Propel by MIPIM Startup Competition – NYC

Zach Aarons

Co-Founder & General Partner - MetaProp

Zach Aarons is an award-winning PropTech investor, best-selling author, professor, and speaker who has been a pioneering thought leader at the forefront of real estate technology for over a decade. In 2010, while working as a Project Manager for internationally renowned large-scale mixed-use real estate developer Millennium Partners, Zach began investing in early-stage PropTech companies, quickly becoming the most active angel investor in the space with over 50 portfolio companies. In 2015, Zach parlayed his experiences in the real estate and technology sectors to found MetaProp, devoting his career to the mission of utilizing technology to make real estate more affordable, accessible, sustainable, and resilient. Since founding MetaProp, Zach and his team have invested in 150 PropTech companies.

Prior to founding MetaProp and working at Millennium Partners, Zach served as a Senior Associate for ENIAC Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in New York City and San Francisco. He has served as a technology entrepreneur, founding the online/offline tourism company Travelgoat. Zach began his career as an Analyst for boutique investment bank PJ Solomon, working on mergers and acquisitions as well as financial restructuring.

Aki Karja

Director of Proptech - Fairstead

Aki Karja is the Director of Proptech at Fairstead Ventures. Prior to joining Fairstead, Aki was a Senior Strategy Advisor at Gemic, Inc., a progressive New York-based strategy consultancy, where he helped Fortune 500 companies design, pilot, and launch new businesses primarily in proptech.

Since 2018, Aki has been actively involved with several start-ups either as an investor, advisor or a founder. Between 2006 and 2018, Aki held senior positions at three long-short equity hedge funds including Newbrook Capital, Millennium and Royal Capital, where he was a partner.

Aki was an Investment Analyst in Blackstone Group's Private Equity division from 2004 to 2006, and began his career as an Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley in New York in 2001.

Aki received his Master’s degree in Finance from the Helsinki School of Economics

Sunita Mahant

Head of Social Impact and Inclusion, Sustainable Investment - Ivanhoé Cambridge

In her role as Head of Social Impact and Inclusion, Sustainable Investments, Sunita acts as a catalyst for the development and execution of the corporate social impact and inclusion strategy- the “S” of ESG. This includes the social impact of the company's real estate investments, the communities in which it invests as well as the diversity, equity and inclusion strategy by positioning Ivanhoé Cambridge as a real estate industry leader in these three areas. In addition to this role, Sunita has held various leadership roles in Legal Affairs, Investment Management for nearly 15 years, where she provided strategic value-oriented solutions for projects in Canada and the United States related to the Retail, Office and Industrial assets. In 2015, she was recognized by Lexpert Rising Stars, as one of Canada’s leading lawyers under 40. Sunita has also been instrumental as lead counsel for CIBC SQUARE – new transformational office development downtown Toronto of more than 3M sf.

Recognized for her leadership qualities and keen mind, Sunita is actively involved with several organizations dedicated to workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, serving as Co-President of the Promotion Committee of Women in Governance and a Director of the Commercial Real Estate Equity and Diversity Council (CREED). She was the initiator and ambassador of the first Women’s Forum at Ivanhoé Cambridge.

Sunita holds a Bachelor of Political Science, a Bachelor of Laws and is a member of the Ontario Bar. She received her Mini-MBA from the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC). Sunita speaks four languages: Hindi, Punjabi, French and English.

Stevi Petrelli

Managing Director - Blackstone

Stevi Petrelli is a Managing Director and Head of Blackstone Innovations Investments (BXI Investments) at Blackstone. She oversees the firm’s internal investments in early-stage FinTech, PropTech, Cybersecurity and Enterprise Tech companies, working across Blackstone’s Technology and Innovation (BXTI) group and businesses across the firm to drive these investments and help accelerate innovation across the firm.

Prior to joining Blackstone in 2021, Ms. Petrelli worked at Goldman Sachs, where she helped oversee the firm's principal strategic investments portfolio and internal innovation incubation efforts as part of the Firmwide Strategy team. Ms. Petrelli also worked on core strategy efforts with a number of Goldman's businesses and helped lead the firm's financial technology partnership efforts. Earlier in her career, she was a Vice President at Point72 Ventures and a member of the Principal Strategic Investments team at Goldman Sachs. In both roles, Ms. Petrelli focused on sourcing and executing early-stage investment opportunities in the financial technology space. Ms. Petrelli received a BA in Political Science from Yale University.

Sara Shank

Global Head of Innovation - PGIM Real Estate

Sara Shank is a managing director at PGIM Real Estate and global head of Innovation. Based in New York, Sara is responsible for developing and implementing technology solutions and data strategies across investment, asset management, operations and client servicing. This includes leading the change management of process, systems, and culture. Sara oversees the Systems organization working in close coordination with all investment and function areas. She is a member of the Global Investment Committee.

Prior to joining PGIM Real Estate, Sara served as a managing director, head of Portfolio Management at Beacon Capital Partners. In this role, she was chair of the Portfolio Committee and a member of the Investment, Management, Internal Credit, Due Diligence and Debt Committees in addition to being responsible for driving innovation in the firm. During her tenure, Sara oversaw the review, screening and implementation of multiple new technologies and platforms across the company.

Sara has a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia and a master of business administration from Tuck School of Business. She has been a founding member of numerous industry organization councils including the ULI National Real Estate Technology Council and CREtech Leadership Board. Sara also has served as an advisory board member for VTS, Honest Buildings, WiredScore, Compstak, Building Engines and Comfy.

Sara is also a CFA® charterholder.

Judah Siegal

Senior Vice President - Brookfield

Judah Siegal is a Senior Vice President at Brookfield, responsible for sourcing, executing and managing technology-enabled investments at Brookfield Technology Growth Partners. Mr Siegal joined Brookfield in 2012 and has held a number of roles across the organization. He was initially involved in investment and strategic initiatives for Brookfield's Real Estate Group in NYC where he worked on a wide range of real estate transactions including Brookfield's investments in Forest City Realty Trust and Hospitality Investors Trust. Prior to joining Brookfield, Mr. Siegal worked in Citigroup's Real Estate Investment Banking Division. Mr. Siegal holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kelly Soljacich

Director of EST Innovation - LaSalle

Ms. Soljacich is a Senior Vice President and Director of Asset Level Environmental, Social and Technology (EST) Innovation for LaSalle Investment Management. With over 20 years of experience in the real estate investment industry in Portfolio and Asset Management she helps investigate new and different ways to make LaSalle’s communities better for its occupants. She has led many of LaSalle’s property level environmental, social and PropTech initiatives, including several Fitwel and WELL certifications and LaSalle’s covid response effort to attain the WELL Health & Safety Rating last year for over 150 properties globally.

Ms. Soljacich leads LaSalle’s partnership with The Red Cross, which hosts blood drives at LaSalle’s properties nationwide, and has run asset level PropTech since 2019, working to vet, negotiate and roll out new technology.

Prior to joining LaSalle, she worked on the investment side for DWS (Deutsche Bank), MMPI (Vornado), and GGP (now Brookfield). Ms. Soljacich holds a finance degree from the University of Iowa and is also an active member of ULI, a volunteer and Board Member of the Red Cross of Illinois and sits on the board of JLL’s Women’s Business Network.

James Whalen

Senior Vice President, Chief Information & Technology Officer - BXP

Jim Whalen serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Information & Technology Officer for BXP where he is responsible for the direction and implementation of technology services and solutions. Prior to joining the Company in March 1998, he served as Vice President, Information Systems of Beacon Properties. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a recipient of the New York City Urban Fellowship. Mr. Whalen is a current trustee and past President of the Boston Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM) and serves on the Real Estate Cyber Consortium, Realcomm Advisory Council, Commercial Facilities Cyber Working Group, TechHire Boston and Boston Private Industry Council. BXP is the largest publicly-held developer and owner of Class A office properties in the United States, concentrated in six markets - Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC. The Company is a fully integrated real estate company, organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT), that develops, manages, operates, acquires and owns a diverse portfolio of primarily Class A office space.