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Moderator:

MATT MILLER
Senior Writer
The Deal LLC

Matt Miller has spent more than twenty-five years in business journalism, with much of that time based in Asia for The Asian Wall Street Journal. Miller opened The Asian Wall Street Journal's New Delhi bureau, was bureau chief in Manila and an investigative reporter based in Hong Kong, where he broke stories on a number of major financial scandals. He also was the Pacific Rim correspondent for The San Diego Union-Tribune and has contributed to the BBC, National Public Radio, Institutional Investor, Far Eastern Economic Review and the Los Angeles Times.

Most recently at The Deal, Miller has written feature stories investigating the successes and struggles of major metropolitan areas like Boston, Los Angeles and Detroit. Before that, he wrote extensively on issues related to the impact of immigrants and technology, especially in the Silicon Valley.

Miller was a Kiriyama Fellow at the University of San Francisco's Center for the Pacific Rim, the first journalist to be awarded this prestigious fellowship. He also taught Asian Studies at San Diego State University.

Miller received his bachelor's of art degree in Asian studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. and did post-graduate studies at the University of the Philippines.

JOHN HALPERN
Partner & Head, Global Real Estate
Marathon Asset Management

Mr. Halpern is a Partner, Global Head of Real Estate and a member of Marathon's Executive Committee. Mr. Halpern has 23 years of professional experience in real estate having led Halpern Enterprises, one of New York's leading regional (Westchester County) commercial and residential property owners (developer/builder/operator) from 1985 to 1994. Mr. Halpern sold these real estate assets to Reckson Associates Realty, a REIT in 1995 and joined the company as Executive Vice President and a member of its Board. Mr. Halpern was a Co-Founder of Reckson Opportunity Partners and served as Co-Managing Member until 2000. Prior to Marathon, Mr. Halpern was Chief Executive Officer of HQ Global Workplaces from 2001 to 2003, where he was recruited by banks and other creditors to restructure this company with $400 million in revenues and 2,500 employees. After the turn-around was complete and the company emerged from Chapter 11, Mr. Halpern joined Marathon in 2003. Mr. Halpern graduated with a B.A. from the University of Colorado School of Business (1985).

JOHN JACOBSSON
North American Opportunity Funds Business Leader
AREA Property Partners

Mr. Jacobsson has been associated with AREA since its founding in 1993 and is the North America Opportunity Funds Business Leader, overseeing AREA's opportunistic investments in the U.S. and Mexico. He serves on the Investment Committee as well as on the Board of Directors of VEF Advisors, AREA's value added investment business. From 1990 to 1993, Mr. Jacobsson was a member of the acquisitions group of Trammell Crow Ventures in Dallas, where he executed investment transactions on behalf of an opportunistic real estate investment fund. Mr. Jacobsson serves on the boards of HEAF (Harlem Educational Activities Fund) and Groton School. Mr. Jacobsson graduated cum laude with a BA in East Asian Studies from Harvard College.

SPENCER LEVY
Senior Managing Director, Capital Markets
CB Richard Ellis

As Senior Managing Director in Capital Markets, Spencer Levy is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the activities of more than 300 investment sales and debt/equity finance professionals in the Eastern Region of the United States.

In addition to his duties in Capital Markets, Mr. Levy is the national head of CBRE's Restructuring Services initiative. Restructuring Services is CBRE's group that is focused on servicing both large financial institutions and government entities to assist them with real estate services required for both REO and whole loan assets.

Prior to joining CBRE, Mr. Levy was a Principal at Stifel Nicolaus (formerly Legg Mason Capital Markets), one of the most active and diverse real estate investment banking practices in the US. As Principal, he was responsible for leading overall execution several major merger and acquisition assignments. Mr. Levy played a significant role in the initial public offering of six REITs, as well as dozens of other public and private capital-raising transactions.

Previous to this position, Mr. Levy served as Assistant General Counsel of the Witkoff Group, formerly one of the largest property owners in the New York City area. Prior to that, he practiced real estate law at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and Jones Day Reavis & Pogue.

Mr. Levy is on the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women.

Mr. Levy is a frequent lecturer and panelist at real estate industry events and is often quoted in prominent real estate publications. Most recently, Mr. Levy has been quoted in The New York Observer [cover story/photo], Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle), Crain's New York Business and Real Estate Forum.

Credentials
• New York State Bar [retired]
• Series 7 Securities License
• Maryland and Washington D.C. Real Estate Licenses

Education
• Harvard Law School, Juris Doctorate - 1995
• Cornell University, Bachelor of Science; Industrial and Labor Relations - 1992

DENNIS YESKEY
Senior Advisor
AlixPartners

Dennis is one of the foremost experts in the world on real estate - commercial, corporate, and residential. A proven thought-leader, Dennis most recently served as National Director of the Real Estate Capital Markets practice for Deloitte Consulting. He also built the New York-based Real Estate Services practice from the bottom up, which achieved an annual growth of more than 25% with a staff of more than 250 professionals. Before that, from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, he led a successful real estate practice at Kenneth Leventhal & Company, at the time perhaps the premier real estate restructuring firm in the world, where he was a partner. He began his career at A.T. Kearney and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Over the course of his distinguished 35-year career, Dennis has been involved in dozens of high-profile workouts, restructurings, and reorganizations in real estate, including Travelers Life Insurance Company, Prudential Financial, The Trump Organization, Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, and Mellon Bank. He has also worked with several government agencies in dealing with troubled assets, such as the US Resolution Trust Corporation, the FDIC, and the US Post Office, as well as with Japanese and UK government entities as well.