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Our Key
Experts
Sean Conlon: Chairman and Principal In 2000, Mr. Conlon founded an Illinois based real estate brokerage firm with an annual brokerage sales volume in excess of $2 billion. In 2006 he sold a majority interest to a Cendant sponsored group. Previously, Mr. Conlon was a very successful realtor, being recognized as one of the top producing real estate sales agents in the country, concentrating in new construction, with over $150 million in annual sales. Mr. Conlon, in partnership with Daniel P. Fowler, acquired Near North National Title ("Near North") in 2004. Near North is a national real estate title company, established in 1988 that handles over $4 billion in real estate transactions annually. The senior executives of Near North have over 50 years of collective service at the company. These executives manage the day to day functions of the business. Additionally, Mr. Conlon is involved in real estate development and has participated in over $100 million of projects in several locations across the United States. In less than a decade, Mr. Conlon has become recognized as one of the top real estate experts in the country. He is often the “voice of real estate“ for journalists and reporters and has been interviewed by CNN, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal to discuss the market and trends within the real estate industry. Mr. Conlon immigrated to the United States in 1991 from Ireland. Daniel P. Fowler: Principal and Chief Executive Officer  Mr.
Fowler serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Investment Manager.
Mr. Fowler is in charge of the oversight and management of the
company’s operations including strategy, investor relations, legal and
finance. Mr. Fowler serves on the Investment Committee and the
Management Committee.Mr. Fowler is a Chicago based real estate developer and investor. Mr. Fowler has developed in excess of $100 million of high end condominium and single family homes on Chicago’s near north side. Mr. Fowler owns office and retail properties in highly desirable commercial corridors in Chicago. Mr. Fowler graduated from Indiana University with honors, receiving his B.S. in Finance in 1992. He received a J.D., magna cum laude, from Indiana University Law School in 1994, where he was an associate editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. As a corporate attorney at Winston & Strawn, Mr. Fowler concentrated in private equity and mergers and acquisitions. In 2000, Mr. Fowler left his promising legal career to work full time in his growing real estate businesses. Recently, with Mr. Conlon as his partner, Mr. Fowler acquired Near North National Title (“Near North”) in 2004. Near North is a national real estate title company, established in 1988 that handles over $4 billon in real estate transactions annually. The senior executives of Near North have over 50 years of collective service at the company. These executives manage the day to day functions of the business. Mr. Fowler serves as a real estate industry delegate on the Chicago Federal Reserve Industrial Roundtable (“CFRIR”). The CFRIR provides vital input to the Federal Reserve’s economic Beige Book. Mr. Fowler is President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago (“HBAGC”), the local chapter of the National Homebuilders Association (“NAHB”). Mr. Fowler previously chaired HBAGC’s influential Government Affairs Committee.
Chad
Robins: President and Chief Operating Officer Previously, Mr. Robins was Vice President of Operations for the Illinois Division of Pulte Homes, focused on leading the Company’s multi-family development efforts. He led the Division’s acquisition team for the last 4 years and was responsible for two of the most successful grand openings in Division history. In March of 2005, Mr. Robins was selected for Pulte’s Emerging Leaders program. He was one of 16 individuals selected from 11,000 employees, to train in a full cross section of real estate core disciplines. Prior to Pulte, Mr. Robins held the position of vice president of finance for a metro Chicago developer where he oversaw the financial analysis of all investment properties, as well as procured debt and equity financing for the firm’s projects. Additionally, as head of the firm’s acquisitions department, he led the ongoing search for new development opportunities, drawing on his broad finance, business development, and capital transactions experience. During the 1990s, Mr. Robins helped found Wasserstein Perella’s San Francisco mergers and acquisitions practice and launched the West Coast office of a publicly traded healthcare software company. A Cornell University graduate, Mr. Robins received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a double major in real estate and finance. While receiving his MBA, Mr. Robins served as Executive Vice President of the Wharton Graduate Association. Active in civic affairs, he serves on the board of trustees for Chair Scholars Foundation, a national organization dedicated to providing scholarships to physically challenged students.
Jeff Lindenmeyer: Executive Vice President  Jeff
Lindenmeyer is Executive Vice President and Principal of Land for
Connaught Real Estate Finance. Mr. Lindenmeyer is responsible for
initiating and overseeing opportunities for both residential and
commercial developments, partnering with public and private
homebuilders and commercial developers, and expanding investor
relations.
Previously, Mr. Lindenmeyer worked for Pulte Homes/Del Webb, the largest homebuilder in the nation and in the Chicagoland area. In this role, Mr. Lindenmeyer and his team were responsible for sourcing all residential opportunities in the northern division of Pulte Homes along with project risk profiling, contract negotiation, financial structuring, and municipal entitlement procurement. In addition to the homebuilding industry, Mr. Lindenmeyer was also previously active in the office market as an Associate Vice President at Equis Corporation representing tenants in their real estate negotations. His clients included Abbott Laboratories, USG, SBC/Ameritech, American Family Insurance and the City of Chicago. Mr. Lindenmeyer started off his career in the Finance Strategy sector of Accenture (Andersen Consulting) assisting clients in evaluating their business processes and risk profiles, with special emphasis on supply chain issues. In this role, Mr. Lindenmeyer often acted as a liason between technical consultants and union representatives. Mr. Lindenmeyer graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance with an emphasis on Real Estate. Mr. Lindenmeyer earned a full basketball scholarship to the University and played for both Coach Lou Henson and Coach Lon Kruger. An active participant in the business community, Mr. Lindenmeyer currently serves as a board member of the Homebuilders Association of Greater Chicago (North Central Division) and holds a real estate broker's license.
Christopher J. Doherty: Vice President Mr. Doherty brings over ten years of both strategic and financial real estate industry experience to the Investment Manager. Prior to the Investment Manager, he served as vice president within Mesirow Financial’s Development Services group specializing in identifying, and evaluating development opportunities, as well as performing strategic and financial consulting for some of the firm’s most high profile projects. His industry specialization includes corporate real estate strategy, portfolio strategy, cost reduction, and financial analysis. Prior to joining Mesirow, Mr. Doherty provided real estate advisory services as a manager at Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations Group where he led and participated in over 75 projects. He has had significant experience performing varied types of financial analyses for both corporations and investors, including lease vs. own decisions, sale-leaseback analyses, and numerous forms of financial structuring such as synthetic leases, mortgages, developer leases, credit-tenant leases, etc. Mr. Doherty received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. Clete
Bernhardt: Vice President
Jamie Dougherty: Vice President Prior to joining Connaught Real Estate Finance, Mr. Dougherty worked for Exclusive Resorts in New York City. Exclusive Resorts, owned by Steve Case, Perry Capital and the founders, is the world’s leading luxury residence club with a real estate portfolio valued at over $1 billon. Mr. Dougherty earned his MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University with a major in Finance and a specialization in Real Estate. A graduate of Ohio University, Mr. Dougherty received a BBA in Finance and was a member of the football team. Mr. Dougherty
started his career with Horizon Medical Products in Charlotte, North
Carolina. After turning around an underperforming territory, HMP
promoted Mr. Dougherty to Denver to manage the Rocky Mountain
region. Mr. Dougherty was later recruited and joined HealthAxis, a
public healthcare software company in San Francisco. As Director of
Business Development, Mr. Dougherty established channel distribution
partnerships for the retail division and managed strategic projects.
Mr. Dougherty later worked with PHT, a venture capital backed
medical device company, where he managed the direct sales team and
distribution partners.
Michael
Hackett: Assistant Controller Before joining Connaught Real Estate Finance, Mr. Hackett work for Rosenberg Real Estate Equity Funds (RREEF) serving as the primary accounting resource for a REIT that totaled over $3.5 billion in assets under management. In addition to the REIT, Mr. Hackett also performed multiple accounting functions for two separate funds and various development projects. Prior to joining RREEF, Mr. Hackett furthered his real estate accounting knowledge while working at Equity Office Properties Trust, Equity Residential Properties Trust and Prime Group Realty Trust focusing on property accounting, financial reporting, tenant audits and SEC reporting.
Mr. Hackett holds a bachelors degree in
Accountancy and minor in Economics from Bradley University and is a
Certified Public Accountant in the state of Illinois.
Mark
Lecocq: Assistant Vice President
While at Geneva, Mr. Lecocq gained vast
experience in underwriting a diverse list of commercial real estate
projects including: land development; multi-family residential;
office; retail; industrial; hospitality; and entertainment. He also
analyzed projects with various types of financing structures
including: construction loans; mezzanine debt; equity investment;
fixed-rate debt; and equipment leasing. In addition, Mr. Lecocq
assisted in managing a diverse portfolio of real estate debt and in
securing capital for that debt from a variety of sources.
Jim Dunne:
Real Estate Associate Mr. Dunne began his career as a design engineer for the Burke Group, one of the largest design firms in the Chicago area. In this role, he facilitated the design of residential development projects (multi-family and single-family), commercial development and industrial development. Subsequently Mr. Dunne ran land development in Northern Illinois for Pulte Homes/Del Webb, the largest home builder in the nation and the Chicagoland area. In this role, Mr. Dunne and his team were responsible for the land development, contract negotiation, financial structuring, budget management, and entitlement procurement of 2700 units on 17 different projects consisting of over $225 million in assets. These projects ranged from dense, multi-family communities to large scale highly amenitized active adult communities. Mr. Dunne has the distinction of developing the two most successful grand openings in Division history.
A Purdue University graduate, Mr. Dunne earned his bachelor’s degree
in Civil Engineering. Mr. Dunne is also an active participant in the
business community as a member of the Home Builders Association of
Greater Chicago and the Urban Land Institute.
Evelyn
Vela: Staff Accountant
Joseph Scoby, Inc.: Strategic Advisor Mr. Scoby received both an MA in Regional Science and a BS in Economics (Wharton) from the University of Pennsylvania with honors in 1987. Mr. Scoby serves on the Wharton Undergraduate Executive Board, the Board of the Children’s Memorial Foundation in Chicago and the Board of Chicago’s After School Matters. Mr. Scoby also founded the St. Joseph’s club which serves meals to immigrant families in Chicago.
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Mr.
Conlon serves as Chairman of the Investment Manager. Mr. Conlon’s
responsibilities include growing the origination platform, business
strategy and investor relations. Mr. Conlon serves on the Investment
Committee and the Management Committee. 
Mr. Angelino is Chief Financial Officer of the Investment Manager
and is responsible for the day to day financial operations of the
Investment Manager including accounting, treasury, financial
reporting and loan administration as well as budgeting, forecasting
and originating sources of investment capital.
Christopher
Doherty is a Vice President for the Investment Manager and is
responsible for underwriting opportunities for both residential and
commercial developments. 
Mr.
Bernhardt is a Vice President and Senior Underwriter
for Connaught Real Estate Finance, responsible for underwriting
new opportunities on a national level and overseeing the operations
of Connaught Real Estate Finance’s in-depth market research
efforts. Mr. Bernhardt is also responsible for originating new
investment opportunities in the Southeast Region. Mr. Bernhardt is a native of Northern Virginia, but has
called Central Florida home for the past five years.
Mr.
Dougherty is Vice President of Connaught Real Estate Finance. Mr.
Dougherty is responsible for originating new investment
opportunities for the firm and establishing relationships with
leading real estate developers, lenders and brokers. Mr. Dougherty
also leads Connaught’s syndication desk.
Michael
Hackett is the Assistant Controller of Connaught Real Estate
Finance. Mr. Hackett responsibilities include supporting the day to
day financial operations of the Investment Manager including
accounting, treasury, financial reporting and loan administration.
Mr.
Lecocq is an Assistant Vice President for Connaught Real Estate Finance.
His primary responsibilities include underwriting new investment
opportunities, analyzing real estate markets through out the United
States and assisting in the monitoring of the mezzanine loan
portfolio. Mr. Lecocq graduated from Wheaton College, located in
Wheaton, Illinois, with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. He
started his career as a securities broker in Chicago, and previously
worked as an analyst for Geneva Capital Group.
Jim
Dunne is a Real Estate Associate for Connaught Real Estate Finance.
His primary responsibilities include underwriting new investment
opportunities, analyzing real estate markets throughout the United
States, and utilizing his land development expertise to assist in
the monitoring of the mezzanine loan portfolio.
Evelyn
Vela is a Staff Accountant for the Investment Manager. Ms. Vela is
responsible for assisting the Controller in the day to day
accounting activities, loan administration, treasury and financial
reporting.