Blueprint 2024 Official Program Guide - Flipbook - Page 73
2024 Speakers
Kenya BurrellVanWormer
Managing Partner &
Founder,
Equity Angels
With over two decades of experience, Kenya Burrell-VanWormer is an
accomplished and insightful leader in the real estate industry. Her varied
career path has equipped her with broad expertise across mortgage lending,
people management, real estate, industry association engagement, and
executive operations. In her pioneering role as Chief Growth Ofûcer at
PropTech startup New Estate Only (NEO), Kenya leverages her extensive
knowledge to drive innovation. She has built a reputation as a collaborative,
people-centric leader focused on empowering teams and organizations. She
serves as Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Equity Angels, a social impact
organization dedicated to fostering fair access to innovation and opportunity
with the aim of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the technology
startup ecosystem. At Equity Angels, she9s focused on growth strategy and
industry relations, to drive positive change, supporting the underrepresented
and underestimated - connecting opportunities and resources to the
community. In 2018, she assumed the role of Chair of the Board for the
Houston Association of Realtors, the second-largest real estate association in
the United States.
SVP & Head Of
Operations,
ShopCore Properties
Mr. Byler joined ShopCore Properties, a Blackstone portfolio company, in
October 2017 as the Director of Property Management for the Northeast. He
has since advanced to become ShopCore9s Head of Operations, overseeing
property management, procurement, information technology, and ESG
initiatives. With over 15 years of experience in commercial real estate, Mr.
Byler has expertise in retail, industrial, multi-family, and self-storage asset
classes. He is passionate about leveraging technology to enhance asset
management and environmental strategies, often introducing innovative
solutions from other industries. Mr. Byler holds a B.S. in Business
Administration from Millersville University and an MBA from the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro. He is an active member of Innovating
Commerce and Serving Communities (ICSC) and holds the Certiûed Shopping
Center Manager (CSM) and Certiûed Retail Real Estate Professional (CRRP)
designations.
Venture Advisor,
Crow Holdings
Thomas Byrne is an active real estate investor and technology evangelist,
thought leading, investor and business leader within the PropTech sector for
20+ years. Byrne is currently a Venture Advisor for Crow Holdings and an
Executive Director for Dealpath, the leading deal management SAAS platform.
Most recently, Byrne was General Manager of Marketplaces and Market
solutions at VTS. Byrne joined VTS thru its acquisition of Property Capsule,
where Byrne was the CEO. Prior to those positions, Byrne served as President
and Chief Operating Ofûcer of LoopNet for 10 years, one of the fastestgrowing and the most proûtable companies on the Nasdaq, before its strategic
acquisition by CoStar Group in 2012 for $900M. Byrne helped steward the
company thru numerous key milestones including revenue growth of 25x over
10 years, early proûtability, achieving EBITDA margins of 50%, successful IPO,
acquiring and successfully integrating 8 acquisitions, raising $50 million PIPE
investment, and the eventual sale to Costar.
Ryan Byler
Thomas Byrne
CEO & Founder,
NEO
Christian
Calusa
Christian Calusa, CEO and co-founder of NEO - New Estate Only, pioneering
an MLS system for pre-construction and under-construction properties
worldwide. With over 20 years of experience selling U.S. properties globally,
he serves as Ambassador for Monaco's US investment opportunities. His
leadership at NEO underscores his dedication to advancing real estate
technology and industry standards.
