An Institutional Team
Working for You

David is principal of Origin, co-chairs the Investment Committee and oversees investment analysis, acquisition and asset management. He has more than 20 years of experience in real estate investing, finance and asset management and believes that real estate is the best asset class for long-term wealth protection and growth.

As a child of two teachers, David witnessed the daily challenges facing middle-income families. David received 100% financial aid from Harvard and played on the Harvard varsity football team, where he learned the value of team building and goal setting.

Upon graduation, David spent eight years at a privately financed hedge fund, where he opened and managed offices in New York and London and served as company president. His success in this role allowed him to focus on his passion: real estate. David earned his MBA from the University of Chicago to explore the intersection of real estate, financial modeling, and investment structures.

David has dedicated much of his time towards giving back to others. In 2006, he co-founded One Million Degrees, which has raised $20 million to help low-income community college students graduate and successfully enter the workforce. He has served as the organization’s Board Chair for the past 12 years, as the organization has grown from 30 to 1,000 students served per year. He also serves as the President of the Harvard Club of Chicago and is on the Advisory Board of Invest for Kids.

David is married, has two children, and is a youth basketball coach. David is a passionate but below-average guitar player and is currently learning Spanish.

Michael is principal of Origin, co-chairs the Investment Committee and oversees investor relations, marketing and company operations. Michael brings 25 years of investment and risk management experience to the company and believes that calculated risk-taking in inefficient markets is the key to building wealth.

He frequently shares his knowledge with individual investors on Origin’s blog, Forbes, ValueWalk and HuffPost, and his expertise has made him a frequent speaker on real estate investment panels and podcasts.

Michael learned about the physical aspects of real estate in his youth as he helped his grandfather manage his apartment buildings on Chicago’s west side. He began college at DePaul University and a year later was introduced to the floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He continued to work full time on the trading floor for the next sixteen years while attending night courses to complete his undergraduate degree. After rising from runner to broker, Michael was given an opportunity to become a floor trader by a Chicago based hedge fund, Tradelink, LLC and then had a prolific nine-year trading career, twice named one of the top 100 traders in the world by Trader Monthly Magazine.

With two kids and another one on the way, Michael cashed in his chips and retired from trading in late 2005. His new focus was on managing the wealth he accumulated and enrolled in the Real Estate master’s program at DePaul.

Michael is the former president of the DePaul Real Estate Alumni Alliance and a sustaining sponsor of the DePaul Real Estate Center. He has been a Vistage member for more than six years and lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.  He enjoys traveling with this family, snowboarding, and frequents ski resorts all over North America.

Marc is a senior commercial real estate investment professional with 20 years of experience in asset management, acquisition, disposition, underwriting and valuation, leasing, and due diligence. As Managing Director of Investment Management at Origin, Marc is responsible for overseeing the company’s real estate portfolio and executing Fund and property-level business plans. 

Before Origin Investments, Marc served as Vice President of Asset Management at Lightstone, a New York investment firm with $2 billion of assets under management. Prior to Lightstone, he was involved in the HSBC Amanah Global Properties Income Fund ("GPIF"). As Head of Asset Management for the U.S. portfolio, he held responsibility for the investment performance of a 36 building national office, R&D, and an industrial portfolio containing 7 million square feet. Earlier in his career, Marc performed in various asset management and acquisition roles at Equity Office Properties Trust, previously the nation's largest publicly traded office building owner and REIT. During his decade long tenure at Equity Office, Marc was involved in the underwriting and valuation analysis on corporate acquisitions with a total value in excess of $15 billion and conceived investment strategy for assets with an aggregate value over $2 billion. 

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Marc lives with his wife and two daughters in a north suburb of Chicago. He is a faithful Cubs fan who also enjoys travel, the beach, and history.

Michael serves as Origin Investments’ in-house general counsel.

Prior to joining Origin Investments, Michael was the Vice President and Senior Associate General Counsel at General Growth Properties, a $3 billion publicly-traded REIT. Earlier in his career, he worked the Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary at APAC Customer Services. Michael also worked at Corporate Express as their Assistant General Counsel.

He received his Bachelor degree in Chemistry from Hope College and his JD from Valparaiso University School of Law. Michael is admitted to the Illinois Bar and the Northern District of Illinois. He is an accomplished French horn player, contemporary art collector and competitive recreational cyclist. Michael and his husband have been residents of the city of Chicago for over twenty-five years.

Dave is directly responsible for investment activities across the firm’s target markets and collaborating with the Investment Committee to shape the firm’s investment strategy.

Since 2003, Dave has been involved with the sourcing, closing and execution of more than $1.5 billion of commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions and development projects. Dave joined Origin in 2011, and, over that time, has completed over $600 million of direct and joint-venture investment comprising of a host of physical and operational repositioning strategies and ground-up development of multifamily and office assets throughout Chicago and the Southeastern U.S.

Prior to joining Origin Investments, Dave spent six years at Deutsche Bank’s global commercial real estate investment and advisory division known as RREEF. During his tenure, he was involved with the acquisition of more than $500 million of multifamily, office, industrial and retail assets throughout the U.S. on behalf of the firm’s pension fund clients. Additionally, Dave was a member of the Portfolio Management group that oversaw the investment management and strategic direction for two separate account pension fund clients that had a combined asset value of more than $2 billion and comprised over 10 million square foot of multifamily, office, retail and industrial assets throughout the U.S.

Dave is married, has three sons and lives in the Cotswold neighborhood of Charlotte. He enjoys spending time with family, trying to keep up with the ever-changing restaurant scene, travel, golf, fly fishing, an occasional bird hunt and Iowa Hawkeyes athletics.

Tom joined Origin Investments in early 2011 and is responsible for sourcing office investments across the Western United States. Before his current role, he served as Vice President of Asset Management for Origin Investments, overseeing the firm’s portfolio assets. Tom has worked with the Origin team for over eight years and has thirteen years’ experience in the commercial real estate sector.


Prior to joining Origin Investments, he underwrote and transacted commercial real estate investments at Equity Office Properties. Before Equity Office Properties, Tom worked as a commercial credit analyst at JP Morgan Chase.



He received his Bachelor degree in Finance from The University of Connecticut. Tom currently resides in Denver with his wife and children, is a cyclist, skier and loves to travel.

Matt is responsible for acquisitions across Austin, Dallas and Houston. He has over eight years of experience sourcing, evaluating and executing investments on behalf of Dallas-area real estate firms. Prior to joining Origin, Matt served as the Vice President of Acquisitions at Behringer Harvard. Earlier in his career, he was an Analyst for Goldman Sachs & Co. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Finance from the University of Arkansas. In 2014, he was selected as one of "Tomorrow’s Leaders: Texas’" on behalf of Real Estate Forum Magazine. He holds an active Real Estate License in the State of Texas and is an active member of the Real Estate Council. Matt is married and he and his wife live in Dallas. He enjoys all things outdoors and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Melissa joined Origin in early 2017 after spending nearly a decade at Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research. At Morningstar, Melissa set the marketing communications strategy to drive demand for an extensive line of products for financial advisors, including software, events and investment management services. Her career at Morningstar began as a marketing associate for the company’s most widely-used financial advisor software system and, prior to that, she worked in marketing at Merrill Lynch Capital.

Melissa received a Bachelor’s degree with a major in Strategic Communications from the University of Kansas and a Master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. She is a life-long resident of Chicago and lives with her husband, daughter, and dog in Forest Glen. She is an avid reader, traveler, yoga practitioner and concert-goer.

Victor is responsible for creating the technology department at Origin Investments. He and his team of engineers are building tools that will help Origin grow. His team architects and implements internal tools as well as external products that improve our customer support, enhance analytics and extend Origin’s reach.

Victor has over 4 years of coding and 2 years of management experience. He’s been a part time coder while managing teams from the architecture of projects to successful releases. He has delivered products for large companies such as Microsoft and Facebook.

Victor graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He loves to read, travel and play guitar. You can find him playing basketball around Chicago any time of the year.

Ben joined Origin in 2015 and oversees capital raising and investor relations activities for the firm’s various investment opportunities.

Prior to his current role, Ben worked on Origin's acquisitions team and underwrote the firm's prospective investments. Before joining Origin, Ben served as an Analyst for Starwood Retail Partners, a division of Starwood Capital Group with more than $7 billion in assets under management.

Ben received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ben loves to travel, golf and cheer on his beloved Wisconsin Badgers.

Aaron is responsible for driving performance in the company’s multifamily portfolio. He oversees the strategy and execution of property-level business plans.

Before Origin Investments, Aaron worked at Steadfast Management Company, an owner and investor in over 40k units nationwide. There he led operations with his 11-years of experience in leasing & marketing, value-add construction management, property management technology, and training. In this assignment, he was able to capitalize on investments made in three REITs and ensure beneficial results. Prior to that, he managed an owner-operated portfolio concentrated in Atlanta (Avila Real Estate), and a vertically integrated firm sponsoring multifamily focused investment funds in the Southeast, mid-Atlantic, and Northwest regions (Merion Realty Partners).

Aaron studied Political Science and Economics at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. He is a member of the Atlanta Apartment Association, a Certified Apartment Portfolio Supervisor, and Certified Apartment Manager. Aaron lives with his wife and daughter in Alpharetta, GA. He is an avid outdoor hobbyist and ultramarathon runner.

Priya is the controller of Origin Investments and joined the team in June 2009.  She has over 12 years of accounting and financial experience in commercial real estate with a portfolio of assets totaling over $900 million. In her current role, Priya oversees Origin’s fund and corporate-level financial operations, executes year-end audits, interfaces with the tax team, tracks corporate performance, and manages reporting requirements of lenders, general partners and other stakeholders.

Prior to joining Origin, Priya was the controller of a privately financed real estate development company where she managed a team of accountants, and was responsible for building and managing accounting systems, internal controls and overseeing the financial reporting and operations of the firm.

Priya is a licensed CPA, Certified Internal Auditor and a Chartered Accountant. She lives with her husband and son in Hinsdale. Intrigued by countries and cultures, she enjoys traveling, live music and spending time with friends.

Geoff joined the public securities team in fall 2018. He leads the construction and monitoring of the public real estate securities portfolios along with heading up REIT research.

Prior to Origin, Geoff was a Managing Director and Sr. Research Analyst at Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. where he provided buy-side research on listed REIT securities. Prior to that he was a Vice President and Investment Analyst with Security Capital Research and Management Inc, part of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, also focused on investing in public REIT securities. While at J.P. Morgan he participated in their Investment Management Training Program for highly productive Associates.

Geoff earned his MBA from The Ohio State University with a major in investment management and a minor in real estate. He also received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The Ohio State University. He is a CFA charter holder and a member of the CFA Institute. Geoff is married with three daughters and lives in the Northern suburbs of Chicago. His favorite sports team include the Chicago Cubs and The Ohio State Buckeyes and he loves hitting the gym in his free time.

Kyle is responsible for sourcing, structuring, and execution of new acquisitions across Chicago, Minneapolis, and Nashville. Before his current role, he served as Senior Associate of Investment Management for Origin Investments, overseeing the execution and strategy of the firm’s assets, as well as an Associate in the Acquisitions group where he closed over $400 million of multifamily and office assets. Prior to Origin Investments, he completed the Risk Management Leadership Program at GE Capital.

He received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Kyle lives in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. Originally from Wisconsin, he is an avid Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers fan.

Emily is responsible for managing both internal and external marketing communications for the firm. She joined the firm in early 2017 as a Marketing Associate.

Prior to Origin, Emily worked as the Marketing Coordinator and Transactions Manager for the Marcus & Millichap Healthcare Real Estate Group. She was responsible for creating all marketing collateral, managing every transaction from start-to-finish, and streamlining the group's pipeline. During her tenure, she executed multiple marketing initiatives that directly increased business revenue and the group's online presence.

Emily graduated from the University of Missouri where she received a Bachelor of Journalism in International Strategic Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She lives in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago. She is an active member of the Junior League of Chicago, an avid rock climber and loves to travel.

Max joined the Origin team in the spring of 2018 as head of video production. He works alongside the marketing department in concepting, creating, and distributing video content.

He got his start in production at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a campus videographer, while receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree. Following graduation, Max moved to Australia and managed the production department at Machines4u in Melbourne. In 2016, he founded Jolly House Films and began producing videos for Chicago businesses and artists. He became very connected with the local community during this time, and regularly attends Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce events.

Max lives in Lakeview, where he can be found attending comedy shows, playing softball, or helping out on film sets on the weekend. He enjoys the Chicago summers, and survives the winters by playing in hockey leagues.

Bill works alongside the marketing team to produce creative assets for digital marketing campaigns including blog graphics, email templates, landing pages, and other branded materials.

Before joining Origin in Fall of 2018, Bill worked as an independent graphic designer. His clients included agencies, startups, non-profit organizations in the arts, higher education, healthcare, social welfare, as well as entrepreneurial individuals.

Bill’s design practice emerged out of a fine arts background. He was formally trained as a multi-disciplinary artist with an emphasis on conceptual thinking at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bill received his BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in partnership with Tufts University (SMFA at Tufts).

Bill lives in Andersonville. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, listening to music, and traveling.

Originally from China, Grace came to the U.S. in 2011 to pursue a Master of Science in Accounting degree, which she received in 2013 from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Previously she studied accounting as a undergrad at Capital University of Economic and Business in China.

After graduating from UIC, Grace worked as a staff accountant at the food industry consulting firm Technomic, Inc. (now part of Winsight), in downtown Chicago. Two years later, she took a role as a Property Accountant at SLM Realty, LLC., where she was first exposed to the real estate industry. Then in April 2016, she joined the Origin family.

Grace enjoys cooking, singing, painting and traveling. During the summer, Grace enjoys biking along Lakeshore Drive and makes the most of the big city by exploring new places, museums, parks, restaurants and festivals. During the unpredictable Chicago winters, she tries to stay active and has found skiing and skating in the park to be her favorite wintertime activities.

Vince joined Origin Investments in 2017 and helps raise capital and service the firm’s investor base.

Prior to Origin, Vince served as a Senior Associate at Duff & Phelps, a leading global valuation and corporate finance advisor. In this role, he was a member of the Valuation Advisory group where he was responsible for conducting business enterprise and intellectual property valuations for use in the corporate acquisition process.

Vince holds a Master’s of Science in Finance from Ohio State University with a focus in Corporate Finance and Real Estate. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Kent State University and currently lives in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago. In his free time, Vince enjoys traveling, fishing and skiing. Originally from Ohio, he is a fan of the Cleveland Indians and Ohio State football.

Isabela is apart of the Investor Relations team at Origin Investments.

Isabela was formerly a Senior Financial Analyst with Pritzker Realty Group where she was responsible for providing underwriting support and market research in relation to PRG's acquisition, disposition, financing and asset management activities. Prior to joining PRG, she served as Financial Analyst for DBRS, a credit rating agency for commercial mortgage-backed securities, from 2015-2017. There she assisted in the evaluation of underlying commercial real estate loans within rated transactions, conducted site inspections of all major property types and composed Presale Reports distributed to investors.

She graduated from Marquette University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Real Estate and Finance and was a member of the Marquette Women's Soccer Team. Isabela still enjoys playing soccer and staying active as well as volunteering, reading and traveling. She is on the Young Adult Board for Horizons for Youth, a Chicago non-profit, and is a member of CREW's Network Liaison Committee.

Chris is responsible for executing property-level business plans as part of Origin’s Investment Management team. Within this role, he conducts operational and financial evaluations of portfolio assets.

Prior to joining Origin, Chris served as an Investment Analyst at NorthMarq Capital. While there, he underwrote and closed transactions exceeding $500 million in debt financing. Chris was selected to NorthMarq's ten-member Analyst Council and served as a resource for other analysts across the firm's national platform. Chris began his career as a Portfolio Analyst within NorthMarq’s loan servicing department headquartered in Minneapolis.

Chris received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting & Finance from St. John's University (MN) and a Master of Science degree in Real Estate from DePaul University. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the American Cancer Society's Associate Board of Ambassadors (ABOA). Chris is a big Minnesota sports fan, enjoys traveling and running along Chicago’s lakefront trail.

Ken joined Origin in 2018 as an Associate on the Investment Management team. In this role, Ken is responsible for the execution of asset-level strategies and business plans utilizing operational and financial analyses.
 
Ken began his career in commercial lending as a credit analyst for MB Financial Bank in Chicago. While there, he completed the bank’s Leadership Development Program and was promoted to commercial banking officer, responsible for the development of new business relationships and the management of credit risk within a roughly $100 million loan portfolio consisting of both revolving industrial debt and real estate term facilities. Following his time at MB and prior to joining Origin, Ken worked as a project manager for Landmark Building Group. In that role, he was responsible for budgeting, scheduling, and executing the construction of custom-built single-family homes in Chicago’s suburbs.
 
Ken received a Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Business from Indiana University (Bloomington) and is currently closing in on his Master’s of Business Administration with a concentration in Real Estate Finance & Investment from DePaul University. He is an active member of the Real Estate Investment Association as well as the Urban Land Institute. Born and raised in Chicago, Ken enjoys traveling, cooking, and cheering on the Cubs, Bears, and Indiana Hoosiers.

Phil is responsible for underwriting commercial real estate investments, conducting quarterly valuations for portfolio assets and executing upon property level business plans.

Prior to joining the Origin team, Phil began his career as a Development Analyst for General Growth Properties, a Chicago-based REIT specializing in high-quality retail properties. In this role, he underwrote development projects, provided asset management support on the ± $2 billion West / Seritage portfolio and prepared monthly project reports on an income and cost basis.

Phil received a Bachelor of Science with a major in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently resides in the River North neighborhood of Chicago and is originally from Ohio. Phil loves to travel, participate in sports leagues and cheer on the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals.

Annamarie is part of the acquisitions team at Origin and is responsible for underwriting all prospective investments across all property types, investments profiles, and target markets. She also analyzes and maintains various internal data to draft both property-level business plans and investment strategy decisions.

Prior to Origin, Annamarie was an associate on the real estate valuations team at RSM and received her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with majors in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, Spanish and a minor in Chinese. She also serves as Vice President of Programs for the Real Estate Finance Forum (REFF). In her spare time, she enjoys running, skiing and cheering for her hometown Chicago sports teams.

Jacob is responsible for underwriting prospective commercial real estate investments across all property types and target markets.

Prior to joining the Origin team, Jacob worked at KPMG as a Real Estate EVS Senior Associate where he performed over $15.0 B in property and portfolio level valuations across all asset classes.

He received a Bachelor of Business Administration with majors in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Finance, Investment & Banking from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Jacob lives in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and loves cheering on the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers.

Arun joined the technology team in the spring of 2018. He works alongside other members of the tech team to architect and implement various internal and external tools.

Prior to Origin, Arun worked as a Software Engineer for LGS Innovations LLC. The group has an exclusive focus on communications and security solutions for commercial and defense applications. He was responsible for spearheading the integration of various developing wireless specifications into products deployed worldwide. During his tenure, he architected and implemented new packet routing and parsing functionality and various 3GPP LTE functionality.

Arun graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago where he received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. He lives in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. He is an active member of the National Association of Rocketry, an avid sailor and loves to travel.

Clarence is a member of the technology department at Origin. He is a software engineer, who joined the team in the spring of 2019.

Prior to Origin, Clarence worked as a technical consultant to Facebook. During this time, he used cutting edge technology to deliver multiple projects for the client. He performed technical presentations, on things such as new coding patterns, to both fellow employees and clients. He became the go-to backend developer for his team and was promoted within his first year. Following the departure of the senior engineer on his project, Clarence voluntarily took over his responsibilities and received continuous positive feedback from the client team.

Clarence graduated from Valparaiso University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, at the age of 20. He grew up on the south side of Chicago, near the Roseland area, but now lives in the Gold Coast neighborhood. He enjoys traveling, gaming, and spending time with his family.

Nadiia joined Origin in fall 2018 and is responsible for software development and maintenance. Prior to Origin, she worked as a software engineer for UkrSibbank, a subsidiary of French bank BNP Paribas based in Ukraine. Nadiia believes that there are no barriers from achieving a dream as she began her career as an Analyst and after collaborating with development teams she became fascinated about coding.

Nadiia graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, a top Ukrainian school, where she received a Master's degree in Mathematics. She lives in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago with her husband. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, running and traveling.

Claire Potter joined Origin’s Investor Relations team in 2019. She serves as a main point of contact for current and prospective investors.

Before Origin, Claire worked for some of the largest non-profit arts institutions in North America, including The Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Boston Symphony Orchestra. In these roles, Claire served as the main point of contact for VIP artists, managed auditions, and coordinated the rehearsal schedules of music directors.

Claire graduated with degrees in Arts Management, Business Administration and Anthropology from DePaul University. In her free time, Claire enjoys exploring the arts and the cultural scene in Chicago.

Alexa serves as the executive assistant to Origin’s two co-founders, Michael Episcope and David Scherer, and is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the firm. She joined Origin Investments in early 2019.

Prior to Origin, Alexa was an Administrative Assistant for an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery private practice in Chicago. There she was responsible for maintaining proper patient flow with multiple doctors, managing day-to-day office operations, scheduling, ensuring inventory was properly filled for both clinical and non-clinical purposes, and much more. Before working in the medical field, Alexa worked as an office manager for a jewelry store in Skokie for more than five years.

Alexa attended Indiana University Bloomington and Northeastern Illinois University, where she studied special education and teaching. She lives in the Gold Coast neighborhood with her fiancé and their dog. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, bowling, shopping, working out, and spending time with friends and family.