Bruce R. Cohen ‘89, CEO, Wrightwood Capital

Advisory Board Member, Chicago GSB Real Estate Alumni Group

In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer, Bruce is responsible for the overall direction and leadership of Wrightwood Capital.  Mr. Cohen oversees the firm’s investment activities, portfolio management, new product development and investor relations.

Wrightwood Capital is a national real estate finance and investment company, offering a wide range of capital related products.  The company provides an array of structured capital, including high leveraged and mezzanine debt, as well as preferred and joint venture equity.  Over the last 6 years the company has invested in excess of $2.5 billion and currently manages in excess of $1.5 billion of assets including off balance sheet funds it manages. 

Bruce Cohen holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Tufts University. He is also a licensed real estate broker in the State of Illinois.  Mr. Cohen is a member of the Urban Land Institute and Real Estate Roundtable, where he is the Vice Chair of the Real Estate Capital Policy Advisory Committee and serves on the Research Committee. 

Mr. Cohen serves on the Real Estate Advisory Board of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, as well as the Board of Directors of The Children’s Museum of Chicago and the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago.  Mr. Cohen has been a guest lecturer at the Harvard Business School, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, University of Wisconsin Graduate School of Business and Boston College.  He has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, Commercial Property News, and the Real Estate Finance Journal.

John R. Nikolich ‘92, Managing Director, Flint Creek Partners

Advisory Board Member, Chicago GSB Real Estate Alumni Group

John has over 20 years of experience in the real estate and securities industry and has raised over $6 billion in equity and debt capital for both public and private real estate companies.  Flint Creek Partners, a Chicago based real estate investment bank, provides custom-tailored financial expertise and investment banking solutions to private and public real estate firms.

Prior to founding Flint Creek Partners, John was a Director with Wachovia Securities and Senior Vice President of EVEREN Securities Real Estate Investment Banking Group. John began his real estate career with LaSalle Partners in the Investment Management Group, where he managed a team responsible for the valuation of commercial real estate assets and portfolios, asset redevelopment, dispositions, financing and lease negotiations for institutional real estate investments. Prior to receiving his MBA, Mr. Nikolich was with Accenture where he marketed, designed, implemented and integrated financial solutions for an international client base.  

John earned his B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from The University of Chicago. Mr. Nikolich is a member of The Executives’ Club of Chicago, the Self Storage Association (SSA), the Real Estate Investment Association (REIA), The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business CEO Roundtable, and the Advisory Board of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Real Estate Alumni Group.  He has been a featured speaker on real estate and self storage for leading real estate organizations including the Real Estate Investment Professional Association, the Self Storage Association, the High Performance Real Estate Conference, and The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Real Estate Roundtable.  In addition to holding all applicable NASD securities licensing, Mr. Nikolich is a licensed Real Estate Broker in the State of Illinois.

Kieran P. Quinn ‘73, Chairman and CEO, Column Financial and Managing Director, Credit Suisse plus Chairman-Elect of Mortgage Bankers Association

Advisory Board Member, Chicago GSB Real Estate Alumni Group

Kieran P. Quinn is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Column Financial, Credit Suisse’s mortgage lending subsidiary for multifamily, hotel, retail and commercial properties, and is based in Atlanta.  He is also a Managing Director of Credit Suisse.  Mr. Quinn is Chairman-Elect of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

He joined Credit Suisse in November 2000 when the Firm merged with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he was President and Chief Executive Officer of DLJ’s Column Financial subsidiary.  Mr. Quinn joined DLJ/Column in 1993 and since then, has been responsible for managing Column Financial; Column Canada and Column Guaranteed, the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily origination business.  Mr. Quinn joined DLJ/Column from Equitable Real Estate where he was a Vice President, with responsibility for mortgage assets.  Prior to this, he was with a private development company in Atlanta, where he served as Chief Financial Officer for ten years.  Mr. Quinn began his career with First National Bank of Chicago in the commercial lending department, and later the real estate lending department.

Mr. Quinn is Vice Chairman and a Director of the Mortgage Bankers Association.  He is a Governor of the CMSA; a Trustee of the ICSC and serves on the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Cathedral of Christ the King.  He is also a Trustee of Regis High School in New York City.  Mr. Quinn received an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Villanova University.

Yasemin Tarakci ‘04, Senior Vice President, Countrywide

Yasemin Tarakci, MBA ’04, has led the quantitative analytics at various divisions at two of the leading mortgage originators, Countrywide and HSBC Household.  At Countrywide, her current correspondent lending division has originated as much as $1B worth of prime and sub-prime mortgages a day, half of Countrywide’s production.  At her previous position, she oversaw the analytics from marketing to risk mitigation during the explosive growth of Countrywide’s retail sub-prime division.  Earlier, she managed the origination, retention, and securitization analytics in the wholesale sub-prime origination business of HSBC Household.  She also holds two Master’s degrees in Statistics and in Engineering.

Edward J. Ryder ’92 (Moderator), Managing Director, Transwestern Investment Company, LLC

Advisory Board Member, Chicago GSB Real Estate Alumni Group

Edward J. Ryder is a Managing Director of Transwestern Investment Company, L.L.C. and head of acquisitions for Transwestern Multifamily Partners, L.L.C. Since joining Transwestern in 1998, Mr. Ryder has overseen the acquisition of $1 billion of real estate assets, including over 8,300 multifamily units and 2.6 million square feet of office space.

Prior to joining Transwestern, Mr. Ryder spent ten years in commercial and investment banking. For six years, he focused on providing financing and advisory services to real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other real estate operating companies in the investment banking real estate groups at Merrill Lynch & Co. and EVEREN Securities (formerly Kemper Securities). During that time, Mr. Ryder worked on $3.8 billion of completed transactions, including initial public offerings for six REITs; private equity and debt placements; follow-on common stock; preferred stock; convertibles; and other financings and advisory assignments.

Mr. Ryder earned his undergraduate degree at the University of South Florida and his MBA at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the National Multi Housing Council and the Urban Land Institute where he is a member of the Multifamily Council.