions, and expansion projects.Prior to joining SMG, Ms. Neary served as Associate Director of Navigant Consulting, Inc.’s cost segregation practice where she managed and performed various engagements on newly constructed and acquired assets.  Prior to that she held positions in the cost segregation practices at Arthur Andersen and American Appraisal Associates.Ms. Neary holds a B.A. in Architecture from Lehigh University, and a Graduate Certificate in Construction Project Management from New York University.

Ariel Nurieli is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York City.  Mr. Nurieli is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he is involved in a broad range of client engagements.  His areas of expertise include due diligence and transaction execution, financial modeling and preparation of offering memoranda.Mr. Nurieli began his career in the investment banking group at Salomon Smith Barney where he was involved in numerous advisory assignments and approximately $3 billion in capital markets transactions for corporations, governments and public-private partnerships.  For the past six years, he has been working at publicly-traded entities on the principal-investing side of real estate.  As an asset analyst at the Mills Corporation, Mr. Nurieli was involved with all aspects of asset management of a portfolio of regional malls.  Then, at Forest City Enterprises, he was responsible for all financial modeling and analysis of projects in a $3 billion development pipeline, including office, retail, multi-family and condominium products.  In Mr. Nurieli’s most recent position as Vice President of Corporate and Portfolio Strategies with Feldman Mall Properties, he was responsible for a wide variety of property-level and corporate-level undertakings.Mr. Nurieli holds a B.A. from Yale University and is pursuing his M.S. in Real Estate at New York University.

Meghan O’Connor is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Ms. O’Connor works in the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where she has become expert on best practices in commercial real estate portfolio management, including analysis, modeling, technology, and process.Prior to joining SMG, Ms. O’Connor was a senior consultant at treeSoft, a real estate software and consulting firm.  During her tenure there, she managed many of the organization’s largest global consulting engagements including software implementations, optimization and process reviews, systems integration and underwriting/due diligence.  This included engagements throughout North America, Europe and Australia.  Ms. O’Connor started her real estate consulting career at Dyna Software, where she participated significantly in the design, development, implementation and support of their real estate analysis software.Ms. O’Connor graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in History from Montclair State University. 

Kimberly Pitagno is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey where she is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group.  Ms. Pitagno’s client base is diverse; she specializes in real estate investment funds, REITs and real estate development, but also has extensive experience in the radio broadcasting, manufacturing and hospitality industries.  She manages all aspects of her clients’ tax compliance and consulting needs.  Ms. Pitagno has over 12 years of broad-based tax experience.Prior to joining SMG, Ms. Pitagno worked in Vornado Realty Trust’s in-house tax department where she managed the tax needs of three corporate divisions and worked on numerous tax minimization and REIT compliance structuring projects.  Prior to Vornado, she worked at Hartz Mountain Industries, a privately-owned company, where she focused on real estate partnerships and corporations, as well as the family’s personal tax compliance.  Ms. Pitagno began her career in the tax practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, specializing in the brokerage and banking industries and also spent a couple of years in their Tax Products Development Group, that focused on developing and implementing tax minimization products.Ms. Pitagno graduated Cum laude with a B.S. in Accounting from Seton Hall University and is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of New Jersey.

Shreepal Shah is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey where he works in the firm’s Capital Markets Advisory Group assisting in new business development across the firm.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Shah served in the Capital Markets group of NorthStar Finance Corp., where he facilitated in capital raising activities and contributed in raising over $1 billion of equity and debt capital for the Company.  At NorthStar, Mr. Shah was the primary liaison between the company and investment bankers, debt and equity investors, etc. providing all necessary valuation and due diligence information to facilitate corporate capital investments.  In addition, Mr. Shah created and implemented the company’s primary earnings model, and performed corporate analysis for various strategic initiatives.  Prior to NorthStar, Mr. Shah was an investment banker in the Technology and Telecom group at Bear Stearns providing merger and acquisition advisory services and raising debt and equity capital for public companies.  Mr. Shah also worked at Deloitte and Touche in their financing assurance and advisory group.Mr. Shah holds a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from New York University, Stern School of Business, and is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of New York.  He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Neelima Shinh is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Ms. Shinh is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where she specializes in financial outsourcing services. Ms. Shinh has over 8 years of experience in real estate. Her primary focus is in providing accounting and financial reporting services to privately held equity funds. Ms. Shinh’s client base consists of funds that have raised capital over $1B and invested in assets over $3B. She began her career with SMG in their assurance and tax compliance group where her responsibilities included auditing, tax consulting, financial due diligence and advisory services. Ms. Shinh holds a B.S. and M.S. in Accounting from Kean University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.  She is a member of both the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Nga Shuen Carol Su is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Ms. Su is part of the firm's Real Estate Advisory Group, where she is involved in a broad range of client engagements including forensic accounting, financial due diligence, financial outsourcing and other real estate/alternative investment related projects.Since joining the firm in September 2006, Ms. Su has worked in many different areas of the real estate industry including audit, acquisition and development due diligence, financial reporting for both SEC filings and lending institutions, properties and fund accounting, investment partners’ allocations and forensic investigation and organization optimization. Clients she has worked on include billion dollar real estate funds, publicly traded real estate investment trusts, and other financial institutions.Prior to joining SMG, Ms. Su worked in the Audit Group of Rothstein Kass & Co, where she focused on investment hedge fund audits, partnership tax returns, the issuance of investors K-1 tax returns and partnership equity allocation.Ms. Su holds a B.S. in Business & Economics, with concentrations in Accounting and Supply Chain Management, from Lehigh University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.  She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as the New York State Society of CPAs.  Ms. Su is fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

Joseph Suh is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in New York City.  Mr. Suh is part of the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he provides valuation and advisory services. His current responsibilities include acquisition due diligence for investment grade real estate assets including presentation of financial package to clients.  Mr. Suh oversees the development of discounted cash flow models utilizing Excel,   Dyna, and Argus software programs to determine appropriate purchase price, various rates of return and overall viability as a potential investment and oversees the appraisal review process for institutional clients.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Suh was a Manager in PricewaterhouseCoopers's Real Estate Advisory Group where his chief responsibilities entailed assessing, implementing, and managing the valuation processes for real estate assets in various funds.  This included the preparation and analysis of portfolio level returns against a peer group and providing overall fund strategy.  Additional experience at PwC includes acquisition due diligence and appraisal services. Mr. Suh has a B.S. in Accounting from Drexel University and an M.S. in Real Estate from New York University.  He is an Associate member of Appraisal Institute. 

Michael Truscott is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York.  Mr. Truscott is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group where he specializes in real estate taxation.Mr. Truscott has over 11 years of public accounting experience and 5 years in private industry including 3 years as the Director of Tax for a public Real Estate Investment Trust.  Throughout his career, his responsibilities have included tax consulting and compliance, REIT qualification issues, transaction structuring and advisory service of public and private real estate companies and real estate funds.Prior to joining SMG, Mr. Truscott was a Tax Director in the Real Estate practice for Pricewaterhouse Coopers in New York. Previously he served as the Director of Tax for JDN Realty Corporation, a Real Estate Investment Trust located in Atlanta, Georgia.Mr. Truscott holds a B.S. from Florida State University and is a Certified Public Accountant in Georgia.  He is a member of both the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Arthur E. Walch is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), and is based in Roseland, New Jersey.  Mr. Walch is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group and has over 25 years of public accounting experience involving small businesses, restaurants, real estate developers and home builders. Currently Mr. Walch’s concentration is providing tax services to real estate developers and homebuilders. Prior to joining SMG Mr. Walch was a partner in the accounting firm of O’Reilly, Baime, Walch and Backer, LLC, which merged into SMG in 2000. Mr. Walch holds a B.S. in Accounting from Lehigh University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey. He is a member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. 

Michael Walden is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group and is based in Roseland, NJ.  Mr. Walden works in the firm’s Real Estate Advisory Group where he has led numerous engagements advising public and private real estate owners, banks, and private equity groups in their acquisition and development of commercial real estate assets and corporate entities in excess of $10 billion.  His expertise includes advising ownership on various acquisition, disposition, leasing, financing, and development initiatives as well as formulating feasibility and market studies.Mr. Walden’s previous work experience includes positions as Manager of Financial Services at Colliers ABR, a real estate brokerage and advisory firm. In this role he assisted multiple corporate clients by performing consulting and planning studies used for merger and acquisitions, and real estate expansion and/or disposition decisions. Mr. Walden also served as Senior Vice President at Broad Street Advisors, a firm specializing in real estate advisory and investment sales.  In this position he coordinated and oversaw underwriting and valuation assignments and the creating of offering memorandum for firm clients.Mr. Walden earned a B.A. in Political Science from Clark University and an M.S. in Real Estate Investment and Finance from New York University.

Robert Zimmerman is a Director at FTI Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG) and is based in New York City.  Mr. Zimmerman is part of the firm’s Business Tax Advisory Group where he specializes in real estate taxation. He has over ten years of public accounting experience and has focused exclusively in the real estate industry for the past six years. During that time Mr. Zimmerman’s responsibilities included tax consulting and compliance services for private real estate companies, real estate funds and REITs.Prior to joining SMG Mr. Zimmerman worked for BDO LLP and Eisner LLP, both certified public accounting firms located in New York, NY.Mr. Zimmerman holds a B.A. in Accounting from Touro College in New York and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York.