Real Leaders Shaping Real Estate

Greg Ward stands as the entrepreneurial force behind Ward Law Group, a Miami-based personal injury firm distinguished by its empathetic engagement with the community, client-centric values, and a progressive strategy that has fueled its swift expansion. His journey began in 2012 when he, alongside his partner and wife, Jany, laid the foundation for Ward Law Group. Starting in a modest office with nothing but a folding table and a laptop, they quickly expanded their team and set their sights on serving the Hispanic communities in South Florida, focusing on car accident victims.

As CEO and Co-Founder of Mercatus, I grew a dining-room-table idea into the largest private market investment platform, managing $1.5 trillion in assets across real estate, infrastructure, and energy sectors. Following its acquisition by State Street, I successfully guided the integration while doubling revenue and maintaining less than 2% employee turnover.

Summer Craig, the President & CEO of Craig Group, is a seasoned digital marketer with a background driving ROI-focused strategies for multi-million dollar companies.

From starting her career at Austin-based ad agency GSD&M working on Mastercard, Walmart, and Southwest Airlines to navigating the corporate communications complexities of mergers and buyouts in the telecom industry at SBCGlobal-Cingular-AT&T, Summer rapidly rose through the ranks and her analytical prowess became a hallmark of her career. This skillset, combined with her expertise in media buying and selling, positioned her as a standout in the early advertising landscape.

Charging into the digital realm, Summer played a pivotal role at AOL, contributing to the adoption of innovative Martech and pioneering programmatic advertising. That experience was a stepping stone to Summer’s tenure at HomeAway.com (later VRBO), where the company completed a successful IPO and delved into the world of venture capital, and her entrepreneurial flame was lit.

She moved back to Houston and soon became a regional client rep with New York-based Publicis ZenithOptimedia overseeing Gulf States Toyota, where she learned the intricacies of operating one of the world's largest privately held businesses under a major brand. Summer transitioned into an in-house leadership role where she was responsible for showing marketing effectiveness to the board, dealer council, and executive stakeholder groups.

In 2019, Summer founded Craig Group, a company rooted in data-first sales and marketing, leveraging her extensive wisdom and expertise built over the course of 20 years to create impactful results for clients.

Beyond building a large team across four states, Summer's most impressive personal accomplishments include summiting Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Rainier as a proud mom of three. Her out-of-the-office passions — ranging from mountain climbing and camping to competitive sports and giving time to causes she believes in — reveal an authentic commitment to pushing boundaries and pursuing hard goals.

For decision-makers at private equity-backed businesses and independent family-owned companies, Summer Craig is a valuable and dynamic partner, combining a wealth of experience with a relentless focus on delivering tangible value.

Dave Powers serves as President & CEO of Deckers Brands, a global footwear and apparel company based in Santa Barbara, Calif.

His current role includes prioritizing strategic initiatives and investments to expand the global distribution footprint of Deckers Brands, while also ensuring consumers have a seamless experience when engaging directly with each channel or brand. He focuses on long-term growth and Omni Channel strategies for the company’s five high-performing brands: UGG®, Teva®, Sanuk®, HOKA One One® and Koolaburra®.

Since 2012, Dave has served in various roles at Deckers Brands, including spearheading growth initiatives for the company’s brand portfolio as President of Brands and leading direct-to-consumer strategies as President of Direct-to-Consumer.

Dave is passionate about consumer-led insight and innovation as well as doing great in business and doing good for people and the planet. His passion for innovation as well as improvement led by consumer insight has resulted in gains in operating margin and revenue. Dave also remains committed to sustainability as well as making a positive societal impact and leading a strong company culture.

Under his leadership as President & CEO since 2016, Deckers Brands has received accolades for stellar financial performance and sustainability efforts. In 2019, Deckers was selected by Investor's Business Daily® as one of the 50 Best ESG Companies: A List of Today's Top Stocks For Environmental, Social and Governance Values. The company was also recognized by Footwear News as 2020 Company of the Year for its financial performance and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as well as significant charitable giving for COVID-19 relief. 

In 2020, Dave was named a 2020 Businessperson of the Year by Fortune, ranking number 13 on their list of top executives.

Dave has over twenty years of experience in merchandising, concept development and leadership of global retail operations at some of the industry’s top brands. Prior to joining Deckers Brands, he held executive leadership roles at Converse, including four years as Vice President of Global Direct-to-Consumer where he successfully guided the expansion of the brand globally, and Timberland, where he led worldwide retail merchandising, marketing, visual and store design as well as the creation of a sustainable line of footwear and apparel.

A native of New Hampshire, Dave graduated Cum Laude from Northeastern University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Now residing in Santa Barbara, Calif., he enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and two sons.

Peter Dickstein is a 35-year business leader (Founder, CEO, CFO, and strategy advisor).

In addition to his general management roles, Peter has initiated, organized, negotiated, and completed numerous equity, debt, and M&A transactions with angel, institutional and strategic investors, and lenders. He has managed functional areas including product development and engineering, sales, service, finance and administration, and external relationships with investors, contract manufacturers, investment bankers, banks, attorneys, and auditors.

Peter has served on the boards of Friends of the Urban Forest, the San Francisco Day School, and multiple companies. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Germany.

He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.B.A. from The Wharton School.

Andrew serves as Hyperscience’s CEO. He brings a wealth of experience and proven track record that advances the company’s overall strategy and growth initiatives—at a time in which Hyperscience is experiencing rapidly expanding demand. Prior to Hyperscience, Andrew was CEO of InMoment, a recognized leader in the customer experience (CX) software industry, where he oversaw significant growth and expansion. He has also held strategic executive positions at several other successful technology companies, including HP Software, where he was responsible for driving key innovation, product development, and revenue growth. Before that, he led the high-growth business unit within HP Autonomy, a $1.1 billion market leader in unstructured data applications and solutions, focusing on customer experience and marketing technology. In 2006, his firm Singlecast Technologies was acquired and brought into Autonomy via ZANTAZ.

Mark Budzinski is the CEO of Clean Data and a seasoned business leader with deep expertise in data analytics. As the former CEO of WhereScape, Mark led the company to over $30M in annual revenue before executing a successful eight-figure exit. Now, he advises clients on cutting through AI hype to achieve real business growth from their analytics investments. Mark is also the author of "Peer-To-Peer Culture: What It Takes For Small Businesses To Grow Up," where he explores the vital role of organizational behavior in driving business success.

As CEO of Hyde Engineering + Consulting, Inc., Kerren Bergman leads a global engineering organization of more than 250 employees. Kerren began her career with Hyde in 1998 as the Document Control Specialist, advancing with the company in various roles of increasing responsibility. Her experience in nearly every aspect of the business including Operations, Business Development, Human Resources, Quality, Safety, and IT has been essential to understanding all of the moving parts of organizational oversight.

Marc Mlyn is the President and CEO of RaySearch Americas, a wholly owned subsidiary of RaySearch Laboratories AB in Stockholm, Sweden.  Marc began work in medical physics doing research as an undergraduate in the late 1980's, and went on to become a certified medical dosimetrist (https://www.medicaldosimetry.org/about/medical-dosimetrist/).

He worked in Radiation Therapy hospitals until 1997, when he went to work as a customer service specialist for ADAC, which was soon acquired by Philips Medical System in 2000. He worked as a senior service manager, traveling the world and working with distributors, sales staff and customers all over the globe.  In 2007 Marc went to CIVCO and became the vice president of Marketing, developing software and hardware systems for radiation therapy.

When RaySearch Laboratories released a new software platform in 2011, he was asked to start up the Americas organization to provide sales, support and training.  RaySearch Americas grew from three people to fifty people over the next few years, and has built a successful organization with offices in New York City and Santa Clara California.

Marc has an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology, and an MS in Cybersecurity from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dale Wills is the owner and founder of Centra Companies, a group of land development, real estate, and construction companies based out of the Twin Cities. Since 2011, he has overseen the completion of more than $500 million in new construction across 50+ projects spanning 28 Twin Cities suburbs, ranging from new home construction to apartment rehab and commercial building. With more than 35 years of experience in property redevelopment, Dale has taken Centra Companies to new heights opening several divisions, including Centra Homes and Centra Capital Partners, under his leadership.