Alex Epstein is a Vice President on the investment banking team at LEX Markets - a boutique investment bank specializing in real estate equity capital markets transactions.  Alex is LEX’s staffer, managing junior employees and directing all analytical and underwriting efforts across all of LEX’s transactions, and presenting to LEX’s investment committee led by former Brookfield CEO, Ric Clark.  Alex also works closely with LEX’s leadership team in sourcing and structuring transactions, as well as on shaping the firm’s corporate strategy and aiding in corporate fundraising efforts.  While at LEX, Alex has led the underwriting on more than 50 transactions totaling more than $1bn in potential equity investments, as well as assisting in raising the firm’s $15M Series A funding led by Peak6 and Khosla.  Alex also built the firm’s data-driven sourcing strategy, and designed the firm’s FINRA-compliant calculator to project returns of real estate IPOs.

Prior to joining LEX in Q1 2021, Alex was at OakNorth, where he built up the firm’s US office presence as the first junior employee.  Alex trained directly under OakNorth’s senior leadership in their London office as both a part of their direct lending operation and as a part of the team planning and operating the launch of the firm’s US presence.  Alex was a part of the founding team of OakNorth’s US AI-driven debt fund, launched with $100M of equity provided by SoftBank, where he was responsible for setting up the physical and underwriting infrastructure of the US office in addition to forming a key part of the transaction team involved in sourcing, underwriting, and presenting potential transactions to the firm’s credit committee.  Alex was also responsible for designing the US office’s back office processes and training back office staff based out of Gurgaon, India.

Alex previously trained as an investment banker in Goldman Sachs’ New York office and Eastdil Secured’s London office.  Alex graduated cum laude with a degree in Economics, Computer Science, and Philosophy from Middlebury College, and holds a certificate in financial accounting from Harvard Business School, as well as Series 79 and 63 licenses.

Jonathan Navallo is commercial real estate executive with 15+ years of experience in the acquisition, development, asset management, portfolio management, and disposition of commercial retail, office, multi-family, hospitality, and industrial properties around the world with a focus on value-add, core, and opportunistic strategies. Excels in both leading a team, and individual contributor, with the ability to establish relationships with key stakeholders in all levels of the organization in order to achieve immediate and long-term real estate objectives and goals.

Key Accomplishments include:

• As Head of Real Estate for the Walton Family from 2017-to-2019, Jonathan closed a real estate deal every 21 days, deploying over usd$100.0m in capital, and acquiring over 500,000 SF of office / multi-family / retail, and 1,600 acres for greenspace preservation and mountain bike trails.

• Secured approximately usd$18.0m in savings to Walmart and members of the Walton Family since 2015, through negotiations of purchase and sale agreements, early lease renewals, and increased landlord contributions.

• Developed and executed the tracking and reporting platforms for the US division of DEXUS Property Group, successfully managing a real estate portfolio comprised of 26.3m SF of industrial space in North America valued at usd$1.3b.

• Guest lecturer at the Sam Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas in 2017, and featured speaker at the Retailing Thought Leadership Conference at the University of Arkansas in 2019.

• CCIM Graduate

Jack Susser is known throughout LA as a trusted top-rated realtor, commercial real estate investor, operator, and property manager.  He has owned and operated his own real estate brokerage firm (ERA) in commercial and residential real estate.  He is a consummate negotiator, dispute resolution expert, and has a decades long exemplary track record for his sound sensibilities, foresight, honesty, and putting the interests of his clients first.  Jack currently owns and operates $14mm of commercial real estate.  We are delighted to have him share his wisdom, expertise, and ethics on the Advisory Board of Tao Equities.