Blog Posts

Part II on Nick Ito, Director at MetLife Real Estate

3/25/2019

Nick Ito is a Director of MetLife Real Estate and this addition covers his job duties and what the commercial mortgage division at MetLife Real Estate is like.

Nick is responsible for the entire Southwest Region’s loan production and loan portfolio. He has a team of producers, portfolio managers, and analysts that he is responsible for leading. On the production side, he needs to make sure the team is doing new loans, which are consistent with MetLife’s platform and provide a good risk/return ratio. For portfolio management, Nick ensures that the loans in the portfolio are performing as expected and makes sure the team is responsive to requests made by borrowers. The largest part of his job to him seems to be leading the team, providing guidance to them and helping them grow.

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School and Work Experiences from a Recent Graduate

3/18/2019

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Chad Lonski is a Land Acquisition Analyst at Melia Homes who recently graduated from the USC BRED Program in 2018. While Chad was a student, he was heavily involved in TREA, internships, and professional organizations, which has better prepared him for his current role.

As a member of TREA, Chad served on the Executive Board as Director of Off-Campus Events, and since he was in charge of site tours and firm visits, it exposed him to firms he wasn’t already familiar with. Having this role with TREA gave him leadership experience in a form of project management (scheduling students, buses, alumni, coordination etc.) and helped with organizational skills. Chad also joined ULI as a senior and says it provides good exposure to the real estate world at large and goes beyond the USC network.

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Dominic Savino: The Importance of a Well-Rounded Background

3/4/2019

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Dominic Savino is a founding partner of Ferry Farm Capital Management and currently the CEO and founding partner of STAC Capital Management. Mr. Savino graduated from Fordham University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science. Prior to STAC Capital Management, Mr. Savino sold mortgage derivatives on Wall Street before migrating to the buy side of the financial markets. After the 2008 financial crisis, Mr. Savino leveraged his financial experience from Wall Street and began to focus on direct lending and real estate opportunities. At Ferry Farm Capital, Mr. Savino created a fund that provided investors access to short duration loans given to students attending coding schools. At STAC Capital Management, Mr. Savino is focused on a model lease back program where the fund purchases model homes from builders and leases them back until the new community is completed.

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Professor Loper Provides Valuable Career Insight

2/19/2019

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Professor John Loper is a full-time Associate Professor of Real Estate (Teaching) and has taught over 40 classes in the real estate program since 2012. Prior to becoming a professor at USC, Professor Loper completed his undergrad (a combination of business, architecture, and civil engineering) and MRED graduate degree at USC and gathered a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience working for many different real estate companies.

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Andrew Schlegel, Investment Analyst at Kilroy

2/11/2019

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Andrew graduated USC in 2016 with a bachelors in Economics and the desire to get into real estate. His only past experience in the industry was working with a family friend for a summer, but this was not going to stop him from obtaining an incredible full time job in the industry he wanted to be in. Andrew began calling every commercial bank he could think of and was finally interviewed and offered a job at U.S. Bank. Andrew was hesitant at first because he was chosen to be a part of U.S. Banks first incoming class of Credit Analysts, but took the risk.

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Eric Londa - Managing Partner of LRE Management LLC

1/28/2019

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Eric Londa is currently a Managing Partner of LRE Management LLC, a diverse real estate company investing in multifamily, office, industrial, retail, and distressed assets. Mr. Londa graduated from Boston University in 1989 with a B.S. in Accounting and earned his CPA in 1991. Shortly after graduation, Mr. Londa made his way to Wall Street and embarked on a 20 year career in the mortgage backed securities industries, working at many prestigious firms: Salomon Smith Barney, Bank of America, Countrywide, Deutsche Bank and Washington Mutual.

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Drew McMillian - Journey to bellwether asset management

1/22/2019

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Drew McMillan is currently an analyst at Oaktree Capital's real estate asset management arm, Bellwether Asset Management. Prior to joining Bellwether, Drew interned for George Smith Partners a leading boutique real estate capital advisory firm and Thorofare Capital, a middle market loan origination and servicing company.

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Vince Burneikis - Hospitality Done Right

1/8/2019

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Vince Burneikis is the VP of Hospitality at Caruso. Before taking the position, Vince had rich experience working in the hotel industry. Furthermore, his strong work ethic from a young age instilled by working manual labor jobs gave him the multiple life and work experiences necessary to excel in his current position.

Vince started his career in the early 1990s as a bellman at the Guest Quarters hotel in Michigan. In the early stages of his career, whenever a position opened up, he applied for it, whether it be the valet, front desk, or even housekeeping. Vince graduated from Michigan State University in 2000 and attained a degree in their Hospitality and Business program. During this time as a student, he also worked weekends at the Townsend Hotel 90 minutes away, where he continued to gain work experience as a doorman and concierge. After graduation, Vince began working for the Four Seasons Hotels where he worked his way up in the operations department over a 10-year period and spent time in Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta. The Four Seasons taught him how to run a luxury property and he got great insight into the company’s systematic workings. He then transitioned to working in Human Resources and Development for Trump International, where his role was exposed to bigger thinking and an entrepreneurial atmosphere.

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Mark Karlan - His pathway to teaching real estate

11/12/2018

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Mark Karlan is a 59-year-old UCLA Anderson School professor that has made over $7 billion for his respected companies. Karlan graduated from Harvard College studying economics in 1980 and was Magna Cum Laude from Harvard 1980 and won John Harvard Scholarship for academic achievement of the highest distinction. He then received a JD/MBA from both Harvard Business and Law School in 1984.

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Nick Ito - Director at MetLife Real Estate

11/5/2018

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Nick Ito’s path to his current position is an interesting one because he did not start out pursuing real estate. Nick is a 2004 USC grad who initially studied engineering before graduating with a degree in music industry.

After graduation, he applied to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and since they were short on newly recruited members for that year, they hired him as an associate for their real estate valuation department. While at PwC, Nick took several appraisal classes through the Appraisal Institute to begin to obtain his appraisal license. The Trojan network proved to be extremely valuable for Nick as a USC alumni and then co-worker referred him to her mentor who was the head of the office at MetLife.

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