Courtland Partners makes four senior hires – Exclusive

The Cleveland, Ohio-based real assets consulting services firm is seeking to bulk up its team in Los Angeles and New York.

Courtland Partners has recruited four senior professionals as it aims to bolster its geographic presence and expand its areas of expertise. The new hires, who came on board in the last few months, include Gila Cohen, Jeremy Goldberg, Thomas Hester and Daniel Wolnik.

Cohen, who will be based in Courtland’s New York office, has joined as a senior consultant and head of business development and strategy. In her newly created role, she will be focused on developing new relationships involving cross-border capital, either US-based institutions looking to invest outside of the country and foreign investors wanting to deploy capital globally. Previously, Cohen was global chief operating officer of private equity and managing director for Swiss asset management company Capital Dynamics.

Hester, meanwhile, will be based in Los Angeles as senior vice president, replacing Rob Negrelli, who left the firm last year. He will be in charge of advising the firm’s existing West Coast clients while also developing new relationships in the region. He formerly was the director of accounting and financial reporting and chief compliance officer at Los Angeles-based real estate debt fund manager Mesa West Capital.

“We’re continuing to develop our global platform,” Michael Humphrey, founder and managing principal of Courtland, told PERE. “We added some people in New York City and Los Angeles, because both of those markets are important to us. We have several clients in both of those areas.”

Additionally, Goldberg, who will be a consultant, will bring residential real estate expertise to Courtland, which the firm previously lacked, Humphrey said. Prior to joining Courtland, Goldberg was responsible for corporate finance and investor relations efforts at Associated Estates Realty Corporation, a multifamily real estate investment trust that was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management last year.

Meanwhile, Wolnik re-joined Courtland in its Cleveland office as a senior consultant and director of finance. He previously was chief financial officer and chief compliance officer at the firm from 2008 to 2015 before leaving to become vice president of finance and administration at The Gottlieb Organization. In addition to his financial responsibilities, Wolnik also will assist in conducting due diligence on managers, particularly with respect to their back office operations.

Founded in 1995, Courtland provides real estate, infrastructure, timber and agriculture advisory services. It currently has 33 employees globally, including two each in Los Angeles and New York, one in London and the remainder in Cleveland. The majority of the staff are real estate-focused, although the firm has more recently been adding professionals with expertise in other real assets asset classes, including its first infrastructure-focused employee, Jim McMillan, last year.