JLL MARKETPLACE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Investment Associate
HOBBIES
In his free time, he enjoys playing golf and tennis, cooking, traveling, and rooting for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Carolyn is a senior IT executive with a record of delivering technology and business solutions across various industries and tech platforms. She is passionate about using technology as a strategic enabler for business innovation and growth. Carolyn leads the role of Asia Pacific lead for JLL Spark, performing strategic relationship management with JLL Spark's portfolio of startup companies and external partnerships to promote growth and co-develop opportunities. Prior to her career in JLL Spark, she headed the Property & Asset Management Business Technology team at JLL for 12 years. Initially focused on Australia, expanding to Asia-Pacific, Carolyn's team delivered a transformational program that re-engineered and digitized the day-to-day functions for staff and provided clients with a continually improving reporting and service delivery suite.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications
Christine leads marketing and communications for JLL Spark. She is responsible for elevating the Spark brand within the venture capital, tech, and real estate communities by developing and executing the media strategy for the global venture fund. Christine also partners with the JLL and JLL Technologies corporate communications teams to amplify internal awareness of Spark. Prior to joining the JLL Spark team, Christine was the communications lead for BakerHughesC3.ai, a joint venture developing industrial AI and machine learning. Before that, she managed marketing programs for tech and consulting firms. Christine holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
HOBBIES
Surfing, cooking, furniture design, and travel. I am also an active member of the Billion Oyster Project, which works to reintroduce marine wildlife into New York Harbor.
Job Titles:
- Senior Investment Associate
Javier is a senior investment associate at JLL Spark based in New York City, where he is focused on sourcing, evaluating, and investing in early-stage companies, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of PropTech and FinTech. Javier comes from an entrepreneurial family and is passionate about empowering ambitious founders. Prior to joining JLL Spark, Javier worked as a senior investment associate at GPT Ventures, an early-stage fintech & payments focused fund. Earlier in his career, he worked as a banker at J.P. Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Javier holds a B.A. in Economics and M.S. in International Real Estate from Florida International University, and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Innovation and Internal Partnerships Lead
Hydroponic gardening, hunting for my next favorite candle and learning to make candles. FAVORITE BUILDING Angkor Wat, Cambodia Background Kelly is innovation and internal partnerships lead at JLL Spark, focused on process improvement for the investment and growth team and driving go-to-market strategy. Previously, Kelly joined JLL in 2018 where she was a data analyst for the global research team performing market analysis for Silicon Valley and developing operational playbooks for JLL's global research team. Kelly became a driver of tech adoption within the CRE industry because of the impact products (like Aero, BlackBird and JET) made on her and her colleagues' day-to-day. Kelly holds a B.S. in International Business from San Francisco State University. She was introduced to CRE through the Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA) mentorship program, where she learned the importance of building relationships between owners, tenants and their buildings.
Laurent is an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist collaborating with start-ups to successfully build scalable teams, strong company cultures, and disruptive products. Laurent believes there is a need for additional support within the early-stage ecosystem in budding technology hubs in the US and globally. His desire to support these growing tech communities led to his current role as Partner at JLL Spark in April 2021, focusing on strategic PropTech investments. Laurent has founded, expanded, and managed multiple start-ups ranging from a tech-enabled corporate catering company, Eat Club, to a leader in the mobile health and wellness space, Zeel. His experience working in the early-stage startup scene has given him the tools necessary to understand the needs of founders in the infancies of their companies. Laurent holds a B.A. in International Relations and Occupational Science from the University of Southern California. He is based in Los Angeles.
Meagan Riley is a growth principal for JLL Spark, serving as the liaison between Spark's portfolio companies and JLL business leaders and clients. Prior to joining JLL Spark, Meagan led business development and strategic partnerships for a Mark Cuban-backed startup in the Bay Area. Her previous experience includes leadership positions at iHeartMedia, where she led the political and advocacy division, and 1776, a global incubator and venture fund based in Washington, DC. While at 1776, Meagan led the corporate partnerships team and helped develop UNION, a global software and content platform that connects startup founders, mentors, investors, and corporate innovators around the world. Earlier in her career, she held various positions at Frontier Strategy Group, which provided venture-backed information and advisory services for emerging markets executives.
Job Titles:
- Co - CEO, JLL Technologies
HOBBIES
I love cooking and trying out new restaurants.
Mihir Shah is co-CEO of JLL Technologies (JLLT), a business division of JLL dedicated to commercial real estate (CRE) technology, where he draws on his nearly two decades of experience in building and leading teams to bring successful technology-based products to market. Mihir is also a member of the JLL Global Executive Board. Previously, Mihir served as co-CEO of JLL Spark Global Ventures, JLL's global venture fund investing in early to mid-stage startups to fuel and accelerate innovation in PropTech. Prior to his time at JLL, he was a senior executive at Groupon, the co-founder and CEO of Mob.ly (acquired by Groupon), a product leader at Yahoo!, and a management consultant at R. B. Webber & Company. Additionally, Mihir has been an angel investor and adviser to a number of startups, including Uber and Boom Supersonic. Mihir holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is based in San Francisco, California.
Natalia is an executive assistant supporting JLL Spark's managing partner and partner. Before her venture capital career, Natalia worked in family-owned businesses and luxury hospitality brands throughout the globe. Natalia has since worked for venture capital firms such as Menlo Ventures and Fort Ross Ventures before joining JLL Spark in June 2021. Natalia holds a bachelor's degree in Hospitality Business Management from Switzerland. Natalia is also trilingual, speaking Russian, French, and English.
Raj is the managing partner of JLL Spark, the corporate venture capital group of JLL, focused on strategic PropTech investments. Previously, he was interim co-head/managing director of investments at JetBlue Technology Ventures, the corporate VC of JetBlue Airways. Prior to that, Raj served as CEO and co-founder of London-based Sooqini, an on-demand economy task delegator for small businesses. Before that, Raj co-founded and led a Geneva-based consulting firm and worked with various governments to foster entrepreneurship. As a general partner and co-founder of Pervasive Technology Ventures-and also as a principal for the New York-based VC arm of Investcorp-he was responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and closing new investments in tech startups. At Booz Allen Hamilton (now Strategy&), Raj led strategy and technology projects in ecommerce; technology, media, and telecommunications; and financial services. He also held multiple positions at IBM at the start of his career. Raj holds an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and a B.S. in computing science from Imperial College London. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sean is an investment principal at JLL Spark, covering the EMEA region. Previously, he served as a managing director at Stanley Ventures and Check24 Ventures. Prior to working in corporate venture capital, Sean founded Carden Capital, an investment firm which managed a hedge fund and sub-advised several mutual funds. He was also at Allianz Capital Partners, where he completed leveraged buyouts and mezzanine debt investments in Western Europe. Sean began his career as an investment banking analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Sean holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, and a Masters in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds Business Administration and German language degrees from Pepperdine University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He is based in Frankfurt, Germany.
HOBBIES
Sonia likes high-intensity sports and has competed in Triathlon, CrossFit, and horseback riding competitions. She also has a love for music and grew up playing the violin in symphony orchestras.
Job Titles:
- Co - CEO, JLL Technologies
Yishai Lerner is co-CEO of JLL Technologies (JLLT), a business division of JLL dedicated to commercial real estate (CRE) technology. Yishai leverages his 20-year background in leadership and technology to guide his team toward finding innovative solutions to age-old problems in CRE. He is also a member of the JLL Global Executive Board. Previously, Yishai served as co-CEO of JLL Spark Global Ventures, JLL's global venture fund investing in early to mid-stage startups to fuel and accelerate innovation in PropTech. Prior to his time at JLL, he was a senior executive at Groupon, the co-founder and CTO of Mob.ly (acquired by Groupon), the first engineer at Carrier IQ and Core Mobility (acquired by Smith Micro), and an artificial intelligence programmer at Activision Studios. Additionally, Yishai has been an angel investor and adviser to a number of startups, including Uber and Boom Supersonic. Yishai holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he concentrated in AI and contributed to the MIT Media Lab. He is based in San Francisco, California.