AFIRE Virtual Event: Tax & Regulatory Summit

Jim Costello is senior vice president of Real Capital Analytics and has worked in the CRE space on issues of urban economics since 1990, including a 20-year stint at CBRE with the Torto Wheaton Research team. Jim expanded the reach of the Torto Wheaton Research developing forecasts of global market fundamentals. Jim also developed approaches to pair the forecast results with frameworks to answer investor questions on asset values and relative investment opportunities.

Jim provided advice to the Treasury Department and other policy makers in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis and helped educate these professionals on commercial real estate performance. Jim has recently been made a member of the Commercial Board of Governors of the Mortgage Bankers Administration and is working there as well to help policy makers understand our industry.

Jim is expanding the capabilities of the Real Capital Analytics team on issues of real estate market dynamics. Jim has a master’s degree in economics and is a member of The Counselors of Real Estate.

Hubert O. Eisenack is a tax partner at EY Munich. Hubert’s key expertise is advising on US-bound real estate investments by non-US regulated institutional investors routed via regulated fund platforms in Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Germany. Hubert’s main clients include European real estate open-ended and closed-end funds and fund managers as well as European insurance companies, pension funds, large corporates, and family offices. Hubert holds a Master’s degree from Boston University School of Law, and is admitted as a German Rechtsanwalt and Steuerberater as well as an Attorney-at-Law in New York.

David Friedline is the leader of Global Funds Tax Advisory and leader of Deloitte‘s Financial Services/Real Estate practice based in New York,
has over 25 years of real estate industry experience serving a variety of fund platforms, public REITs, and foreign investors.

David also has operating experience having served as a senior tax counsel and regional
tax director of the London and Stamford offices of GE Capital Real Estate. David has vast experience advising clients on the US tax aspects of a wide array of domestic and
cross-border real estate matters, including the use of REITs (equity and mortgage), formation of partnerships and joint ventures, M&A transactions and due diligence, capital raising and fund formation, debt-workouts and purchases of debt portfolios, leasing and tax-deferred exchanges,
and real estate securitizations.

David is very active in the Real Estate Committee of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section, and is Chair of the Subcommittee on Cancellation of Debt, and in the Tax Policy Advisory Committee of Real Estate Roundtable. David also is a member of the AICPA’s Tax Section and is a frequent speaker and author on a variety of real estate, partnership, and international tax topics.

Mike Hu is the Managing Director at Gaw Capital Partners and he leads the Capital Markets team in the United States. Mike is based in Los Angeles, the US headquarters, and is responsible for capital formation, co-investments, separate account investments, investor relations, and marketing.

Mike joined Gaw Capital in 2011 and was previously a member of Gaw Capital’s acquisitions team based in Hong Kong, the global headquarters. In December 2014, Mike was relocated to Los Angeles to help grow the US business. Mike is conversationally fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has extensive experience working in Asia, Europe, and the US.

Mr. Hu is an active member of the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) and Urban Land Institute (ULI). Mike received a bachelor’s degree in economics and international area studies with college and Latin honors from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and an MBA from London Business School.

Glenn Johnson is a the principal at EY for the National Tax Department.

Jonathan Stein is a director at Goulston & Storrs and provides sophisticated tax advice across a full range of commercial and real estate transactions.

His real estate clients include REITS, developers, institutional and family office investors, fund sponsors and lenders.

He handles complex tax matters involving joint ventures, cross-border and tax-exempt structuring, tax-free exchanges, transfer taxes, leasing and finance matters.

Jonathan also represents investment fund sponsors and portfolio companies in taxable and tax-free M&A transactions.

Charles Vaughan is the Director of Tax for Northwood Investors and is based in the Denver office. Charles is responsible for all fund and property level tax compliance and tax structuring, as well as overall management of the annual tax process.

Prior to joining Northwood Investors, Charles was a Senior Manager in KPMG’s real estate tax practice, where he specialized in the taxation of real estate funds and REITs. Previously, he also served as a Manager in the Passthroughs Group of KPMG’s Washington National Tax practice, specializing in partnerships and REITs. Charles also has prior experience as a Tax Manager for a large, publicly traded REIT.

Charles holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce and a master’s degree in accounting from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in California and Virginia.

As CEO of AFIRE, Gunnar Branson brings nearly three decades of experience across commercial real estate, professional services, education, and association leadership.

Prior to joining AFIRE in 2018, he served as CEO of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAREIM), and before that, he led strategy and marketing for Fortune 500 and other innovative mid-market companies.

As a recognized thought leader, Gunnar is a regular speaker, panelist, and spokesperson for the global real estate and investing community, focused on institutional investing, urbanism, sustainability, and future trends.