WHO’S NEWS: Tom Woodward to form new Cresa division; New global head at NKF

Veteran leasing analyst and auditor Thomas Woodward has joined Cresa New York as senior vice president, where he is establishing a new division.
Woodward is a commercial real estate accountant who has specialized in lease audits and review for more than 35 years.
Prior to joining Cresa, he was the principal of The Lease Audit & Review Co. Over the years, he has served as chief financial officer and/or controller for numerous real estate organizations, including Newmark, Century 21 Stores, Coldwell Banker, Paramount Group, Feil Organization and, for 14 years, CB Richard Ellis.
Woodward is also an adjunct professor at NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate.
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Wachtel Missry LLP announced the addition of a new litigation and white-collar defense partner, new tax law of counsel and two associate promotions to partner from within its ranks.
Marc Litt, Esq. joins as partner and tax lawyer, Mark Eichler, Esq. joins as of counsel. Commercial litigator Sara Spiegelman, Esq. and Real Estate lawyer Jordan Mautner, Esq. have been named partner. Both started as summer associates at the Firm.
During his 25-year legal career in private practice and formerly as a federal prosecutor, Marc Litt has been the lead or co-lead attorney in more than 50 bench and jury trials, argued more than a dozen appeals, conducted complex domestic and cross-border investigations into potential fraud, securities and other white collar offenses.
As a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Litt led the teams that prosecuted high-profile matters, including the Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernard L. Madoff.
Litt clerked for Senior Judge Hugh H. Bownes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He was a legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Daniel P. Moynihan. He received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, and an A.B. from Harvard College. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard University.
Mark Eichler joins Wachtel Missry with over 20 years of experience representing clients in broad range of U.S. Federal income tax matters. He spent 11 years at Strook & Strook & Lavan LLP.
His practice includes counseling clients on the tax consequences of sophisticated domestic and cross-border commercial transactions, as well as the taxation of corporations, partnerships and real estate investment trusts. He advises domestic and foreign investors on the tax implications of investing in U.S. real estate.
Eichler received his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and a B.S. in Accounting from Brooklyn College.
Following a summer associate track directly from law school, Sara Spiegelman has been associated with the firm for over ten years and was promoted from within the firm’s ranks.
She represents individuals and businesses in commercial litigation, and her expertise extends to commercial real estate litigation, shareholder and partnership disputes, claims involving breach of contract, restrictive covenants, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, and other business torts.
Spiegelman is admitted to practice before New York state and federal courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. She received her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law and a B.S. from Binghamton University.
Throughout his years of practice, Jordan Mautner has represented high net-worth individuals and
key company decision-makers at well-established enterprises and startup ventures.
His practice encompasses purchase/sale, development, leasing, and financing of real estate.
Mautner received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a B.S. from the University of Florida.
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Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) has hired Susan Wojciechowski as the Global Head of Facilities Management and Business Integration, Global Corporate Services (GCS).
Wojciechowski will focus on global service line strategy and growth, platform development, partnership formulation and will play a key role in business integration supporting occupier clients for GCS.
Wojciechowski has more than 25 years of global real estate services and full-service outsourcing experience.
Prior to joining NKF, she held global senior leadership roles at CBRE, Johnson Controls, and Trammell Crow Company. Most recently, as Managing Principal & President, she re-ignited Outsource Partner Advisory Services), a company she formed in 2008 to provide investment and portfolio sales for private and institutional investors.
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Brokers+Engineers, the technology platform for trading NNN property announced new hires in its New York and San Francisco offices.
Daniel Zimmerman joins as a director in the New York office
Prior to joining Brokers and Engineers, he spent ten years as an acquisition consultant to United Trust Fund where he was involved in excess of $1B in net lease deal closings.
Before this, he oversaw the development of a number of real estate projects on the West Coast.
Zimmerman started his career on Wall Street as an institution equity sales professional for Kemper Securities and then running an equity sales desk for Janney Montgomery Scott.
He holds a B.S. in Economics and Philosophy degree from Florida State University.
Spencer Henderson joins as an Associate in the San Francisco office.
He most recently worked as an Analyst at Sansome Pacific Properties, and before this, as an Analyst at Eagle Canyon Capital.
He holds a B.S. in Business/Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis.
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Pembrook Capital Management announced Douglas Wilberding has joined the firm’s national loan origination program.
In his new role as Senior Originator, Wilberding will source, price and structure loans for the firm’s Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.
Wilberding brings over 25 years of experience to his new position. Prior to joining Pembrook, he served as Senior Vice President with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC).
Earlier in his career, Wilberding worked for several nationally focused real estate investment firms, where he was responsible for capital raising and other middle market real estate investments. His career experience also includes working with a London-based pension fund advisor and a Washington D.C.-based REIT .
Wilberding graduated from New York University with a Masters in Real Estate Finance and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Michael’s College.
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Arbor Realty Trust announced the appointment of Frank Lutz as Executive Vice President, Chief Production Officer.
Lutz will oversee all of Arbor’s agency lending platforms as they relate to business development and the firm’s national production network and originations team.
Additionally, he will serve as the company’s liaison between Arbor’s agency partners as it relates to production.
Lutz comes to Arbor with more than 25 years of multifamily agency experience. He spent the past seven years with Berkadia as Senior Vice President, Fannie Mae Liaison, managing Berkadia’s Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac production relationships and has served as the Chairman of the Fannie Mae DUS Advisory Council.
Earlier, Lutz was with Fannie Mae where he served as Vice President, Customer Management for the Northeast.
He holds a Bachelor of Science from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Villanova University.
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AmTrust Title Insurance Company announced that Jon Tracy, an industry veteran with nearly 30 years of title industry experience, has joined the company to expand agencies across America.
Tracy’s primary focus will be development and support of multistate agencies located across the United States.
He will work closely with Tom Klein, senior vice president /national agency manager and manager for Mid-Atlantic agency units.
Prior to joining AmTrust Title, Tracy served as the Director of the Real Property Department for the County of Henrico, Virginia.
Before that for 21 years, he owned and operated Virginia Escrow & Title company.
Tracy earned a BA degree from the University of Richmond and afterwards served his alma mater for three years as a member of the University Relations/Development staff as Assistant Director of Development, responsible for all phases of annual and capital support programs for the T.C. Williams School of Law.
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Levin Management Corporation has appointed Lai Lau as controller.
Lau brings more than 30 years of accounting experience specializing in retail shopping centers and commercial office buildings to her new position.
Her background includes overseeing all phases of financial reporting, forecasting, budgeting, cash flow analysis and supervision of staff accountants.
At LMC, she is assisting Vice President/Chief Financial Officer Paul Tavaglione in maintaining the integrity of the firm’s financial reporting, and is responsible for a variety of finance and accounting functions.
Prior to joining LMC, Lau held positions at The Related Companies, CB Richard Ellis and Sage Realty.
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Polsinelli has welcomed bilingual attorney Liz Liu to its New York office.
Fluent in English and Mandarin, Liu has represented domestic and international clients in a variety of banking, corporate, securities and regulatory matters.
She regularly advises on cross-border transactions, in particular Chinese investments into the U.S., as well as general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, banking and securities regulations, broker-dealer and investment adviser registration.
A native of China, Liu received her bachelor of laws degree from Tsinghua University School of Law in Beijing and also spent a semester studying at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in France.
She received her master of laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
Prior to joining Polsinelli, Liu worked at two international banks in New York, including the largest Chinese investment bank, CITIC Securities, and also as a legal intern at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.
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Cresa NY has welcomed the tenant leasing team of Michael Okun, Principal, Daniel Taormina, Vice President, and Richard Shames, Vice President.
Prior to joining Cresa, the group worked together at CBC Alliance.
Michael Okun is a 15-year veteran of the industry who has spearheaded strategic planning and managed leasing programs for such prominent technology-based clients as Bowery Farming nd Operative.
Daniel Taormina brings more than five years of real estate expertise to Cresa.
Richard Shames began his career learning the skills of negotiation by helping companies win settlements as part of the Deepwater Horizon settlement program.
At his previous firm, Okun received the Number One Sales Professional distinction, and was honored with a Silver Circle of Distinction Award every year from 2010 to 2016.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and law from Lafayette College.
Taormina earned his Bachelor of Science degree in business management and finance from Providence College.
Shames holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Hartford, majoring in politics and government.