Our Team

Hilary AbtsExecutive Assistant

Hilary is an Executive Assistant to the Partners at Chicago Atlantic. Hilary joins Chicago Atlantic from ZS Associates spending the last 2 years as a Meetings & Travel assistant. Prior to ZS, Hilary spent 5 years based in Dubai as a flight attendant for Emirates.

BA, DePaul University

Dimitra AivaliotiAssociate, Investor Relations

Dimitra is an accomplished professional with expertise in law, marketing, and investor relations. She holds a Master’s Degree in Commercial Law (LLM in Banking and Tax Law) from Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris Nord, where she also earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Laws, both with Honors. Currently, she is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Communication, and Advertising from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. Her academic excellence has been recognized with an Award of Academic Excellence from the Hellenic American Educational Foundation (H.A.E.F. – Athens College).

Dimitra is currently an associate on the investor relations team, where she is responsible for managing and originating relationships for Chicago Atlantic’s private funds. Previously, she was involved in the renewable energy sector as an External Partner in Renewable Energy Projects & Partnerships at Reselectric in Athens, and also worked at Campeon Gaming as a Partnerships & Accounts Manager. In her earlier career, she contributed to fundraising efforts at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (NANG NGO) and developed marketing campaigns and social media strategies at Oni Communications as a Marketing Executive.

Dimitra’s diverse skill set and strategic insights complemented by her proficiency in English, French, Chinese, and Greek position her as an invaluable asset across multiple industries.

Masters Degree, Corporate Law & Finance, Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris Nord

Bachelor’s Degree, Law, Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris Nord

Dariana AltamarStaff Accountant

Dariana is a Staff Accountant at Chicago Atlantic. Previously, Dariana served on the accounting team for New Look Vision Group where she focused on collecting, tracking and reconciling the company’s finances. Prior to that role, Dariana worked at Quintero & Partners, a financial advisory firm, where she was responsible for overseeing agents to ensure they provided the proper long-term strategies for building wealth and managing risk.

BA (Finance and Economics), Florida International University

Tim AndersonManaging Director, Institutional Business Development

With twenty-three years’ experience in the alternatives space, Tim has successfully raised over $3 billion in capital for multi-strategy hedge funds, credit funds and a family office anchored real estate fund. He most recently served as Managing Director at Marquee Capital, a real estate firm within the Marcus Family Office, for which he raised $190 million. Tim’s career also includes tenures at Stark Investments, Trian Credit Partners, 3i Capital, Macquarie and One William Street Capital Management.

With relationships across the allocator universe, Tim has worked to raise capital with institutions, consultants, family offices, pensions and wealth managers alike. He presently leads Chicago Atlantic’s institutional fundraising efforts.

MBA (Finance, Investments & Banking), University of Wisconsin-Madison
BA, Vanderbilt University

Sean ApfelbaumSr. Corporate Counsel

Sean is serving as Senior Corporate Counsel at Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Sean worked as an attorney in the Commercial Finance group at Goldberg Kohn Ltd. and two other international law firms where he represented bank and non-bank financial institutions, as well as borrowers in a broad range of financing transactions, including senior and second lien, asset based, and cash flow loan transactions.

JD, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
BA (Human Biology), Indiana University

Guadalupe ArreolaAssociate, Investment Operations

Guadalupe is an Investment Operations Associate with over seven years of professional experience. Prior to Chicago Atlantic, she was a CDO portfolio analyst at the US Bank.

MBA, Dominican University
BS (Finance and Accounting), DePaul University

Aneeqa AzharManager, Investment Operations

Aneeqa Azhar serves as Investment Operations Manager assisting Chicago Atlantic’s Operations and Accounting Departments and brings over five years of Financial Services experience to Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, she worked as an Operations Analyst at Optiver on the Back Office and Engineering Team and as an Analyst at Performance Trust Capital Partners and at Northern Trust Corporation.

BS (Finance), University of Illinois at Chicago

Kyle BarthelVice President, Growth and Technology Finance

Kyle serves as Vice President of Technology and Growth Finance at Chicago Atlantic. He focuses on sourcing and executing growth capital and technology finance opportunities within the group’s direct lending strategy.

Kyle has a combined eight years of experience providing venture debt and growth capital to technology, tech-enabled service and consumer companies across all stages of the life cycle. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Kyle was a Vice President with the Technology and Venture Banking Group at Customers Bank. While there, Kyle deployed over $130 million in SaaS, leveraged bank financing to growth- and late-stage companies and oversaw a portfolio of over $270 million in total commitments.

Other previous roles include Business Development Associate at Runway Growth Capital, where he focused on late-stage venture debt opportunities for both sponsored and non-sponsored technology companies, and Analyst and Client Manager at PacWest (formerly known as Square 1 Bank), where he focused on early-stage life sciences and technology venture debt. Kyle also spent a year working for a Series B startup, leading that company’s sales into venture capital and private equity firms.

MS (Finance), Tulane University
BA (History), University of Wisconsin-Madison

Nathan BergerVice President, Underwriting & Portfolio Management

Nathan is a Vice President at Chicago Atlantic, focusing on Underwriting & Portfolio Management of private debt investments. Nathan has 5 years of experience spanning roles in underwriting, corporate finance and investor relations, and investment banking. Nathan was most recently an Investment Associate with AFC Gamma (NASDAQ: AFCG), an institutional capital provider to the cannabis and commercial real estate industries. Prior to this experience, Nathan worked on the Corporate team at Ventas, Inc. (NYSE: VTR), a leading healthcare REIT, supporting the company’s corporate financial planning and investor relations functions. Nathan began his career at Livingstone Partners as an Analyst supporting M&A and debt advisory mandates in the Industrials and Business Services sectors. He completed internships with Capstone Partners, a middle-market investment bank, and Morgan Stanley in private wealth management.

MBA (Finance & Healthcare Management), Johns Hopkins University
BS (Finance), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Andreas Bodmeier, Ph.D.Partner

Andreas Bodmeier is a Partner and Co-Founder of Chicago Atlantic and serves as President and CIO of Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance, Inc. (Nasdaq:REFI). Andreas has been working at the intersection of finance and analytics for over 15 years. Prior to founding Chicago Atlantic, Andreas co-founded a boutique technology and consulting firm focused on FX and commodity risk management for multi-national corporations as well as advising on capital structure decisions and investor relations. He was also a co-founder of an SEC-registered online investment adviser for 401(k) or 403(b) retirement accounts. As Chief Investment Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, Andreas built the firm’s investment methodology and compliance program. Andreas has also served as a consultant for hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, commercial and consumer lenders, and pharmaceutical companies. His academic research at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business focused on capital market anomalies, portfolio allocation, and risk management.

Ph.D. (Finance) and MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
MSc (Statistics), Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
BSc (Mathematics), Freie University Berlin, Germany
BSc (Physics), Freie University Berlin, Germany
BSc (Business Economics), University of Hagen, Germany

Matt BradyVice President

Matt Brady is a Vice President at Chicago Atlantic and brings 20 years of commercial real estate lending experience to the team. He is responsible for analyzing commercial real estate lending opportunities, assessing risk, building financial models and evaluating borrower and guarantor financial strength.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Matt was responsible for underwriting loans for YAM Capital, one of the largest national family office bridge lenders focused on bridge loans for commercial real estate. Previously he was with IMH Financial Corporation, a public reporting commercial real estate bridge lender, for 16 years where he played an integral role in the firm’s funding and management of over $1 billion in debt and equity investments.

MBA, Arizona State University
BS, Arizona State University

Briget BrewManager, HR & Operations

Briget serves as HR & Operations Manager at Chicago Atlantic Group in the Chicago office. 

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, she worked as a Facilities & Office Manager at Monroe Capital for over 10 years, focusing on the day-to-day operations of several offices throughout the US.

Max BurgeSenior Director, Investor Relations

Max Burge is a Senior Director of Investor Relations at Chicago Atlantic, where he brings a wealth of experience in the financial services industry to his role. Max holds the Series 7 and Series 63 licenses and is a Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor.

Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Max served as a Director of Investor & Consultant Relations at CBIS, a $10 billion AUM institutional investment manager. Prior to that, he served as a Regional Consultant at Morningstar and Morningstar Investment Services.  He began his career in sales at Machinio, a Chicago-based start-up that had a successful exit in 2018.

BA (Economics and Spanish), Denison University

Ken CanpolatSenior Fund Accountant

Ken is a Senior Fund Accountant at Chicago Atlantic, bringing four years of accounting experience to the firm. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Ken served as a Senior Accountant at Forvis Mazars, where he specialized in real estate accounting within the firm’s Real Estate Group. He also has experience in outsourced accounting services, including the preparation of financial statements for SEC-registered entities.

MBA (Finance & Accounting), Binghamton University
BS (Accounting), Binghamton University

Tony CappellPartner

Tony Cappell is a Partner & Co-founder at Chicago Atlantic. As a debt investor with over 15 years of experience in the specialty finance space, Tony has completed over 150 deals comprising over $5B in total credit. Prior to founding Chicago Atlantic, Tony was a Managing Director and Head of Underwriting at Stonegate Capital, a private credit investment firm focused on lower middle market businesses and emerging brands. At Stonegate, he was responsible for credit, underwriting and the growth strategy of the loan portfolio. Previously, he was a Senior Underwriter at First Midwest Bank and at Gibraltar Business Capital where he worked on a number of specialty finance transactions including technology, software, turnaround/distressed and re-discount loans. He began his career at Wells Fargo Capital Finance focused on a wide array of industries and loan structures.

MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
BA, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Luis CardenasAssociate, Underwriting & Portfolio Management

Luis is an Underwriting  & Portfolio Management associate at Chicago Atlantic focusing on supporting all aspects of the investment process including underwriting, originating, and portfolio management. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Luis worked as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions group at BMO Capital Markets.

BS (Finance), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jennifer CarterManager, Accounting

Jennifer is an Accounting Manager at Chicago Atlantic focusing on financial reporting for our funds and their investors. Jennifer brings 4 years of accounting and tax experience to Chicago Atlantic. Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Jennifer was a senior fund accountant at Blue Vista Capital Management, a Chicago-based real estate private equity firm. Prior to that, Jennifer spent 3 years at Plante Moran providing tax compliance services.

BS (Accounting), Illinois Wesleyan University

Jenny ChanDirector, Head of Marketing

Jenny is the Director and Head of Marketing at Chicago Atlantic with over 20 years of experience in investments and asset management. Prior to joining the firm, Jenny worked for a crypto fintech company serving as the Sales/Marketing Director and Director of Investor Relations. Before entering the crypto world, Jenny worked with CI Investments as a Marketing Director, leading efforts for their Assante Wealth Management and CI Private Wealth businesses supporting financial advisors, HNW, family offices, and RIAs. Jenny also has deep product marketing experience serving as the Manager of the Global Product Marketing team at Franklin Templeton Investments covering Fixed Income, Equity, Managed Solutions, Real Estate, and Alternatives for mutual funds, ETFs, SMAs and private funds for institutional and retail clients. Jenny held progressively senior positions at the institutional investment consultant firm, Cambridge Associates, supporting the research, capital markets, consulting, and firmwide operations functions, culminating with her role as Associate Director overseeing strategic projects. Jenny began her career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan as a Financial Analyst in their NYC office.

MBA, Georgetown University
BS (Economics), Vassar College

Brett ClaytonController, Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance, Inc.

Brett serves as the Controller of our publicly traded mortgage real estate investment trust (“REIT”), Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NASDAQ: REFI).

Brett brings over 7 years of credit-focused asset management experience to Chicago Atlantic. Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Brett worked as Manager at H.I.G. Capital where she focused on reporting for private credit investment vehicles. Prior to that she was a Controller at a publicly traded business development company (“BDC”) within the credit platform at BC Partners. Brett spent the first 6 years of her career at Citigroup, within SEC Reporting and at Grant Thornton, within the Financial Services Audit practice. Brett holds the CPA designation.

BS and MS (Accounting), University of Texas at Austin

Dino Colonna, CFA®Partner, Originations

Dino is a Partner at Chicago Atlantic focused on originations. Since 2001, Dino has managed traditional and alternative investment portfolios and advised corporations and institutional investors across the global capital markets.

Prior to Chicago Atlantic, Dino was managing partner at Madison Capital Advisors, a middle-market asset-backed lending and advisory firm focused on emerging growth companies in the cannabis, life sciences and tech sectors. Prior to Madison, Dino spent over 10 years as an investment banker at the top-ranked Equity Capital Markets team at Barclays in London, and as a senior research analyst at Forest Investment Management, a global multi-strategy hedge fund. With Barclays, he advised on and structured over $8bn of equity, derivative and debt transactions and while at Forest, he specialized in credit and equity research and was part of the portfolio management team managing a $500mm+ multi-strategy portfolio.

MBA (Finance and Entrepreneurship), Esade
BS (Major: Finance, Minor: Economics), University of Delaware
CFA^® charterholder, CFA Institute

Robert CooperVice President, Analytics

Robert is a Vice President of Analytics at Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Robert spent 11 years of his career in management consulting. As a consultant, Robert worked with numerous companies across a wide array of industries. Robert helped clients advance their analytical capabilities by building business intelligence dashboards, developing machine learning models, and everything in between. On all his engagements, Robert brought an eye for how his clients could better leverage their data to achieve their strategic objectives. Through this approach, Robert was able to lead his clients to significant successes, such as helping a telecommunications company migrate to a cloud data platform to reduce its data footprint by $5M and helping an engineering firm harness predictive analytics to improve its bidding profitability by 30%.

MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
BA (Economics), University of Chicago

Colin Cordes, CFA®Vice President, Underwriting & Portfolio Management

Colin is a Vice President of Underwriting and Portfolio Management at Chicago Atlantic. He is responsible for the underwriting process for new investments including due diligence, financial modeling and risk assessment. Additionally, he oversees the performance and risk management of existing portfolios within the Direct Lending team, while also assisting with funding and operating procedures.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Colin was a Senior Credit Analyst at Macquarie Asset Management and AMP Capital where he specialized in the Energy sector for the Global Infrastructure Bond Fund. His career includes experience as a credit analyst at Fitch Ratings and a trader at Geneva Trading.

BA (Economics), Princeton University
CFA^® charterholder, CFA Institute

Jay CremerAnalyst, Real Estate

Jay is an Analyst on the Real Estate team at Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining the team, Jay completed internships at Chicago Atlantic and Habitat for Humanity as a construction associate.

BS (Economics), University of Missouri – Columbia

Olga CukrowskaVice President, Marketing

Olga is a Vice President of Marketing at Chicago Atlantic. She brings with her over 15 years of various marketing, digital, social and communications experience, together with a decade of actuarial experience in pensions and investments. Her roles have spanned actuarial consulting, institutional sales support, end-investor copywriting and everything in between. Her actuarial science background gives her a solid foundation to understand and explain the technical aspects of financial solutions, while her design aesthetic and conversational writing style allows her to engage and inform the target audience in a clear and accessible way.

BSc (Actuarial Science), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Vanessa Ding, CPAFund Controller

Vanessa serves as Fund Controller of our private funds and brings over 19 years of extensive accounting and reporting experiences focusing on investment accounting and asset management to Chicago Atlantic. Vanessa was most recently an Investment Accounting senior associate at Guggenheim Partners, where she oversaw limited partners’ financial operation and accounting, book value and book yield analysis for client portfolios. Prior to that, Vanessa held various senior accounting roles at Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago and Wolverine Asset Management where Vanessa is responsible for its flagship fund’s accounting and reporting. Vanessa spent over 5 years of her earlier career at BMO Capital Markets, within its US Securitization Group. Vanessa holds the CPA designation.

MBA in Accounting, University of Illinois at Chicago
BS, East China Normal University

Michael EizengaSr. Managing Director & Head of Real Estate

Michael is Senior Managing Director & Head of Real Estate at Chicago Atlantic. Michael brings over 20 years of institutional real estate investment and development experience to Chicago Atlantic. Over his career, Michael has partnered with some of the largest institutional real estate investors in the U.S. including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), RREEF, and Fidelity. Many of the projects contained complex strategic capitalizations and public-private partnerships and included tax increment financing, municipal special service area bonds, and sales tax rebate vehicles.

Prior to Chicago Atlantic, Michael was a Principal at The Jaffe Companies, one of the Midwest’s preeminent mixed-use development firms and was responsible for acquisitions, development, financing, and leasing activities within the company’s portfolio.   Before joining The Jaffe Companies in 2007, Michael was Vice President at The Binswanger Company where he consulted with international corporate clients on their real estate holdings. In his early career, Michael worked in Paris, Milan, Brussels, and Frankfurt in Siemens AG’s global finance group.

Michael actively supports the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Kovler Diabetes Center at The University of Chicago.

MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
BS (Finance and Real Estate), Indiana University Kelley School of Business

David EnrightPartner, Head of Direct Lending

As a debt investor with over 21 years of experience in the specialty finance space, David has completed over 300 deals comprising over $7.5 billion in total credit. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, David was an SVP responsible for the strategy of Specialty Finance and C&I lending at S&T Bank (NASDAQ: STBA). Previously, he was National Head of Sales at First Midwest Bank and co-founder of Specialty Finance for First Financial Business Capital, a division of First Financial Bank. While at both First Midwest and First Financial Business Capital, David worked on a number of specialty finance transactions including mezzanine loans, unitranche in almost every industry sector, asset-based lending, technology, software, turnaround, rediscount and many more. He began his career at National City Bank focused on a wide array of industries and loan structures.

BA (Economics), Kenyon College

Steven ErnestDirector, Originations

A longtime advocate and investor in cannabis, Steve has worked in the cannabis space since 2015. He first began his journey as an angel investor and then, in 2016, became a serial entrepreneur as a key founding member for two cannabis investment bank advisories, Mazakali and Sharp Capital. Before moving into cannabis, Steve worked as a wealth management advisor at J.P. Morgan, managing a book worth more than half a billion dollars for his clients. Regardless of industry, Steve has spent the entirety of his career focused on building community. He is passionate about building relationships, advising brands, and consulting with companies looking to navigate the capital markets. He views himself as and strives to be a connector of dots in the cannabis landscape. In his spare time, he sits on the finance committee for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the largest global youth-led network dedicated to ending the War on Drugs. An avid researcher and writer, Steve has appeared on multiple cannabis podcasts and written editorials and informative articles for industry leading publications like MJBiz.

BS (Risk Management and Finance), Illinois State University

Sam EvartsSenior Associate, Analytics

Sam is an Analytics Senior Associate at Chicago Atlantic focused on working hands-on with portfolio companies to create operational efficiency and financial health through data-driven analyses. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Sam spent 3 years in management consulting where he worked with multiple clients on data strategy and advanced analytics to identify opportunities to save costs and optimize internal resources. In addition to his advanced analytics projects, Sam also worked in organizational design and business transformation. Prior to consulting, Sam worked in investment research, tracking investment trends amongst top venture capital and corporate venture capital players and summarizing trends into consumable research reports.

Outside of work, Sam has been a musician for over 10 years and enjoys going to live music shows as well as watching hockey games, motorsport racing, and spending time with family.

BA (Data Analytics, Econometrics), Denison University

Gianni FazioDeputy Controller, BDC

Gianni currently serves as the Deputy Controller of our publicly traded Business Development Company (“BDC”), Chicago Atlantic BDC, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIEN). Gianni is a licensed Certified Public Accountant that brings over 5 years of finance and accounting experience to Chicago Atlantic with a focus on financial reporting and operations of Investment Managers.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Gianni was a Venture Associate at Adit Ventures where he managed the operations and financial reporting of early-stage and late-stage venture funds. Prior to that, Gianni began his career as an auditor at Forvis Mazars. Gianni graduated with a B.S. and a M.S. in Accountancy from the Long Island University.

Jack FlahertyManaging Director, Credit

Jack joins after 14 years at GAM in New York City as Investment Director and co-head of credit strategies firmwide and also was co-manager of GAM’s unconstrained/absolute return bond strategy responsible for credit positions ranging from investment grade to high yield debt including both asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities allocations. In addition, he has extensive experience in structured credit, trade finance, lending strategies and insurance linked securities. He was previously global co-head of credit fixed income and global head of emerging markets at UBS and worked as a managing director at Barclays Capital in charge of credit fixed income.

Jack Flaherty holds the Series 7, 63 and 24 qualifications. He is currently living in Los Angeles.

MBA (Finance and Accounting), University of Chicago
BA (Economics), University of Illinois

Brian FordonVice President, Investor Relations

Brian is a Vice President of Investor Relations at Chicago Atlantic with nearly a decade of experience in the financial services industry. Brian holds his Series 7, 63, and 65 licenses and is currently pursuing his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Brian served as Vice President of the Portfolio Solutions Group at Keebeck Wealth Management. Prior to that, Brian served as Senior Credit Portfolio Manager in the Global Family Office Group at Northern Trust, focused on underwriting and due diligence to structure strategic credit solutions for the firm’s most complex clients.

BA, Dartmouth College

BJ Garing, RADirector, Real Estate

BJ is a Director of Real Estate at Chicago Atlantic and brings over 18 years of Architecture and Construction experience to Chicago Atlantic.

Prior to joining the firm, BJ was a Project Director at UPMC Corporate Construction and Real Estate, one of Western PA’s prominent Hospital systems. Responsibilities included project management, design, equipment planning, contracts & construction oversight. BJ was also part of the team overseeing the New UPMC Presbyterian Bed Tower, a 17+ story 1.2 million sf addition and renovation to serve 636 all new state of the art patient rooms and 12 additional OR’s.

Before UPMC Corporate Construction and Real Estate in 2008, he was with Perkins Eastman as an Associate involved with the firm’s work in senior living and worked on projects across the full continuum: supportive housing, CCRCs, assisted living, long-term care and chronic care hospitals. His oversight provided continuity in design quality, documentation, technical execution, and process.

BJ actively supports youth hockey as a volunteer coach and is a licensed architect in the State of Pennsylvania.

ARCH, Kent State University
BS, Kent State University

Christina GavinGeneralist, Human Resources

Christina is a Human Resources Generalist at Chicago Atlantic. Previously, she held various roles within Talent Acquisition and HR across a variety of industries such as Tech (notably Meta), FinTech, and consulting.

BA (Psychology), University of Iowa

Thomas GeoffroyChief Financial Officer, Management Companies

Thomas has 20 years of accounting and finance experience with expertise in financial reporting, operations and internal controls for the financial services industry including extensive investment fund experience. Before joining the firm, Thomas was Chief Financial Officer of a NASDAQ listed mortgage REIT, a publicly traded credit-focused asset management firm, and family office. Prior to that he was Finance and Operations Principal (CFO), General Securities Principal and Chief Compliance Officer for United Capital Markets, a registered broker-dealer specializing in structured finance products. Thomas worked as Controller at Ares Management, and before that he served as Vice President of Fund Administration and Financial Reporting at S.A.C. Capital Advisors. Thomas spent 9 years as a CPA with Ernst & Young where he was a Senior Manager in the Financial Services Organization’s hedge fund audit practice.

Thomas is a licensed Certified Public Accountant and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Edward GoldfarbDirector, Compliance

Edward is the Director of Compliance at Chicago Atlantic. His work focuses on the financial regulations that impact Chicago Atlantic and its products. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Edward spent four years as a Senior Compliance Officer at Kawa Capital Management, a private real estate lender and hedge fund manager. He began his career in compliance consulting, supporting the regulatory initiatives of investment advisers registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Edward is an attorney, licensed in New York.

BA (Middle Eastern & South Asian Studies), Emory University

Hector GonzalezSr. Vice President, Investor Relations

Hector is a Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at Chicago Atlantic. He brings over 5 years of experience in private banking, investments and client servicing.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Hector was a Second Vice President and an Associate Portfolio Advisor at Northern Trust. He worked on a Wealth Advisory team responsible for over $4 Billion in Assets Under Management. He collaborated with Investment Advisors to understand the overall investment strategy and may provide input for revisions as goals and objectives change and in the context of client needs working closely and proactively with the broader client service team to identify and execute on areas of opportunity.

Hector currently resides in Miami, FL. He enjoys playing tennis, golf, padel and watersports such as wakeboarding. During the winter, he is an avid snowboarder/skier.

BS (Finance), Bentley University

Scott GordonPartner

Scott is a Partner at Chicago Atlantic and serves as Executive Chairman and CIO of Chicago Atlantic BDC Inc. (NASDAQ: LIEN). He began investing in the plant-based and health & wellness industry in 2013 and soon thereafter co-founded Egg Rock Holdings, parent company of the Papa & Barkley family of cannabis and CBD products. He is also among the pioneering investors within the burgeoning realm of psychedelics for use in mental health.

Scott has over 30 years of investing and asset management experience in emerging markets. He was one of the founding members of the JP Morgan emerging market business and later went on to head the market leading emerging market and distressed investing effort at ING Capital and the global special situations group at Bank of America. Scott then went to the buy side, where he led the emerging market businesses at Marathon Asset Management, Caxton Associates, and Taconic Capital.

Prior to Chicago Atlantic, Scott was President of Fintech Advisory, a multi – billion-dollar Family Office fund.

BA, Bowdoin College

Dana Haley, CPAController, Private Funds

Dana serves as Controller, Private Funds at Chicago Atlantic and is responsible for financial accounting and reporting of Chicago Atlantic’s private investment vehicles. Dana is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Dana spent 15 years with RSM US LP where she most recently served as a Managing Director in the Asset Management Assurance Group, responsible for end-to-end execution of audits of private equity and venture capital funds, small business investment companies, business development companies and other asset managers.

BS and MS (Accountancy), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

John HatchSr. Associate, Analytics

John is a Senior Analytics Associate at Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic John spent 10 years as a consultant working with his clients to create and implement enterprise data strategies, aggregate and synthesize data from diverse business units, define custom metrics for specific business needs, and produce BI dashboards that provide actionable insights. As a consultant John regularly worked with multiple teams at his clients including finance, operations, sales, and marketing on business improvements including forecasting, anomaly detection, cost reduction, and strategy optimization. John has experience working with clients in the United States and internationally in numerous industries including legal, technology, manufacturing, retail, and financial services.

MSc (Finance), Hult International Business School, London
BS (Economics), College of Charleston

Bill HealyPartner, Capital Formation

Bill Healy is a Partner at Chicago Atlantic focused on capital formation. With over 35 years of experience in finance, Bill has a diverse track record in corporate finance, investment management, and sales and trading. Since 2014, he has helped raise over $1.35 billion from various sophisticated allocators across various alternative strategies in public and private markets.

Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Bill co-founded Silver Spike Capital, an alternative credit manager focused on the nascent cannabis industry. He was previously President of Pantera Capital Management, one of the longest-established Blockchain investment managers focused on digital currencies and applications.

From 1998 to 2016, Bill led institutional sales initiatives at Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets and DWS asset & wealth management divisions, after managing the ING Barings EM debt institutional sales business. He started his career at The Chase Manhattan Bank in 1986, with postings in Brazil, London, and New York to advise multinational corporations on cross-border and domestic treasury funding for their domestic domiciled operations.

BA, George Washington University
Member, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA®)

Dennis HsuSr. Manager, Investment Operations

Dennis Hsu is a Sr. Manager, Investment Operations at Chicago Atlantic overseeing the loan administration team and other operations functions. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Dennis spent 7 years at Morningstar Investment Management as a trader and portfolio administrator focusing on technology implementation and scaling operations of the trading team. In addition, Dennis was the principal trader and administrator on portfolios worth a total AUM of $7 billion.

MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
BA (Economics), Northwestern University

Lila HuddlesAnalyst, Investor Relations

Lila is an Investor Relations Analyst at Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining the team, Lila completed an internship with Chicago Atlantic, where she worked with the Underwriting team. Lila recently graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, and was a four-year member of the Women’s Division I Lacrosse team.

BS (Human and Organizational Development/Business), Vanderbilt University

Derek JeongDirector, Underwriting & Portfolio Management

Derek is a Director at Chicago Atlantic and is responsible for deal structuring, underwriting, and portfolio management of private credit investments. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, he was most recently a Principal at Ascribe Capital (f/k/a American Securities Opportunities Fund), where he focused on opportunistic credit and special situations investing across the capital structure of middle market companies in a variety of industries and in both public and private markets. Derek started his career as an investment banking analyst in the Leveraged Finance Group of J.P. Morgan in New York. Derek graduated with a B.S. in Finance and Strategy from Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

BS (Finance), Cornell University

Hayden KellyPartner, Head of Investor Relations

Hayden, a Partner at Chicago Atlantic and Head of Investor Relations, brings with him a wealth of experience in capital raising and investor relations. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Hayden dedicated two years to the orthopedic field. During his pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, he contributed his expertise to Novo Nordisk. Following graduation, he assumed a pivotal role as one of five partners tasked with the growth and maintenance of a $14.5 million orthopedic sales territory for Stryker Orthopedics in Brooklyn, NY. Within Chicago Atlantic, Hayden has been instrumental in forging new client relationships and fortifying the firm’s existing client base. Presently, his responsibilities encompass managing investor relations, with a specific focus on Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), family offices, and institutional clients for Chicago Atlantic’s private funds. Hayden is also pursuing further education at the University of Chicago.

BS, University of Delaware

Christian KennedySr. Associate, Investment Operations

Christian is a Senior Investment Operations Associate at Chicago Atlantic and brings 4 years of finance and operations experience in the alternative loan market and broadly syndicated loan market. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, he spent 3 years at First Eagle Investments within their alternative credit business, where he was a Senior Operations Analyst for their Asset Operations team. Christian started his career in financial services and Cortland Capital Markets (now Alter Domus), a middle market solution provider for alternative investment managers.

BS (Economics), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Genia KimDirector, Investor Services

Genia is a Director of Investor Services at Chicago Atlantic where she is responsible for overseeing client services and sales support for the firm’s private fund offerings.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Genia worked in the Client Group at GCM Grosvenor responsible for leading investor operations and marketing efforts spanning across the alternative investment platform. Prior to that, she helped to establish and manage sales operations to support a growing business development team within the Investor Partners Group at Golub Capital. Additionally, Genia has held positions at other alternative asset management firms to support and strengthen relationships with institutional investors.

MBA, University of Oxford
BS, University of Illinois Chicago

Lucie KimDirector, Client Services

Lucie Kim is a Director of Client Services at Chicago Atlantic where she is responsible for servicing our existing client base.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Lucie was a Senior Vice President of Operations overseeing operations and technology for multiple real estate entities for a Chicago-based consulting firm. Prior to that, she was a Director in the Institutional Services Group for a Chicago-based real estate investment firm where she was responsible for establishing relationships and managing portfolios for multiple institutional investors. With over 20 years of experience, Lucie has held positions at other firms with a focus on portfolio management and building and managing relationships with institutional investors.

David KiteManaging Partner & COO

David is a Managing Partner at Chicago Atlantic and serves as Chief Operating Officer of Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance, Inc., our affiliated mortgage REIT.

David began his career as a commodities trader with Commodities Corp where legendary traders Paul Tudor Jones, Bruce Kovner and Louis Bacon launched their careers. Soon after, David founded K&K Capital Management, where he created a proprietary trading strategy which at its peak managed in excess of $250 million.

In 2013, David transitioned to real estate as Partner and COO of Free Market Ventures a boutique private equity real estate company where he developed over 200 multifamily units, built over 100k SF of cannabis cultivation warehouses, acquired and managed over 250k SF of office space, purchased in excess of $25 million in distressed debt and receiver liens and oversaw all aspects of the company including deal structure, capital raising, debt financing, due diligence, acquisitions, asset management and dispositions.

MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
BA (Economics), University of Illinois

Grace KittsSenior Fund Accountant

Grace is a Senior Fund Accountant at Chicago Atlantic. Grace brings three years of accounting experience to Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining the firm, Grace was a Senior Accountant at KPMG in the asset management industry, focusing on private credit and private equity fund clients. Grace holds the CPA designation.

Master of Accounting (MAcc), University of Missouri

Kushal Kshirsagar, Ph.D.Managing Director, Private Wealth Solutions

Kushal serves as Managing Director, Private Wealth Solutions and is responsible for bringing Chicago Atlantic’s private market solutions to individual investors and their advisors.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Kushal worked for BlackRock for over a decade in San Francisco, New York and Singapore. He served various roles in BlackRock’s Multi-Asset Strategies, US Wealth Advisory and iShares divisions, spanning investment research, portfolio management, portfolio strategy and business development.

Previously, he was a Director at UBS in London and New York where he designed recapitalization strategies for banks, insurance and reinsurance companies. Prior to that, as a Vice President at Credit Suisse in New York, Kushal developed financing solutions for public and PE-owned energy, healthcare and technology companies. Kushal began his career at the Vanguard Group where he developed investment solutions for pension plans, endowments and foundations and was the principal architect of Vanguard’s Capital Markets Model.

Ph.D (Finance), The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dmitriy Lampert

Christopher LeeController, Private Funds

Chris has a strong background in financial accounting and reporting of private investment vehicles. He has extensive experience in fund administration, including venture capital funds and private equity funds. With his role as Controller at Chicago Atlantic and previous positions at Aduro Advisors, Alter Domus, and RSM, Chris has developed a deep understanding of managing and overseeing financial operations in the investment industry.

In addition to his expertise in finance, Chris also possesses knowledge and skills in process automation using Python and VBA. This proficiency allows him to streamline workflows and enhance efficiency in financial operations. Whether it’s leveraging Python for data analysis or utilizing VBA to automate repetitive tasks, Chris utilizes his technical capabilities to drive process improvement and optimize financial processes. Chris holds the CPA designation.

MS (Data Science), Northwestern University
BS (Accounting), University of Illinois at Chicago

Samantha LewisVice President, Marketing

Samantha currently serves as a Vice President of Marketing at Chicago Atlantic, bringing over 10 years of experience to the firm.

Previously, she led the Client Services and Investor Relations department at Silver Spike Capital, an alternative credit manager focused on the nascent cannabis industry.  Prior to that, she supported the business development team and global investor base at One William Street Capital Management. She began her career in investor relations at Greentech Capital Advisors.

BS, Indiana University

Peter LincolnAssociate, Originations

Peter is an Originations Associate specializing in screening, underwriting, and closing cannabis debt transactions. Before joining Chicago Atlantic, he spent three years in New York at J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Real Estate Americas as a debt capital markets professional, where he sourced secured loans for equity commercial real estate investments and unsecured debt for various funds within the group. Peter began his career at U.S. Bank, underwriting commercial real estate loans at their headquarters in Minneapolis, MN.

BS (Finance), Miami University

Jordan LiptonVice President, Originations

Jordan is a Vice President at Chicago Atlantic focusing on originations. Jordan brings over 12 years of capital markets, investment banking, private equity, and private debt experience across various markets.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Jordan held a managing director position at a Canadian Merchant Bank, overseeing the firm’s strategies and investments in cannabis, fintech, and AI. Previously, Jordan served as a partner at Silverbear Capital, a boutique investment bank in Hong Kong. He was also a director of originations and credit at AM Capital Receivables Management, a trade finance and asset-based lender in Hong Kong and China.

Jordan has been active in the cannabis industry since 2014 working as an investor, executive and advisor. Jordan previously held a senior management position with a privately held vertically integrated operator spanning eight states. Jordan has completed over $250 million in cannabis related equity and debt financing transactions.

MBA International Business, European Business School
MBA Exchange Program, Korea University Business School
LLB, University of London
BA, Huron University

Andrew LovittGeneral Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer

Andrew is General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Andrew was an attorney in the Private Credit group at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, where he advised lenders and borrowers in numerous finance transactions, including cash flow and asset-based transactions, leveraged buyouts, refinancings, recapitalizations, and loan repayments.

JD, University of Pennsylvania Law School
BA, Purdue University

Umesh MahajanPartner, Head of Credit

Umesh is a Partner and Head of Credit for Chicago Atlantic. Umesh has a 28-year career in various middle-market, credit, and special situations investing.

Prior to Chicago Atlantic, Umesh was a Managing Director for four years at Ascribe Capital, a credit fund focused on value investing in middle market companies. From September 2003 to August 2016, he worked at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America in various roles in their Global Markets and Investment Banking divisions in New York. Umesh specialized in credit and special situation investing, as a Managing Director in the Global Credit and Special Situations group at Bank of America Securities and as a Vice President at Principal Credit Group at Merrill Lynch; he also worked in Merrill Lynch’s energy and power investment banking group for 2 years. From 1994 to 2001, Umesh worked in J.P. Morgan’s investment banking team in Asia.

MBA, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Palmer Scholar
BTech, Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, Electrical Engineering
CFA Institute, Certificate in ESG Investing

David MalpassSenior Advisor

Mr. Malpass is Senior Advisor at Chicago Atlantic. Mr. Malpass was the 13th President of the World Bank Group (2019-2023). During his tenure, he focused on promoting stronger policies to increase economic growth, alleviate poverty, improve living standards, and reduce government debt burdens. Under his leadership, the World Bank Group responded quickly to global crises­—mobilizing a record $440 billion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, sharp global economic slowdowns, unsustainable debt burdens, climate change, and food, fertilizer, and energy shortages. The World Bank Group also more than doubled its climate finance to developing countries during Mr. Malpass’s presidency, reaching a record $32 billion in 2022.

Prior to his appointment at the World Bank, Mr. Malpass served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs for the United States. Mr. Malpass represented the United States in international settings, including the G7 and G20 Deputy Finance Ministerial, World Bank–IMF Spring and Annual Meetings, the Financial Stability Board, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Before joining the U.S. Treasury, Mr. Malpass was an international economist and founder of a macroeconomics research firm based in New York City. He served as Chief Economist at Bear Stearns and conducted financial analyses of countries around the world.

Previously, Mr. Malpass served as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Developing Nations, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Economic Affairs. He focused on an array of foreign policy and development issues, including U.S. involvement in multilateral institutions, the World Bank’s 1988 capital increase—which supported the creation of the Bank’s environment division, the Enterprise for the America’s Initiative, and Brady bonds to address the Latin American debt crisis. He also served as Senior Analyst for Taxes and Trade at the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and as Staff Director of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.

Mr. Malpass has served on the boards of the Council of the Americas, Economic Club of New York, National Committee on U.S.–China Relations, Manhattan Institute, and Gary Klinsky Children’s Centers, as well as various for-profit entities. He is the author of numerous articles on economic development.

Mr. Malpass earned his bachelor’s degree from Colorado College and his MBA from the University of Denver. He was a CPA and undertook advanced graduate work in international economics at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and has studied Spanish, Russian, and French.

Marco MartinezFinancial Reporting Manager

Marco is a Financial Reporting Manager at Chicago Atlantic overseeing and managing the financial reporting process. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Marco spent 4 years in public accounting at EY & Deloitte focusing on core audit duties and assessing client controls and processes. Additionally, Marco has held corporate accounting positions with experience in the preparation of financial statements for SEC-registered and private entities.

MBA (Information Technology), University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
BBA (Accounting), University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Alex MazzaVice President, Underwriting & Portfolio Management

Alex is a Vice President at Chicago Atlantic, focusing on Underwriting & Portfolio Management of private debt and equity investments. With over nine years of experience in corporate strategy, finance, and mergers and acquisitions, Alex has a strong track record of supporting businesses through various phases of growth and strategic transitions.

Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Alex was a junior partner at TrueRise Capital, where he helped deploy $50 million of capital across the cannabis and technology sectors, working closely with management teams to support strategy and growth initiatives. Prior to that, Alex served as Vice President of Planning and Strategy at Lowell Farms, a vertically integrated cannabis company in California, where he led operational improvements and expansion efforts.

Earlier in his career, Alex held roles in Corporate Development at Acreage Holdings and as an investment banker at CSG Partners, where he worked on more than 20 M&A and ESOP transactions. To date, he has been involved in over $5 billion in M&A, debt, and equity transactions.

BSBA (International Business) Summa Cum Laude, High Point University

Connor MullinsAssociate, Investor Relations

Connor is an Associate on the Investor Relations team at Chicago Atlantic. Previously, Connor had worked at DWS Asset Management as a Senior Internal Consultant where he covered all major channels of wire houses, independent broker dealers, and RIAs over the last 3.5 years. At DWS, he was responsible for outreach to prospective and current holders of DWS’s mutual funds, ETF’s & alternative strategies. While generating leads for his external partners and delivering key follow up information to investors, Connor was able to obtain his Series 7 & 63 licenses. Over the years, Connor grew to be an expert in alternative investing space and strives to be able to help deliver the same professional and persistent approach here at Chicago Atlantic.

BA (Finance & Business Analytics), University of Kansas

Ryan MuranakaManaging Director

Ryan is a Managing Director at Chicago Atlantic and has over 20 years of experience in commercial real estate bridge financing, having overseen more than $2 billion in directly originated secured real estate loans across various asset classes. Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Ryan worked in loan origination and asset management for family offices and public corporations, including Yam Capital and IMH Financial Corporation, where he was affiliated for 15 years.

BS (Business & Communications), Arizona State University

Konstantinos Nakis

Suresh NilavarIT Manager

Suresh serves as the Information Technology Manager for Chicago Atlantic.  Suresh brings over 17 years of IT experience.  He started his career with tech MSPs in NYC for small and mid-size business clientele, then migrated to managing IT for hedge funds.  In his previous management role, he architected the IT infrastructure for a mid-sized hedge fund across 3 offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. In his spare time, Suresh enjoys staying active, playing piano, and keeping up to date with technology.

BSBA (Information Systems), Xavier University

John NixonValuation Manager

John Nixon is a Valuation Manager at Chicago Atlantic. Previously, John was a Valuation Senior Manager at Forvis and Product Control/Private Equity Valuation AVP at Credit Suisse. John has also held roles at RSM and KPMG.
Outside of work, John enjoys watching sports and playing fantasy football.

B.S. (Finance), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jack O’ConnorVice President, Capital Formation

Jack is a Vice President of Capital Formation at Chicago Atlantic, leveraging his extensive experience in raising capital for private placements and alternative investments.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Jack began his finance career at Cadre, a technology-driven real estate platform backed by prominent investors including Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, and SL Green, where he was a key contributor to the High Net Worth and Family Office Distribution team. He subsequently held roles at Baceline Group, a Denver-based real estate private equity firm, and Farmland LP, the largest U.S.-based investment manager focused on organic farmland conversion, where he specialized in raising capital from Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), Family Offices, and Institutional investors.

Jack currently resides in Denver, CO and enjoys golfing, skiing, and fly fishing in his free time.

BA (Economics & Political Science), Union College (NY)

Joe PerkovichVice President, Analytics

Joe is a Vice President of Analytics at Chicago Atlantic focusing on the deployment and support of software applications across the portfolio companies. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Joe spent 3 years in management consulting focusing on technology advisory in the upper mid-market sector across industries such as financial services, professional services, distribution, and manufacturing (discrete and process). Throughout his overall 20-year consulting career, Joe has increased operational efficiencies through business process improvement in addition to architecting and deploying software solutions to streamline system processes.

BS (Management of Information Systems & Supply Chain and Operations Management), University of Akron

Elizabeth QuinlivanDirector, Underwriting & Portfolio Management

Liz is the Director of Underwriting & Portfolio Management at Chicago Atlantic and is responsible for deal structuring, underwriting, and portfolio management of private credit investments.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, her credit experience includes structuring, underwriting, deal execution, and portfolio management in both bank and private credit settings. Liz was a cash flow lending underwriter in Fifth Third Bank’s leveraged finance group, an M&A cash flow lending underwriter and portfolio manager at Madison Capital Funding (n/k/a Apogem Capital) in their software and technology enabled services industry specialty team, and she structured and underwrote M&A and growth capital financings for a private debt social impact fund. Prior to her credit career, Liz worked in consulting and strategic advisory for Ocean Tomo in their valuation practice.

MBA (Finance & Business Strategy), DePaul University
BA (Economics), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Alex RigosVice President, Underwriting & Portfolio Management

Alex is a Vice President at Chicago Atlantic focusing on Underwriting & Portfolio management of private debt investments in cannabis and non-cannabis companies. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Alex spent 4 years in private credit, most recently at LBC Credit Partners, focusing on underwriting direct lending investments to private equity sponsor-backed companies in a variety of industries. Alex spent the first 5 years of his career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in underwriting, portfolio management, and origination roles across the commercial banking and specialty lending platforms. In his last few years at Bank of America, he performed as the senior underwriter in a specialty lending group focused on complex recurring-revenue debt structures.

BS, University of Dayton

Martin RodgersSr. Managing Director, Finance & Accounting and Chief Financial Officer, BDC

Martin brings over 30 years of accounting, finance, project and risk management experience to Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining the firm, Martin spent 15 years at First Eagle Alternative Credit, a $20 billion Alternative Credit Manager specializing in Bank Syndicated Loans and Direct Lending Debt, in various roles ranging from Director of Finance and Administration, and Director of Alternative Credit Risk, with responsibilities for Fund Accounting, Performance Measurement, Enterprise Risk Management, and special projects.

Martin started his career in the United Kingdom and spent 4 years in the audit practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has also held positions at Goldman Sachs, Abbot Laboratories, and Jefferson Wells.

BA (Accountancy and Economics), University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
CA, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

Amir RonController, Management Company

Amir is currently a Controller at Chicago Atlantic management companies. He previously served as the Accounting Manager responsible for month-end closing, intercompany reconciliations, cash forecasting, and tax compliance. Prior to Chicago Atlantic, Amir was an Accounting Analyst at Tekcapital, LLC, working alongside the CFO of a publicly traded company listed on the London Stock Exchange Marketing (AIM). Amir served as a Senior Staff Accountant at Pinchasik, Yellen, Muskat, Stein, LLC a South Florida accounting firm working on various assurance engagements for non-profits and for-profit companies, tax returns preparation, and eminent domain litigation cases. Amir also worked as a Forensic Analyst in the areas of business disputes and matrimonial litigation.

BS (Finance & Accounting), University of Maryland – Robert H. Smith School of Business, College Park

Peter SackManaging Partner & BDC CEO & REIT Co-CEO

Peter is a Managing Partner at Chicago Atlantic and serves as CEO of Chicago Atlantic BDC, Inc. and Co-CEO of Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance, Inc., our affiliated mortgage REIT. Peter is a credit investor and portfolio manager with experience investing across the capital structure.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Peter was a Principal at BC Partners Credit, where he sourced and underwrote across the firm’s opportunistic and senior lending strategies in a wide array of industries. Peter managed the portfolio of BC Partners Lending Corporation, a private business development company with assets of over $100 million deployed in middle-market private loans. Peter also founded the firm’s cannabis vertical and has underwritten over half a billion dollars in related transactions.

Previously, Peter was an Associate at Atlas Holdings LLC, a private-equity firm focused on supporting distressed manufacturing and distribution companies globally.

Peter serves on the board of directors of Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance, Inc., Ability Insurance Company, and the New York City Charter School of the Arts.

Peter speaks Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

MBA, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
BA, Yale University
Fulbright Scholar, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Province, China

Alan SchuchnerChief Analytics Officer

Alan is a Chief Analytics Officer at Chicago Atlantic focusing on underwriting and portfolio management. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Alan spent 5 years of his career in management consulting, having worked with multiple clients focusing on strategy and operations across various industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and others. During his consulting career, Alan conducted multiple assessments of the business operating model of important national players and provided strategic recommendations to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs through digitalization, automation, and resource management. Alan has also worked as an underwriting analyst for Stonegate Capital, a Chicago-based ABL firm, performing financial analysis, implementing a portfolio management system, and making recommendations on loan pricing and terms.

MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
BSc (Industrial Engineering), ITBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Phil SilvermanChief Financial Officer, REIT

Phil currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of our publicly traded mortgage real estate investment trust (“REIT”), Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NASDAQ: REFI). Phil is a licensed Certified Public Accountant and brings over 10 years of finance and accounting experience to Chicago Atlantic with a focus on financial reporting, operations, and internal controls for investment management firms ranging from $100 million to over a $1 billion in assets under management.

From June 2021 to September 2022, prior to his appointment as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of REFI, Phil served as the Vice President and Assistant Controller for the firm’s private credit funds, and Chief Financial Officer of Chicago Atlantic Group, LLC. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Phil spent nearly 9 years with BDO USA, LLP, where he most recently served as a Senior Manager in the Financial Services and Private Equity group, responsible for end-to-end execution of audits of private equity and venture capital funds, small business investment companies, business development companies and other asset managers.

BS (Finance), Indiana University Kelley School of Business

Lev SlavinDirector, Analytics

Lev is a Director at Chicago Atlantic focusing on analytics. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Lev spent 12 years of his career providing hands-on expertise in corporate finance, strategy, and analytics as a consultant to entrepreneurial companies in a broad range of industries ranging from fintech to healthcare to education. During his consulting career, Lev focused on building the tools and processes that facilitate fact-based decision making, strategic planning and financial management necessary to a company’s successful development. For 10 of those years, Lev also worked in curriculum innovation and academic support at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he was instrumental in developing and teaching a simulation-based capstone MBA course in which teams integrate knowledge from several business disciplines to grow a struggling startup into a successful competitor in a rapidly evolving industry. Lev spent the first 8 years of his career on an internal consulting team at CSX Transportation and in risk management at Citigroup.

MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
BS (Finance), University of Florida

Ramona StefanSr. Director, People & Culture

Ramona is the Sr. Director of People and Culture at Chicago Atlantic, where she leads the people strategy and culture-building initiatives for the firm. With 15 years of experience, she specializes in developing data-driven HR practices that focus on engaging, developing, and retaining top talent in both private and public fintech companies.

Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Ramona was the Chief People Officer at Braviant, a fintech startup in Chicago. During her six-year tenure there, Ramona set and led the company’s people strategy, creating a cohesive, engaged, and high-performing workforce that significantly contributed to the company’s overall success.

MS (Human Resources), DePaul University
BS (Business Management), DePaul University

Michael TrompeterVice President, Growth and Technology Finance

Michael Trompeter is a Vice President of Growth and Technology Finance at Chicago Atlantic. He is responsible for the origination and execution of investments on the Direct Lending team. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, he was a Senior Associate at Golub Growth, where he invested across the capital structure and was responsible for originating, screening and diligence of late-stage enterprise software investments. During this time, Golub Growth deployed over $1 billion into late-stage enterprise software companies. Prior to his work with Golub, Michael worked at Waud Capital Partners on the business development team, sourcing platform and add-on opportunities for the multi-billion dollar private equity firm.

BS (Finance), Illinois State University

Kevin VargasVice President, Client Services

Kevin Vargas is a Vice President of Client Services at Chicago Atlantic, bringing over eight years of extensive experience in investor relations and accounting. Previously, Kevin held a key role at Brauvin Real Estate, a renowned Chicago-based commercial real estate investment firm, where he successfully managed investor relations and day-to-day operations. He provided investors with detailed information on their investments from inception and ensured accurate distributions, including the sale of a notable $200 million real estate fund. Kevin launched his career at KPMG, one of the world’s largest accounting firms, as an audit associate in their Real Estate and Investment Management Division. Outside of his professional pursuits, Kevin maintains an active lifestyle, engaging in weightlifting, football, and exploring the vibrant city of Chicago with friends and family.

BS (Accountancy), DePaul University

Daniel VincerSr. Fund Accountant

Daniel is a Senior Fund Accountant at Chicago Atlantic. Daniel brings 6 years of accounting and financial analysis experience to Chicago Atlantic. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Daniel was a Senior Accountant with Cardone Capital working on all aspects of Real Estate funds and as an analyst at GEO Group within their Financial Planning & Analysis team.

Master of Accounting (MAcc), Nova Southeastern University

Ben VinogradPartner, Private Equity & Workouts

Ben is a Partner at Chicago Atlantic, where he acts as an operator-investor, partnering with businesses navigating growth, restructuring, or repositioning.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Ben co-founded and operated multiple companies. He was a founding team member of Clever Leaves Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLVR), where he served as Head of Europe and launched and scaled the company’s European operations. Ben was also a founding team member of Northern Swan, a special situations investment firm.

Previously, Ben was an Associate in the Leveraged Finance Origination & Restructuring group at Credit Suisse. He began his career in leveraged finance at RBS.

Ben is a member of the New York State Bar and speaks French.

JD, University of Pennsylvania Law School
MBA, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
BSFS, Georgetown University, Walsh School of Foreign Service

Daniel WalshDirector, Capital Formation

Daniel is a Director of Capital Formation at Chicago Atlantic with a decade of fundraising experience in the asset management industry. Daniel has had a focus on managing relationships with institutional investors and more recently has worked with contacts in the private wealth space as well. Daniel is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and carries the Series 7 & 63 licenses.

Before joining Chicago Atlantic, Daniel served as a Director of Investor Relations for 500 Global, an early-stage venture capital firm. Prior to that, Daniel was a Director of Business Development at Newport Asia, a Manager of Institutional Business Development at Richard Bernstein Advisors, and a Vice President – Institutional Relationship Manager at Newton Investment Management. He started his career at FactSet Research Systems as an Investment Management Consultant.

Daniel currently resides in Santa Monica, CA and enjoys running races throughout the year.

BBA, Saint Joseph’s University

Jacob WeiskirchAssociate Vice President, Real Estate

Jacob is an Associate Vice President on the Real Estate team at Chicago Atlantic. Jacob brings over 5 years of real estate investment, consulting, and development experience to Chicago Atlantic.

Prior to joining the firm, Jacob spent 2.5 years as a Senior Analyst at Banner Real Estate Group, a national multifamily and self-storage investor and developer. Jacob’s responsibilities included underwriting new investment opportunities, site selection and acquisition, and financing and project management. Prior to Banner Real Estate Group, Jacob held various positions in real estate M&A consulting at Ernst & Young, portfolio and asset management at Brookfield Properties, and CMBS lending at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Jacob actively supports the Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation in Chicago and is member of their Associate Board.

BS (Finance and Real Estate), Indiana University Kelley School of Business

Sam WillkommSenior Analyst, Analytics

Sam is a Senior Analyst at Chicago Atlantic focused on providing insights to the team and driving data-driven decision-making. Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Sam spent 2 years as a Data & Analytics Consultant at Analytics8 providing data-driven insights for clients in various industries including financial services, logistics, manufacturing, and beverage. As a consultant, Sam’s project work was centered around business intelligence reporting to provide centralized and accurate data for business users and executive teams. She also developed robust frameworks, policies, and procedures to achieve data governance and align data strategy. Prior to consulting, Sam was an Advanced Assurance Intern at PwC where she contributed to audit engagements with their private audit practice.

BBA (Accounting & Information Systems), Loyola University Chicago

Pei-ni YehManager, Accounting

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic, Pei-ni was a Senior Corporate Accountant at Florida East Coast Industries, LLC, a commercial real estate developer and parent company of Brightline Train. She worked alongside the CFO and was responsible for corporate month-end closings and consolidated financial reporting. Previously, she worked as a Manager of Accounting and Reporting at Starwood Property Trust, Inc. a publicly traded mortgage REIT. Pei-ni also worked at LNR Property, LLC as a Senior Accountant handling Partnership accounting and reporting for investments in commercial real estate properties, mortgage loans, CMBS, and other mortgage-related securities. Pei-ni is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

Masters of Accounting, Florida International University

Kaan YucelAssociate, Investor Relations

Kaan is an Associate on the Investor Relations team at Chicago Atlantic. Previously, Kaan completed an internship where he worked with the Investor Relations team. Prior to Chicago Atlantic, Kaan was an intern at Ernst & Young in their valuation, modeling, and economics department and contributed to the successful sale of a shipping company by preparing the Information Memorandum (IM). Additionally, Kaan was a Data Analyst Intern at the Silicon Valley startup Firefly and a Business Intelligence Intern for Delivery Hero.

Outside of work, Kaan enjoys go-karting, F-1 races, kitesurfing, and escape rooms. He is a huge fan of Legos, especially Lego Star Wars.

BA (Cognitive Science & Computing, Data Science, and Society), University of California, Berkeley

Ali ZamaniSr. Director, Equity & Credit

Ali is a Senior Director at Chicago Atlantic focusing on equity and credit investments with emphasis on investment research, execution and portfolio management. He has over 13 years of investment and capital markets advisory experience. Ali is a CFA and a holder of the Advanced Financial Modeler (AFM) designation.

Prior to joining Chicago Atlantic Group, Ali spent ~4 years at a North American hedge fund covering public and private equity as well as structured product investments across various industries. Prior to that, Ali spent six years in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets and other investment banking institutions covering a multitude of sectors including Tech, Telecom, Media, Metals & Mining, and Diversified Industries. To date, he has been involved in over $10 billion of M&A, equity, and debt financing transactions.

Master of Financial Economics (Finance), University of Toronto Rotman School of Management & Economics
MA (Economics), York University
BA (Honours in Economics), York University
BS (Honours in Biology), York University