Chérie Talbert, M.A., CPC is an executive leader, an advocacy expert, public policy strategist, and process consultant with more than 20 years of experience. Producing impactful solutions for commerce, communities, stakeholder coalitions, and governments, Chérie empowers and unites businesses, organizations and thought leaders in the creation and pursuit of valuable comprehensive collaborations & adaptive solutions.
Taking her years of advising and running businesses, a major trade association, community organizations, political and issue campaigns, and government/nonprofit sectors, she joined Design Group International as a senior process consultant to support more leaders and pursue her passion for expanding her work toward organizations of all sizes and sectors.
Steve comes to us from Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation where he was the Senior Vice President, Philanthropy for the past five years. Steve led the development efforts of several business units of the Foundation and was a valued member of the Executive team. Prior to joining Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation, he was at the University of Denver where he served from 2014 to 2018 as the Executive Director, Gift Planning. Before moving to Denver, he was the Director of Gift Planning for Texas Christian University (TCU) for five and a half years. He holds the Certified Financial Planner (CFP©) designation and works with donors, advisors, and colleagues on exploring current and deferred giving options. Steve was also a financial advisor with Wells Fargo Advisors from 2002 to 2009. He earned his bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Communications from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida and earned his Master's in Business Administration from Texas Christian University. Steve and his wife live in Denver with their two kids.
Stefanie has a diverse background in nonprofit, corporate and start up environments. In her current position with Colorado Enterprise Fund, she does regional business development to support the mission’s micro-finance initiative by giving entrepreneurs and small businesses access to capital when traditional sources are unavailable. Stefanie specializes in making impact to minority owned, veteran owned and lower income entrepreneurs. Prior to the nonprofit world, Stefanie cofounded and contributed to the success of 2 profitable start-ups, a consumer product company in the baby and child industry and an event planning company in South Florida. She received her MBA with a focus in Entrepreneurship and BA in Communication from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. As a resident of Florida for over 30 years, she happily traded the beach for mountains in 2016.
Jim has forty years of Public and Private Development and construction experience with a specific focus upon Design-Build Projects of scale for government and institutional clients; as well as working with community groups developing projects in under-invested communities. His experience includes executive responsibility for strategic planning, project due diligence, negotiating complex contracts, securing entitlements and profitable project completion. He has earned recognition for innovative infrastructure solutions, adaptive reuse of facilities, brownfield restoration, and implementing a successful mentor/protégé program for small and disadvantaged contractors. Jim continues advising community groups with their strategic planning structure for sustainable economic growth.
President, Edwin G. Anderson III is a highly accomplished and nationally recognized individual for making places a reality through his extensive dealings and holdings in real estate concerns. Mr. Anderson is the founding Principal of Connexion Asset Group, LLC, and has 30+ years’ experience in real estate, including the acquisition, management, finance, joint venture or repositioning of nearly $1 billion of real estate. In this portfolio are several of the nation's prestigious real estate properties inclusive of landmark properties, office, multi-family, industrial, hotel, resort and land development. He is actively involved in the acquisition of distressed and underperforming properties, defaulted debt instruments and partnership interests as well as structuring transactions involving international joint ventures and entity recapitalizations.
He has co-authored two white papers with the University of Denver’s Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management including "Commercial Real Estate Debt Maturities: Shortfall & Implications", published by the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management. He is the past chair of the Salvation Army's real estate committee and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado. Mr. Anderson is a member of the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties, the American Institute and the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants, European-American Tax Institute and the University of Denver’s Burns Society for Real Estate and Construction Management.
From a young age, Ed has always been passionate about affordable housing and solutions for homelessness. Ed has served the community through multiple board positions, and personally invested in innovative solutions creating homeownership opportunities for veterans. Now, he is now using his real estate passion and expertise to lead this cause and share his connections, envisioning a strong Colorado for nonprofits and residents who are seeking an affordable place to live.
Mr. Chasnow has widespread experience in real estate investment, focusing on coordinating acquisitions and asset management for Connexion Asset Group ("CAG"). Mr. Chasnow joined CAG in 2008 and has played a key role helping to establish the company as a strong performer in the arena of private equity real estate investment. Prior to CAG, Mr. Chasnow was an analyst at Archstone, one of the largest investors, developers and operators of apartment communities in the U.S. Mr. Chasnow co-authored a white paper titled “Commercial Real Estate Debt Maturities: Shortfall & Implications”, published by the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management in 2009. Mr. Chasnow is a CFA Charterholder and holds a Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction Management from the University of Denver's Burns School, as well as an undergraduate degree from Tulane University.
John Daskam joined Milgrom & Daskam as a Partner in January 2019. He focuses his law practice on real estate and corporate law. His real estate practice includes acquisitions and dispositions, landlord-tenant matters, leasing, financing, development, and contract preparation and negotiation. John’s corporate law practice encompasses the formation and maintenance of corporations, general and limited partnerships, and limited liability companies, debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, and private placement of securities, including regulatory filings and preparation of private placement investment memoranda. John believes in balancing the practice of law with significant involvement in local community organizations and an active outdoor personal life. In addition to Sharing Connexion, he also sits on the board of directors and is General Counsel for Burning Through Pages, a local non-profit fostering a community of avid readers and inspired thinkers by providing literature, resources, and time to youth organizations. John enjoys playing golf and soccer and is a Colorado sports enthusiast. He and his wife Amanda are both Colorado natives and live in the Park Hill area of Denver.
Mr. Gillis is the portfolio manager of Dream Unlimited open-ended U.S. industrial real estate fund. Prior to joining Dream in 2021, he shared responsibility for disposition efforts and mergers and acquisitions across North America for Prologis (NYSE: PLD). Previously at Prologis, he managed an open-ended investment fund consisting of over $3.0 billion industrial real estate assets across 30 North American markets, and also served in Research, Financial Planning/Analysis, and Treasury departments. Prior to joining Prologis, Mr. Gillis worked for a Denver based commercial real estate management and investment firm and two publicly held homebuilders where he was responsible for land acquisitions and market research. Mr. Gillis holds an MBA in real estate and finance from the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a minor in Spanish from Colorado State University, and is an active member of PREA, NCREIF, NAIOP, and the University of Colorado Real Estate Council. Mr. Gillis also serves on the Board of Mile High Youth Corps.
Justin Gilmore is the Director of Business Development for Gilmore Construction. He has served in other roles as an Estimator, Project Engineer, and Project Manager in projects totaling over $300 million dollars. Justin has developed long lasting industry relationships within market segments both existing and new. He provides strategic direction for Gilmore Construction to navigate and grow in the Colorado market. Through this process he helps manage, grow, and build customer relations to increase the business’s visibility and reputation. A key part of his role in Gilmore Construction is to not only promote the growth and branding of the company but to support Gilmore Construction’s community outreach. Gilmore Construction is an enormously proud member of the Colorado community and believes in giving back. Justin is also engaged in the construction community and helps small businesses with sustainable growth and capacity building.
Jim has long been involved from both a professional and personal level in Denver’s affordable housing and homeless outreach from a construction perspective. His firm, Pinkard Construction Co. has been a leading provider of construction services of affordable housing since its beginnings in 1962. On the personal side, Jim has served on both the Denver Rescue Mission’s and The Salvation Army’s Red Shield Center board of directors to further address the affordable housing needs of Metro Denver. He has been involved in numerous affordable and homeless development projects – his favorite being the Champa House; a women with children’s transitional housing project. Champa House provides a safe place for women and children for up to three years while providing child care, GED educational advancement, and general life skills training.
David Ogunsanya is the Vice President of Real Estate for Elevation Community Land Trust and brings over 15 years of experience in real estate, affordable housing and community land trusts. He is responsible for the organization’s real estate acquisition and development strategy, and external partner relations to create more than 1000 affordable homes in metro Denver and ultimately statewide.
Prior to joining Elevation CLT, David served as the Director of Housing for Athens Land Trust in Athens, Georgia. He oversaw all real estate and strategic planning activities and led the management of a portfolio with more than 60 multi- and single-family homes. He also ensured the implementation of best practice models to preserve housing affordability and land trust ground leases.
David’s expertise extends into the intersection of community engagement and policy awareness where he educates key stakeholders about the benefits of the community land trust model as a mechanism for creating permanent affordability and driving positive change in communities. His work focuses on affordable housing policies such as inclusionary zoning, to assist in the creation of more affordable homes within market rate developments.
Jessica joined Merrick Capital in 2019 as Vice President, where she is responsible for the management of existing strategic partnerships and operations and identifying and transacting new business opportunities. Prior to joining Merrick Capital, Jessica served as Vice President & Associate General Counsel at McWhinney, a Denver-based commercial real estate development firm, where she managed the legal and securities aspects of the organization's equity syndications, real estate acquisitions, land and asset sales, hotel, joint venture and lease negotiations. Jessica started her career as In-House Counsel at McCord Development, where she focused on the development of Generation Park in Houston, Texas.
Jessica holds a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Florida and earned her J.D. degree from Santa Clara University. She spent a year at the Department of War Studies at King’s College in London. She is a Member of the State Bars of Texas and California. Jessica is also an Active Investor with Thrive Investments, which facilitates the introduction of female entrepreneurs to angel investors interested in capitalizing female-led, privately held companies in the early stages of development.
Lauren Schevets is responsible for Gorman and Company’s planning and implementation of Colorado development, including new construction projects as well as land acquisition and existing housing. At Gorman, she currently has two exciting projects underway: the Colburn hotel, a preservation and rehabilitation of homeless housing in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood, and The Stella, a mixed‐income affordable community in the Globeville neighborhood which partners with the Laradon Hall Society for Exceptional Children and Adults.
Lauren joined Gorman in 2017 with a diversity of public sector experience in land use planning and real estate from Boulder Housing Partners (“BHP”), the City of Westminster, and Denver Water. Among her achievements at BHP were the development of the award-winning High Mar senior housing project, and the development of the Palo Park family housing project, a unique partnership project between BHP and Flatirons Habitat for Humanity. Lauren participated in the real estate diversity initiative at ULI Colorado. Lauren holds a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Colorado – Denver and a Bachelor in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado – Boulder.
Courtney has 13 years of experience in private real estate development and capital markets. She currently holds the position of Principal at Bootpack Investments, which is the real estate development company that she owns with her husband. Prior to Bootpack, Courtney held the position of Vice President of Capital Markets and Investor Relations at McWhinney where she established and maintained relationships with both debt and equity providers. She worked directly with the CIO to raise equity capital for McWhinney’s various development and acquisition strategies across the multifamily, hospitality, and commercial platforms. Prior to her role on the equity team, she spent 4 years helping to source and negotiate debt capital for vertical construction and permanent loans for the company’s development projects as well as structure and negotiate corporate debt capital. Courtney started her career at Wells Fargo in San Francisco, where she originated, underwrote, and structured debt capital for public and private real estate companies, including developers, investors, private equity fund sponsors, and REIT’s. She underwrote and closed $500MM+ in transactions including syndicated construction facilities, project/standing loans (multifamily, office, retail, industrial/flex, hotel), for-sale condominiums, bridge/land loans, mezzanine debt, letters of credit, and secured/unsecured lines of credit.
Courtney holds a B.S. in Economics and International Business from Villanova University and earned her Master’s in Real Estate from the University of Denver.
Over his 36-year real estate finance career, Dan has been responsible for originating, structuring, and closing over $1.2 billion in debt and equity transactions for commercial real estate. Prior to joining Commerce Bank, Dan originated long-term and interim debt financing, and sale-leaseback financing for GE Real Estate – Business Property. He also served as Vice President of Finance for Trammell Crow Residential – Midwest Division and has held senior commercial real estate lending positions with Wells Fargo Bank and its predecessors. Dan earned his B.A. degree in Government from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from the University of Denver. He is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM), an active member of the Denver NAIOP chapter and the Colorado University Real Estate Council. Dan has served as Chairman of the Board of the St. Anthony Health Foundation and the CHI Colorado Foundation. He was former Chairman of the Board at Brothers Redevelopment, a Colorado-based nonprofit that provides housing solutions for the poor, elderly, and disabled.
Fred is in the process of retiring from active real estate development and entitlement activities. Fred is currently the principal of Baker Consulting Services, which provides consulting services for owners and developers in the commercial real estate development industry. He specializes in real estate projects where the highest and best use and marketability are more difficult to ascertain. His mission is to identify the highest and best use and to assist in the development and realization of the highest return for these real estate projects. Fred is a past Partner and Broker for BakerSmith & Company Commercial Real Estate Services, where he oversaw brokerage, entitlement and development consulting activities for the firm. BakerSmith represents clients searching for the location of prime developable land as well as the horizontal development and governmental interfacing throughout the development process.
Fred also served as Director of Marketing, Site Acquisition and Development for Ojala & Company for 16 years. While there, Fred expanded the marketing division to provide brokerage services, as well as, research, development and entitlement services, resulting in the acquisition and entitlement of many significant business park projects along the Front Range. As Vice President – Development for United Properties, Fred worked on the acquisition and development of several sizable mixed use projects, totaling more than four million SF in Stapleton and South Denver. Fred also founded and served as president/owner of Commercial Investment Services, Inc., a 44-broker real estate investment organization in San Diego. Fred received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Colorado State University and did post-graduate study in Chemistry and Chemical Process Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. For board service, Fred has served in the following capacities: past Chairman of the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation; current President of the Mountain West Metropolitan District; Treasurer of the San Diego Boys and Girls Clubs; and as board member of Arvada Economic Development Association, the Ken Caryl Business Park Association, and the Coors Technology Park Association.
