Our Management Team
R.J. Brandes, Chairman of the Board - Mr. Brandes was the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Belgravia Capital Corporation. Between 1984 and 1997, Mr. Brandes guided Belgravia Capital Corp. from a boutique mortgage bank into a leader in the commercial loan origination and securitization industry. In 1997, Mr. Brandes sold the mortgage division of Belgravia Capital Corp., which was then originating $1.7BB of CMBS loans annually, to Finova Capital Corp. where he continued to grow the operation to $3BB of annual sales volume. Since 2000, Mr. Brandes has continued to make investments in small operating companies where he takes a hands-on role in turning around the company. In 2003, one of these investments, Gatekeeper Systems, was successfully listed on the London Stock Exchange, and Mr. Brandes continues to serve as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and a majority shareholder in the firm. Mr. Brandes is currently the CEO and Owner of Blenheim Equisports which is one of the fastest growing venue management firms in the Equestrian Show business. In addition to his private investments, Mr. Brandes serves on the Board of Directors of a philanthropic organization known as the White Nights of America Foundation where he serves as the head of the audit committee.
Nik Chillar, President / CEO - Mr. Chillar previously ran the Real Estate Capital Markets and oversaw all securitization activities at FINOVA from 1997 to 2000. In 2001, Mr. Chillar joined the European CMBS group at Lehman Brothers and structured the first market transactions including the first securitization of commercial real estate mortgages in Switzerland, telecom assets in Italy, and Italian social security assets. Mr. Chillar's team was awarded the Structured Financial International Real Estate Transaction of the Year award for Lehman in back to back years (2002 & 2003). Mr. Chillar restarted Belgravia in 2007 to develop new real estate strategies for the firm.
Tony Debbas, CPA. / Chief Financial Officer - With over 20 years of accounting and auditing experience, Mr. Debbas has a variety of experience with different industries including: manufacturing, not-for-profit, amusement, lodging, trucking, and general finance. Most recently, he was CFO for an equipment leasing company where he established a reliable accounting system for discounted and brokered leases, and budgeted cash flow to keep the company running smoothly. Mr. Debbas is a CPA, a member of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, The California Society of Certified Public Accountants, and The Institute of Internal Auditors.
Brent Wessel, Managing Director / Head of National Sales - With over 20 years of industry experience, Mr. Wessel will oversee the loan origination team nationally. Mr. Wessel was previously a Senior Asset Manager with the MMC Group - FDIC. Prior to that, he spent several years as head of western region loan originations for RBC Capital Markets and 10 years as Regional Director for west coast loan originations with GE Capital. Throughout the course of his career, Mr. Wessel has been involved in over $12B in real estate transactions nationally, including multi-market portfolios and single-asset lending of Class A, B and C properties.
Brad Knapp, Managing Director / Chief Operations Officer - Mr. Knapp has 25 years of banking experience with an emphasis on real estate and asset based lending. Mr. Knapp comes to Belgravia Capital from Citibank, where he was President of Citi's Warehouse lending division, First Collateral Services. Prior to First Collateral Services, Mr. Knapp was a senior executive at Associates Housing Finance (Ford Motor Credit) where he was responsible for oversight of the western half of the country for loan originations, servicing, as well as the work out department that liquated more than $1 Billion in non-performing assets. Mr. Knapp also has extensive experience in the distress mortgage market. Mr. Knapp is also a principal and founder of BREO, Inc., a national real estate valuation (BPOs & BOVs) and REO outsource solution provider for banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders and servicers.
Mike Huntley, Managing Director - Mr. Huntley has over 22 years of experience in real estate. Prior to joining Belgravia Capital as a Managing Director, Mr. Huntley was Capital Markets Specialist and Vice President with Buchanan Street Partners where he sourced and closed over $750 million in structured debt and equity. Prior to Buchanan Street, Mr. Huntley served as a Director for Lennar and was involved in the West Regional Investment committee, business operations and mergers and acquisitions. Before Lennar, Mr. Huntley was a Consulting Manager for E&Y Kenneth Leventhal, LLP where many of his engagements included CMBS modeling of assets, loan due diligence, and valuations. In addition, Mr. Huntley has worked in appraisal and property management companies for such clients as The Irvine Company and C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. Mr. Huntley received his B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters of Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from the University of Southern California. He has also sat for the Chartered Financial Analyst designation through level three. He is also a licensed real estate salesperson in the State of California.
Our Team
Brandon Akiyama, Senior Analyst - Mr. Akiyama began his career at Belgravia where he was the lead underwriter for the Belgravia Note Acquisition Program and Belgravia Opportunistic Lending Platform. Prior to rejoining Belgravia, Mr. Akiyama previously worked as the lead underwriter for Chase Merritt where he was responsible for the financial analysis and market research of prospective commercial and residential real estate portfolio acquisitions including, financial modeling and forecasting, profit margin and cash flow analysis. In addition, Mr. Akiyama oversaw in the daily management of CM Funds I, II and III at Chase Merritt which concentrated on the acquisition and disposition of over 700 SFRs.
Royce Hudson, Analyst - Mr. Hudson has over 15 years of experience in commercial real estate finance. In his previous position at Jones Lang LaSalle ("JLL") as Vice President of the Capital Markets group in Los Angeles he was involved in over $1.2 billion in asset sales, financings and recapitalizations. Prior to joining JLL, Mr. Hudson spent five years in New York with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Nomura's Capital America group specializing in the origination of Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities ("CMBS") transactions. During his tenure, Mr. Hudson managed the due diligence process and performed financial analysis on over 10 public and private CMBS transactions valued in excess of $15 billion.
Jason Bonanno, Analyst - Mr. Bonanno is a seasoned commercial real-estate professional and began his career in 2003 as a consultant in New York City at Blackheath Financial. He was a key member of Blackheath's due diligence and underwriting team until 2006, when he joined J.P. Morgan's Investment Bank as an Associate in their fixed-income, securitized products group. At J.P. Morgan, Mr. Bonanno partnered with Los Angeles based management to originate over $321 million in closed and securitized conduit loan production. Mr. Bonanno holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Vermont and a MBA from California State Polytechnic University