Team
Managing Director and Head of U.S. Commercial Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Andrea Pierce is a Managing Director and Head of U.S. Commercial Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. She is responsible for the strategic direction of the Firm’s commercial portfolios; the implementation of key initiatives and best practices in these sectors; and she oversees all operational, leasing, disposition, and repositioning activities within the portfolios.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital Group in 2018, Ms. Pierce held acquisitions and asset management leadership positions with J.P. Morgan, The Mills Corporation, and JMB Realty Corporation. She was also a member of the board of directors for Carr Properties.
Ms. Pierce received a B.S. degree from the University of Southern California. She is a CFA Charter Holder and a Certified Public Accountant. She is also the Chairman of Urban Land Institute’s Commercial & Retail Development Council.
Managing Director and Head of European Debt Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Adam Lawrence is a Managing Director and Head of European Debt Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. In this role, he is responsible for the management of all lending transactions post execution across Europe. In his extensive corporate and structured finance career; he has worked for both buy-side and sell-side institutions with experience across origination, credit risk, portfolio and asset management, as well as workout and restructuring.
Mr. Lawrence previously served as Head of Asset Management, Private Credit at UK Institutional Investor Legal & General Group Plc – responsible for an £18B fixed income debt portfolio across the UK, Europe and the U.S, within their Investment Management division. Prior to that he held roles at Canada Life Asset Management, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Lloyds Bank and Allied Irish Bank.
Mr. Lawrence received a Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and Finance from the University of Hertfordshire, and is a Chartered Accountant with ACMA / CGMA status.
Managing Director and Head of International Debt Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Irene Ryan is a Managing Director and Head of International Debt Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. Since joining Starwood Capital in 2013, Ms. Ryan has managed the portfolio of loans held across multi-asset classes and international jurisdictions originated by Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD) and Starwood European Finance Real Estate Finance (SWEF: LN).
Prior to joining Starwood Capital, Ms. Ryan worked in a real estate focused bank in London, holding a variety of lending roles from origination to loan restructuring and recovery. Before that, she gained her chartered accountancy qualification (ACA) while working at KPMG in Ireland.
Ms. Ryan received a bachelor of business studies from Trinity College Dublin and is a fellow of the Institute of the Chartered Accountants of Ireland (FCA).
Managing Director and Head of U.S. Residential Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Matt Smith is a Managing Director and Head of U.S. Residential Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. He is responsible for overseeing the Firm’s existing ~107,000-unit market rate and affordable housing multi-family portfolio as well as Highmark Residential, Starwood Capital’s multi-family property management affiliate.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital Group, Mr. Smith was a Managing Principal and Head of Portfolio Management at FrontRange Capital across multi-family, student housing, and other sectors. In previous roles, Mr. Smith was a Managing Partner for six years in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group and he was also an Executive Vice President at the Related Companies, and held senior positions at AvalonBay and Archstone.
Mr. Smith received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Managing Director, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Andres Panza is a Managing Director in Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. Mr. Panza is primarily responsible for oversight of the Firm’s investments in the affordable housing, East Coast office and industrial, medical office building, net lease, and student housing sectors. He is also involved in the origination, underwriting, structuring and execution of investments in affordable housing.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2016, Mr. Panza was an Associate in The Carlyle Group’s U.S. real estate fund. Before that, he worked as an Analyst at Strategic Investment Group.
Mr. Panza received a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an MA in International Studies from The Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania. He has held the Chartered Financial Analyst designation since 2011.
Managing Director, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Ben Rosenbaum is a Managing Director in Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. Mr. Rosenbaum is primarily responsible for managing the Firm’s $2B+ Limited-Service Private Hospitality REIT. He leads strategic direction of the REIT which includes, executing value-add initiatives, improving property operations, capital investment, and all disposition activities. Mr. Rosenbaum also works closely with the technology team to help implement proptech solutions across the portfolio and asset management group. He began his career at Starwood Capital Group as an Associate on the Portfolio Management team focusing on one of the Firm’s opportunity funds.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2013, Mr. Rosenbaum was an Analyst in the Transaction Real Estate Group at Ernst & Young in New York City.
Mr. Rosenbaum received a BBA in Finance from The Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
Managing Director, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Dan Schwaegler is a Managing Director in Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. In this role, Mr. Schwaegler manages the Firm’s US residential land portfolio as well as well as the west coast development portfolio.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2003, Mr. Schwaegler worked in the development area at Avalon Bay. Before that, he served as the South American Regional Manager in the mining practice for global engineering consultancy Montgomery Watson.
Mr. Schwaegler holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Washington, and a B.S. in civil engineering and a B.A., both from the University of Notre Dame.
Managing Director, Portfolio Management
Starwood Capital Group
Michael Seltzer is a Managing Director in Portfolio Management at Starwood Capital Group. In this role, Mr. Seltzer focuses on the reporting, valuation and analysis of the Firm’s real estate opportunity funds.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2011, Mr. Seltzer was an Associate in BlackRock’s portfolio analytics and financial markets advisory groups. In these roles, he was responsible for the valuation and strategic risk advisory functions for commercial real estate debt and securities.
Mr. Seltzer received B.S. degrees in both Economics and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Seltzer is a CFA® charterholder.
Managing Director, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Roy Shanholtz is a Managing Director in Asset Management and Head of Procurement at Starwood Capital Group. In this role, he is responsible for maximizing value in all asset classes across the United States.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital Group in 2006, Mr. Shanholtz worked at Starwood Hotels & Resorts for approximately ten years. His last role at Starwood Hotels & Resorts was Senior Director, eCommerce, Strategic Sourcing within the North America Division. Roy and his team were responsible for development, implementation and ongoing management of procurement and sourcing technologies. His team directly developed and managed Starwood Hotel’s eProcurement and eSourcing platforms. Prior to this, he led numerous projects within Starwood Hotels’ corporate office, and served several hotels in a finance capacity.
Mr. Shanholtz served in the U.S. Air Force stationed in the U.S. and in Japan.
Director, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Masayuki Kato is a Director in Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group. In this role, Mr. Kato oversees the execution of business plans for all assets in Japan.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2021, Mr. Kato had 18 years of real estate experience, most recently as a Director at Allianz Real Estate Japan where he was responsible for Acquisition and Asset Management. Prior to that, Mr. Kato worked at Hudson Advisors Japan (the asset management arm of Lone Star Funds) and GE Real Estate, as well as a smaller, local real estate company.
Mr. Kato received a B.A. degree in Business Administration from Kobe University, Japan.
CEO, InTown Suites and Uptown Suites
Starwood Capital Group
Ash Kapur is the CEO of InTown Suites, a large investment in one of Starwood Capital’s global opportunity funds, and is responsible for the company’s overall strategy, growth and operations. InTown Suites is amongst the largest owner & operator of extended stay suites in the U.S. with over 185 properties and over 1,500 employees.
Previously, Mr. Kapur joined Starwood Capital in 2011 and has served in various roles within the firm including as a Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer of Hospitality in the Hotel Asset Management Group. In this role, Mr. Kapur managed a portfolio of Starwood’s full service hotels with the objective of maximizing asset value including execution of capital projects, renovations and hotel repositioning. As Chief Revenue Officer, he was responsible for increasing revenues for Starwood’s hotel assets in the United States and Europe, with a focus on hotel revenue management, sales, marketing, technology and e-commerce. He also served as the Chief Operating Officer for SH Hotels & Resorts, an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital in 2011, Mr. Kapur served as Senior Director of Global Strategic Accounts & Gaming at Expedia.
Mr. Kapur graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad in India. He also received a Master’s in Marketing from Bristol Business School in the United Kingdom.
Senior Vice President and Head of Hotel Development, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Jason Cruce is a Senior Vice President and Head of Hotel Development with Starwood Capital Group. In his role Mr. Cruce is responsible for managing the design and construction of all hotel, glamping, and outdoor developments across North and Central America. Mr. Cruce also works closely with the Starwood acquisitions team on the underwriting of new deals and serves as an advisor to Starwood’s affiliate businesses such as SH Hotels and Resorts.
Prior to joining Starwood in 2018, Mr. Cruce was Vice President of Development at SBE and previously held positions at CallisonRTKL and Hilton Worldwide.
He is a graduate of the University of Kansas, with degrees in Architecture and European Studies. Mr. Cruce has completed professional development programs in Asset Management and Real Estate Development with Cornell.
Senior Vice President, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Paul Ahls is a Senior Vice President in Asset Management with Starwood Capital Group. He focuses on the asset management of multifamily assets, including: renovation, financing and dispositions, and also has prior experience managing investments in hotel, office, and single-family residential development. His role includes overseeing the asset strategy for several regions, working closely with team members on dispositions and refinancing, coordinating reporting, and implementing proptech solutions across a portfolio of market-rate apartments. Mr. Ahls joined Starwood in 2011 as an Associate with the multifamily asset management team.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital, Mr. Ahls was an Associate with Silverpeak, where he asset managed multifamily, office, and land development investments.
Mr. Ahls received a BBA in Finance from the University of Georgia in 2005. He is a member of the National Multifamily Housing Council.
Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management
Starwood Capital Group
Mingching Kam is a Senior Vice President in Portfolio Management at Starwood Capital Group. In this role, he oversees some of the Firm’s real estate opportunity funds including coordinating valuation, reporting and analysis.
Mr. Kam previously worked on the Real Estate Planning and Portfolio Management team at Google, where he covered its San Francisco Bay Area portfolio. Prior to that, Mr. Kam was an Associate in Portfolio Management at Starwood Capital Group. He began his career at Cornerstone Research where he provided economic and financial analysis for commercial litigation matters.
Mr. Kam received a B.S. degree in operations research: financial engineering from Columbia University.
Senior Vice President, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Chris Penny is a Senior Vice President in the European Hotel Asset Management team at Starwood Capital Group. He is based in Starwood Capital’s London office where he asset manages a number of the firm’s European hotel investments. In this role Mr. Penny leads the redevelopment, operational turn-around, rebranding, refinancing and disposition of a wide range of hotel real estate.
Prior to joining Starwood in 2015, Mr. Penny worked at Deloitte in the real estate audit department.
Mr. Penny received a BA in Industrial Economics from the University of Nottingham and he is a member of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association European Chapter and currently serves as its Treasurer.
Senior Vice President, Asset Management
Starwood Capital Group
Brian Soss is a Senior Vice President in Asset Management at Starwood Capital Group focused on multifamily investments. Mr. Soss is primarily responsible for the financial performance of multiple multifamily investment portfolios and US regions, where he leads activities including value-add strategy and execution, capital investment, and disposition. He also plays an integral role in activities related to Short-Term Rentals and PropTech solutions in multifamily properties.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital Group in 2016, Mr. Soss served as Associate Director at MetLife Investment Management leading asset management and development activities in multifamily, office and retail properties in the Southeastern US.
Mr. Soss received his MBA from the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and his BA in Economics from the University of Vermont. He is a committee member of the National Multi Housing Council.