Edward Schwartz

Mr. Schwartz, a co-founder of ORG Portfolio Management LLC, has over 17 years experience in real estate consulting.  Mr. Schwartz’s responsibilities include client services, advisory firm review, portfolio strategy and manager oversight.  Mr. Schwartz serves as the lead portfolio management consultant for institutional retirment plans overseeing approximately $5 billion of the real estate assets.  Mr. Schwartz was previously with The Townsend Group where his clients included both public and private entities such as SBC Communications Inc., the State of Pennsylvania, the State of Iowa and the city and counties of Los Angeles and San Francisco.  While at Townsend, he was the Portfolio Manager for a Townsend sponsored limited partnership with 350 taxable investors, overseeing investment in over $1 billion of real estate assets.  Mr. Schwartz has been a member of The Institutional Real Estate Letter’s Editorial Advisory Board and is a member of Pension Real Estate Association (PREA).  Mr. Schwartz received a BA in Economics from Kenyon College and an MBA from Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, with a concentration in Finance.  Mr. Schwartz is a member of the ORG Investment Committee.
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Steve Gruber

Mr. Gruber has over 20 years of real estate experience.  Mr. Gruber’s responsibilities include client services, advisory firm review, portfolio strategy and manager oversight. Prior to co-founding ORG Portfolio Management LLC, Mr. Gruber was the Senior Real Estate Investment Officer for the Oregon Public Employees’ Retirement Fund (“OPERF”) from 1998 to early 2005.  Under Mr. Gruber’s leadership and direction, OPERF’s $6 billion (gross) real estate portfolio had performance that was repeatedly rated first among the 50 public pension funds in the country.  His principal responsibilities included structuring and monitoring real estate partnerships, and overseeing REIT and opportunistic investment strategies.  From 1990 to 1998, Mr. Gruber worked at Liquidity Financial Advisors, Inc. buying and trading interests in partnerships owning US real estate, representing clients including Simon Property and Public Storage.  He also worked from 1988-1989 within the acquisitions group of Woodmont Capital, a San Francisco based owner and manager of California multifamily communities.  Mr. Gruber has been a member of The Institutional Real Estate’ High Return Quarterly Editorial Advisory Board.  He is a member of Pension Real Estate Association (PREA).  Mr. Gruber received a BS from California State University at Chico and a MBA from the University of Oregon.  Mr. Gruber is a member of the ORG Investment Committee.

Jonathan Berns

Mr. Berns, a co-founder of ORG, has been active in the real estate and consulting industry for nearly 20 years. His responsibilities include investment fund and property due diligence, market research, portfolio strategy and manager oversight. Mr. Berns is a national speaker on real estate investment strategies, urban redevelopment and energy utilization optimization and procurement. Mr. Berns is responsible for the oversight of a $125 million portfolio with pension fund and high net worth partners invested in apartment, office, retail and industrial properties. Mr. Berns was responsible for negotiating an investment by Nuon International, a $2 billion Dutch utility, in North Coast Energy and acted as a Consultant in the acquisition of two large research facilities located in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Mr. Berns is chairman of the First Suburbs Consortium, a nationally recognized government-led advocacy organization for redevelopment of inner-ring urban real estate. Mr. Berns received a BS in General Science from the University of Michigan. Mr. Berns is a member of the ORG Investment Committee.

Barbara McDowell, CEBS

Ms. McDowell joined ORG in 2002 and has over 17 years experience in the real estate industry, including 10 years with the SBC Communications Inc.'s Master Pension Trust as a Plan Sponsor, where she acted as the Director of Real Estate and Alternative Investments. Ms. McDowell's responsibilities included oversight of the Trust's investments in the real estate asset class, which included both private and public real estate, and the private equity asset class. Ms. McDowell oversaw over $3 billion in real estate assets and integrated the merger of Pacific Telesis Group, Ameritech and Southern New England Telephone's real estate portfolios into the SBC Master Pension Trust. During that time, Ms. McDowell was active in PREA where she co-chaired the 2000 Plan Sponsor PREA conference and was a member of the Plan Sponsor Executive Council. Prior to working with the Pension Trust, Ms. McDowell held various positions at SBC Communications Inc. in Finance, Auditing and Information Systems. Ms. McDowell received a BA in History from the University of Houston. Ms. McDowell also holds a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) designation.

Joey Lansing

Mr. Lansing joined ORG in September 2009.  Prior to joining ORG, Mr. Lansing was a Senior Principal of Syndicated Equities, a Chicago-based real estate investment firm. At Syndicated, Mr. Lansing led the Syndicated Access Fund business for the company, which provided individuals and small institutional investors with access to “opportunistic” real estate and real asset investments in funds typically reserved for pension plans, endowments and institutional investors. In this capacity, he oversaw all fund formation activities, directed the firm’s efforts in selecting funds for inclusion in the Access Fund platform, led the fund’s capital raising activities and monitored investment performance.  Prior to that, Mr. Lansing previously spent eight years as General Counsel at Levy Restaurants where he was responsible for legal work related to the company’s acquisitions, dispositions, financing development and leasing activities. Prior to his time at Levy, Mr. Lansing practiced real estate law for several years and completed legal work for all aspects of commercial real estate transactions.  Mr. Lansing earned his B.A. with distinction from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. He is on the Executive Committee, chairs the Program Committee and actively works with Scholarship Chicago, an organization that provides college scholarships, mentoring and summer jobs to Chicago-area high school seniors. Mr. Lansing also serves on the Advisory Board to the University of Michigan Political Science Department.

Howard Kaplan, CFA

Mr. Kaplan has been providing services to ORG Portfolio Management since July 2007 and recently assumed the position of President of ORG Natural Resources, a division of ORG Portfolio Management.  During 2007 and 2008, he provided due diligence services on nearly $3.5 billion of timber and agriculture transactions.  Previously, as founder of AGVEST/Farmvest, Inc., Mr. Kaplan provided management, consulting and brokerage of natural resource real estate for over 25 years.  These services included valuation, acquisition, management, monitoring and disposition of agricultural properties, portfolios and real estate securities.  Natural resource consulting projects have covered a broad range of domestic and international topics including:  economic research, crop feasibility and asset allocation studies.  Farmvest successfully marketing a $30 million timber commingled fund interest and was a participant on a farm privatization project in Russia.  In 1998, Farmvest was retained by the State of Nebraska to provide strategic advice on their extensive land portoflio.  Mr. Kaplan has been published in the Journal of Portfolio Management and Pensions and Investment on the subject of farmland investment.  He graduated from Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources with a BS and from the University of California at Berkeley with an MBA.  He is a licensed real estate broker and a Chartered Financial Analyst.

 Rebecca Morris

Ms. Morris has been providing advisory services to ORG Portfolio Management LLC since 2007 on various projects.  She has worked independently as a strategic advisor for a variety of real estate, private equity and infrastructure initiatives.  Prior to working independently, she  worked with Impact Capital, a consortium of insurance companies, evaluating investment opportunities in private equity and real estate funds and prior to this engagement she was President of the California Capital Alliance, which had as its focus finding funding for businesses and infrastructure in lower income communities in California.   Prior to that she was the Investment Advisor to the Secretary of Trade and Commerce for the State of California where she headed a program responsible for promoting job creating infrastructure investments by private equity and real estate funds into the state of California and advising on industrial development bond issues.  Prior to this appointment Ms. Morris was a special assistant to California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.  Ms. Morris graduated from California Polytechnic University with a BS in Marketing Management and from the Anderson School at UCLA with an MBA in Finance.  She also holds an MA from the University of Leeds, England in International Business as a where she was a Rotary Scholar.  Ms. Morris also served in the United States Army Reserves with a mission of specialty of Psychological Operations.