The Palladius Team

Nitin Chexal is the CEO of Palladius Capital Management. In this role, Mr. Chexal oversees all aspects of the firm, including leading a team of investment and asset management professionals focused on making real estate equity and debt investments across the US.

Previously, Mr. Chexal was a Partner and Managing Director at Nimes Real Estate, where he led the real estate team and oversaw the acquisition, management, and disposition of several thousand multifamily and student housing units. Prior to joining Nimes, Mr. Chexal was the VP of Corporate Business Development at Counsyl (acquired NASDAQ: MYGN), a successful Silicon Valley start-up. Before that, he worked at Marathon Asset Management as part of the firm’s real estate team. During his time at Marathon, Mr. Chexal acquired and managed multifamily, hospitality, office, retail, and for-sale residential investments in the U.S. and international markets. Mr. Chexal began his career at JP Morgan, in the firm’s real estate investment banking group.

Throughout his career, Mr. Chexal has invested into, managed, and divested over $4 billion of commercial real estate assets. Mr. Chexal received a BS in Neuroscience from UCLA and a JD/MBA from the University of Chicago.

Education: 
University of Chicago JD/MBA
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)

Manish Shah is a Senior Managing Director at Palladius Capital Management, where he focuses on real estate investment origination and management and oversees legal matters for the firm. Mr. Shah is also a member of the firm’s investment committee and helps to lead the debt and income funds for Palladius.

Mr. Shah has decades of experience investing in real estate across the capital stack. Previously, Mr. Shah served as a principal and manager of numerous real estate investments, including control equity, preferred equity, mezzanine and senior debt investments. His prior experience includes the turnaround of a publicly traded company (acquired NYSE: EMR), where he was responsible for business and real estate acquisitions and divestitures. He began his career in the investment banking divisions of Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley.

Mr. Shah has served on or currently serves on the Board of Advisors for Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, Harvard’s Real Estate Alumni Board and the boards of public and private technology companies.

Education:
Harvard Law School
Yale University

Afshin Kateb is the CFO at Palladius Capital Management. In this role, he oversees the firm’s finance, accounting and risk management departments as well as its asset management team. Mr. Kateb is also a member of the firm’s investment committee and heads the hospitality investment arm of Palladius and its sister funds. Mr. Kateb has decades of experience investing in and operating multifamily and hospitality properties, as well as other assets.

Previously, Mr. Kateb was the CFO of Nimes Real Estate, where he oversaw the finance department and served as a senior member of the firm’s investment committee, overseeing a portfolio of multifamily, student housing and hospitality assets. Prior to joining Nimes, Mr. Kateb was CFO and principal at SBE; Senior Vice President and Fund Portfolio Manager at Lowe Enterprises Investors; and founding CFO of The KOR Group’s hotel, multifamily and mixed-use development companies. He also served as a Senior Management Consultant at Ernst & Young, where he worked on national and international commercial real estate projects, and Corporate Controller at Maruko Inc., where he oversaw a large portfolio of multifamily, hotel, office and retail properties.

Mr. Kateb currently serves on the boards of Woodbury University, Cal Poly Pomona Collins School of Hospitality Management and Mogul Recruiter.

Education:
Grenoble Ecole de Management (France), PhD
Pepperdine University, MBA
Woodbury University, BS Accounting

Marko Velazquez is a Senior Managing Director at Palladius Capital Management, where he focuses on real estate investment origination, underwriting, and management across all business verticals. Mr. Velazquez is also a member of the firm’s investment committee and will oversee corporate and fund level analytics.

Previously, Mr. Velazquez was the VP of Business Development & Strategy at Levity Entertainment Group (acquired NASDAQ: AMCX), a high-growth entertainment company with a diverse platform, where he oversaw corporate as well as specific business unit strategy including acquisitions, development, operations, and dispositions. Prior to joining Levity Entertainment Group, Mr. Velazquez was a Senior Associate at Nimes Real Estate where he managed underwriting, investment analytics, and dispositions on over $550MM of real estate across multiple asset classes including multifamily, student housing, and hospitality. Before that, he worked at SBE, a Los Angeles based owner/operator of world-class hospitality venues as an Associate of Business Development & Finance. Mr. Velazquez began his career at Citigroup in the Real Estate and Lodging division of the Investment Banking Division

Education: 
University of Texas, BA Economics
University of Texas, BBA Finance

Jaime Hinojosa is Head of Asset Management at Palladius Capital Management. In this role, Mr. Hinojosa focuses on real estate operations across all asset classes. Mr. Hinojosa is also a critical contributor to deal origination and acquisition underwriting.

Previously, Mr. Hinojosa was Director of Asset Management at Nimes Real Estate, where he directly oversaw all aspects of operations for several thousand units of multifamily and student housing as well support the underwriting team at Nimes. Prior to Nimes Real Estate, Mr. Hinojosa was a Regional Director at Asset Living, where he oversaw operations of several thousand student housing beds, consisting of class A, value-add, and distressed assets for nonprofit, boutique investors and institutional firms across the lower United States.

Education: 
Texas A&M University

Stuart Hepler is a Vice President of Debt Investments at Palladius Capital Management. In this role, Mr. Hepler supports the firm’s lending platforms, and focuses on fund raising, origination, execution, syndication, and portfolio management for various lending vehicles.

Previously, Mr. Hepler was an Associate at HFF/JLL on the capital markets team in Houston, TX. There, he focused on debt and equity placement across all commercial property types and helped to build out the firm’s national SFR/BTR team. Prior to joining HFF, Mr. Hepler was a financial analyst at Boxer Property in Houston, TX focused on portfolio management, financial reporting, and supporting property sales/financing activities for the firm’s various office, retail, and hospitality holdings across the country.

Throughout his career, Mr. Hepler has 7+ years of commercial real estate/lending experience and has collectively worked on over $2 billion of real estate transactions.

Education: 
Texas A&M University, BBA Finance

George Knight is a Vice President on the acquisitions team at Palladius. Previously, Mr. Knight was an Associate at Vista Investment Group, a private equity real estate platform, where he focused on acquisitions and asset management of office and multifamily assets. Prior to Vista Investment Group, Mr. Knight was an Associate at Nimes Real Estate where he focused on acquisitions and asset management of value-add multifamily and student living opportunities. Mr. Knight began his career as an analyst at Westbrook Partners. As Westbrook Partners, Mr. Knight was focus on the acquisition of residential development opportunities on the West Coast.

Education: Georgetown University, BS Finance

Wayne Tung is VP, Corporate Controller at Palladius Capital Management. In this role, Mr. Tung focuses on all accounting, finance and internal/external financial reporting functions across all business verticals.

Previously, Mr. Tung was the Director of Finance at Relevant Group, a real estate company with portfolio of multifamily and hospitality assets, where he oversaw the accounting, finance and asset management. Prior to joining Relevant Group, Mr. Tung was Corporate Controller at Barfresh Food Group Inc. (OTCQB: BRFH), where he managed accounting, finance, external audit and SEC reporting/compliance. Before that, he worked at LT Global Investment, Chin Chin Restaurant and LABite.com as Controller.

Mr. Tung began his career at SBE, a company with portfolio of hospitality and office assets.

Education:
Cal Poly Pomona, MBA
University of California Irvine, BA Economics

Frank Jimenez is the Vice President of Facilities & Construction Management at Palladius Capital Management. In this role, Mr. Jimenez is responsible for providing direction and oversight for facility operations & maintenance, capital improvements & renovations across all the assets.

Previously, Mr. Jimenez was a Regional Facilities Manager of Trinity Property Consultant, where he directly oversaw all aspects of capital improvements & renovations to ensure an efficient and effective balance between investment objectives, budgets, and the long-term maintenance for each assets totaling several thousands of units of multifamily and student housing. Prior to Trinity Property Consultant, Mr. Jimenez was a Director of Facilities for Asset Living, he oversaw all the student housing maintenance facilities with 200+ assets across 30 states.  Mr. Jimenez has more than 20 years of facilities management & Construction which brings a unique perspective to facilities management & construction as his professional experience has involved providing services from both an in-house team and a contracted services partner.

Education: 
Texas State University

Mauricio Danache is a Project Analyst at Palladius Capital Management. In this role, Mr. Danache is directly responsible for maintaining budget and costs-to-date for each project, providing job costing assistance, and budget forecasting.

Previously, Mr. Danache held a role as a Project Coordinator at Nimes Real Estate, a private equity real estate investment platform, where he focused on establishing and maintaining project organization and accounts payable.

Education: 
University of Texas at Austin, BA Economics

Bryson Shelist is an Investment Analyst at Palladius Capital Management. In this role, Mr. Shelist focuses on the due diligence, underwriting, and closing process of real estate lending opportunities across the US.

Previously, Mr. Shelist was a commercial real estate underwriter & credit analyst at Stronghill Capital, where he analyzed debt and small balance mortgages on investment properties across the country – focused on multifamily, office, retail, light industrial & warehouse, mobile home parks, and self-storage properties. Prior to Stronghill Capital, Mr. Shelist was a Small Business Administration Lending Analyst at Wintrust Financial Corporation. Mr. Shelist began his career in residential and commercial property management at Peak Properties, a management and investment firm.

Education: 
University of Wisconsin – Madison, BA Economics & Business Entrepreneurship

Nancy Ngai is an Acquisition Associate at Palladius Capital Management. In her role, she specializes in underwriting, conducting due diligence, and managing the acquisition and closing processes for multifamily and student housing opportunities. She also supports various aspects of asset management.

Previously, Ms. Ngai was an Assistant Project Manager at K. Wah International Holdings Limited (HKEX: 0173), where she managed several large-scale projects across major cities in China. Highlights include a RMB 10 billion mixed-use development in Nanjing, a life science project in Shanghai, and a multifamily project in Guangzhou etc. Her responsibilities spanned the entire project lifecycle, from land acquisition, design, and construction to project handover. She is also the co-author of a research paper titled “Developing an Analytic Hierarchy Process-based Decision Model for Modular Construction in Urban Areas.”

Education:
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Master in Real Estate
The University of Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University