Ken joins Diamondback after a 20 plus year career across various parts of the capital markets and commercial real estate worlds. Ken started his career in commercial lending at Wells Fargo in Southern California. After moving back east, he joined the equity capital markets group at Raymond James, writing research on public REITs in the office, retail, diversified, industrial and data center property sectors. He was highly regarded across the institutional investment space and had strong relationships with portfolio managers across North American as well as senior executives within the REIT sector.

 

He then spent several years as the Director of Finance and Capital markets at a $2 billion-dollar public REIT where he ran the finance, investor relations and risk management segments of the Company and had primary oversight of acquisitions, construction, and asset management. While there, he was responsible for structuring, negotiating and closing all of the Company’s debt, equity and hedging transactions in a period of hypergrowth with saw the Company’s asset base nearly double. He also worked closely with the acquisitions team to sync up property analysis and underwriting with balance sheet needs. On the operational side, property level budgets and construction underwriting and budgeting fell under his purview. Ken was also responsible for the corporate model, capital forecasting and covenant compliance while providing capital transaction analysis and corporate level M&A analysis to the CFO/CEO and Board of Directors on a quarterly or as needed basis.

 

Ken returned to Wall Street to help re-launch Raymond James’ Canadian Real Estate Capital markets effort. He developed the Canadian REIT coverage universe from the ground up, initiating and maintaining primary coverage of ~20 stocks across the multifamily, retail, office, industrial and senior care sectors. He was recognized by Brendan Wood as a top Canadian real estate analyst for several years while with RJ Canada.

 

Looking for a more entrepreneurial experience, Ken joined Electra Capital, a subordinated capital provider, at formation in 2019. Over his nearly five years with Electra, Ken wore various hats including deal structuring, analysis, underwriting and closing. He also maintained Sponsor relationships while working with clients and third parties on originations as well. The Company closed over 60 transactions placing roughly $400 million of mezzanine, preferred or participating preferred equity during his tenure.

 

At Diamondback, Ken will leverage his extensive real estate and capital markets experience to help execute on existing land development and multifamily projects, and drive a strong organizational focus on operations, finance, reporting and asset management. On the opportunistic growth side, his experience in real estate analysis, underwriting, deal structuring and transaction closings, will help the Company continue to replenish its pipeline with attractive projects that generate strong risk adjusted returns.

 

On a personal level, Ken has a BA from Boston College and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at NYU. He enjoys spending time with his wife and two children and loves the ocean and is a rescue certified scuba diver, fisherman and avid boater.