Lori Brown - Founder and President of Brown Real Estate Advisors
Lori Brown is the founding Partner and President of Brown Real Estate Advisors.  In addition to her fierce dedication to quality control, Ms. Brown leads portfolio strategy development and executes transactions.  Clients rely on Brown for her sound judgment, negotiating prowess and solutions that mirror her client’s objectives.  Having been an advisor to clients for more than 20 years, there is little Ms. Brown has not seen in real estate.  She has completed work in virtually every industry and market and takes pride in the firm’s ability to solve the most challenging and complex real estate problems.  She has concluded over $6 billion in transactions around the world.  Her clients include Citigroup, Federal Express, Chicago Bridge and Iron, ADP, Time, Inc., Accretive Health and University of Chicago’s Business School, ChicagoBooth.

Brown has received several national honors including, Commercial Real Estate News’ “Power Broker of the Year,” Commercial Real Estate Investor Magazine’s “Brokers to Watch” and “Broker of the Year” and, in 2010, was chosen as one of “Commercial Real Estate’s Most Influential Women” by Real Estate Investor magazine.  Ms. Brown was the first commercial real estate broker in the prestigious and elite Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40.”   

Prior to forming the firm, Brown was an Executive Director at Cushman and Wakefield.  While in a leadership role there, she founded the Energy and Resources practice group and executed transactions with clients across the country in various industries.  Prior to that time, Brown was the co-founder and principal of the Chicago office of New York based Newmark Knight Frank.  
As an active member of CoreNet, the leading commercial real estate services’ professional organization, she founded its leadership development program and held positions on the Finance Committee and the local Board of Directors.  She is a member of the prestigious SIOR organization, an organization that requires its members to be senior level and top producers with the highest of ethics.  SIOR has broker partners in 580 cities in 28 countries.  She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and Executive Club.  She serves on the Executive Board of the Chicago Loop Alliance and has held Board positions with the Boys and Girls Clubs and March of Dimes.

Ms. Brown received her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois and a Master’s in Corporate Real Estate designation from CoreNet Global.   Brown is a guest lecturer at the University of Illinois’ Chicago campus.  She is a graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership, an organization that provides training to C-Suite executives.

Parkash Ahuja
Parkash Ahuja is a senior operating and management executive with proven expertise in M&A, developing executive growth strategies, and increasing shareholders’ value by reducing cost basis, improving processes to create operations excellence, and increasing customer satisfaction. His experience also includes off-shore business operations outsourcing.  Ahuja has proven experience in real estate rationalization and contingency planning with a number
of diversified companies best known in their respective industries, including: Citadel Investment Group, Charles Schwab & Co., Sprint Corp., Sun Microsystems, Inc., and McKinsey & Company among others. Ahuja helped improve ROI at Citadel Investment Group from 9% in 2005 to 26% by implementing Enterprise Decision Management process and controls. He also developed and executed the updated customer support model for Sprint, consolidated twelve customer support centers to four; achieved $30M cost saving during first year, and reduced employee turnover by over 100%.

Jerry Ferstman
Prior to joining Brown Real Estate Advisors, Jerry was the Vice President of  East Coast Development at Forest City Enterprises’ Vice President, a $1B publicly traded real estate development and investment company.  Jerry was responsible for building a presence for Forest City Enterprises in the Chicago area. During his tenure there he developed the Promenade in Bolingbrook, a 1.5 million square foot retail development project. Jerry’s expertise includes negotiating leases, securing public and private financing, and managing architects and construction for a variety of significant projects.  At Forest City Enterprises, Jerry created the legal structure that improved project management at Central Station, an 80 acre mixed use development at the south end of Grant Park in Chicago.   Previously, Jerry was the President of the Real Estate Division of Figgie International, an international diversified operating company comprising more than 30 divisions. The company grew primarily through acquisitions and, as a result, had excess real estate capacity worldwide. Jerry was responsible for determining the market value of the company’s facilities, repositioning them to maximize value and liquidating others. He executed a Board of Directors approved orderly liquidation of several of the corporate assets.

Steve Stoner
Steve Stoner has over 23 years of experience in the real estate industry including development, investment, brokerage and consulting. Stoner has previously served as a Managing Director for First Industrial Realty Trust, overseeing the Central Region of the US and Mexico.  First Industrial is one of the country’s largest owners of industrial real estate with a portfolio in excess of 100 million square feet, 2,500 acres of land and a total capital base of nearly $10B.  His responsibilities at First Industrial included oversight and management of land acquisitions, value-add investments and sale-leasebacks.  Prior to joining First Industrial, Stoner was President of Grubb & Ellis’ Corporate Services Group.  This business unit was responsible for development and management of long-term relationships with multi -market corporate clients .  He oversaw a team of 110 professionals in 12 markets, providing services such as account and project management, strategic consulting, lease administration and corporate real estate finance.  Previously, Stoner was  a partner at Arthur Andersen responsible for  its U.S. real estate advisory business, overseeing five offices and managing the Chicago office’s real estate advisory team.