Connect CRE has released its fourth annual Leadership Series, offering an unfiltered look at the decision-makers who are shaping the next phase of multifamily real estate. The 2026 edition focuses on senior leaders across investment, development, finance and operations, and is available both as an exclusive downloadable report and as a digital profile series on connectcre.com.
For this year’s series, Connect CRE invited lenders, developers, operators and capital-markets professionals whose work is directly influencing the trajectory of rental housing. Each participant holds a senior-level role and brings decades of experience, positioning them to speak to both the current state of the multifamily sector and its near-term and long-term outlook.
The 18 industry leaders were given a broad set of potential questions and were free to choose which topics to address. Their responses, presented in their own words, highlight where they see risks, opportunities and priorities in today’s multifamily market. The selections they made about which issues to tackle provide additional insight into the themes that matter most to active market participants.
The 2026 Industry Leaders, listed in alphabetical order, are: Brenda Barrett of Apartment Management Consultants; Kelli Carhart of CBRE; Lili Dunn of Bell Partners, Inc.; Jim Flynn of Lument; Andrew Kadish of CAPREIT; Sharon Karaffa of Newmark; Garrett Karam of Embrey; Donald P. King III of Walker & Dunlop; Evan Kinne of GSP/AXCS Capital; Ray Lawler of Hines; Gregory MacDonald of Ballast; Nicholas Matus of BCE; Hessam Nadji of Marcus & Millichap; Ethan Penner of Hill Street Realty; Elie Rieder of Castle Lanterra; Ken Rogozinski of Greystone Housing Impact Investors L.P.; David Schwartz of Waterton; and Larry Taylor of Christina Development.
The firms represented in the series include major operators, investors and developers with significant scale and track records in multifamily. According to Connect CRE, two of the companies together manage more than 185,000 apartment units nationwide. Another participant leads one of the largest privately held multifamily investment and management platforms in the country. One firm has developed more than 50,000 units since its inception, while another contributes the perspective of a long-established global multifamily developer and investment manager.
Capital markets and investment sales are also well represented. The cohort includes leadership from one of North America’s largest multifamily investment sales brokerages, one of the nation’s top Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA multifamily lenders, and one of the industry’s leading multifamily capital markets platforms. Another firm in the group closed more than $51 billion in multifamily transactions in 2025, underscoring the transaction volume and capital flows these executives oversee.
Connect CRE will spotlight each of the 18 leaders individually over the coming weeks on its website and in its national daily newsletter. Readers can follow the series profile by profile or access the full set of perspectives in a free report available for download from Connect CRE.
