The Multifamily Hangout

Renee Zahn is a Managing Director of Real Estate for Greystar and oversees the management operations for the Central West division that includes offices in Austin and San Antonio. Her responsibilities include leading the teams that support a 51,000+ unit portfolio, strategic operations for both current and new clients, as well as pre-development consulting.

Since joining Greystar in 2002, Renee has served in every onsite role and operations leadership role. She is very active in the local and state level Apartment Associations. She served the Austin Apartment Association as President in 2018 and will serve as the Texas Apartment Association President in 2025.  Renee works alongside the government affairs team and represents the industry testifying in front of the state legislature on industry related bills.

Renee received her Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from the University of Texas. Additionally, she holds her Certified Property Manager designation through the Institute of Real Estate Management and a Women’s Leadership Certificate from the Yale School of Management.

Jennifer Sutter, Acento Real Estate Partners’ Executive Vice President since 2022, boasts a property management career starting in 1995, showcasing extensive experience and dedication to multi-family property management.

With a diverse portfolio covering conventional and tax credit properties, as well as both owner and third-party management, Jennifer excels in workforce housing and has a proven record of successfully repositioning distressed assets.

Before joining Acento, Jennifer held leadership roles at The Donaldson Group, Harbor Group, and Fairfield Management, spanning Asset Management, Property Management, and Operations.

Her commitment to excellence is evident through professional certifications, including the Accredited Residential Manager (ARM) designation from IREM, Licensed Property Manager status in the District of Columbia, and National Compliance Professional Certification.

Active in industry associations, Jennifer is a member of IREM and the Property Management Association (PMA) of Maryland, contributing as an engaged participant. With her wealth of experience and dedication, Jennifer continues to be a driving force in the field of multi-family property management.

Marcie Williams is the CEO of RKW Residential overseeing of all aspects of property management operations, new business development and strategy.

She has more than 30 years of multifamily experience spanning owner/manager REITs, third-party management and start-up companies. Marcie has a track record of success at companies including Greystar, Camden Property Trust, Summit Properties and GID/Windsor.

Immediately prior to joining RKW Residential she served as Senior Director of Real Estate at Greystar, where she was responsible for management operations and new business development for more than 20,000 units across the Southeast.

Marcie holds several professional designations including Certified Apartment Portfolio Supervisor (CAPS) and Certified Property Manager (CPM®). She has been a prolific contributor to the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association (GCAA) for which she served on the Board of Directors and acted as Board President. She was a founding member of the GCAA’s Education Foundation and served on the GCAA’s Education Advisory Council.

She is the recipient of several industry awards from GCAA, including Volunteer of the Year, Instructor of the Year and The Lex Marsh Award (Lifetime Achievement). In 2021, Marcie was inducted into the AANC Hall of Fame.

Marcie has been honored with a Women in Business Award (2019) and recognized as a Most Admired CEO in both 2020 and 2021 by the Charlotte Business Journal. She was also recognized as a Multifamily Influencer by Globe St.

Marcie is a member of IREM and ULI and serves on the Membership committee for NMHC. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Paul Rhodes started his multifamily career 29 years ago, picking up trash at a Roswell, GA, community. Before going national, his on-site history included working in multiple service-focused roles for all property types and as a pool builder.

In 2005, Paul changed focus to educating the multifamily maintenance industry as the Lead Instructor for HD Supply Customer Training, where he expanded the reach of apartment education by increasing the use of digital facilitation tools. In 2011, he became the National Maintenance Instructor for the National Apartment Association Education Institute, responsible for maintaining the Certificate for Apartment Maintenance Technician curriculum.

He delivered the program to Associations and Management Companies Nationwide while updating it and other NAAEI credentials and programs.In 2020, when the pandemic canceled all classes, he joined The Life Properties as the Director of Maintenance Operations, writing policies, organizing the structure of and leading on-site repair operations. 

Paul joined Brookfield Properties as the Senior Manager of Maintenance Learning in June 2022, where he is creating a Maintenance Learning team focused on growing the skills of technicians and maintenance teams at Brookfield Properties communities.

In 2024, Paul started The Maintenance Mindset Podcast as a part of the Multifamily Media Network and founded Directional Maintenance Services.

Both of which share information with the goal of developing industry professionals and expanding knowledge in all related areas.

He continues to be involved in all areas of Multifamily Maintenance management and regularly speaks and is a part of conferences, webinars, or any other event where learning can occur.

Paul holds the following designations: CAMT, CAPS, CAMT+E, CAMT+L, EPA 608 Universal, PHTA-CPO Instructor, OSHA OTI 510+511, and maintains membership in NAAEI Faculty.

Jesse Miller is a three-time, national award-winning real estate executive with over two decades of property management experience.

He is the founder of Pacific Housing Association, leads Greystar Hawaii, and serves as a university instructor at Portland State University.

Miller is passionate about training and education and has taught at multiple conferences, industry associations, and academic institutions in the US, Japan, the United Kingdom, China, and Malaysia.

As a first-generation graduate who owes much of his career growth to strong mentor influence, he now pays this forward by bridging academia with industry to mentor others about dynamic career opportunities in property management.

Due to his industry contributions, Miller was named a 2022 National IREM REME CPM of the Year Finalist and was awarded the 2020 NAA ACE Industry Practitioner of the Year, 2019 National IREM REME ARM of the Year, and the 2018 NAA Credential Holder of the Year Honors.

Lisa Gunderson is responsible for the strategic planning, operating performance, and financial success of existing Bristol communities.

Prior to joining Bristol, Ms. Gunderson was responsible for Asset Management at Covenant Capital Group, overseeing a billion dollars’ worth of real estate investments. She also has eight years of previous property management experience, including Regional Manager roles overseeing several communities in Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.

Ms. Gunderson earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from St. Leo University in Florida. She also holds an MBA from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and a CPM designation from the Institute of Real Estate Management.

Lisa Taylor is a Senior Managing Director for Greystar’s US Client Services. Lisa has an extensive background in property operations for multifamily and build for rent and strategic positioning of assets to include new construction, lease-up, acquisition, renovation, and repositioning of financially and physically stressed assets.

Prior to joining Greystar in 2005, Lisa was a Vice President at Trammell Crow Residential Services and prior to that, she was a Senior Regional Property Manager with Summit Properties, Inc.

She is a Certified Property Manager through Institute of Real Estate Management, a Certified Apartment Manager, and Certified Apartment Portfolio Supervisor through the National Apartment Association and is a frequent speaker at industry events.

Lisa currently serves on the Executive Board for the Apartment Association of North Carolina (AANC) as President 2023-2024 and has served on the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association Board of Directors in many roles including President. She is a GCAA’s Lex Marsh Award recipient (Lifetime Achievement) and recently honored by the AANC as a Hall of Fame inductee for her significant impact and dedication to the industry.

She serves on the National Apartment Association board as a Regional Vice-President (Region IV). Lisa also holds a Broker-in-Charge license for North Carolina.

Lisa graduated from the American Business & Fashion Institute (now known as The Art Institute of Charlotte) in North Carolina.

Tina West is an Executive Vice President for Sares Regis’ Client Advisory team.

In this national role, Tina is focused on growing the firm’s 3rd party management footprint beyond its 7 state and 37,000-unit portfolio.

Ms. West has more than 30 years of experience in the multifamily space, most recently as Executive Managing Director for the West Region at Cushman and Wakefield covering a portfolio of 110,000 units from Texas to California.

In this role, she also served as the firm’s National Mixed-Use Leader. Just prior, as the Multifamily Practice leader at CBRE she launched the first ever Multifamily Management Practice and led the Mixed-Use Specialty product line. Her role as COO of Capstone Real Estate overseeing the management of over 36,000 apartment units predicated both national roles.

She also held senior leadership roles at LMC Living (Lennar), Sunrise Management, Monarch Group and has owned her own business focused on brokerage and property management of both multifamily and residential properties.

She has experience in new development, reposition, market rate, affordable, active adult, HOA, and purpose-built single-family rentals.

Tina has built several management organizations from the ground up and has been successful in the launch of third-party endeavors at each. She is a seasoned leader and has led organizations with over 10,00 team members.

A dedicated industry professional, Tina serves on multiple boards and leadership forums.

Richard Friedman joined Greystar in 2014 through the Riverstone Residential Group acquisition and is currently a Managing Director of Client Services & Strategic Partnerships.

Over the past decade, Greystar has successfully grown its US Property Management business both organically and through select strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

As Greystar continues to look for opportunities to grow their geographic footprint across the U.S. and Canada, Mr. Friedman leads a small team with dedicated resources to facilitate intentional pursuit of these opportunities.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Friedman spent the last 15 years responsible for the business development process in California, which included lead development, predevelopment consulting, underwriting, market assessment, and strategic planning for both potential and new assets under management.

Prior to joining Greystar, he held the role of Vice President for Riverstone Residential Group in both an operational and client services capacity.

Mr. Friedman started his career in property management in 1994 with R&B Apartment Management Company, and in 1996, joined Trammell Crow Residential Services, which later transitioned into Riverstone Residential Group.

Mr. Friedman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Miami, FL.

Bob Knakal has been a broker in NYC since 1984.

Over that time, he has brokered the sale of over 2,329 buildings having a market value of approximately $22 billion.

For 26 years of those years (1988-2014), he owned and ran Massey Knakal Realty Services which sold more than 3x the number of properties as the #2 firm in NYC from 2001-2014.

Running the firm with a Servant Leadership management style, focusing on empowering everyone on the team, intensely training them and building their self-esteem, led to this overwhelmingly dominant platform.

The firm was sold to Cushman & Wakefield in 2014 for $100 million.

The Massey Knakal Legacy is illustrated by the fact that today in the New York City investment sales market, there are 29 companies, or divisions of companies, that are either owned by, or run by, folks who learned the business at Massey Knakal.

Bob is a prominent thought leader in the commercial real estate business, frequently writing about the market, lecturing on the market and appearing podcasts and national television shows on networks like Fox, CNBC and MSNBC.