Board of Directors
Amy Polvado
Cris Kimbrough, PhD
Guillermo Salazar
Founder and CEO
Facilimax
After 21 years spent in commercial real estate as a general contractor and real estate developer, Amy created a data aggregation platform to solve inefficiencies in the commercial real estate industry.
🔹 Winner of two Congressional awards as a National Leader in Residential Real Estate
🔹 Winner of multiple real estate development awards
🔹 Founder & Chairwoman, US Proptech Council
Guillermo Salazar
Cris Kimbrough, PhD
Guillermo Salazar
Founder and CEO
IrisCX
Guillermo is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Prior to his startup, Guillermo has held leadership roles in business information and analytics for some of the largest Canadian oil and gas companies and Deloitte Canada. Taking his experience as a consultant and business analytics, he applied his wisdom to the inefficiencies in the construction industry. His company is creating a new homebuyer experience and improving the post-construction services of homebuilders. Guillermo serves the US Proptech Council as a startup representative from Canada.
Cris Kimbrough, PhD
Cris Kimbrough, PhD
Cris Kimbrough, PhD
Chief Strategy Officer
SKBM Smart Home Technologies
After receiving her doctorate from NYU, Cris spent a year in Turkey conducting research as a Fulbright Fellow. Cris has been in the building technology and telecommunications space her whole career. She has managed national telecommunications programs and is considered the thought leader when it comes to smart building technology. She has worked in leadership positions for both CBRE and Greystar.
Alex Lange
Christine A. McHugh
Cris Kimbrough, PhD
Head of Strategy and Innovation
National Association of Realtors
Alex is a seasoned technologist turned general manager with a career spanning over 30 years. With a proven track record of driving technological advancements and strategic growth, I have successfully navigated three exits, four acquisitions, and multiple fundraising events.
🔹 Recognized in the 2019, 2018, 2017 Swanepoel Power 200 as one of the Top 200 Most Powerful People in Residential Real Estate.
🔹 Honored as one of the Global Top 1,000 Chief Technology Officers in 2012 by Bloomberg, S&P, The Global Leaders.
🔹 Winner of the 2008 Inman Innovator Award for Most Innovative New Technology.
Christine A. McHugh
Christine A. McHugh
Christine A. McHugh
Founder and CEO
White Strand Development
Christine is the founder of White Strand Development, a boutique, WBE certified, commercial real estate consultant firm specializes in Smart City and Smart Building Technology. White Strand Development came to fruition as a result of the increasing need to provide specialized, data focused, real estate life-cycle services.
Our team of consultants are committed to identifying overlooked and in many cases, unforeseen value through Risk Reduction Protocols, Ethical Decarbonization Strategies, and Integrated Sensor Policies. We look to establish instrumental opportunities for clients to maximize ROI, such as using PropTech to reduce Real Estate Insurance Rates and support R&D Tax Incentives.
Michael Kelly
Christine A. McHugh
Christine A. McHugh
Founder
Investment Science
Mike brings 10 years of multiple industry experience ranging from start-ups to established enterprises, applying his technology skills with his business expertise to drive growth, increase revenues, and achieve corporate goals. He has deep expertise in the financial industry, spanning hedge funds and major financial institutions, implementing technology solutions to improve processes, cut expenses, and support growth initiatives.
Michael will foster our government relations and advocacy initiatives for the Council.
Stuart Appley
Rodrigo Torres Orozco
Stuart Appley
Founder
Bay Tech Advisors
Stuart is an award-winning digital innovation and transformation leader recognized for strategic leadership. As the founder of Bay Tech Advisors, Stuart is an advisor to various PropTech startups and VC’s and he provides Digital and Technology consulting to firms across all segments of the real estate industry. Stuart was previously an Innovation & Technology leader at CBRE, where he led their technology and smart buildings work at Google. Stuart also led various innovation programs that leveraged AI technologies (LeaseAbstraction/Chatbots, NLP based workorders), Augmented Reality (Google Glass), and CBRE’s first Blockchain pilot. Stuart was previously the CIO at Shorenstein Properties and WaldenVC, and he also held various leadership roles across the mortgage and banking industries. Stuart is a Realcomm Digie Innovation Award Winner and a Global Business Transformation Leader 150 Recipient.
Alina Aeby
Rodrigo Torres Orozco
Stuart Appley
Founder and President
Silicon Valley Proptech Association
Alina is a global entrepreneur and strategic advisor, who believes in collaborations for building global and regional support ecosystems.
Alina is an economic development, global real estate and Proptech consultant, speaker and investor based in San Francisco, California. She offers solutions for different aspects of PropTech solution implementation, global real estate, advising on business development, marketing, transactions, real estate practice and ethics, education, and volunteering. Throughout her career, she prides herself in connecting the private, government and non-governmental sectors, with SDG 17 and ESG principles in mind.
🔹 Real Estate Investment advisory and transactional representation ( RE Broker licensed in California )
🔹 National Association of Realtors( NAR): Global Organizations Volunteer Leader
Rodrigo Torres Orozco
Rodrigo Torres Orozco
Rodrigo Torres Orozco
Founder and CEO
Bricksell
Rodrigo is based in Guadalajara, Mexico. He is a multiple-time proptech startup founder after being in real estate as a broker and technologist for more than 15 years. Rodrigo founded Bricksell, a customer-centric real estate ecosystem. Through Bricksell, he facilitates direct transactions streamlining the process.
Rodrigo serves the US Proptech Council as a startup founder representative from Mexico.
John Rogers
Umair Surani
Rodrigo Torres Orozco
Chief INnovation Officer
CoreLogic
John has worked in all 4 corners of the world leading large transformation projects in finance, retail, pharmaceuticals, logistics and airlines. Leading multi-disciplined teams and multiple 3rd parties that have changed a mortgage bank into a retail bank, rolled out a global drug-trial planning platform and led the creation of a 21st century data-manufacturing plant for real estate. Currently leading research and development for CoreLogic, the leading data & analytics company for real estate.
CoreLogic supports over 80,000 B2B clients, over 1.5M+ property professionals, touches 8 out of 10 loans through the mortgage origination / servicing processes and touches a similar number in the insurance space - 8 out of 10 policies and claims processes.
Because of all these interactions we built a 21st century data & analytics manufacturing plant – which manufactures over 22,000 data sources on all things property & location.
Scott Casey
Umair Surani
Umair Surani
CEO and President
ROVR Score
Scott is bringing more than 30 years of executive experience with leading technology solutions and vendors to launching his own company in measuring the quality of connectivity for apartments / Software-as-a-Service company. Previously, Scott was CTO and SVP (formerly EdR) and Senior Manager of Global Innovation at Greystar Student Living where he led the design and implementation of all technology innovation. In addition, Scott oversaw the technology infrastructure of over 100 communities where he deployed pioneer PropTech solutions to create asset value and generate revenue for the company. Casey had a long and successful career at Greystar Student Living (EdR), where he held the position of Vice Chair on the board of directors for Elauwit Networks. Before joining EdR, Scott held positions from Director of Technology to CIO during a 10+ year career at Arthur Anderson and Orange Lake Resort and Country Club.
Scott’s talent was recognized by the multifamily industry where he has been invited to speak on multiple technology panels in addition to contributing articles for several industry publications. Scott now partners with several thought leaders and organizations in the multifamily industry to create impactful content and inspire other technology audiences alike. His passion for innovation and cultivating the strengths of team members and creating dynamic experiences for clients and customers is why Scott is a valued and recognized by his peers.
Umair Surani
Umair Surani
Umair Surani
Founder
MTN Consulting
Space enthusiast turned clean energy champion. After graduating with an aerospace engineering degree from Virginia Tech, Umair quickly transitioned into the built environment industry and has since been on the sustainability forefront working as an engineer and business developer with Fujitsu, Cartegraph, Engie, and McKinstry. Umair has a knack for simplifying complex problems, delivering robust solutions, and bridging cultures. He recently launched his consulting practice to help innovative cleantech startups commercialize their solutions and drive decarbonization in the built environment. Umair also holds an MBA degree from Southern Methodist University and has 13+ years of experience with commercializing software (EAM, CMMS, digital twins) and hardware (HVAC, controls) technologies at the intersection of cleantech and proptech domains.
Maria Aiello
Jesse Carrillo
Jesse Carrillo
CIO & Strategic Technologist
Maria is a seasoned IT Executive with over 35 years of experience in the real estate industry. Maria's expertise spans technology strategy, digital transformation, innovation and operational excellence having worked for North American and global organizations which include Manulife, PwC, Morguard and Regal Lifestyle Communities as CIO and Head of IT. Maria also served as a mentor for the Colliers Techstars program upon its initial launch. Throughout her career, Maria has been an active board member and conference panelist and moderator and conference chair for various industry and technology associations which include the CIO Executive Council, CIO Association, HMG CIO, IT Media, Oracle, Yardi, Realcomm Advisory, PropTech Collective, IREM and BOMA. She is currently a member of the BOMA Digital Transformation Committee, the BOMA Technical Advisory Committee, co-chair of the IREM (Institute of Real Estate Management) Technology Advisory Committee, conference committee member for the HMG CIO Summit and a Gartner Peer Community Ambassador. In 2023, Maria was awarded the 2023 Woman of Influence Award with the PropTech Executive Innovator Category by Globe Street Realty. Maria is currently working with two AI PropTech startups, Prescriptive Data and Clarity Building Controls and feels she is only just starting! Besides her 24-year old daughter, Maria is most proud of her real estate network of amazing people she has been fortunate to meet and work with over the duration of of her career.
Jesse Carrillo
Jesse Carrillo
Jesse Carrillo
Founder
Carrillo Advisors
Jesse Carrillo is founder and principal at Carrillo Advisors LLC where he provides strategic advisory and fractional CIO/CTO services. Jesse brings 25+ years of real estate experience having served as Chief Innovation Officer for The Howard Hughes Corporation where he led the strategy and operation of the company’s innovation and technology platforms across HHC’s national portfolio of large-scale master planned communities (MPCs) and mixed-use properties. Prior to joining HHC, Mr. Carrillo served as Chief Information Officer of Hines, directing all corporate technology, strategy and standards for the global real estate firm worldwide. He joined the Hines in 1994 and served in various technology roles before becoming the company’s Chief Technology Officer in 2007 and then its Chief Information Officer in 2009.
He previously served on the Advisory Boards of Realcomm International, Quest Oracle Community, and the Houston Baptist University College of Science Engineering (COSE), Cyberhouston.org, and is Past-President of the Houston Chapter of Society for Information Management (SIM).
A strong supporter of providing opportunities for young professionals from underserved communities and diversity/inclusion initiatives, he serves on the board of Genesys Works – Houston and GlobalMindED. Jesse has been recognized for his achievements by being named a Premier 100 recipient in 2016 by Computerworld Magazine, the Julie Devine Digital Impact Award presented at the 2017 Realcomm Conference, the Realcomm Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, recognized as one of the Top 50 CIOs by the National Diversity Council in 2020, Houston CIO of the Year ORBIE Award – Enterprise Category in 2021, and HMG Global Institute Leadership Award in 2021.
Jesse is a graduate of Trinity University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, and received his MBA from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Deeni Taylor
Deeni Taylor
Deeni Taylor
Head of Strategic Relationships
Healthpeak
Deeni Taylor was Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer of Physicians Realty Trust (formerly NYSE: DOC), from 2016 until its
merger with Healthpeak in 2024. From October 2015 through December 2016, Mr. Taylor was Physicians Realty Trust’s Executive Vice President - Investments.
From 2006 until 2015, Mr. Taylor served as an Executive Vice President of Indianapolis based Duke Realty, Inc. (NYSE: DRE), helping to lead Duke’s health care team.
Prior to Mr. Taylor’s health care real estate career, he had a 25-year hospital career. From 2000 until 2006, Mr. Taylor served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for St. Vincent Health, an Ascension Health ministry, which included 16 hospitals serving central Indiana. He also served as President of Unity Health Management Services in Birmingham, Alabama from 1997 until 2000 and worked for Ascension’s St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama as the Vice President of Planning and Marketing from 1992 until 1997. Prior to that, he worked for St. Joseph Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, where he served as Vice President Ancillary Services from 1982 until 1992.
Mr. Taylor is a graduate of Purdue University, with a B.S. in Pharmacy, and Central Michigan University with a Masters in Science Administration. He is a member of ULI and serves on their Healthcare and Life Science Council in a leadership position. He is a past Diplomate in the American College of Healthcare Executives. Mr. Taylor served on Peyton Manning’s PeyBack Foundation from 2001 to 2017.
Howard Berry
Deeni Taylor
Deeni Taylor
National Director, Data Center Solutions
Avison Young
Howard Berry is a leading data center real estate professional in the U.S. With over 20 years of commercial real estate experience, he is the National Director of Data Center Solutions at Avison Young and a Principal partner. Berry excels in developing, selling, and leasing data center products. His notable achievements include transforming Vishay Technologies into a state-of-the-art data center and facilitating Microsoft's multi-state land acquisition. Previously at Colliers International, he was the National Director of Data Center Business, where he expanded their national platform and mentored brokers. Earlier, he worked at Grubb & Ellis and gained commercial construction management experience. Berry is a member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) and the Association of Silicon Valley Brokers (ASVB). His leadership positions Avison Young as a key player in the data center real estate industry.
