Gust Rosenfeld adds capital member, 4 partners

Gust Rosenfeld, P.L.C. announced that Shelby M. Exposito was elected as a capital member of the firm, and Heather L. Bohnke, Jennifer C. Kalvestran, Samantha Winter McAlpin and Carrie L. O’Brien were elected to the firm’s partnership. 

“We are excited to welcome each of these extraordinary attorneys into the partnership. They each share our commitment to our clients and the community,” said Tom Chauncey, a member of the Executive Committee of the firm. “We know that they will make our partnership stronger and better.”

About the New Capital Member 

Shelby M. Exposito – Phoenix; Public Finance 

Shelby focuses her practice on advising public entities, with an emphasis on public finance and education. She serves as bond counsel for cities, school districts, community facilities districts, and other issuers throughout Arizona on various types of tax-exempt financings. She also advises cities and special taxing districts on general municipal law issues, including budget and election matters. 

About the New Partners

Heather L. Bohnke – Tucson; Insurance and Health Care Litigation

Heather’s practice focuses on medical and nursing malpractice and personal injury defense.  She regularly handles catastrophic cases, including elder abuse and wrongful death matters.  She brings more than 18 years of medical malpractice litigation experience to the firm.

Jennifer C. Kalvestran – Los Angeles; Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith 

Jennifer’s practice is focused on insurance coverage analysis, bad faith, and litigation. She counsels and represents insurers on a broad range of coverage issues falling under primary and excess policies, with a focus on long-tail liabilities and other general liability, pollution liability, and professional liability coverage matters. Jennifer also counsels and otherwise represents insurers as to the “bad faith” issues arising from these coverage disputes. 

Samantha Winter McAlpin – Phoenix; Trusts, Estates and Probate Litigation 

Samantha focuses her practice on family estates and trusts. She advises clients in the area of estate planning, including wills, trusts, health care and financial powers of attorney, and living wills. Samantha also assists clients with probate administration, trust administration, guardianships, conservatorships, and taxation. In addition to her transactional estate planning practice, Samantha litigates contested probate and trust claims involving trustees, personal representatives, beneficiaries, and the exploitation of vulnerable adults.

Carrie L. O’Brien – Phoenix; Education 

Carrie O’Brien concentrates her practice on education law and local public safety retirement boards.  Carrie represents school districts and other educational organizations in all types of legal matters, including data privacy and school finance issues. Carrie also assists education clients with their business needs, compliance reviews, personnel matters, intergovernmental agreements, Public Records Requests, Open Meeting Law compliance, and civil rights matters.

DeLex Realty names new CEO

DeLex Realty opened on September 5, 2013, in Glendale, Arizona with a simple vision “Make Agents More Money”. In just over six years they have grown to have over 680 licensed real estate agents across the Valley in 5 locations; Glendale, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Gilbert and coming soon to Chandler. In 2019 the brokerage executed almost 3000 transactions for over $1 billion in sales volume.

Effective January 28, 2020, Michael Hofstetter has been appointed DeLex Realty’s Designated Broker and CEO. Michael is one of Arizona’s most respected industry leaders; a licensed Broker and real estate instructor with over 25 years of industry experience; an active member on the local, state and national real estate boards and is currently serving as Treasurer on WeServ’s 2020 Board of Directors. Michael is well known for his coaching and mentoring, problem-solving of delicate and complicated issues, and his leadership.

DeLex Realty’s Broker, Staci Smedstad said, “I have had the honor of leading and growing this amazing organization for the past several years and we are all very proud of what we have accomplished. DeLex Realty has quickly become a leading brokerage in the Phoenix Market, it is an incredible company to be a part of. Michael Hofstetter is a remarkable Broker and a truly inspirational professional. His vision aligns with ours and I know there is no better Broker to complete our extraordinary team. I am not just excited to bring Michael Hofstetter on board I am thrilled.”

Arizona Multihousing Association selects its 2020 leadership group

Arizona Multihousing Association, the statewide trade group for the apartment industry, announces the election of its 2020 officers and board members.  

Assuming the chair is Kim Pacheco, CPM, Director of Multifamily Operations at Scotia Group Management Inc., in Tucson. Joining Pacheco on the leadership group are Reid Butler, vice chair, Butler Housing Company; Scott Hines, treasurer, PEM Real Estate Group; John Carlson, immediate past chair, Mark-Taylor Residential; Linda Coburn, secretary, NexMetro Development; and Sue Campbell, AMC executive, Redi Carpet.

“AMA is more than 50 years strong and in 2020 we will be larger and stronger than ever,” Pacheco said. “We are starting 2020 with more than 288,000 units in membership, almost 90,000 more 10 years ago. This year we will continue to focus on legislative and regulatory priorities including the need for more affordable housing.”

Board members for 2020: Elizabeth Beaulieu, Quarterpenny Management; Krisanne Beckstead, Picerne Real Estate Group; Lesley Brice, MC Residential; Dahnn Brown, Camden Property Trust; Luz Bruscini, MEB Management Services; Crystal DeHoag, Bella Investment Group; Anna DiSabato, Dunlap & Magee; Kohl Eisenhour, Avenue 5 Residential; Natalie Evans, CoStar/Apartments.com; Kimberly Fitch, Nicolosi & Fitch, Inc.; Tim Furnas, Valley Wide Security; Adam Greco, Burns Pest Elimination; Shelly Griggs, Avanti Residential; Kristin Heiple, Baron Property Services; Robert Hicks, Alliance Residential; Stacey Hogue, Greystar Real Estate Partners; Michelle Howland, Blue Steel Security; Susan Knowles, J.R. McDade; Matt Koglmeier, Koglmeier Law Group PLC; David Kotin, Kay-Kay Realty; Sharon Kuhlman, Shelton Residential; Dustin Lacey, Mark-Taylor; Omar Mireles, HSL Asset Management; April Morris, Cox Communications; Gloria Munoz, Maricopa County Housing; Lisa Osborn-Warne, Priderock Capital Partners; Rich Renta, Weidner; John Rials, Western Wealth Capital; Lisa Rosenfeld, HSL Asset Management; Mark Schilling, MEB Management Services; Tina Schreiber, Alliance; Stacey Searl, Weidner; Christine Shipley, Dunlap & Magee; Michelle Sinclair, Evergreen Devco, Inc.; Justin Steltenpohl, P.B. Bell Companies; Greg Stobart, MG Properties; Carmen Suggs, ConAm; David Vanek, Greystar; Luis Verger, Shelton Residential; Wendy Weiske, Gorman & Company; Debbie Willis, P.B. Bell; Nicole Wray, Greystar; Rhonda Wooder, Stratton Restoration; and Chris Worrell, GPM Landscape.

The AMA’s signature events are the Tribute Awards held in May at the Phoenix Convention Center (education conference and trade show), golf tournaments, Maintenance Mania events and charity bowl-a-thons held in both Phoenix and Tucson.

Clear Title Agency of Arizona expands executive leadership team

Clear Title Agency of Arizona, enhanced its position as a leader in commercial and residential title and escrow services with the addition of two Executive Vice President positions.

Mike Winters has increased his role with the company as an Executive Vice President and Dane Briggs has joined Clear Title as an Executive Vice President.

Mike Winters, previously Executive Vice President of East Valley Operations, will expand his key leadership role to oversee all Phoenix area operations for the company. He brings to this role decades of escrow experience including relationships with real estate agents, lenders and the community at large. His expanded leadership role will position the company to service increasing demand, from new and established customers, for title and escrow services.

Dane Briggs, who has held various leadership positions with title insurance, real estate and technology companies in Arizona, will be leading sales strategy and technology implementations for Clear Title Agency of Arizona. In this role he will have day-to-day oversight of sales operations and customer retention strategies. In addition to sales operations, he will lead efforts to evaluate and implement emerging technology to help support the companies fast-paced growth in the Arizona market. 

“Our company is passionate about growing talent from within the organization” said Jim Clifford, President of Clear Title Agency. “We actively seek out opportunities to develop individuals into leaders. The path that Mike has taken is one that is well deserved and is an example of our vision for anyone in the Clear Title family.”

“Building an experienced leadership team is key to upholding our reputation of providing award-winning service to our customers,” said Bart Patterson, CEO of Clear Title Agency. “The growth that our company has experienced continues to drive our need for qualified experts. We are always looking to stay ahead of our competition by investing in people that help us deliver exceptional service to our customers.”

Winters began his career in the title insurance industry at the age of 18 and has continued to work his way up in the industry. While overseeing operations in the East-Valley he led efforts that grew revenues by over 102% in a 5 year period.  Mike is proud to say several of the relationships with clients he made back in the mid 1990’s are still with him today. 

Briggs has been a speaker and ambassador for Inman News Real Estate Connect Conferences in San Francisco and New York. He has spoken at a number of annual conventions and provided sales coaching and technology training to thousands of agents and numerous brokerages. 

About AZ Business Leaders

AZ Business Leaders is an annual business-to-business publication that combines the who’s who of Arizona business community with their valuable leadership advice and knowledge. The magazine is published by AZ Big Media. To learn more about Az Business Leaders, contact Sheri Brown, director of sales.