The University of Michigan Alumni Club of Orange County is pleased to host a commercial real estate professionals networking happy hour, arranged in partnership with our friends at the UPenn/Wharton Alumni Club of Orange County. The happy hour will take place on Wednesday, February 19th at 5:30PM at Hangar 24, located at 17877 Von Karman Ave in Irvine, CA.
Join us for an exciting evening of networking and relationship-building with other local industry professionals, with attendees from various backgrounds, including acquisitions/development, asset management, research, design and more. To ensure quality opportunities for everyone to connect, capacity is limited and on a first-come-first-serve basis. If interested, please RSVP ahead of time or reach out with questions to Alexander Chen at [email protected].
About the hosts:
Alexander Chen is a financial advisor and co-lead of The Chen Group, a leading wealth management team within Merrill. In his role, he serves as an advisor to business owners, senior executives, and their families, helping them build, manage, and preserve their wealth across generations. He also works closely with clients through significant life changes; going beyond investments to include decisions around planning, lending, philanthropy, and liquidity events.
Prior to joining Merrill, Alex focused on sourcing, executing, and actively managing special situations investments across private equity, credit and commercial real estate on behalf of several leading global asset management and investment firms including Fortress Investment Group and Related Companies, while based in New York City and Texas. Alex began his career as a capital markets banker in the leveraged loan syndicate division of Bank of New York Mellon, where as a vice president, he arranged and executed M&A and other financing transactions for Fortune 500 and other institutional clients. He has over 10 years of investment experience and holds an B.B.A. from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor – Ross School of Business. Alex is a member of the Development Committee of the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation and a mentor with American Corporate Partners, helping post-9/11 military veterans and their families transition into the private sector. He also sits on the board of the University of Michigan Alumni Club of Orange County.
Eric Frankel is a principal of Blue Sky Acquisition Ventures, which provides commercial real estate advisory and consulting services as well as a senior advisor of Brava Management, a real estate advisor. He was previously a senior research analyst for Green Street, a commercial real estate research and data intelligence firm, and served as a sector head covering industrial, self-storage, cell tower, and cold storage REITs. He is considered an industrial real estate expert and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, and Wharton Business Radio.
Prior to Green Street, Mr. Frankel worked on the investments team at KTR Capital Partners, an industrial real estate-focused private equity firm that was subsequently sold to Prologis (NYSE: PLD). He received a Bachelors of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.