RREAF Holdings Announces Slew of Promotions and Hires

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Jan 26, 2023, 09:00 ET

Company continues to expand across its six platforms to meet its unprecedented growth

Graham Sowden promoted to Chief Investment Officer and Tony Perez to Vice President of Asset Management of RREAF Holdings
Melanie French and Ron Rushing join RREAF Residential as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer respectively

DALLAS, Jan. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RREAF Holdings LLC, a private real estate investment and development firm, today announced a slew of promotions and hires across the firm as the company continues to expand across its six platforms to meet its unprecedented growth. Graham Sowden, former Director of Acquisitions, has been promoted to Chief Investment Officer; Tony Perez, previously Director of Asset Management, has been promoted to Vice President of Asset Management; and Melanie French and Ron Rushing join RREAF Residential as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer respectively.

Since joining RREAF Holdings in 2016, Sowden has been directly involved in the sourcing, underwriting, and acquisition of over $1 billion in asset value including over 11,000 multifamily units. He is responsible for playing a large role in the overall direction and strategic planning for the multifamily acquisition platform, formed in 2015 and has been responsible for coordinating all RREAF's dispositions.

Perez first joined RREAF as an accounting intern in 2016, and since then, his responsibilities have grown to span functions of accounting, asset management, and investor relations. He works with his team day in and day out to maximize the value of each RREAF managed investment in his or her portfolio, while reporting to investors and lenders alike. In his new role, Perez will now oversee asset management across all asset classes including multifamily, hospitality and ground up development and will report to the chief operating officer.

"We congratulate Graham and Tony on their achievements that led to acceleration at RREAF. The firm's outstanding growth to over $5 billion in assets is a testament to their hard work and commitment to success," said RREAF Holdings COO Jeff Holzmann. "Additionally, we welcome Melanie and Ron to RREAF Residential. With such strong backgrounds and industry knowledge, we look forward to seeing their expertise shape the future of our property management firm. We're grateful to all our employees and are eager to kick off 2023 as our teams continue to expand."

"After working within RREAF's acquisition team for six years, I'm looking forward to a leadership role focused on oversight and driving asset value," said Sowden. "I want to thank everyone who has been a part of my journey at the firm thus far and am excited to keep building relationships both internally and externally while I grow in my career and advance our strategic vision."

French joins RREAF Residential after previously holding executive level multifamily leadership roles for more than 20 years. Her executive role responsibilities included overseeing property operations, human resources, talent management, customer experience, sales management, facilities, interior renovations, and capital project management along with corporate support functions for both publicly traded and privately owned organizations ranging in size from 10,000 units to more than 200,000 units. Most recently Melanie served as the President and Managing Principal for DLP Capital's Real Estate Management and Asset Management arm. Prior to that she was the Executive Vice President of Operations for the well-known Cortland, where during her six-year tenure, she led all property operations and was instrumental in growing the property management platform from 9,000 units to more than 55,000 units while also overseeing more than 40,000 interior renovations. Melanie holds her CPM designation through the Institute of Real Estate Management, is certified as a Master Trainer and Facilitator by Development Dimensions International and holds her Senior Professional of Human Resources designation from the Society of Human Resource Management.

With more than four decades of experience, Rushing enters his new role as an award-winning CFO with results-focused leadership skills for growing companies like RREAF Residential. He is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Treasury Professional with Big Four audit background. His prior experience includes serving as CFO for a multi-family owner-operator with 43,000 units, a VP of Finance for a property management company managing retail, office, and multi-family, and as a CFO for a land development company.

"It is an incredible honor to partner with the dedicated team members that make up RREAF Holdings," said French. "I was humbled when Kip reached out about joining the company to lead RREAF Residential as its first CEO. While RREAF Residential has seen great progress, we are eagerly anticipating substantial growth. This is a critical time in the ever-changing multifamily industry as we must continue to evolve and embrace technology. My mission is to ensure an execution and growth strategy that is world class and am excited to lead this endeavor."

About RREAF Holdings

RREAF Holdings LLC ("RREAF") is a privately held, vertically integrated commercial real estate company based in Dallas, Texas with roots that go back 35 years in the industry. RREAF focuses its portfolio of commercial real estate projects and development under five main divisions catering primarily to middle America with its programmatic value-add multifamily acquisitions, opportunistic hospitality and resort acquisitions, core ground-up development, large and highly amenitized master planned developments and its ground-up extended stay hospitality development division.

RREAF employs over 500 people, mostly across the Sun Belt region, handling a wide range of commercial real estate investment matters, including in-house underwriting, due diligence, capital markets, acquisition, asset management, property management, construction management, project development, accounting, and legal support. RREAF, along with its debt and equity partners, has built a diversified portfolio in its core competencies in excess of $5 billion in assets, across 15 states, under management. Winner of the 2021 Multifamily Operator of the Year Award and selected as an Optigo^® 2022 Select Sponsor, RREAF values the impact that it has on local communities. RREAF's mission is to enhance the lives of its investors, partners, residents and guests by providing outstanding service, excellence and expertise with integrity, vision, values and purpose. For more information, please visit rreaf.com.

About RREAF Residential

RREAF Residential is a fully integrated property management firm specializing in workforce housing communities. RREAF Residential currently manages a multifamily portfolio consisting of 10,000+ units, with properties located primarily across the South, Southeast and Southern Atlantic regions of the United States. RREAF Residential prides itself on being able to efficiently and professionally manage assets throughout its life cycle. With an experienced team of corporate and on-site professionals, RREAF Residential is focused on growing revenues, managing expenses, and improving overall performance of its communities while providing safe and affordable housing to middle America. For more information, please visit rreafresidential.com.

SOURCE RREAF Holdings LLC