Gilbert Sandler, Managing Director, founded RealVest in 1988 to provide structured and securitized financing techniques and capital markets access for real estate and other projects. Mr. Sandler had previously served as a Director of the Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. Real Estate Group responsible for structured financing transactions, and had headed the Project Finance Group at Ehrlich Bober & Co., Inc., a New York-based national bond firm. He has developed several innovative taxable and tax-exempt financing structures for real estate and other non-traditional capital markets borrowers and has been responsible for structuring and executing well over $1 billion dollars in project financing transactions.
Mr. Sandler's financial expertise is the product of many years of private law practice specializing in public and private financing with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, a major national law firm, and as General and Corporate Counsel for various Burns and Roe, Inc. companies (a multi-national engineering and construction group). He had also served as a Law Secretary to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Hon. S.R. Waterman, C.J.), and as an Officer of several ABA Committees, including the Committees on Federal Securities Regulations and the Section on Public Contract Law.
Mr. Sandler is an honors graduate of Columbia Law School and Rutgers College and has been a frequent lecturer and contributor to periodicals on financial, legal and real estate topics. He also holds NASD licenses as General Securities Principal, Municipal Securities Principal and Financial Operations Principal for Realvest's affiliated broker-dealer, Abridge-Realvest Securities Corporation.
Gregory Nelson, Vice-President & Principal, joined RealVest in 1996 after eight years of diverse experience in public finance with major Wall Street investment banking firms.
At Paine Webber (now UBS), he worked in the New York State/Infrastructure Group specializing in infrastructure financings for such major agencies as the New York State Dormitory Authority, the New York State Thruway Authority and the New York Local Government Assistance Corporation.
Previously, Mr. Nelson had spent three years in Prudential Securities’ State Revolving Fund (SRF) Group where he was responsible for securitized leveraged wastewater treatment bond issues under the Clean Water Act. Before moving into the SRF Group, he had been a senior quantitative specialist Prudential’s Capital Transactions Group structuring financings for all areas of public finance, and designed in-house bond analytic systems.
Mr. Nelson has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Bryant College, Rhode Island, and is holds NASD municipal and general securities licenses for Series 7 and 63.
Sunil Aggarwal, Director, joined REALVEST in 2010 and focuses on project finance transactions. Sunil is the founding principal of ThinkForward Financial (“TFF”), an advisory firm based in New York City. Before forming TFF, Sunil Aggarwal served as a senior investment banker with Roosevelt & Cross, a prominent NY-based bond firm, and with the NYC Industrial Development Agency. His broad experience includes dozens of project financings for non-profit organizations, industrial companies and real estate developers.
Mr. Aggarwal received his M.S. in Quantitative Finance from Carnegie Melon and an M.B.A. in Finance from Manchester Business School, England. He holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.
Michael Byrnes, Health Care Consultant. Mr. Byrnes, a C.P.A., conducts a general healthcare financial consulting practice and is actively involved in both new and existing projects in skilled nursing, long-term care and assisted living facilities. He began his career as a staff accountant at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. in Boston and later became a Partner in Coopers & Lybrand's Northeast regional healthcare group, where he was responsible for financial advisory and healthcare reimbursement services. He also erved for several years as the Director of Government Programs at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
In more than 30 years of providing and directing financial management and advisory services, Mr. Byrnes has worked closely with both major and independent non-profit institutions to analyze, plan and finance capital facilities and to develop internal financial management and controls, financial projections, budgets, strategic plans.
Mr. Byrnes received a B.S. in Accounting from Merrimack College in 1969. He resides in Boston and serves as Trustee at the Mount Pleasant Home for the Aged in Boston.
Tom Ferrara, Higher Education Consultant, Tom Ferrara is an expert in the for-profit education industry and specializes in conceptualizing, designing, developing and implementing strategies that deliver strong, sustainable increase in profits, ROI, and increased market shares.
His knowledge and expertise in the higher education realm and other areas has provided him with the opportunity to be the featured guest/author/speaker in various media outlets including ABC, NBC, CNN, USAToday, The Wall Street Journal, LA Times, and Chicago Tribune. He also contributes numerous articles for many other newspapers and magazines around the country. Additionally, he recently authored an educational career textbook and course for Thomson Learning entitled Job Seeker Secrets. Tom currently consults with over forty analysts, schools and investment banks regarding the for-profit education industry, areas of growth, innovation and best practices.
Tom received four National Marketing and Admissions awards for his performance as Vice President of Marketing and Admissions for Gibbs College. He also built an Internet company and application service provider in the career portal marketplace from inception to its position as a publicly held company, growing the business from a three-person start-up to a thriving organization, employing over eighty five people with a large Financial Services & Higher Education practice.
He is currently on the Advisory board of several successful companies serving the job search, career and human capital industry.
Tom is a graduate of Bucknell University.
Anthony V. Bastardi, Higher Education and Health Care Consultant, is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Construction Technology Corporation, a design and construction management firm specializing in institutional facilities for education and healthcare. He has over 35 years of experience in the planning, design, development and construction of academic, research laboratory, healthcare, senior housing, and special-purpose institutional facilities. He and his firm have overseen and implemented dozens of on and off-campus projects for major non-profit higher education and healthcare institutions in New Jersey.
Mr. Bastardi holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with Honors from Stevens Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science in Industrial and Management Engineering degree from the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Caldwell College, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Morris Museum, and a Board member of the Independent College Fund of New Jersey. He is an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees at Delbarton School, where he served on the Membership and Governance Committee.
As a consultant to Realvest, Mr. Bastardi will be available to lend his expertise to confirm the feasibility of projects, their strategic importance to, and their financial impact on, the sponsoring institution.