Program Speakers

Francisco Acoba is a Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting with more than 22 years of global experience providing management consulting services to corporate services, corporate real estate, workplace, and facilities management organizations within Fortune 500 companies and the world’s largest public sector entities. Based in New York, NY, he serves as U.S. Lead for Deloitte’s Digital Real Estate Transformation business and its Smart Building Initiative.

With over 20 years working across entertainment, technology, event production and marketing, Leila brings extensive experience in multi-screen digital product development across web, mobile, AR/VR/MR/XR & OTT, as well as integrated marketing, with integrated campaigns with digital, social, print and experiential. Leila's production experience extends to venue management, event production and festival operations. Leila is passionate about the intersection of immersive tech and storytelling, and its ability to transform the art, entertainment, retail and real estate markets.

Stuart Appley is a Managing Director in CBRE’s Global Workplace Solutions Group, where he is responsible for providing executive technology oversight and consulting to clients. Stuart also has a technology innovation & thought leadership role, helping to develop, drive, and lead pilots on innovative digital projects across CBRE. He was previously the CIO at Shorenstein Realty Services, where he led the transformation of the company’s technology environment into an innovative and best in class organization.

Ninad Athavale has a background in architecture and went to business school for operations. He believes in asking fundamental questions about the truth of process to achieve efficiency and simplicity in organizations. Increasingly, this means adopting emerging technologies. The construction and real estate space is one of the last frontiers for tech, and Ninad is always curious about the rapid changes that are happening in the industry and excited to see what the future holds.

As Webinars and Program Manager at Realcomm, Sarah Bemporad is responsible for conducting real estate tech webinars and managing the educational content for online seminars and conferences. Previously, Sarah managed investor and corporate relations at Paramount Group, a fully-integrated REIT headquartered in New York.

Howard Berger has over 30 years of experience in technology and commercial/investment real estate. As Realcomm's SVP Programs, he manages its US and international conferences and CIO programs. Previously, he was with The Jamesan Group, which specialized in strategic technology consulting for the commercial real estate industry and prior to that, he was with TRW Real Estate Information Systems where he developed real estate information systems for the mortgage, appraisal and title insurance industries.

Keith Berkoben is a senior Google engineer with fifteen years of experience in IoT and seven years focused on building systems. In his role, Keith is responsible for the design and implementation of technology to accumulate, analyze and act upon data at scale across Google's real estate portfolio. Keith is also one of the creators of the open source Digital Buildings ontology and toolset.

As head of Workplace Performance and Innovation, David Berz manages the technology and data teams that give Global Workplace Services the insight it needs to drive incredible employee experiences. David’s team seeks innovative technologies that enhance the employee experiences in interacting with LinkedIn’s global real estate portfolio as well as providing data-informed decisions for Workplace Design and Construction.

Mark Brown is the Strategy and Transformation Practice leader for CohnReznick. Mark is part of the Firm’s STaT (Strategy Technology and Transformation) group and leads a global team on business acquisitions, IT strategy, change management, risk management, technology, and business transformation.

Andy Campbell brings a broad base of knowledge to United Therapeutics through his background in civil engineering design, heavy civil and mixed use commercial construction, and thought provoking research into cutting edge green technologies. His goal is to develop ground breaking projects with the focus on occupant satisfaction while pushing the envelope of sustainable design. This is exemplified in his leadership on The Unisphere, their recently opened 120,000 square-foot urban site net-zero headquarters outside Washington, DC.

Franco Castaldini is a veteran marketing, business development and product strategy executive who has led high-growth go-to-market strategies for innovative startups and large global enterprises. He joins ThoughtWire as its Chief Commercial Officer from GE Digital where he led the commercial strategy for a high-productivity application development platform. Franco joined GE Digital with the acquisition of Bit Stew Systems, where he helped to position the company for rapid growth and their successful exit in late 2016 for $208 million.

Emmanuel Daniel is responsible for building and delivering the Digital Transformation strategy for campuses across Microsoft and leads a global multidisciplinary team of architects and experience designers. He builds experiences that merge technology with the built environment, leading to the formation of spaces that respond to the needs of its users. He is also accountable for identifying, building and implementing the next generation of products that will make smarter and sustainable buildings.

Andrew Dennison is a Director of Enterprise Services at DroneDeploy. In this capacity he helps our enterprise clients design and operate their global drone programs. He is intimately familiar with entire enterprise drone technology stack and industry-specific ROI. Prior to DroneDeploy, Andrew was the Founder of Uplift Data Partners, a global drone service provider that was acquired in 2018.

As a Senior Strategist for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, Chris Fine is focused on Aruba’s Smart Digital Workplace initiative. The Smart Digital Workplace combines Aruba’s industry-leading networking technology and a growing ecosystem of partners in technology, real estate, smart furniture, and other specialties, to drive the growth of new experiences for end users and managers in the next gen Smart Office.

Robert Fitzgerald is a Senior Director with JLL's Digital Solutions Unit. Robert helps JLL clients by advising, implementing, integrating and sustaining Real Estate and Facilities Management (RE/FM) technology and data to drive measurable business results. Taking a business partner and trusted advisor approach, Robert delivers strategic insights, functional depth and technical aptitude to ensure JLL client success.

Joydeep Ganguly is currently the Senior Vice President of Corporate Operations at Gilead Sciences –. In his current role, his accountabilities include providing leadership for multiple functions: Corporate Engineering and Facilities, Sustainability and EH&S, Procurement, CFO2020 program and the CFO PMO (Program Management office). Joydeep joined Gilead in 2016 from Biogen, where he was Vice President and head of Biogen’s Global Biologics Manufacturing & Technical Operations organization.

Karen is the VP of Global Workplace Strategy and the Change Management Program Manager for Fidelity Investments. She embraces an entrepreneurial spirit and focuses on understanding the business, empowering teams and creating new ways to engage employees in purposeful experiences while in the workplace. Her goal always includes demonstrating value through innovation and considers both the physical and virtual worlds.

Mark Golan is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in real estate, finance and technology. Currently in his role as VP Real Estate & Workplace Services (REWS) at Google, he oversees the organization's business partnerships, central facilities services, events & guest services, transportation, and all facets of design and construction.

Sergey Gutkin a proven leader with over 15 years of industry experience. He specializes in business development and operations management. He has successfully structured and executed various strategic programs across many large enterprise portfolios. In addition, he is responsible for continuously improving and growing the IBS Project Management Office while overseeing the operations at IBS.

Bryan Huber serves as the COO of CleanSpark a San Diego based technology company whose services enable large power users to meet their objectives for utility cost savings, greenhouse gas reductions, and energy security while also unlocking revenue potential that boosts Net Operating Income and Net Asset Value for property owners. Bryan’s background includes executive positions spanning feasibility, design, finance, implementation, and operational stages of complex power projects.

Jeremy Kopstein joined Uber in May 2017, bringing 15 years of experience within CRE Technology. With these skills and previous experiences, he is working to build a state-of-the-art Workplace & Real Estate Application Platform for Uber. Jeremy is currently responsible for the development and maintenance of Uber's Application Platform for the Workplace & Real Estate Team which includes Lease Administration, Transaction Management, Facility Management, Project Management, Smart Building, and Data Strategy. In this role, he focuses on the strategy, leadership, and delivery of the tools needed to optimize Uber's real estate portfolio and meet reporting requirements.

Christopher Lafayette is an Emergent Technologist in medtech, virtual, augmented and mixed reality, AI, telepresence, disruptive media and several additional applied sciences. He is a Silicon Valley national and an international speaker. He’s creating a series of immersive medical incubator platforms, building fully equipped immersive Holodecks and creating emergent technology applications and hardware. Christopher has also executed and managed business development for thousands of campaigns and projects. He is an expert in lab-to-market acceleration. He’s working with corporations and startups to bring eco-culture into hardware, software, and content development.

Sabine Lam is a Technology Program Manager on the Real Estate and Workplace Services team at Google. In this role, she focuses on bringing the connected building vision to the forefront of Google real estate and facilities operations teams, and equips REWS to deliver next generation services and workspaces that enhance employee productivity. Her responsibilities include collaborating with industry stakeholders to work towards a global strategy for building automation systems across the Google portfolio.

Steve Lefkowitz is a results-driven and profit-minded executive in the national corporate real estate world with the proven ability to effectively manage large-scale real estate portfolios. He is a 39-year veteran of WarnerMedia (previously Time Warner) where he has held multiple titles including SVP of CRE for HBO. As the current Head of Global Real Estate Operations for WarnerMedia, he oversees FM operations and Design & Construction initiatives, and he has a demonstrated history of leading and directing teams through complex real estate projects and reorganizations.

Matthew Lennan has been integrating IT and building system technologies for more than 30 years. He has developed and implemented computing infrastructures for global financial firms, major healthcare facilities, manufacturing, entertainment complexes and traditional smart buildings. Most recently, Matthew has been working in software development to refine the customer experience for smart buildings in Office, Retail and Residential environments. He is currently responsible for driving Innovation across Oxford Properties’ portfolio.

Clament is part of the Innovation Team within Real Estate Technology and Innovation (RETI). He is currently assigned to lead the ideation, design, development and deployment of EY’s smart workplace experience capabilities and allied smart infrastructure across various EY offices. Through his prior roles in EY, he has demonstrated expertise in leading enterprise level Innovation and emerging technology adoption initiatives.

Michael is the Chief Revenue Officer at Reonomy, a commercial real estate platform. Over the past 15 years, Michael has held numerous roles in direct sales, business development, finance and operations. Prior to Reonomy, he was the SVP of Sales at Namely – growing the HR technology company from $200K to more than $60M in annual recurring revenue.

Paul Maximuk is the Product Owner as well as a technical SME at Ford Land, leading all BMS and controls integrations globally. He has over 30 years of experience in the industry managing multiple types of energy systems and specializing in strategic smart building implementation and management. Paul’s expertise in the built environment spans real estate assets from large industrial facilities to Class A office buildings.

Charles Meyers is SVP & Chief Technical Architect, Corporate Property Group of Wells Fargo and responsible for emerging technologies that optimize the company's real estate portfolio. Currently, he is focused on mitigating the emerging threats and cybersecurity vulnerabilities around building operational and physical security technologies. Charles has 39 years of financial systems and technology experience. Since 2016, he also been spearheading the industry association, Real Estate Cyber Consortium (RECC), to elevate awareness across the real estate community to improve cybersecurity preparedness for buildings and facilities.

Matthew Montañes works in the Global Real Estate group at JPMorgan Chase & Co. In that capacity, he is responsible for Global Property Management and Regional Asset Management activities for the firm’s corporate and retail portfolio. He was previously Director of Global Property Operations at Tishman Speyer.

Rob Murchison has over 20 years experience in strategy consulting, sales and design of technology to real estate developers and commercial businesses with expertise in networking, and software and data base applications. He is currently Co-founder and Managing Director of consulting firm Intelligent Buildings Inc., a nationally recognized specialist in real estate technology with expertise in strategy and standards development, organizational alignment and financial analysis.

Alan Ni is the Director of Smart Spaces and IoT for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, with over 15 years of technology and financial expertise with mobile computing. Alan’s team is responsible for developing Aruba’s Smart Spaces and digital workplace strategy.

Sandra Oliver is Section Chief, Global Real Estate of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and oversees the global real estate program consisting of 200+ properties (office and residential) located in over 100 countries. Sandra leads a team of professional and support staff providing clients operating in member countries an array of real estate services. She also provides strategic guidance for the asset management and disposition functions for owned facilities in the Washington D.C. area and generating revenue through a mix of office, retail and other tenant arrangements.

Emily Olman is CEO and Co-Founder of SpatialFirst, an AR Cloud platform for commercial real estate headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously, Olan founded Hopscotch Interactive, a real estate marketing company bringing new tech applications to the industry. She also serves as Co-President of the Bay Area AR/VR Association in California where she advocates and evangelizes for VR/AR market acceleration on a global scale.

Mike Petrusky is host of the “Workplace Innovator Podcast” and Director of Events & Growth Marketing at iOFFICE. He joined iOFFICE in March of 2018 with a mission to energize the company’s live events. He is a dynamic speaker, podcaster, and seasoned marketer who has a passion for sharing iOFFICE’s unique brand of thought leadership to CRE & FM leaders in the digital workplace

Paige Pitcher is an urban planner, real estate developer and tech enthusiast. Currently at Hines Office of Innovation, she vets and launches new products, processes and technologies. Previous to joining Hines, she co-founded a planning and development company that built half a million square feet designed to stabilize neighborhoods and transform lives.

Simon Ratner is the co-founder and CTO of Proxy, a company on a mission to empower all people with a digital identity signal that's universally accessible, secure and private. At Proxy, he strives to create technologies that revolutionize the way we experience the physical world while empowering people to maintain complete control of their identity, data, and privacy.

Jeff Revoy is a senior executive with leadership achievements spanning all company operations. Beyond deep functional expertise, Jeff has strengths in establishing successful company strategies, building and resizing organizations, and motivating teams. He possesses significant international/global experience and has been actively involved in M&A as both target and acquirer. He recently co-founded his third company, SpaceIQ, which offers a powerful and intuitive workplace management platform for companies of every size.

As the Director of IoT, HQ for Real Estate and Facilities at Oracle, Francisco Ruiz is responsible for partnering with global teams to help design, secure and guide the implementation of enterprise IoT Energy Solutions. Prior to Oracle, he consulted various Real Estate teams utilizing IoT for continuous improvement and sustainable business operations including Adobe, GSA, eBay, PayPal and NASA. He is active on various industry boards and organizations which supports his continuous pursuit of the most energy efficient and sustainable technologies.

Allen Samuel serves as the Director of Modernization and Innovation responsible for modernizing, rationalizing, and innovating real estate applications and systems for the Public Buildings Service (PBS) in GSA. He is also responsible for identifying new technologies to improve operations, develop modern system architecture, and develop a PBS Technology roadmap.

Shahryar Shaghaghi, a Principal with CohnReznick Advisory and national leader of its Cybersecurity and Privacy Practice, is focused on helping clients with their cybersecurity strategy and transformation programs. By leveraging his extensive technology and risk management leadership experience garnered from his tenure with major consulting and financial services companies and his solid track record with complex and global implementations, Shahryar has successfully helped chief technology, risk, compliance, legal, finance, operations and security officers achieve their goals and optimize their critical and strategic programs.

Steve is a well-regarded international executive, who ties financial and operational solutions with corporate strategy and margin improvement needs. He has extensive international experience leading teams and engaging clients across the United States and Europe. In 2018, he founded Open Sourced Workplace, a professional network for business owners and workplace professionals seeking to maximize workplace productivity and employee experience.

As EVP Client Services, Veronica is responsible for client acquisition and satisfaction, along with 5Q Cyber’s business operations. For the past 25 years, she has focused her career on delivering outstanding measurable outcomes and providing real solutions to very complex problems for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 organizations. Veronica is obsessed with delighting customers, is an avid advocate of women in technology, and is a champion of employee engagement through empowerment.

Joshua Van Blankenship directs StandardVision’s design team, focusing on project vision, architectural integration and system documentation. Previously, he was a Project Architect at Aedas LA / Meis Architects.

Ron Victor is a Silicon Valley based technology entrepreneur with 20 years of experience and expertise launching new ventures at start-ups and fortune 1000 technology companies. To-date he has enabled raising more than $30Million in start-up capital for multiple start-ups in silicon-valley. Ron has founded and led three companies to-date with successful exits. His latest venture is IoTium Inc. – a Silicon Valley start-up that provides a secure, cloud-managed, easy-to-deploy software defined network infrastructure for all IoT verticals.

Edward Wagoner serves as the Executive Director and Digital Chief Information Officer at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., a role to which he was named in 2020. Most recently, he served as Global Chief Information Officer of Corporate Solutions at the company. Wagoner joined Jones Lang LaSalle in 1996 and has held various roles with increasing responsibilities including, Director of Information Technology for Americas, Implementation Manager of National Property Service Center, Manager of Audit and Quality Control and Chief Information Officer for Americas.

At Esri, Pat Wallis delivers workplace location information and supporting technologies to meet the needs of employees, visitors, students, and business operations worldwide. More recently, Pat worked for the US Coast Guard, overseeing a portfolio of over 4,000 assets totaling more than 8.6 million SF, with a value exceeding $3 billion.

Matt transforms places into experiences by treating technology as an architectural material. He heads up the physical design practice at ESI Design and is responsible for overall design direction when seamlessly integrating digital technology into physical spaces. This includes space planning, architectural coordination, and communicating experiential ideas through drawings, 3D models and renders. He has played an essential role in countless high profile projects including the Statue of Liberty Museum, and many corporate and commercial spaces.

Charles Whiteley is the digital lead for Environmental & Property Solutions (E&PS) at ExxonMobil. He manages digital strategy for the CRE portfolio, including master planning and strategy, global projects organization, facilities and operations and an environmental stewardship group. The E&PS organization in total manages ~25M square feet of CRE across the globe. He is also responsible for ExxonMobil’s strategies tied to smart buildings, digitally connected workers and resident experience. The primary driver behind Charles’ role is maximizing the value that CRE generates for the firm’s business lines.

As Managing Partner, VP of Strategy & Business Development, Lisa Woods is responsible for developing Realcomm's strategic relationships with those technology companies that participate in the company's conferences, seminars and CIO events. Prior to joining Realcomm, Lisa spent 10 years working with building owners and managers, providing technology solutions in telecommunications, access control and security.

Founder of Realcomm Conference Group, an education organization that produces Realcomm, IBcon and CoRE Tech, the world's leading conferences on technology, automated business solutions, intelligent buildings and energy efficiency for the commercial and corporate real estate industry. As CEO, Jim interacts with the largest companies globally pertaining to some of the most advanced and progressive next generation real estate projects under development.