Senior Management Team

At Griffin Capital we are proud of the experienced, cohesive and motivated management team we have assembled. We invite you to watch this six minute video which introduces this team, our approach to real estate investing, and our strategy behind creating and structuring what we believe are industry-leading real estate investment products.

Griffin Capital ("Griffin") is a privately-owned real estate investment company specializing in the acquisition, financing and ownership of institutional-quality property. Led by senior executives, each with more than two decades of real estate experience collectively encompassing over $14 billion of transaction value and more than 400 transactions, Griffin currently owns and manages a portfolio of 8.5 million square feet of space located in 13 states. Griffin is headquartered in Los Angeles and has offices in Chicago, IL.

Griffin's senior principals pride themselves on the following: long-standing relationships with key industry participants, multi-cycle real estate acquisition, financing and disposition experience, substantial securities and investment banking industry experience, and established operating and reporting systems and procedures.

Senior Principals
 

Kevin A. Shields

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Role at Griffin
Mr. Shields is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Griffin Capital and chairs the Investment Committee. His responsibilities include managing the firm’s strategic direction and financial management and investor reporting.

Career Summary
Mr. Shields has nearly 30 years of real estate experience encompassing well over $3 billion in transaction volume and in excess of 175 transactions. Mr. Shields commenced his career acquiring apartment buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area, and later practiced real estate and tax law for two San Francisco-based law firms. In 1986, Mr. Shields joined the real estate finance department of Salomon Brothers Inc (now part of Citigroup) in that firm’s New York and Los Angeles offices and was engaged in real estate asset valuation, underwriting and brokerage, structured debt underwriting and securities placement in the private, Rule 144A and public debt markets as well as mergers and acquisitions advisory work and the restructuring of real estate debt and equity instruments on behalf of partnerships and financial institutions. Following his career at Salomon, Mr. Shields ran a structured real estate finance group for Jefferies & Company, Inc. in its Los Angeles office. While at Jefferies, Mr. Shields focused on structuring and underwriting lease bond financings and issuing such debt instruments into the high-yield, Rule 144A market. In 1995, Mr. Shields left Jefferies to form Griffin Capital.

Education
JD, University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law

MBA, with Summa Cum Laude, Beta Gamma Sigma distinction, University of California at Berkeley,
Haas Graduate School of Business.

BS, Phi Beta Kappa distinction, University of California at Berkeley

Professional Licenses
Member, California Bar Association (Inactive)
Securities Licenses: Series 7, 63, 24 and 27
California Real Estate Broker

Personal
Married, father of four; resident of Manhattan Beach, CA

Industry Activities
Full Member, Urban Land Institute
Guest Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley, Fisher Center for Real Estate.

David Rupert

President

Role at Griffin
Mr. Rupert is President of Griffin Capital and is involved in all aspects of the firm's activities.

Career Summary
Mr. Rupert’s more than 30-year real estate career includes more than $5 billion in transaction volume on four continents. From 2009-2010 Mr. Rupert co-headed the Olympia Hotel Fund, a Reg D offering which targets the acquisition of distressed hospitality assets and is sponsored by The Olympia Companies, a Portland, Maine-headquartered hotel owner-operator founded in 1969 with 800 employees. Prior to Olympia, from 2008-2009 David was a partner in EastAgro, a private equity fund focused on commercial real estate and related investments in Eastern Europe. From 2000 until 2008, Mr. Rupert served as Griffin’s Chief Operating Officer. In the decade prior to serving as COO at Griffin, David was a senior executive at Salomon Brothers (now part of Citi) based in London, Sydney, Tokyo and New York, providing valuation, merger advisory, brokerage and securities underwriting and distribution services to leading public and private real estate owners around the world--when he left he headed the REIT underwriting effort at the firm.

Education
MBA, Harvard Business School; BA, Cornell University

Personal
Married, father of four; resident of Greenwich, Connecticut

Industry Activities
Co-Chairman, Real Estate Advisory Board to Cornell University Endowment Fund; Founding Board Member, Cornell's Program in Real Estate (2 - year master's degree); Adjunct Professor, Cornell University; Founding Board Member, Harvard Business School Real Estate Association

Michael Escalante

Chief Investment Officer

Role at Griffin
Mr. Escalante is the Chief Investment Officer of Griffin Capital and is responsible for overseeing all acquisition and disposition activities of the firm.

Career Summary
Mr. Escalante has been a prominent player in North American institutional property acquisition and asset management since 1987. With 20 years of real estate related investment experience, he has been responsible for completing approximately $3.9 billion of commercial real estate transactions throughout the Western United States. Prior to joining Griffin in June 2006, Mr. Escalante served eight years at Trizec Properties, Inc., one of the largest publicly traded U.S. office REITs, with his final position being Executive Vice President – Capital Transactions and Portfolio Management. While at Trizec, Mr. Escalante was directly responsible for all capital transaction activity for the Western U.S., which included the acquisition of such prominent office projects as: Bank of America Plaza, Ernst & Young Plaza, and Landmark Square in Los Angeles, California; One Concord Center in Northern California; Dallas Gallerias in Dallas, Texas and Metropolitan Square in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to joining Trizec, Mr. Escalante was employed for approximately 10 years in various acquisitions, asset management and portfolio management positions with The Yarmouth Group, an international investment advisor. Prominent acquisitions during his tenure at The Yarmouth Group included Murdock Plaza in Westwood, California and the mixed-use projects of Symphony Towers in San Diego, California and Tabor Center in Denver, Colorado.

Education
MBA, University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management
BS, University of Santa Clara

Personal
Married, father of two daughters; resident of South Pasadena, CA

Industry Activities
Full member of the Urban Land Institute and active in many civic organizations.

Don G. Pescara

Managing Director of Acquisitions

Role At Griffin
Mr. Pescara serves as Griffin's Managing Director, Acquisitions, heads the firm's Chicago office, is a member of the Investment Committee, and assists in equity capital raising.

Career Summary
Mr. Pescara's 20-year real estate career includes more than $500 million of transactions. His career began in 1985 at Cushman & Wakefield where he became a successful broker of office and industrial properties and was promoted to the Financial Services Group where he focused on institutional property sales and acquisitions. In 1990, Mr. Pescara joined Republic Realty Mortgage (now GMAC) as a Vice President of Production where he established an institutional sales force and developed relationships with various lending institutions including Mass Mutual, New York Life and Met Life. Mr. Pescara joined CB Commercial as a Regional Director in their Mortgage Banking Group in 1993 where his responsibilities included placement of debt on behalf of their exclusive conduit relationship with Merrill Lynch, representation of CB Commercial's Real Estate Mortgage Fund, and broker training for the Midwest region. Mr. Pescara's relationships with CB's top broker colleagues and trainee graduates continue today and lead to extensive acquisition opportunities. Mr. Pescara joined Cohen Financial, a leading financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, in 1996 as a Senior Director. Mr. Pescara joined Griffin Capital in 1997 when Griffin acquired an asset he was selling. Mr. Pescara's clients have included some of the largest and most active institutional investors and lenders including ABB, Computer Associates, Prudential, Household International, Oaktree Capital, and ITW. While at Griffin, Mr. Pescara's responsibilities have focused on sourcing acquisitions directly from corporations, institutions, and from the brokerage community.

Education
BA, Economics and Finance, University of Illinois

Securities Licenses
Series 63

Personal
Married, three children; resident of Hinsdale, IL

Mary P. Higgins

General Counsel

Ms. Higgins is the firm's General Counsel, and is based in the firm's Chicago office. Prior to joining Griffin, Ms. Higgins was a partner at the law firm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Higgins has been Griffin's primary real estate transaction counsel for more than eight years and she worked together with Griffin's principals on nearly all of the firm's acquisition, due diligence, leasing, financing and disposition activities during that time period.

Ms. Higgins has over 21 years experience representing both public and private real estate owners, tenants and investors in commercial real estate matters, including development, leasing, acquisitions, dispositions, and securitized and non-securitized financings. Representative transactions include sales and dispositions of regional malls, including some of the premiere regional malls in the nation; sale of a golf course in an UPREIT structure; a $38 million credit tenant loan transaction; acquisition of various Florida office properties for a $150 million office property equity fund; representation of the ground lessor in a subordinated tenant development ground lease and a $350 million property roll up.

Ms. Higgins has extensive experience in commercial leasing issues, including office, retail and industrial properties (including multi-state industrial sale/leasebacks) and is the author of the chapter entitled "Due Diligence on Commercial Leases" in the Real Estate Transactions volume published by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education.

She assists the Chicago Economic Community Development Law Project by training volunteer attorneys to provide legal services to participants in the CHA "Choose To Own" program. She is a mentor in the Harold Eisenberg Foundation mentoring program and is a mediator certified through the Center for Conflict Resolution, Chicago, Illinois.

JD, DePaul University College of Law

BS, Legal Administration, Mallinckrodt College (now part of Loyola University)

Joseph E. Miller

Chief Financial Officer

Role at Griffin
Mr. Miller is the Chief Financial Officer of Griffin Capital Corporation, and is responsible for the accounting, finance, systems, and human resources functions of the firm.

Career Summary
Mr. Miller is a Certified Public Accountant in California, with a combined 20 years of real estate experience in pubic accounting and real estate investment firms. Mr. Miller came to Griffin Capital from PS Business Parks, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust, where he served as Senior Vice President of Business Operations. In this position he was responsible for the financial operations of the real estate portfolio, policies and procedures of the organization, and systems. Mr. Miller started his six years tenure with PS Business Parks as Vice President and Corporate Controller, where he was responsible for SEC filings, property level accounting, and all financial reporting. Mr. Miller was also with Maguire Properties (formerly Maguire Partners) as the Corporate Controller. At Maguire he was responsible for the accounting operation, treasury function, and systems. Prior to joining Maguire, Mr. Miller was with Ernst & Young, LP where he was an audit Manager. In this role, Mr. Miller was responsible for attestation engagements for financial services and real estate companies. In this position he also worked on initial public offering teams for real estate investment companies going public. Mr. Miller also worked with KPMG, where he became a certified public accountant.

Education
MBA, University of Southern California

BS, Business Administration, Accounting, California State University, Northridge

Julie A. Treinen

Director Of Asset Management

Ms. Treinen joined Griffin Capital in 2004, is based in the firm's headquarters in Los Angeles, CA, and is responsible for all of the firm's asset management activities. Before joining Griffin, Ms. Treinen was a Vice President at Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, Inc., a Hartford-based, SEC-registered real estate investment and advisory firm with $4.6 billion of assets under management. During her five years at Cornerstone, Ms. Treinen managed the acquisition diligence of approximately 1.2 million square feet of existing assets totaling $238 million, the development of five apartment joint venture projects totaling $152 million, and the disposition of five properties totaling $125 million.

Ms. Treinen was also the senior asset manager for a $400 million portfolio of office, industrial and apartment investments, and her responsibilities included developing ownership and value maximization strategies, implementing capital programs, establishing and coordinating budgets, and both selecting and reviewing third party leasing and property management teams. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Ms. Treinen was Director, Field Production at Northwestern Mutual Life in Newport Beach. During her three years at Northwestern, Ms. Treinen initiated, negotiated, and closed three development projects totaling over $100 million and three mortgage originations totaling over $100 million, and acquired four existing assets totaling over $50 million. Prior to joining Northwestern, Ms. Treinen was a Vice President at Prudential Realty Group in Los Angeles. Over the course of her seven year tenure at Prudential, Ms. Treinen originated over $235 million in new commercial mortgage loans, structured and negotiated problem loan workouts, note sale and foreclosures totaling over $140 million and managed a portfolio of office, industrial and apartment investments totaling approximately $500 million. Prior to attending graduate school, Ms. Treinen worked at GM Hughes Electronics as Head of Finance and at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells as a Senior Accountant in the Audit Department.

MBA, University of California at Berkeley, Graduate School of Business

BA, Economics, University of California at Los Angeles