Expertise

Hamid Rezapour is the Managing Partner of Vertical Ventures. Since the company’s inception in 2004, Hamid has led all aspects of real estate acquisition, financing, leasing, construction, property management and disposition. With more than 25 years of experience as a real estate developer and investor, he has shaped Vertical Ventures into the dynamic and growing company it is today.

He brings years of experience in the health care, life sciences, retail, advertising, and high-tech industries. Prior to forming Vertical Ventures, Hamid launched and successfully sold several companies in the high-tech and healthcare industries. He has also served on the Boards of several industry-related companies.

After attending UC Berkeley for his undergraduate work, he received his dental degree from University of the Pacific in San Francisco, as well as dual MBA degrees from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and Columbia University in New York.

Ian Martz leads the firm’s finance, accounting and reporting functions. He began his career in Deloitte & Touche LLP’s San Francisco assurance practice, serving such clients as The Sharper Image, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, and Kaiser Permanente. In 2006, he became Assistant Portfolio Controller at DivcoWest, a privately-owned real estate investment firm in San Francisco, responsible for managing over $2 billion of private equity. At DivcoWest, he oversaw the financial accounting and investor reporting for multiple commercial real estate portfolios. Most recently, he was Vice President & Controller at Pacific Ventures Management LLC (formerly DMB Pacific Ventures LLC), where he was responsible for the accounting and financial reporting of the company and its managed projects, most notably a 700-acre master-planned residential community development in Riverside County, California. He holds an undergraduate degree in accounting and finance from Indiana University – Bloomington and is a Certified Public Accountant actively licensed in the State of California.

Claudia Patterson boasts more than twenty years of financial and operations experience serving in senior roles with two different global, multi-billion-dollar property investment and development groups. She served as Vice President Finance and was responsible for the America’s Portfolio with G.I.C. Real Estate Inc. Prior to that, she held various senior financial positions, including Corporate Controller for Grosvenor Americas Inc.

Claudia holds a B.S. in Business Administration from California State University, Hayward.

Mark Heavey leads Vertical Ventures’ commercial condominium projects. He is responsible for all aspects of the project from acquisition thru entitlements and disposition. Mark has an extensive background in commercial condominiums having been the Chief Operating Officer of Venture Corporation, one of the largest commercial condominium developers in the country. In that capacity, Mark helped developed the strategy and grew a team of professionals that developed over 30 projects throughout the West Coast valued at over $500 million.

Mark has experience in all aspects of real estate development projects having grown up in the business and founding a development company with his college roommate. The company started in residential and branched out into retail projects.

Mark has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Santa Clara University.

Arash Najafi leads all capital and fundraising responsibilities at Vertical Ventures. Throughout his tenured career, Arash sourced nearly $2.0 billion of institutional and high net worth capital including pension and sovereign wealth funds, investment firms, insurance companies, endowments, consultants, family offices, and accredited investors. In addition, Arash spearheaded the successful negotiation and execution of joint-venture equity and fund agreements for over 30 transactions. Prior to joining Vertical Ventures, Arash was previously with Thor Equities focusing on capital raising efforts of multiple asset types across the US, Europe, and Latin America. Arash started his career in real estate private equity at Stonehenge Partners with a focus on managing the firm’s placement agents to raise an institutional equity fund targeting value-add/core-plus returns.

Arash holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and a Masters of Science with Honors from New York University.

Audris Shau leads asset management at Vertical Ventures. Her main responsibilities are to develop and execute investment strategies for each property, with a strong focus on repositioning assets, driving leasing and marketing, overseeing property management and operations. Audris has overseen 2.5M square feet of assets and brings nearly fifteen years of value-add to core plus asset management experience in office, retail and multifamily in several major cities within the US. Prior to joining Vertical Ventures, Audris held positions with Grosvenor Americas, Jamestown Properties, Shorenstein Properties and Silverstein Properties. Audris holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and received her MBA from Columbia University.

Boyd Messmann leads Vertical Ventures’ national acquisition platform focusing on net lease assets and select value add assets. Boyd is responsible for all aspects of the platform from acquisition to disposition and has over 30 years of experience in commercial real estate, acquisitions, investment banking and lending. Boyd is highly respected in the commercial real estate world with a proven track record, transacting over $16B in volume over his career, and has held senior leadership and C-Suite positions for private and public firms, such as First Industrial, VEREIT and Spirit Realty Capital.

Boyd has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance/Accounting from Indiana University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Kentucky.

Jeff Gorelick is an attorney who has practiced nationally and internationally for fifty years and completed hundreds of transactions both as lawyer and as a principal. He was the in-house attorney and strategic advisor to Vertical Ventures from the time of its formation until he formed Gorelick Real Estate Advisors (GREA) in 2009 to acquire distressed properties in several markets. He continues as managing member of GREA and has acted as a consultant and strategic advisor to Vertical Ventures since that time.

Alyas Al Meftah leads Vertical Ventures fundraising and investor relationships in the MENA region. He brings over 18 years of experience with a successful career in investment banking and relationship management.

He has extensive knowledge in various asset classes primarily Real Estate and Private Equity.

Prior to joining Vertical Ventures, he was VP - Investment Placement at Neo Capital (DIFC) Dubai and previous to that, he held the position of Head of Investment Placement at Audacia Capital covering the GCC and MENA region. He was also formerly Executive Director at GFH Financial Group.

Alyas holds a degree in business from Frederick University and has also completed the Senior Executive Leadership Program (“LGP”) at Ivey Business School. He is also a holder of the Securities Market Regulation certification (Series 79) and has served on the boards and committees of companies in the MENA geography.