Management

Barry Sternlicht is Chairman & CEO of Starwood Capital Group, the private alternative investment firm he formed in 1991 that is focused on global real estate, hotel management, oil and gas, and energy infrastructure. Mr. Sternlicht also serves as Chairman of Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD), a leading diversified finance company, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH), the largest publicly traded investors, owners and operators of single-family homes in the U.S.

For the past 28 years, Mr. Sternlicht has structured investments with an asset value of over $100B. Starwood Capital’s funds have invested in approximately 180,000 multifamily/condo units, 3,000 hotels, 84M SF of office properties, 55M SF of retail and 50,000 lots of land in residential subdivisions. The Firm currently manages in excess of $60B of assets on behalf of its high net worth and institutional partners. Starwood Capital, its affiliates and externally managed public companies encompass over 4,000 employees. The Firm maintains offices in Arlington, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Greenwich, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., and affiliated offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Sydney and Tokyo.

From 1995 through early 2005, Mr. Sternlicht was Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, a company he founded in 1995. During his tenure, he built Starwood Hotels into one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, employing more than 120,000 people with 895 properties in 100 countries. Mr. Sternlicht created W Hotels, perhaps the world’s most successful “boutique” brand, and built the St. Regis Hotels brand from a single hotel to a global brand.

In 2008, Mr. Sternlicht founded SH Group, his new hotel management company. SH Group is the owner and manager of Baccarat Hotels & Resorts and 1 Hotels brands.

In 2016, Mr. Sternlicht was the recipient of PERE’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, he was named the Global Industry Figure of the Year by PERE, received the Cornell Icon of the Industry Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Hotel Investment Forum. In 2013, Mr. Sternlicht was named the Most Important Person in Commercial Real Estate Finance by The Mortgage Observer. In 2010, Mr. Sternlicht was named Executive of the Year and Investor of the Year by Commercial Property Executive. Mr. Sternlicht was also named America’s Best Lodging CEO by Institutional Investor Magazine. He is a member of the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame. He has received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University, the CEO Diversity Award from Diversity Best Practices/Business Women’s Network, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, the Hospitality Heritage Award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and the Marketer of the Year Award from Brandweek. Mr. Sternlicht’s humanitarian efforts have garnered prestigious national honors such as JDRF’s Man of the Year, JDRF’s Living and Giving Award and JDRF’s Chairman’s Award.

Mr. Sternlicht serves on the Board of Directors of The Estée Lauder Companies and the Real Estate Roundtable. Additionally, he formerly served as Chairman of the Board and is currently a Board member of The Robin Hood Foundation, and also serves on the Boards of the Dreamland Film & Performing Arts Center, and the Executive Advisory Board of Americans for the Arts. He is a member of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation Trustee Council, the World Presidents Organization and the Urban Land Institute.

Barry Sternlicht received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Brian Ross is an accomplished industry professional who joined Starwood Retail in 2019. As Starwood Retail Partner’s COO, Brian is responsible for leading the operations of the platform including leasing, development, acquisitions and dispositions and the third-party management of SRP’s partners. Prior to being elevated to COO, Brian was SRP’s Senior Vice President of Leasing where he oversaw the company’s revenue functions. Prior to SRP, Brian served as Vice President of Leasing & Development at Brookfield Properties. During his tenure at Brookfield, Brian held a leadership role within the company’s development department where he executed on the redevelopment and transformation of anchor store boxes across the company’s portfolio. Prior to Brookfield, Brian was with DDR Corp. (now SITE Centers) for 10 years in various leadership positions including leasing, portfolio management, capital transactions, and development. Most recently, he was Vice President of Leasing and served on the company’s executive and investment committees. 

Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from John Carroll University. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio

Aaron Schoen has over 10 years of experience in the retail real estate industry and joined Starwood in 2013. As Starwood Retail Partner’s Head of Asset Management, he is responsible for oversite of third-party management, strategic planning, long-term forecasts, capital markets and dispositions.  Additionally, he leads the investor relations function which includes preparation and communication of all materials to the board of Starwood Capital Group as well as many of their largest institutional investors. Prior to joining SRP, he held corporate finance and asset management positions with General Growth Properties and worked at Wells Fargo.

Aaron holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Iowa and an MBA in Real Estate Finance and Investment from DePaul University.

Patrick Cairns is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of CRE experience and a unique skillset having spent time on both the retailer and landlord side of our business. Since joining Starwood from Brookfield Properties in 2019, he oversaw the company’s National Account Program. Before transitioning to the landlord side, Patrick spent 15 years at Kohl’s Department Stores as Head of Real Estate growing the company’s national store fleet. In addition to new store growth, he oversaw Kohl’s non-retail real estate portfolio of distribution and e-commerce facilities, office buildings, call centers and studios. Prior to Kohl’s, Patrick spent several years assisting companies such as McDonald’s, Walgreen’s and Shoe Carnival with nationwide location strategies. 

Patrick graduated from Carthage College with a degree in Geographic Location Analytics. He is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and has served the organization as Retail Operations Chair and Wisconsin State Director.  

Eric Meier brings over 25 years of legal experience in retail shopping centers and commercial real estate transactions. As Starwood Retail Partner’s Vice President and Head of Legal, he leads the company’s Legal Department handling the day-to-day legal functions, shopping center leasing and managing the litigation risks.

Prior to joining Starwood Retail Partners in 2015, Eric held several senior legal roles, as a Vice President at The Taubman Company, Legal Counsel and Director of Legal Leasing at Simon Property Group and Senior Commercial Attorney at the Kmart Corporation. Prior to his specialty practice in commercial and retail real estate law, Eric was Corporation Counsel for the Rochester Medical Center, a municipal prosecutor and practiced law in the metropolitan Detroit area at Booth Patterson.

He received his law degree from the University of Detroit and undergraduate degree in Political Science and Economics from Oakland University.

Justin Menze has over 10 years of experience and is a Vice President of Starwood Retail’s Asset Management team. His responsibilities include the oversight of third-party management, strategic planning, long-term forecasts, capital markets, and dispositions of the firm’s regional mall and lifestyle center portfolios. He is also responsible for sourcing new retail investment opportunities.

Prior to joining Starwood in 2015, Justin worked at Prologis, where he focused on sourcing and executing industrial acquisitions and developments in the Central US. He also worked at Aon where he provided real estate investment advisory to public pension plans, endowments, and other institutional investors.

Justin is currently enrolled in the MBA program at the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business, and has earned a MS in Real Estate Finance with distinction from DePaul University and a BBA in Finance from the University of Iowa.