Dieter Knittel is Head of International Real Estate Finance for Central and Eastern Europe at pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank. Dieter is responsible for the bank’s lending portfolio in the region. The regional focus is on Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Dieter has been active in the CEE market for more than twenty years, including five years based in Warsaw as Head of Credit and Senior Risk Management.

Devi Kolli, the CEO and Co-founder of i3 Simulations, possesses over 16 years of expertise in leading tech start-ups specialising in Extended Reality (XR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). With a diverse background encompassing retail, entertainment, and education, Devi has successfully propelled bootstrap tech startups to global growth and exits valued at over GBP 200 million. In 2019, inspired by the intersection of AI and XR, she co-founded i3 Simulations with the aim of democratising medical simulation training through immersive technologies.

Under her visionary leadership, i3 Simulations is reshaping the landscape of healthcare education and research. As a seasoned entrepreneur Devi holds several other business interests including property development and has served on the future of shopping malls forum during her early days of career. She has great insights into how property markets operate in AI era where demand for virtual activities is making a serious impact on to physical brick and motor investments. Devi’s dedication to leveraging emerging technologies for positive change positions her as a transformative leader at the forefront of redefining the future of virtual and physical co-existence.

David is a Board Director and Shareholder at Air Design, an award winning brand experience and design studio from London. With over twenty years of experience in the real estate industry, David has worked with many of the world’s leading real estate developers in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, advising on design strategy across a range of sectors from retail and commercial through to leisure and hospitality. David also works with the UK Government’s Department of Business and Trade as an Export Champion mentoring SMEs and advising on strategy.

With over 20 years of commercial property experience, György Lindwurm is INPARK’s real estate expert with a focus on project financing, financial reporting, project business planning, pricing, financial project controlling and various commercial issues. Before joining INPARK, György gained experience at WING, DTZ and Cushman&Wakefield in various positions (i.a. valuation, investment advisory).

Professional Affiliations:

• Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
• Assessor of new members of the RICS

Education:

• Licensed Property Surveyor in Hungary
• Real Estate Expert / Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
• MSc Business Administration / Budapest University of Economic Sciences, Hungary

With over 10 years of experience in business development and retail expansion, across multiple markets in the region, Tomislav has a proven track record of delivering successful expansion projects for some of the world’s most valuable brands. Currently, as Head of Real Estate Balkans at AmRest, he is responsible for Starbucks and KFC growth in the region. Prior to his current role, he played a key role within the management team, overseeing the expansion of the fuel station network in the region, for a major oil and gas company.

LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/tomislav-petkovic-11942620

Kata Mazsaroff has been the managing director of Colliers’ Budapest office since October 2022. She started her professional journey based out of Boston, MA in the data center industry at Digital Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust, working in marketing and asset management covering the East Coast properties. Returning to Budapest in 2007, she continued her career at Colliers. During these years, she was passionate about integrating multiple service lines to found the local occupier services business. She then gained experience working for real estate developers at Horizon Development and Skanska Commercial Development in leasing and asset fields covering Hungary & Romania. Kata’s vision is to grow Colliers Hungarian business to maximize the potential for their partners and for Colliers.

Nikola graduated from Northeaster University in Boston with a degree in electrical engineering and international business. He also obtained a master’s degree in International Economics from Bocconi University in Milan. Nikola has worked and lived in the US, Italy, Austria, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Hong Kong prior to returning to Serbia. Nikola was a CEO of MPC Properties (JV with Merrill Lynch), founder of Novaston Asset Management.  Since 2015, Nikola was the General Manager of Belgrade Waterfront for more than 6 years, a monumental urban revitalization project worth US$3 billion, creating a new city center and a new international destination with many successful residential launches and completion of the largest shopping mall in the region. Currently, Nikola is a co-founder of KADENA Properties and KADENA Sotheby’s Realty as well as three PropTech platforms.

Vedat Arslan, born in 1974, is a distinguished graduate of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Communication. After concluding a successful managerial career in communication and marketing in 2010, he founded Aremas Real Estate.

Aremas Real Estate specializes in providing comprehensive consultancy services for large-scale real estate projects. In addition to Aremas, which offers a wide range of services, including sales and marketing, commercial real estate sales, and concept development through its offices in Turkey, Germany, and the UAE, Vedat Arslan has also established DPA Real Estate. This distinct initiative caters to foreign investors with a diverse real estate portfolio in various locations.

Arslan, who is also an angel investor in various sectors and speaks English fluently, is married and has one child.

Eva graduated with an MsC from the prestigious Corvinus University in Budapest and she has over 20 years of experience in real estate financing. She spent seven years covering the Hungarian market where she partnered with well known international developers and investors to execute large deals. Upon her relocation to Vienna, Eva worked on various significant CEE and SEE projects covered by the UniCredit Group, including Turkey, Russia, Ukraine. She has extensive experience with a broad range of real estate financing transactions.

Hubert Abt has been working in the real estate industry for over 30 years. He worked as a developer and later in the land banking sector and provided equity and Mezzanine capital for various real estate projects. In 2013 he founded NEW WORK Offices in Budapest, which provides various flexible office solutions. Since then he developed the business model further and grew the company to today 16 locations in 3 countries with approx. 43.000 sqm which brings NEW WORK in the top 3 list in CEE. Hubert now leads the company as CEO while focusing on investor relations and franchising. Since December 2020 Hubert is also a founder and CEO of workcloud24, which provides digital solutions for workforce and workspace management.

Dr. Manfred Wiltschnigg has been successfully active for more than 25 years in Austria and the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region. His exceptional experience as both an executive committee leader and operations expert positions him as a well-known leading player in the market.  With his valuable expertise as a managing director, executive committee member and advisory board member, he brings our clients his unique experience in the commercial property sector.

For Oppenheim Immobilien KAG (now: PATRIZIA Immobilien AG), one of the leading German real estate special fund managers, he served as Regional Director for Austria and the CEE, building up the entire region.  Following that, he established a similar framework for IVG Immobilien AG, completing numerous purchases, value enhancements, and successful management and leasing plans.  As Chief Operating Officer on the management board of Immoeast/Immofinanz Group, he consolidated and reoriented the activities of the group, generating a €10 billion investment portfolio from Poland to Bulgaria and from France to Russia and establishing sustainably successful asset management structures.  As Chairman of the Austrian Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Manfred shaped one of the most important international industry associations in this region.  He is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Gökhan Aksoy was born in Ankara, in 1978. After his completion of bachelor education in Gazi University and Middle East Technical University, in 2000, he took his master degree from Middle East Technical University, Department of Building Science, in 2003. He still continues his PhD studies in the same university. At the same time, he continues his professional practice in Gökhan Aksoy Mimarlık Ltd. Şti., which is founded by him in 2000. As he continues his professional practice, he won many rewards in national architectural design competitions. In other respects, he contributed as a board member in the Turkish Self-employed Architects Society in 11th and 14th periods. In addition to his professional architectural business, he gives lectures at several universities and participates as jury members in international architectural design competitions.

Bojan, a co-founder of Avalon Real Estate, has a substantial history in the real estate industry. Prior to establishing Avalon RE, he was a Country Manager for Coreside Savills. Bojan also held the role of Regional Head of the Office Department at the Serbian branch of Cushman & Wakefield Group. Before that, he began his career at CBRE, a global real estate company, where he spent 12 years and progressively advanced to the position of Head of the Office Department.
During his career of over 15 years, Bojan was responsible for some of the largest transactions on the market, sales transaction valued over €90 million, and closed more than 100 000 sqm of lease transaction.

Simon József Szilárd is a Regional Manager at PlanRadar, which is an award winner Proptech pioneer revolutionizing the construction and real estate sectors worldwide with innovative solutions. He started in 2020 as an Account Executive and now since the beginning of 2023, he leads operations across the Central and Eastern European region. His solid background in international business development and technology renders him a specialist in the realm of property technology.

Having graduated in Budapest in 1988, Peter is an economist by background. He also holds an MPhil degree in Land Economy from Cambridge University and a joint MSc degree in Real Estate from the Budapest Technical University and the Nottingham Trent University. He started his career 33 years ago and gained a wealth of experience in the field of property agency, development, valuation and investment & banking with local and international firms such as Price Waterhouse, Kuwait Petroleum, Jones Lang Wootton and Eurohypo. For more than a decade he was responsible for the CEE & SEE Region at HYPO NOE Landesbank für Niederoesterreich und Wien Bank AG, where he has been appointed to Head of Department for Real Estate Finance. This includes further responsibilities for countries such as Austria, Germany and Holland. Peter is an active member of RICS. He served in various positions like Chairman in Hungary or as a board member of RICS Europe and as that of Austria.

2013- ongoing
Managing Director Moma Consulting
Real Estate Asset Management, Investment, Consultant, Development
Moma Consulting
Ulica Franje Račkog 8
10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Commercial real estate specialist focusing on Central and South Eastern European markets

2008 – 2013
Managing Director JLL SEE
Real Estate Asset Management, Investment, Consultant, Development, Management
Jones Lang LaSalle, Member of the CEE Board
Global commercial real estate service company

1997 – 2008
Managing Director & Equity Partner
Real Estate Asset Management, Investment, Consultant, Development, European Management Board Member
Equity Partner in Bradmore Consulting , Bradmore Kind Sturge, and in King Sturge
International property consultancy

As Head of Treasury Europe & Capital Markets, Christian Nickels-Teske is responsible for the negotiation and structuring of secured and unsecured financings for Prologis and its joint venture partnerships in Europe.

In addition, Christian is arranging public capital market offerings, Bond issuances as well as executing derivative hedging instruments on behalf of the company.

Christian has extensive experience in structuring Mergers & Acquisitions as well as development and mezzanine financings, portfolio and cross-border (Pan-European) facility structuring.

Zinaida Onczay-Vojnar has been working as a real estate professional for nearly 20 years. With a base in Budapest, but active on other international markets, mainly in the CEE, she has been running her own business activates and projects since 2018 having joined Considero Investments as Partner, Head of Real Estate, a boutique corporate and finance advisory, focused on small/mid-cap transactions, sale and buy side mandates, and diverse small-cap investments. Prior to that, she held numerous senior positions working at HB Reavis, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers in Paris, Orco Property Group, and GTC Hungary. She also worked as an advisor on AEW’s CEE portfolio. She started her career as marketing and leasing manager at Bank Center and of the CEE Portfolio owned by the State of Washington Pension Fund

Mr. Barta is responsible for International Relations as senior parlamentary advisor at the National Council for Sustainable Development Hungary. Further, he is the Founding Partner of Greenbors Consulting Ltd, focusing on sustainability strategy developments, ESG, EU Taxonomy, CO2 strategies and sustainable urbanisation issues. Zsombor is the former President of the Hungary Green Building Council and acts now as the Council’s Ambassador.
Zsombor’s principal role is to advise clients on M&A transactions, to manage environmental due diligence projects, to focus on complex environmental & sustainability procedures (EIA, IPPC) and to conduct accredited green building certifications (BREEAM, LEED, WELL, EDGE, Access4You). He is working on the adaptation of the international green building schemes in Central Europe. Zsombor conducted numerous Green Building & sustainability projects throughout Europe and Asia. He is also RICS member since June 2013.

Dr. Ferenc Gondi currently serves as the Managing Director at CTP Management Hungary Kft. CTP stands out as a joint-stock company holding a commanding market presence across 10 countries specializing in the development, operation, and leasing of industrial logistics halls. These buildings epitomize the future’s sustainable business ecosystems, as CTP’s state-of-the-art industrial and logistics parks offer a full range of services, which has earned them numerous awards.

Ferenc initially joined the CTP team in 2017 as a lawyer. Prior to this, he garnered valuable experience at the esteemed real estate developer, WING. Over the years spent at CTP, he progressively undertook more substantial managerial responsibilities, while successfully completing a dual MBA program at Corvinus and Maastricht University. With its lettable area of 1.1 million m2, CTP is the market leader in Hungary, and the success of the company requires the coordinated work of more than seventy colleagues. As a member of the Future Leaders’ Generation Association (JÉG), CTP supports young talents in their professional and career development through a mentoring program.

Vladimír Bolek studied social sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava and Law and economics at Nottingham Trent University.
He began his career in 1994 in public administration at central state administration level in Bratislava. Later, after the transition to the private sphere, he became asset manager specializing in real estate investments. After the establishment of specialized real estate mutual funds in Slovakia in 2006, he became the portfolio manager of specialized real estate fund in Erste Asset Management in Slovakia. He also created and managed portfolios for private banking department.   He also participated in portfolio management of corporate real estate company Slovnaft as. In 2010 he became a portfolio manager of the „First real estate fund“ of IAD Investments and deputy of several real estate companies incorporated in the structure of the first real estate fund of IAD Investments. In 2015 he was promoted into IAD Investments board as member of board responsible for portfolio management department and real estate investment.

Vladimir Bolek is also a contributor to professional publications dealing with the issue of investment and asset management of real – estate in Slovakia.

Csaba Zeley, the managing director of the Budapest based investor and developer ConvergenCE has 25 years of real estate experience. Having worked for international property advisors Colliers, Equis and CBRE before joining ConvergenCE in 2008, he has seen many sides of the property industry and has taken part in various projects. Since his arrival he has been instrumental in managing the real estate assets and the business operations of ConvergenCE. He works on strengthening the company’s in-house investment and development businesses while continuing its boutique asset, property, facility, and project management services to select international building owners in Budapest.

Valter Kalaus has more than 25 years of comprehensive international experience in corporate real estate consulting and tenant representation. He assisted Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies in the U.S. Since 2001 he has represented real estate users mainly in the Central European real estate market. He introduced the tenant-only representation services to the Hungarian market in 2001. VLK Real Estate Consulting was established in 2008 by Valter Kalaus, MRICS, and became VLK Cresa in 2015. In 2022, the company entered into a strategic alliance with Newmark (link to www.nmrk.com), becoming Newmark VLK Hungary.

After graduating as an architect, János Kocsány studied economics, real estate management
and has also earned an MBA degree. In 1981 he began to work in various fields of the
construction industry, mostly on building sites. He found computer support of construction
process as the most engaging task. Following his immersive architect career, in 1994 he began
to work as an investment specialist in real estate, managing entire real estate development
projects. In 1996 he joined Graphisoft R&D Rt. as the leader of Graphisoft Park’s many
development projects, as well as of its leasing and operational tasks. In 2006 Graphisoft Park
was listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange, after which he became CEO of the company

Experienced professional in Retail, CRM and Marketing with a Master Degree on MIS and Engineering Degree on Computer Science

Currently occupying the position of Country Manager for Koton Retail. Former Sales and Marketing Manager , Analytic CRM Executive, Brand Director and Country Brand Manager.

Specialties: Managing the whole operation of the company in Romania. Full P&L and Business Development responsibilites, from origination and evaluation to final execution, including underwriting, negotiating, marketing solutions, brand partnerships and business ventures across several asset classes.

Szymon set up and run fund’s operations in Europe.

Previously, Szymon worked as Executive Director at Haitong investment bank, where he was responsible for various investment banking transactions (M&A, DCM, ECM and structured finance), as well as in the private equity fund SINO-CEEF, where he was responsible for the CEE region, including fundraising, searching for investment transactions and relations with the governments of CEE countries. Previously, Szymon had also worked at ICBC bank, where he had been responsible for business development in the CEE region, and at Citi bank, where he had worked in various areas of corporate banking in Poland, London and the CEE region.

Szymon studied at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University and Warsaw School of Economics in Poland as well as Henley Business School in Great Britain.