Manuel Käsbauer is PATRIZIA’s Chief Technology & Innovation officer (CTIO). He is responsible for trend scouting across industries, identifying new business models, reshaping the way of work (New Work) and searching for innovative technology solutions on a global level.

Prior to leading the T&I team, Manuel was responsible for PATRIZIA’s expansion in Europe, M&A activities and European Residential Fund Management. He joined PATRIZIA’s Management Board in 2020 after almost 7 years of service at the company. In his function he is also responsible for strengthening PATRIZIA’s offering through investments in the technology sector. Prior to joining PATRIZIA, Manuel held various positions in the real estate industry and worked in the academic field. Manuel holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Regensburg, IREBS. 

Susanne Eickermann-Riepe FRICS was appointed as chairwoman of RICS Germany in May 2020. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is a professional organization that is active worldwide and represents over 130,000 real estate experts around the globe. The RICS stands for the professional practice of the profession in all areas of the real estate industry, across all types of use. It regulates and promotes the profession on the basis of high professional standards and strict professional ethics (www.rics.org).

She is also deputy chairwoman of the Institute for Corporate Governance in the Real Estate Industry (ICG). The institute aims to contribute to the transparency and quality of companies in the real estate industry (www.icg-institut.de).

She has been active in the real estate industry for many years, including 18 years as a partner at PwC WP GmbH. She managed PwC Real Estate Germany with 33 partners and directors and around 450 employees (www.pwc.de/real-estate) and was a member of the EMEA and Global Real Estate Leadership Board until June 2020.

Her experience is based on strategic and operational consulting for financial service providers, real estate and alternative funds and real estate companies. Her work has focused on business model development, restructuring and performance optimization, process management and control design, and risk and compliance management. She has also been involved in the development of topics related to sustainability (ESG) and new technologies (PropTechs, AI) and is committed to overarching standards in the real estate industry.

Linda J. Isaacson is Partner and Head of ESG & Impact at ACRE. She is responsible for leading the firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, and ensuring that ongoing investment decisions, operational actions and overall business philosophy reflect its core principles and those of its investors, including environmental justice, economic equality, social initiatives, and transparency.

Isaacson also serves as Chair of ACRE’s Venture and Impact Capital vertical, working closely with the firm’s Founding Partners to form and manage investment vehicles focused on early-stage companies and technologies aimed at creating social impact and disruption related to the built environment, sustainable communities, climate tech, health tech and other emerging priorities. 

Isaacson is a globally recognized strategic thinker, accelerator of change, and developer of high-impact organizational cultures, with a deep understanding of the environmental, societal, technological factors reshaping the built environment. Prior to ACRE, she was Senior Managing Director, Global Innovation + Technology for Ferguson Partners. 

She currently serves as both an Americas Executive Board Member and a Global Governing Trustee of the Urban Land Institute, and as a member of the board of Local Logic, CRETech as well board advisor and mentor to numerous other organizations and founders. Ms. Isaacson is Chair of Urban Land Institute’s Global Exchange Council; a member of PREA’s Innovation Affinity Group; WX, New York Women Executives in Real Estate; and Chief, a private network of the most influential senior women leaders in the United States. 

A native of South Africa, she is a graduate of the University of Miami and holds a master’s degree from Boston University.

Darren Bechtel is a pioneer in the engineering and construction technology industry and is leading the charge to modernize one of the last industries to step squarely into the digital age.

As the founder of Brick & Mortar Ventures — the first and largest venture capital firm focused solely on supporting the commercialization of emerging technology to improve the design, construction, and ongoing maintenance and operation of the modern built environment — Darren is forging a new path in an industry his family and its eponymous global engineering construction firm, Bechtel, have helped shape for over one hundred and twenty years.

Darren’s Brick and Mortar Ventures announced in 2019 its $100 million fund backed by global heavyweights from across the construction value chain including Ardex, Autodesk, Cemex, United Rentals, Hilti, Obayashi, and Google sister company Sidewalk Labs. Darren and his team continue to invest those funds exclusively into early-stage AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) and O&M (operations & maintenance) technology startups. Among Darren’s portfolio of over thirty-five past and present investments are notable startups PlanGrid, BuildingConnected, Fieldwire, Rhumbix, and BuildZoom.

Darren’s ethos is not that of a “disruptor”; rather, he is interested in how technology and early-stage risk capital can be paired with the skilled talent and industry expertise of established construction industry leaders to reduce the cost and risk of capital projects and make one of the world’s largest industries cleaner, safer, and more productive.
In January 2020 Venture Capital Journal named Darren to its “40 Rising Stars Under 40” list. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Cornell University Program in Infrastructure Policy; a recipient of Builtworld’s inaugural “Mavericks Award”; and in 2019 was named to CRETech’s Leadership Board.

Lauren Alpeyrie is a Director of Innovation at PGIM Real Estate. In her role in the Global Innovation Team, she manages strategic projects and partnerships to advance innovation, adoption of new technology, and data strategy across PGIM Real Estate’s global debt and equity businesses, including working closely with the Asia-Pacific teams.

Prior to joining PGIM Real Estate, Lauren was an engagement manager at L.E.K. Consulting, a global management consulting firm headquartered in London and Boston, where she led projects in digital transformation, growth and go-to-market strategy, and transaction advisory in commercial real estate and technology. She previously worked at Google where she focused on large-scale data analytics and its application to strategic and operational projects in People Operations.

Lauren graduated cum laude with a B.E. in Control Systems from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. She lives in New York City.

William O’Donnell leads Prologis Ventures, the innovation platform and venture capital arm of Prologis. With over 22 years of experience in both real estate and technology he heads this new group’s efforts to invest in cutting-edge technology for supply-chain logistics and real estate. Mr. O’Donnell joined legacy AMB in 2003 and established a successful track record of building and acquiring investment platforms and companies globally. In addition, he has private equity fund management expertise including capital raising, joint venture negotiation, asset management, work-outs, debt structuring and disposition. Mr. O’Donnell also has acquisition and development experience throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

Prior to joining AMB, Mr. O’Donnell was Director of Acquisition Solutions at Acxiom Impact a leading digital marketing company and a management consultant at Cambridge Technology Partners. Mr. O’Donnell received his Bachelors of Arts in English and Spanish from Duke University.

Othmane Zrikem is a Moroccan-French Data Science & Digital technologist. He is the Chief Data Officer and a founding member of A/O PropTech, where he designs and executes innovative investment strategies combining data-driven methodologies and financial engineering.

Previously, Othmane was Lead Strategist at the largest Data & AI consulting firm in Europe employing over 220 Data Scientists worldwide. During his tenure at Ekimetrics, he advised several Fortune 500 companies about digital transformation as well as Data Science & Analytics implementation roadmap. He has also been advising Paris for its Data City program as well as Taipei for its Smart City innovation program.

Othmane is a board member of several PropTech companies such as Qarnot Computing, VizCab, and Plentific, he is also personally invested in several European AI and FinTech Startups. He is a guest lecturer for Masters degree at Centrale Paris, ESSEC Business School and the Science Po School of Journalism.

He also regularly speaks at technology events. Othmane has written over 50 business publication covering AI, SmartCity, FinTech and Data Science.

Othmane holds a Master of Science in Management from EM Lyon and an Econometrics Bachelor from Sorbonne University. Othmane Currently lives between London, Paris and Berlin.

Duke Long has over twenty-plus years of experience in both real estate and technology. He is the broker and owner of The Duke Long Agency. In addition, he has experience across all asset classes of commercial real estate including brokerage, acquisition, management, disposition and development, which includes finance, risk management, capital raising and debt. Mr Long also advises and sits on several start up boards and holds leadership positions in numerous real estate and technology-focused organizations, including Entrepreneur in Residence at Second Century Ventures/Reach.

Second Century Venture is the most active global real estate technology fund. Backed by the National Association of REALTORS®, SCV leverages the association’s more than 1.4 million members and an unparalleled network of executives within residential and commercial real estate, and adjacent industries including financial services, banking, home services and insurance. SCV operates the award-winning REACH accelerator program which helps the most promising new technology companies scale globally. As EIR for SCV/REACH, Mr. Long focuses on and advises the SCV/Reach Global Commercial portfolio of companies. This includes all aspects of startup management, innovation, digital transformation, venture investment, ecosystem development, startup operations, corporate innovation, entrepreneurship, marketing, due diligence, social media, online communities, technology transfer, advanced analytics, competitive strategies and business intelligence, with an emphasis focused on driving revenue growth through predictive analytics and technological initiatives all leading to global scale.

He was allowed to study at Indiana University and is also a veteran of The United States Air Force. His lifelong pursuit of a single digit golf handicap and his inability to achieve it is testimony to his complete lack of talent and skill for the game.

Hongqi Guo is founding partner and design director of UA Yitong Design in Shanghai, which has 1600 architects and urban planners who are working on the most iconic buildings and region developments in more than 260 cities in China in the past 20 years.

The team designs more than 30 million sqm buildings every year and realized hundreds of CBD, New Town, High Speed Train TOD, etc.

Honors, such as Annual Architect, Annual Best Urban Renovation, Pro+ Awards, International Property Awards, have been awarded to him and his firm.

With the professional ability as Class 1 Registered Architect (PRC) and PhD, also the knowledge about real estate development management from his education in Harvard University, Hongqi Guo works as consultant of municipalities and top-level developers for important urban developments.

Hongqi Guo is a frequent speaker who introduces China urbanization process in many international events, and he proposes IDC plan (International Design Cluster in China) to help international enterprises to bring thinking and ability about Sustainability, Smart and Quality of Life into the next stage urbanization of China.