LEADERSHIP

Berah McSwain

PARTNER | CAPITAL MARKETS

Berah McSwain sources both capital and off market opportunities for the SEP platform and their partners. He has 20+ years of real estate experience and capital markets expertise with a focus given to institutional capital and private equity for development and existing transactions.

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Prior to SEP, Berah founded and ran a boutique Real Estate Private Equity firm for athletes; sourcing and underwriting a $1 Billion + proprietary pipeline. Previous work includes underwriting institutional acquisitions/portfolios and valuations with the Arthur Andersen Real Estate Group and underwriting CMBS with the Wells Fargo Capital Markets Group. Mr. McSwain has a Masters in Business Administration from the Whitman School of Business at Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts from California State University, Hayward.

Zach Merck

TRANSATIONS | INVESTMENTS

Zach Merck leads acquisitions, structured workouts and advisory services for the SEP platform. He has over 20 years working exclusively with family offices, private equity and private client advisement.

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Zach has expertise in commercial real estate acquisitions, debt and recapitalizations with a focus on hospitality product, distressed assets and structured workouts; development and operations oversite of property management / maintenance for over 2,000 residential units. Prior to SEP, he partnered with Castle Hill Partners and Leucadia National focused on managing and disposing of performing and non-performing debt and assets over $2 Billion. Mr. Merck has a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, with a Emphasis in Finance and Accounting from Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

David Kim

DIRECTOR | KOREAN EQUITY FUNDS

David Kim is a co-partner with Sovereign Equity Partners and President of Genesis Commercial Capital. David drives the SEP platform’s General Partnerships with Institutional Korean Equity Funds totaling over $1 Billion in current projects.

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David has 15+ years experience as a GP sponsor with more than $1.8 Billion of existing AUM in hospitality, multi-family and mixed-use assets with institutional partners and family offices. He also brings a significant institutional underwriting background mixed with expertise in managing private equity and foreign investment capital. Mr. Kim has a Juris Doctorate of Law from Loyola University Law School, and Masters of Science and Bachelors of Science in Neuro Anatomy at Queen’s University.

Noah Skinner

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST

Noah’s 20+ years of experience managing real estate development and sponsor partnerships across the U.S. and select foreign markets has enabled Noah to deliver large scale construction projects and real estate investments aligned with client requirements. Noah’s network in this space spans both private family offices, sovereign funds and direct investors who seek institutional grade investments.

Sheryl Onopchenko

OPERATIONS | BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Sheryl Onopchenko heads operations and business development for SEP. She has more than 20 years of analysis, advisory, and capital raising experience in the private equity sector.

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She built her analytical foundation leading qualitative and quantitative research for real estate and land use projects in eight countries as an associate for Economics Research Associates in San Francisco. Sheryl later joined Spectrus Real Estate Group, raising capital for the company’s $2.6 Billion commercial portfolio and then co-founded a boutique advisory firm in San Francisco where she raised over $50 Million in General Partner equity. Ms. Onopchenko holds a Masters of Science in Economics from University of California at Davis and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of California at Santa Barbara.

Our Partners

Strategic Leadership
Partners

Stephen Scorgie

Stephen Scorgie works directly with the SEP team both on JV equity recapitalizations and distressed loans. He is the Managing Director and head of The Carlton Group’s Florida office. The Carlton Group is one of the world’s leading real estate investment banks having closed more than $140 billion of equity joint ventures and high leverage, multi-tranche capital solutions.

Steve has over 20 years of Capital Markets experience securing billions of dollars of debt and equity financing for various types of real estate. Scorgie’s experience also includes buying and trading loans and REO as a principal and selling loans as a financial advisor to large financial institutions. Prior to working at Carlton, Scorgie was a director at Ocwen Financial, during which time Ocwen was recognized as the largest buyer of distressed commercial and residential loans in the market.

He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s of business administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Rich Cotter

Rich Cotter is the strategic partner for hotel acquisitions and operations for SEP. As a hospitality executive, he opened Wynn Las Vegas as EVP of Hotel and Food & Beverage Operations and launched the St. Regis brand worldwide. While leading operations of The St. Regis New York, he re-positioned the Lespinasse restaurant to 4-Stars in the New York Times. He subsequently managed thirty-seven hotels as Regional VP of Mid-Atlantic States for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, including the opening of W Times Square and Westin Times Square.

Richard is graduate of Cornell University's Hotel College and has served as an advisory board member for the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University, Howard University in Washington DC, and the Tisch Hospitality Program at New York University. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, particularly on the subject of luxury hotels.

Russ Dazzio

Mr. Dazzio leads the distressed asset acquisition and hotel reposition strategy for SEP. As CEO of R&R Hospitality and Gaming, he navigated a course that took R&R to a #1 ranking by Hotel Business Magazine as the fastest growing independent hotel management company in America and made a name among lending institutions as the “go to operator” they could trust to quickly turn around distressed assets. Armed with decades of experience he would go onto to build a multi-dimensional consulting, management and development company that has represented a diverse portfolio of clients found across 42 states and 32 countries and are estimated to have a combined value of over $12 billion.

Mr. Dazzio is a popular guest speaker and the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Russ is a graduate with a B.S. Degree in Hotel Administration from University of Nevada Las Vegas.

SEP’s Advisory Team has expertise from Structured Workouts to Capital Markets.

Advisory Team

Karen Mayes

Director of Fund Management & Equity Syndication at Summit Investments. Karen has served as a trusted advisor with expertise covering a wide range of disciplines both institutional and financial which include real estate, investment fund syndication, capital markets, debt placement, start-up operations, development and redeveloped commercial properties.

Primary focus on opportunistic or value added investing achieved through a systematic approach to acquiring undervalued or mismanaged assets and creating value through repositioning, repurposing and/or recapitalization.

William “Bill” Witlow

Bill is a strategic advisor for SEP’s capital markets services and has a broad spectrum of real estate expertise including finance, organizational structure and strategy, asset and property management, and development and leasing.

During his real estate career, Bill held senior positions at Venture Corporation, Savills Studley, Arthur Andersen and Aetna Realty Investors (currently UBS Realty Investors). Bill has provided capital markets and strategic direction on projects and portfolios valued in excess of $6 billion. Bill earned a Masters of Management from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Masters of Architecture from the University of Illinois.