Faculty & Staff
Faculty Associated with the MIT Center for Real Estate
- Brian (Tony) Ciochetti, Thomas G. Eastman Chair, MIT Center for Real Estate
- Dennis Frenchman, Leventhal Professor of Urban Design and Planning, Departments of Architecture and Urban Studies and Planning
- David
Geltner, Chair, MSRED Degree Program; Director of Research, MIT Center for Real Estate;
Professor of Real Estate - Christopher Gordon, Lecturer, MIT Center for Real Estate and Harvard Business School
- John Kennedy, Partner, Kennedy Ventures LLC.
- Tod McGrath, Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning
- Peter Roth, Lecturer
- Gloria Schuck, Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning
- Yanni Tsipis, Senior Vice President and Partner, Meredith & Grew
- William C. Wheaton, Professor of Economics
Staff
- Brian (Tony) Ciochetti, Thomas G. Eastman Chair; Chairman and Academic Director
- David Geltner, Director of Research
- Cheryl Gillespie, Financial Administrator
- Aruna Joglekar, Executive Education and Professional Development Coordinator
- Charles H. "Hank" Spaulding, Honorary Chairholder
- Maria Vieira, Associate Director for Education
Research Support
- Sheharyah (Schery) Bokhari, Research Support Associate, Commercial Real Estate Data Laboratory
Brian (Tony) Ciochetti
Thomas G. Eastman Chair
Chairman, Center for Real Estate
Office: MIT Center for Real Estate, Bldg. W31-310
tel: 617-253-3988, fax: 617-964-2822, email: tc@mit.edu
Tony Ciochetti is the Thomas G. Eastman Chair and Chairman of the MIT Center for Real Estate. His primary responsibilities at MIT are to enhance the Center’s mission of improving the global built environment through industry relevant research and to promote more informed professional practice. Prior to his appointment at MIT, Dr. Ciochetti was the Director of the Center for Real Estate Development and a Professor of Finance at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Dr. Ciochetti is also a visiting Professor in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University in England. Professor Ciochetti’s teaching areas of expertise include Commercial Real Estate Development and Real Estate Finance. He has created or taught courses in these areas at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dr. Ciochetti also teaches executive courses on such topics as real estate development, portfolio and asset management, and asset securitization for both industry and academic organizations.
Dr. Ciochetti’s research interests lie in two broad areas: commercial mortgage credit risk and the role of real estate within pension plan portfolios. His work has appeared in leading scholarly journals, including Real Estate Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and the Journal of Real Estate Research. Tony is currently the President of the Real Estate Research Institute, where he is also an academic fellow, and serves on the Board of Directors of Real Estate Economics. He also serves on the editorial and advisory boards of Real Estate Finance and CMBS World. He regularly consults on behalf of investment banks, rating agencies, institutional clients and development companies. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Ciochetti spent 12 years in the private sector in the areas of commercial real estate development and consulting.
Dr. Ciochetti received his B.A. in Finance from the University of Oregon, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dennis Frenchman
Leventhal Professor of Urban Design and Planning, Department of Urban Studies & Planning and Department of Architecture
Office: MIT, Department of Urban Studies and Planning,
Bldg. 10-485
tel: 617-253-8847, fax: 617-253-2654, email: dennisf@mit.edu
Vice President, ICON Architecture, Inc.
Dennis Frenchman is the Leventhal Professor of Urban Design and Planning at MIT, where he is former director of City Design and Development and chair of the Masters in City Planning program. He has taught and practiced extensively in Asia, Europe, and South America and served as External Advisor on urban livability to the President of the World Bank. A registered architect, he is also founding principal of ICON architecture in Boston an international architecture and urban design firm.
Dennis Frenchman’s practice and research focuses on the transformation of cities. He has designed large-scale technology driven developments including Seoul Digital Media City in Korea, the Digital Mile in Zaragoza, Spain, and Media City: UK and is currently planning the Digital Creative City in Mexico. He has a particular interest in the redevelopment of industrial sites and has prepared development plans for the renewal of textile mill towns, canals, rail corridors, steels mills, coal and oil fields, shipyards and ports, including many of national historical significance. Currently he is leading an MIT research effort to develop new models for clean energy urbanization in China, sponsored by the Energy Foundation. He earned his Master of Architecture in Advanced Studies and Masters in City Planning degrees at MIT.
David Geltner
Academic Director, MSRED Program
Director of Research, Center for Real Estate
George Macomber Professor
and Professor of Real Estate Finance in the
Department of Urban Studies & Planning
Office: MIT Center for Real Estate, Bldg. W31-310
tel: 617-253-5131, fax: 617-258-6991, email: dgeltner@mit.edu
David Geltner is the Chair of the MSRED Degree Program and the Director of Research for the MIT Center for Real Estate, as well as the George Macomber of Real Estate Finance in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning (DUSP).
Formerly the REEAC Professor of Real Estate in the College of Business Administration at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Geltner has been teaching graduate level real estate investments and finance since 1989. His research focuses on real estate investment performance measurement and the related areas of asset valuation and private asset market functioning.
Dr Geltner has served since 1999 as the External Academic Member of the Real Estate Investment Committee of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (a pension plan sponsor with over $6 billion of directly managed real estate holdings). He also serves as the Academic Advisor to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF).
Dr Geltner received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the Civil Engineering Department in the field of infrastructure finance and economics. He also has degrees in urban studies from Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Michigan. Dr Geltner served a research appointment from 1998-2004 as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Land Management of the Faculty of Urban and Regional Science at the University of Reading (England). Dr Geltner has been an Academic Fellow of the Urban Land Institute (2004-2007) and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and is currently a Felow at the Real Estate Research Institute and the Homer Hoyt Institute.
From 1994-99, Dr. Geltner was a Managing Editor of Real Estate Finance, and from 2000-2003 he was a co-editor of Real Estate Economics (the leading academic real estate journal and the official journal of the American Real Estate & Urban Economics Association). Dr Geltner also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Research, and the Journal of Property Research. From 1994-2000.
Dr Geltner has published extensively in leading academic journals in the area of real estate economics, investment analysis, and performance measurement. Dr Geltner is co-author of Commercial Real Estate Analysis & Investments, a new graduate-level real estate investments textbook published by Cengage / South-Western College Publishing Company.
Download Professor Geltner's Curriculum Vitae (pdf, 33K)
Christopher Gordon
Lecturer
MIT Center for Real Estate
Harvard Business School
email: cmgordon@hbs.edu
Chris Gordon is a Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate and a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School teaching and writing primarily on the subject of complex capital projects.
Until 2010 he served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Allston Development Group at Harvard University. In that role he oversaw the development of Harvard’s proposed campus expansion in the Allston section of Boston as well as development projects on the historic Cambridge campus.
Chris is a former board member of the National Research Council’s Board on Infrastructure and the Built Environment, a former trustee of the Engineering Center Education Trust, a former corresponding editor of the American Society of Civil Engineers Engineering Management Journal, and has been a speaker at numerous conferences. Chris was named the 2001 Person of the Year for the Construction Management Association of America for both the New England region and the country, and was named the 2000 Government Engineer of the Year by the Boston Society of Civil Engineers. In 2003, he received the Manuel Carballo Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service. He was Governor Mitt Romney’s appointee as Co-Chair of the Special Commission on Public Construction Reform; in 2004, this resulted in landmark reform of all public construction laws in the Commonwealth. Chris was honored as the recipient of the 2006 New England Achievement Award, presented by the Engineers Week in Boston Committee, a division of The Engineering Center; this annual award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated outstanding achievements, commitment to public service, and support of the engineering profession. Most recently, Chris served as the Chief Judge for 2010 for the Engineering Excellence Awards for America.
Download Christopher Gordon's Bio (pdf, 78K)
John Kennedy
Partner
Kennedy Ventures, LLC
email: jkennedy@mit.edu
John Kennedy has been a Lecturer at MIT since 1994, currently at the Center for Real Estate and previously at the Center for Construction Research and Engineering. At MIT he has taught Entrepreneurship and Strategic Planning for the Design, Build, and Real Estate Development segments of the built environment.
As Principal Partner of Kennedy Ventures LLC, a venture company, John works with companies within the built environment to unlock latent business or real estate development opportunities. Previously, John was the founder and President of Kennedy & Rossi. Inc., a design build firm, as well as other businesses within the built environment. Upon the company’s merger with Houston-based Linbeck Corp., he became the new firm’s Executive Vice President.
John holds a M.S. from MIT and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Merrimack College.
W. Tod McGrath
Lecturer
advisoRE, LLC, Boston, MA
tel: 617-283-2338, fax: 781-749-4886
email: wtod@advisore.com
Tod McGrath is a Lecturer in the Center for Real Estate and is President of advisoRE, LLC. He has taught both real estate finance and spreadsheet analysis at MIT, and currently teaches a two-semester course sequence on the most important business agreements pertaining to commercial real estate. He has analyzed numerous real estate transactions for developers, investors, banks, insurance companies, tenants, and public agencies. He has served as an expert witness in state and federal courts, and as a member of the Hingham, MA planning and zoning boards. Tod received his BA and MBA from Columbia University.
Peter Roth
Lecturer
Lecturer, Department of Architecture
Office: MIT Center for Real Estate, Bldg. W31-310
tel: 617-253-4373, fax: 617-258-6991, email: peterroth@newatlantic.net
Peter Roth is a Lecturer in the Department of Architecture. He is also a developer and real estate consultant with national experience in the area of adaptive reuse and economic development. His consulting work focuses on developing sustainable and diverse economic and real estate development strategies for large complex industrial and waterfront sites.
Mr. Roth founded the New Atlantic Development Corporation, a Boston-based development company focused on adaptive re-use, historic preservation, affordable housing, and community economic development. His work particularly emphasizes service-enriched housing for special needs populations.
Mr. Roth earned Masters degrees in both Architecture and Real Estate Development from MIT. He was a member of the first graduating class of MIT's Center for Real Estate.
Gloria Schuck
Lecturer, MIT Department of Urban Studies
and Planning
Office: Bldg. W31-310
fax: 617-244-2519, email: gschuck@mit.edu
Gloria Schuck’s consulting and research have taken her to over twenty countries in the past three decades. Dr. Schuck has consulted to a wide range of companies in the financial, manufacturing, telecommunications, and retail industries. Her clients include Citibank, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, and Verizon. A significant amount of this work was done in global companies as they thought through how to organize and manage to be competitive in the next century. She has also consulted with public sector organizations and utility companies to redefine the regulatory relationship, working to transform it from an adversarial one to partnerships that mutually benefit the shareholders and consumers. She has facilitated large organization change projects. Her consulting work often includes designing, developing, and teaching executive education courses and workshops.
Gloria coaches senior executives to improve individual, team, and organization performance. Her work includes: leadership development, vision and values, strategic decision-making, management style, performance reviews and feedback, succession planning and development of high potential managers, organization change, project planning and implementation, improved work processes, teamwork in the context of real business issues, and time management. She develops, designs, and teaches “Leadership” workshops for senior and middle managers in the private and public sectors. The Government of Mexico asked Gloria to work with its next generation of leaders. Workshops focus on the individual participant and developing his or her “leadership” capabilities.
Gloria’s primary research focus has been on the organizational and educational implications of information technology in the workplace. She is interested in how executives, managers, and organizations learn, and how technology changes the way people perceive their work. She has investigated this area of research in the financial, retail, manufacturing, and real estate industries. In her research and writing she has explore the implications of the widespread use of information technology for hierarchical relationships and structures, particularly for the manager’s role; and the type of organization required to encourage innovation, flexibility, and opportunities to learn at every level.
Gloria has been a Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Sloan School of Management and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning for twenty-four years. She teaches a graduate course about leadership in the Real Estate Industry; students in this course are offered an opportunity to:
- Develop a deeper understanding of “leadership”;
- Converse with industry leaders about “leadership”, and learn from their insights and experiences;
- Examine their authentic leadership styles;
- Create an action plan to develop leadership capabilities; and
- Craft an individual “leadership point of view”.
Dr. Schuck also taught “Managing in the Real Estate Industry” for sixteen years at MIT’s Center for Real Estate. She designed, developed and taught a graduate course about management and organization theory. The course examined the strategic shift from an industrial to an information economy, focusing on the management skills, organization forms, and change processes needed to be competitive in this century. She introduced students to qualitative research methods and supervised research resulting in the development of more than one hundred management case studies. Dr. Schuck served for two years as the Center’s Director of Education, managing and shaping the Master’s degree program. She also conducted research at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research for two years.
Before coming to MIT, Dr. Schuck was a Research Associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration for six years. She earned her Doctorate and Master’s degrees at Harvard University’s School of Education, with graduate study at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Stanford Business School.
Download Professor Schuck's Curriculum Vitae (pdf, 22K)
Yanni Tsipis
Senior Vice President and Partner, Development Group
Meredith & Grew
tel: 617-330-8151, fax: 617-330-8093, email: ytsipis@mit.edu
Yanni specializes in the permitting and development of large-scale urban projects. His recently completed projects include the 61-unit Grandview Condominiums in downtown Boston, the 361-unit Nashua Street Residences at North Station, and the Promenade, a 220-unit historic rehabilitation project in downtown Providence.
Yanni is active in a number of civic activities in Boston and is a member of the Boston Landmarks Commission. He serves on the Board of Overseers of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Board of Directors of Preservation Massachusetts, WalkBoston, the Bostonian Society, and the Boston Society of Civil Engineers. A Boston native and resident, Yanni holds degrees in Urban Studies and Planning and Civil Engineering from MIT and is the author of several books about the history of Boston's transportation infrastructure.
William C. Wheaton
Professor, MIT Department of Economics
Office: Bldg. E52-252B
tel: 617-253-1723, fax: 617-258-6991, email: wheaton@mit.edu
William Wheaton is a Professor holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Economics and Urban Studies and Planning. An authority on regional economics, Bill is a principal in a consulting firm that provides market analyses for development companies active in the market for commercial space.
A member of the MIT faculty since 1972, Professor Wheaton helped to develop the field of urban economics by pioneering the theory of how land, location, and housing markets jointly operate. He also specializes in the problems of urban infrastructure and local government finance. He has written numerous articles in scholarly journals throughout the world, and is a co-author of Urban Economics and Real Estate Markets, the first text book to cover both real estate applications and economics.
In the last few years, Professor Wheaton has been actively applying economic research to the real estate industry. He helped organize the MIT Center for Real Estate, and teaches the program's core course in Real Estate Economics. He was the first economist to apply econometric methods to the forecasting of real estate markets, and is a principal in Torto Wheaton Research, a globally-recognized real estate consulting firm that works with the real estate industry to better understand the fluctuations and trends of the market.
Professor Wheaton received a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Over the years he has worked with many US governmental agencies, as well as the World Bank and the United Nations. Closer to home, he has been a member of the planning commissions in each of the several towns where he has lived.
Charles H. "Hank" Spaulding
Honorary Chairholder
Hank Spaulding is the founder and guiding spirit of the Center as well as the motivating force behind much of what we do. Hank is an alumnus of MIT and a member of the MIT Corporation, the group of 100 business leaders who guide the Institute. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1951, and subsequently founded Spaulding and Slye, a development company.
Maria Vieira
Associate Director for Education
Email: mvieira@mit.edu
Maria works closely with the Director on the administration of the MSRED program, and as "chief operations officer" for the Masters program handles all academic procedures. Maria coordinates the admission process and can answer questions regarding admission procedures, financial aid, class scheduling, registration, dropping and adding courses, etc. She serves as registration officer for MSRED students. Maria also assists with Alumni activities.
Cheryl Gillespie
Senior Financial Assistant
Email: cheryl@mit.edu
Cheryl provides financial and budgeting assistance to MIT/CRE staff, and maintains the Center's financial records. She also reviews, processes, and monitors accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll transactions. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Management from Northeastern University in 2006, and has served the MIT community since 1986.
Aruna Joglekar
Assistant Director, Executive Education and Professional Development
Email: arunaj@mit.edu
Aruna is responsible for the day-to-day operations management of the Center's professional and executive education programs - domestically and around the world. Prior to her role at MIT/CRE, she worked at Linkage, Inc., a global organizational development consulting company.
Sheharyar Bokhari
Research Support Associate
Commercial Real Estate Data Laboratory
Email: sbokhari@mit.edu
Schery provides research assistance to David Geltner and Henry Pollakowsi in the development of the Commercial Real Estate Index Project and in the maintenance of CREDL. He received his M.A. in Economics from Tufts University in 2006. He is also a Doctoral student in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at MIT.
