ACTIVUS ENERGY ADVISORS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Principal and Founder of AGK Development Group
Austin G Kay is currently the principal and founder of AGK Development Group, where he is responsible for identifying and executing new real estate investment opportunities and joint venture partnerships on larger scaled projects. AGK Development Group was founded in 2017 after Austin spent over three years as an executive at Rialto Mortgage Finance, where he was responsible for strategic business development and underwriting projects in multiple asset classes. During Austin's tenure at Rialto, the firm was one of the top private commercial mortgage-backed security lenders, providing over $3 Billion in securitizations.
Since leaving Rialto in 2013, Austin has a successful track record in the development and investment of several multifamily assets throughout the country by minimizing risk while maintaining returns. As such, Mr. Kay has been featured on a number of industry reports such as, The Stoler Report for his insight and expertise in the Real Estate industry. Austin received a BS in Finance and Business administration from George Washington University, with honors. Additionally, he received an MS in Real Estate Development from New York University, also earning honors. Austin currently resides in Manhattan, New York.
Job Titles:
- Board of Directors
- Founder and President of BLD Holdings Inc
- Retired Physician, Investor
From the mid 80's to 1994 he was the Founder, CEO: Advanced Rehabilitation Consultants; Florida medical rehabilitation centers developed and strategically partnered with medical physicians utilizing state of the art post-surgical rehabilitation equipment. The company was privately acquired in 1994.
In 1995 Barry joined the executive committee at Schonfeld Securities, one of the largest proprietary trading firms, consisting of thousands of traders both domestically and internationally. The firm incubated hedge funds, portfolio managers, traders, analysts', and black box programmers.
In late 2003 Barry saw major parallels between Spot Foreign Exchange trading and the equities trading space. He then co-founded EFX Group utilizing direct access STP and ECN trading for the retail and institutional customers.
Barry is currently Founder and President of BLD Holdings Inc, a single family office. Barry Dorfman sits on the board of other family offices, and has a network of institutional investors and family offices that invest in real estate, VC/PE, and hedge fund managers. BLD Holdings participates as a co-investor and coordinates access to this broader syndicate.
With more than 25 years of experience in Sales & Marketing, Cheryl Arts served as Managing Partner of Chicago-based The Power Company. Ms. Arts was responsible for managing Sales and Marketing of The Power Company corporate channel. Cheryl has over two decades of a proven track record of building sales divisions through innovative cross-selling initiatives, key account management approaches, targeted marketing campaigns and cultivating strategic alliances. Ms. Arts directs and manages short and long-term marketing strategies, develops and integrates new account acquisitions and distribution channels, and identifies key relationships that lead to profitable relationships. Ms. Arts has consulted with and secured many of the larger corporate clientele.
In addition, Cheryl has passionately donated her time as a volunteer for pediatric cancer foundation, Bear Necessities, for over a decade. Her focus is on Bear Hugs, which consists of special, customized requests from children with cancer. For her efforts and the hundreds of "Small Miracles" she has orchestrated, Cheryl has earned the organizations' MVP Award as well as Volunteer of the Year on a number of occasions. Cheryl is a member of the International Women's Leadership Association and the National Association of Professional Women. Cheryl earned a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Indiana University.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Executive
- Co - Founder and President of Navigate Power
Christopher Gersch is the Co-Founder and President of Navigate Power. Mr. Gersch has held numerous energy-related roles over the last 13 years. He began his career in 2004 with Hanley Group working in the option pits at the Chicago Board of Trade. Mr. Gersch managed commodity and energy trade departments at Spike Trading, Merrill Lynch, and ADM Derivatives.
He used his trading expertise and founded Chicago Global Capital, LLC, a Commodity Trading Advisory Firm specializing in energy futures products. Mr. Gersch has been recognized as an expert in the industry and can often be seen as a guest speaker on energy and commodity related products for CNBC, Bloomberg, BNN, CNN and Fox Business News. Chris is also an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago in the Masters in Financial Mathematics Program.
Egidio (Ed) Robertiello, CFA, is currently Chief Investment Officer of Blueprint Capital Advisors where he is responsible for all facets of the investment, negotiation and structuring activities related to private credit strategies and other alternatives. Ed has over 25 years of experience in traditional and alternative strategies covering portfolio management, asset allocation, manager research and selection, funds due diligence and operations. Previously, Ed was Senior Portfolio Manager at CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in North America, responsible for Absolute Return Strategies and Multi Asset Class Strategies. Ed was responsible for implementation and management of investment strategy and policy for the pension fund's approximately $6.0 billion portfolio in absolute return and multi asset investments, including private credit. Ed was a member of CalPERS Investment Strategy Group (the internal Investment Committee that oversees $330 billion of assets across all asset classes), Operating Committee and Derivatives Committee. Prior to CalPERS, Ed was a Managing Director of Absolute Return Strategies in the asset management group at Russell Investments.
He created the Alternative Strategies business including an investment process, procedures, team and product. He was also a member of the Investment Committee that oversaw $250 billion in multi manager portfolios. Prior to joining Russell, Ed was a Managing Director of Credit Suisse's Asset Management business. He headed institutional alternative asset mandates globally. At its peak he was responsible for $22 billion in AUM, 65 investment professionals and over 80 individual alternatives portfolios. Previous to Credit Suisse, Ed held the position of Senior Managing Director of Investments and Research at Asset Alliance Corporation, leading alternative manager seeding opportunities, launching alternative asset products and overseeing multi-manager funds of hedge funds. Previously, as a Managing Director in the Blackstone Group's affiliate Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, he created and led the Manager Identification and Selection team. Ed began his investment career at RJR Nabisco, serving as Vice President Pension and Benefit Investments, where he created an allocation to absolute return strategies in 1994.
Ed received his BA in Accounting from Montclair State University and his MBA in Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is a holder of a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He has been a frequent speaker at pension and alternative investment conferences including events sponsored by SALT, Institutional Investor, Milken and Pensions and Investments. Ed has been featured on Bloomberg TV and has contributed to a variety of articles in The Wall Street Journal, Institutional Investor, Alpha Magazine and Bloomberg.
Steven Brewer has over two decades of experience in building sales and marketing companies that have brought overall efficiencies and market differentiators to the public. Mr. Brewer has a proven track record of cultivating and growing business entities and developing sales organizations as well as bringing revolutionary technology to pre-existing marketplaces.
Through innovative products and organizational structures, Mr. Brewer built one of the country's largest Introducing Brokers in the commodities markets as well as built large field marketing organizations in the insurance and financial services markets. More recently, Steven was a founder in The Power Company, a deregulated energy broker that acquired over 400,000 customers in less than six years. Steven's responsibilities included the development and implementation of overall corporate strategies including business development, and joint ventures.