Jon Azulay, 32
Corporate Managing Director
Studley
Los Angeles
Azulay has developed an impressive client roster that includes public, private, nonprofit and Fortune 500 companies. Responsible for strategic planning and transaction advisory services as well as portfolio management for multiple accounts, he has executed transactions in excess of $2 billion and more than three million square feet for the firm. These career achievements include representing the Groundlings Theatre and School to acquire the largest comedy training company in the country and representing companies like Dover Corp. in headquarter transactions. Beginning with the firm as an assistant director, Azulay was recently promoted to corporate managing director due to his impressive sales production in 2011 and 2012.

Warren Berzack, 34
Principal
Lee & Associates
Sherman Oaks
Berzack has been in the business for 14 years and is currently ranked as his company's No. 2 agent. In just over a decade, he's amassed approximately $1 billion in sales, closed hundreds of transactions and led his group, Berzack Investment Property Advisors, to become one of L.A.'s top teams, closing a record 70-plus transactions last year. In addition, Berzack spearheads Lee & Associates' new institutional multifamily group. While his concentration lies in the San Fernando Valley and Greater Los Angeles, he has sold properties in over 25 states. Clients praise him as “wise, meticulous and business savvy; ethical standards above reproach; and a rare combination of people skills, high intellect and humility.” When asked why this market, Berzack notes, “I firmly believe that commercial real estate is the best investment vehicle for building lifelong wealth. And nowhere else is there such a unique and powerfully desirable geographic as Southern California.”

Robin Bhalla, 31
Leasing Associate
Combined Properties
Beverly Hills
After only eight years in the business, Bhalla already impresses mentors at Combined Properties with the set of personal relationships he has built with professionals far more senior. The company has a portfolio of over five million square feet with 43 shopping centers, and has put him in charge of leasing for several, including one called the Terraces, acquired last year with Combined's value-add fund. Bhalla earned back-to-back “deal of the quarter” awards from the firm in 2013. He was also selected to be the ICSC Next Generation State Chair last year and was re-selected for 2014. “The reason I've been able to maintain success is that I've stayed true to my personal brand from day one, even when it wasn't the most convenient or popular choice,” Bhalla says.

Darrell Clark, 31
Senior Vice President
Centerline Capital Group
Irvine
Clark is an originator for Centerline's Fannie Mae Small Loan and Portfolio programs, specializing in multifamily and mixed-use loans from $1 million to $6 million. He was previously the deputy chief underwriter on the credit side and is now the regional director on the production side. Clark has been involved in closing over 300 transactions in almost 40 states over the past 10 years. He has worked out of offices in Memphis, New York City, Pasadena and Irvine, CA. Clark has closed many deals in under 30 days and has worked on several multiple property portfolios. Considered a small market expert, Clark advises, “Given the level of inexpensive capital available, it makes sense to take more risks right now. “ And he has been rewarded for his efforts: he has won Centerline's underwriter of the month award multiple times.

Byron Foss, 34
Managing Director
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
Newport Beach
A former Major League Soccer player, Foss made a career change to become a commercial real estate broker. In the past four years, he has completed over 4.5 million square feet of transactions, including representing Orange Courier in its 129,600-square-foot lease renewal in Santa Ana. Frequently ranked as one of NGKF's top producers, Foss is responsible for representing North American-based corporations and property owners. He credits ongoing education, an open mind to creative solutions and lessons from past experiences as reasons for his success. Foss has a Master of Corporate Real Estate from CoreNet Global and is a member of CoreNet Global and US Green Building Council. Additionally, he regularly counsels youth at the Newport Beach Sports Museum.

Danielle Gallinaro, 29
Director, Strategic Planning & Analysis
Irvine Co.
Irvine
Gallinaro moved from Chicago to Southern California four years ago after completing her MBA for the opportunity to work with a highly regarded company and talented team, in a region with a dynamic real estate market and strong network of young professionals. According to those she works with, Gallinaro is highly intelligent and has the right balance of analytic and collaborative interpersonal skills required for successful next-generation leadership in the real estate industry. In her role as director, she is responsible for transactional analysis—analysis of new acquisition, development, and leasing opportunities—and analytic advisory, with a primary focus on supporting the company's office division. “Cyclical trends will undoubtedly reverse, but possible secular trends (fewer feet per employee, emerging preferences in space design, internet competition for retailers, etc.) could have longer-term impacts,” Gallinaro says. “From a macro perspective, faster flows of information, increased visibility and big data will have a meaningful impact to the efficiency of the market.”

Jamas Gwilliam, 35
Director
Kilroy Realty Corp.
Los Angeles
Gwilliam has become an invaluable member of Kilroy's team in the past three years, developing expertise in every aspect of the business. For example, he was director of development for its Columbia Square project, a 200-unit, 21-story luxury apartment tower in Hollywood. He oversaw the underwriting and handled financial oversight, got historic preservation plans and tax credit applications approved and leased restaurant and class A office space, among other tasks. Between 2011 and 2013, Gwilliam was on a Kilroy team that acquired more than $1.5 billion in assets, and was financial manager and lead underwriter on its largest lease in California in the past 10 years—DirecTV's 700,000-square-foot deal at the Kilroy Airport Center, El Segundo, in 2011. Gwilliam is currently pursuing new mixed use and office opportunities with $50-million minimum investments in L.A., San Diego and Seattle.”

Jilliene Helman, 27
Chief Executive Officer
Realty Mogul
Los Angeles
Jilliene Helman has built the largest crowdfunding platform for real estate investing in the country out of the corporate offices in Los Angeles. In 12 months, the company has funded over $100 million in property value, all over the Internet. Realty Mogul is poised to become one of the largest online marketplaces for real estate investing, active in everything from multifamily and retail to self storage and mobile home parks. The company is also backed by a $9-million Series A by a prominent venture capital firm. Formerly the youngest VP ever at Union Bank and Bank of Tokyo, Helman has raised the largest Series A ever raised in equity crowdfunding and put together one of the largest Series A financing rounds ever for a woman, in any vertical. She also has created what's said to be the largest real estate crowdfunding platform in the US. As CEO, Helman is setting the vision and strategy for the company.

Paul Komadina, 31
Managing Director
CBRE
San Diego
As a CBRE managing director at CBRE at the age of 31, Komadina's resume reads like that of someone twice his years. His professionalism, market insight and creativity have made him a positive force in the San Diego commercial real estate market. In his current role—one of the youngest managers in the company—Komadina oversees the owner/investor business with a focus specifically on office, industrial and retail agency leasing as well as the capital markets division, which includes investment properties and debt and structured finance. In addition to his daily roles in brokerage, he oversees regional training programs and acts as a guide and mentor to young professionals in the industry. Throughout his eight-year investment sales career, he transacted nearly $750 million in deals, including the First International Business Center in Otay Mesa for $51.8 million in 2007, the RREEF San Diego portfolio for $68.5 million in 2006 and the sale of Carmel Valley Centre in Del Mar Heights for $46.5 million in 2013.

Robert Lambert, 34
Director
Cushman & Wakefield
Irvine
Lambert has been with Cushman & Wakefield for eight years, and along with negotiating and planning complex office transactions, he's taken on important leadership roles. He created and manages the firm's national Future Leaders mentoring program, which provides training and career support to over 80 young professionals. Lambert specializes in build-to-suit office leases and headquarters transactions. He has completed over 800 deals during his career, many overseas, for a total of over 19-million square feet. Just this year he handled land acquisition for the construction of a million-square-foot corporate office campus in Sugarland, TX and a 360,000-square-foot build-to-suit office lease in Manila. Lambert has also helped complete leases in the Netherlands, South Africa, Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom.

Jacob LeBlanc, 33
Senior Development Manager
Panattoni Development Co. Inc.
Newport Beach
LeBlanc oversees operations for a 600-million-square-foot industrial portfolio, with a primary focus on the Inland Empire and Orange County. He stands out for his ability to fast-track projects through various municipalities because of his strong relationships with the economic and planning departments of multiple cities. He is comfortable holding his own in front of the C-suite level of decision makers on both the investor and tenant side of deals. At the same time, he can hold court with engineers and architects, getting into design intricacies that are said to be typical of someone with two or three times his tenure. His portfolio of properties has 3.2 million square feet under construction, for a total value of $300 million with an additional four million square feet of planned development in entitlement. Over the course of his career at Panattoni, LeBlanc has developed over 5.5 million square feet.

Patrick Luke, 32
Principal
BLVD Capital
Los Angeles
As a principal of BLVD Capital, Luke is responsible for the acquisition, financing and asset management of the affordable housing and Southern California multifamily divisions. Additionally, he is one of two decision makers at the company and plays an integral role in determining its strategic direction. From 2005 through the present, he has purchased over $400 million of residential real estate, with nearly half of that having been acquired off-market. In the past 12 months, he has closed 10 transactions consisting of over 500 units. The most notable were a 35-unit apartment building in West Hollywood and a 39-unit apartment building in Koreatown, both of which were acquired well below market value. With just 10 years in the business, Luke already has had several positions. He came to BLVD after a stint at California Landmark as the VP of acquisitions. Previously, he was a director at Starpoint Properties after serving as a junior analyst.

David Manshoory, 31
Founder and CEO
AssetAvenue
Los Angeles
With an entrepreneurial background and 10 years of experience in commercial real estate, Manshoory founded AssetAvenue, an online real estate crowdfunding platform. His first sale with the platform raised $485,000 in a mere 48 hours. His former start-up grew to $11 million in investor capital, $30 million in revenues and 100 employees in only 15 months. His success stems from a decade working his way through the ranks at several high-profile investment firms. By 25, Manshoory had founded his first fund, Momentum Capital Partners. He believes in building a world-class team and looking ahead to trends.

Alvin Mansour, 31
SVP of Investments, National Retail Group
Marcus & Millichap
San Diego
Mansour leads a team of highly qualified professionals specializing in single-tenant, multi-tenant and net-leased investment sales, sale-leaseback transactions and portfolio dispositions nationwide. Aside from drive and dedication to what he does, the 31-year-old has a passion for the industry that sets him apart. “It takes this kind of true interest to create a broker that is intimately familiar with national markets, who understands and anticipates the challenges with every aspect of his deals, and who can demonstrate an affinity for understanding the needs of buyers and sellers alike,” says his company.

Kevin Miller, 32
Co-President and CEO
Thorofare Capital Inc.
Los Angeles
In 2005, at the age of 26, Miller realized that real estate lending practices were largely predicated on the assumption of short-term capital appreciation and that the market would have a large correction. And so he started Thorofare Capital, a private equity debt fund manager that provides short-term bridge financing to opportunistic and value-add commercial real estate properties. Since founding the company in June of 2010, Miller and his team—20 full-time investment professionals in the Los Angeles area, serving over 250 investors nationwide—have funded close to 80 transactions totaling just over $300 million. As a founding member of Thorofare, he leads the loan origination team and oversees all aspects of the partnership. Miller has placed risk on more than $65 billion of real estate and manages in excess of $250 million of assets.

Zach Niles, 35
Senior Vice President
JLL
Irvine
When Niles got into the business 13 years ago, he saw commercial brokerage as a stepping stone to owning a lot of real estate, but he quickly acquired a passion for cutting deals. He was named “Rookie Producer of the Year” while at CBRE in 2002, received revenue production goals every year since and was given NAIOP's National Developing Leader Award in 2012. Niles is already mentoring younger professionals and recently completed a term as chairman of NAIOP SoCal's YPG program, which aims to educate and develop the industry's emerging leaders. As senior vice president with JLL's industrial real estate advisory and brokerage operations, he advises industrial property owners, investors, developers and occupiers throughout Southern California and the firm's global network. Over the course of his career, Niles has completed more than 415 transactions, representing more than 22-million-square-feet and $800 million in total consideration.

Michael Pakravan, 32
Vice President
Kennedy Wilson
Beverly Hills
With over 400 completed lease transactions, Pakravan has been a high-volume producer from early on in his 10-year career. During his nine years as a broker with Centers Business Management, Pakravan partnered with 11 different agents in three different offices. As a VP at Kennedy Wilson, he is involved in projects with six different brokers. Pakravan represents 26 retail properties in the Greater Los Angeles area, consisting of over 400,000 square feet of space. He has negotiated over 400 leases in 10 years in over 100 different commercial properties. According to Kennedy Wilson officials, Pakravan, “consistently shares his street-level market knowledge and observed trends with colleagues—both internally and externally—to the ultimate benefit of his clients.” He was a CoStar Power Broker in 2009, 2010 and again in 2012, and serves as a board member for the Association of Corporate Real Estate Executives of Southern California.

Scott Peterson, 34
Vice President
CBRE
San Diego
As a member of the debt and structured finance team at CBRE, Peterson has placed more than $3 billion in debt and equity in six different states. Some of his most notable transactions include placing $170.9 million in phased construction and permanent debt for Prominence Apartments and $128.6 million in phased bridge and construction debt for University City Village. In addition to serving on the structured finance team, Peterson is the chairman of the firm's capital markets division and president of the Pacific Ranch Association Board. He started his career during the technology boom in the late 1990s, and interned at a small technology company that grew to 75 people one year only to close its doors the next. The experience taught him the importance of timing in the market, and he decided to apply those important economic lessons to a career in commercial real estate.

Greg Reed, 32
Senior Vice President
Capital One Multifamily Finance
Newport Beach
After 13 years in commercial real estate, Reed considers it vital to build strong relationships with a diverse set of lending sources. He handles the origination of multifamily and commercial mortgages across the US and works with a variety of loan programs and sources including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, CMBS and life companies. Reed's knowledge of lending sources helped him do a $225-million refinance of Golden Gateway Apartments in 2005 with Freddie Mac and, in 2012, close a $42.5-million acquisition loan in just 25 days from application to closing. He also co-manages the Newport Beach office for Capital One Multifamily and oversees about $500 million in annual loan volume and 14 full time employees. In the short-term, Reed plans to grow the Western US platform for Capital One Multifamily, but his true career goal is to create a fully integrated real estate private equity company.

Bradley Ross, 31
Associate
Karlin Real Estate
Los Angeles
Ross chose his career in Southern California commercial real estate by accident. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 2005 with a degree in anthropology, he moved to Los Angeles with his then-girlfriend (now wife), who was beginning law school. Finding himself in a new city, he called his distant cousin—Carol Schatz, president and CEO of the Central City Association of Downtown Los Angeles, and the annointed “Queen of Downtown.” Through her, Ross landed an internship with Major Properties, an industrial brokerage specializing in Downtown Los Angeles. After about a year, Ross left his salaried position at the age of 23 and joined Major Properties as a 100% commission-based sales agent. It was in this role that he flourished for the next five years, finding a passion for real estate and for the relationships with his clientele. Still, Ross left his position at Major Properties while at the top of his game. Less than two weeks before winning the company's Salesman of the Year award in 2010, Ross informed his mentor and boss that he would be leaving the company to pursue his MBA. Today, his primary responsibilities at Karlin Real Estate include sourcing and underwriting debt and equity capital placement opportunities, increasing the company's exposure throughout the US, spearheading Karlin Lending's marketing events and growing the Karlin brand.

Scott Schweer, 34
Client Manager, Commercial Term Lending
Chase
Irvine
Consistently among the top five Chase agents for most transactions closed nationally, Schweer is focused on loans both large and small, and is able to work in tight timeframes. For instance, he has closed a $13.8-million refinancing in 17 days, another for $11 million in 29 days and two recent cash-out refinancings for $22 million and $19.5 million. Day to day, he's responsible for all aspects of originating loans on commercial real estate multifamily properties, including mixed-use developments. He also handles business development, client relationship management and offers extensive product knowledge. Schweer was the youngest Chase client manager to receive Presidents Club recognition in 2007, and went on to win it every year after, through 2013. In 2012, he was one of only four originators in Chase/Washington Mutual history to fund over $500 million in loans for a single year. With 341 loans, Schweer closed the most loans for the company that year.

Brandon Sudweeks, 32
President
Coldwell Banker Commercial Sudweeks Group
Temecula
Since founding CBC Sudweeks in 2007, Sudweeks has grown his business to a full-service CRE firm, including a team dedicated to property management, with locations in San Diego, Temecula and Redlands and 30 employees. He is the youngest owner and operator of a CBC franchise on record, and has completed $1 billion in commercial real estate sales since opening the doors seven years ago. With no intention of slowing down, Sudweeks hopes to grow the franchise to one of the top firms in Southern California, and believes that by following his service guidelines of honesty, integrity and reliability, he'll achieve this.

Chris Williams, 33
Vice President
Colliers International
Carlsbad
Williams came into the business during an unprecedented recession and had to work hard, become entrenched in his marketplace and form strong relationships with his peers to make a living. He now utilizes those skills to the benefit of his clients. He focuses his knowledge and efforts along the Highway 78 Corridor, Interstate 15 Corridor and Carlsbad office markets in North San Diego County and exclusively represents approximately one million square feet of existing office product and over one million square feet of potential build to suit opportunities. Among his other recognitions, in June of 2009, he became a LEED Accredited Professional through the USGBC. Additionally, he earned Colliers 2009 Rookie of the Year award and received the 2012 Managers Award for his contributions to the company. He has also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, Project Mercy, Generate Hope, San Diego Youth Services and the San Diego Food Bank. While the market is rapidly changing and evolving, the fundamentals of commercial real estate are still the same—hard work, focus, integrity, serving your clients, excellent work, relationships and market expertise, says Williams.

Tony Yousif, 34
Senior Vice President
Sperry Van Ness | Finest City Commercial
San Diego
Yousif has a seasoned 10-year career in commercial real estate that gives him the knowledge and experience to serve as the single point of contact for SVN institutions, including Colony Capital, Sabal Financial, Oak Tree, and oversee property managers, turn around and the dispositions of more than 200 assets in 26 states. In his longstanding career, his ample noteworthy achievements include bringing $200 million in new deposits to banks between 2008 and 2010 and closing on 47 transactions in 2013, which ranked him number 15 nationwide. He believes in having a vision and in helping others achieve their successes. His future goals are to own several real estate assets throughout the nation and mentor the next generation.