Arixa Executive Team
Arixa has assembled a team of motivated real estate professionals with a combined 25+ years. We execute a disciplined approach at all times, but remain agile with the ability to capitalize on opportunities as they arise. The company culture fosters teamwork and encourages innovation. We are relentless in our pursuit of performance excellence.
Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Jan Brzeski is the Chief Investment Officer and a Managing Director of Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC, and Crosswind Financial, which together are one of California's leading private real estate lenders. He serves on the investment committee for all related fund vehicles. Mr. Brzeski founded Arixa Capital in 2006, and launched its first private lending fund, Arixa Secured Income Fund, in 2010. As of December 31st, 2018, Arixa manages over $300 million in capital across four private lending funds and one residential equity fund. Mr. Brzeski has participated in more than 1,000 real estate transactions, investing over $1 billion on behalf of clients, and has experience managing all aspects of sourcing, structuring, financing, and acquiring investment properties.
Prior to forming Arixa Capital, Mr. Brzeski was Vice President of Acquisitions at Standard Management Company, a private real estate investment firm founded by Samuel K. Freshman. While at Standard Management, Mr. Brzeski’s responsibilities included identifying properties to acquire, underwriting, and negotiating to purchase income property and land. In addition, Mr. Brzeski originated loans throughout coastal California from funds he managed and purchased properties that included shopping centers, industrial projects, agricultural and development land.
Before joining Standard Management, Mr. Brzeski was a successful entrepreneur, co-founding and serving as CEO of STV Communications, Inc., a media services business that he sold in 2000. Previously, Mr. Brzeski worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. as an Investment Banking Analyst, where he contributed to initial public offerings, secondary stock and bond offerings and mergers and acquisitions of leading technology companies.
Mr. Brzeski has been the primary organizer of an annual Real Estate Investment Roundtable at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management for the past 13 years. Mr. Brzeski is a regular speaker, moderator and panelist at forums, such as ALTSLA, IMN and a guest lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
Managing Director
Mr. Hebner is a Managing Director of Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC and Crosswind Financial. He is a fund manager of the Arixa Secured Income Fund and the Arixa Enhanced Income Fund, and Crosswind Venture Fund and serves on the firm’s investment committee. Mr. Hebner has primary responsibility for the strategy and operations of the firm’s vertically integrated lending platform and the acquisition and management of the single-family home portfolio held by the Arixa vehicle that purchases, renovates and operates residential rental properties.
Mr. Hebner previously founded and served as the Chief Investment Officer for Community Rebuild Partners, LLC, a residential real estate investment firm that has purchased, renovated and resold more than 220 properties. Over his investment career, Mr. Hebner has participated in more than 1,000 real estate investments and deployed over $1 billion in capital on behalf of investors. He is a frequent contributor and speaker on real estate investing and mortgage lending and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg TV and the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Mr. Hebner regularly teaches courses on residential real estate investing at UCLA Extension’s Real Estate Program. Prior to joining Arixa Capital, Mr. Hebner was the President of NuView Financial Services, a provider of loss mitigation services for the residential mortgage industry, and served as the Chief Operating Officer of NuView’s parent company, Sorento Capital, a private asset management firm focused on consumer-related financial services. Mr. Hebner previously served as the CEO of Relocation.com and was the Senior Vice President of Consumer Media Services at Move, Inc.
Earlier in this career, Mr. Hebner worked in financial, strategic and operational roles for Price Waterhouse, Premark International and The Walt Disney Company. Mr. Hebner holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University and a B.S. in Accountancy from the University of Illinois. Mr. Hebner is a licensed real estate broker in the state of California and holds and NMLS mortgage broker designation.
General Counsel
Ms. Verny is General Counsel for Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC. Jelena has nearly 20 years of legal experience representing and advising public and private companies on a wide range of legal and business issues. Jelena is responsible for advising the company on legal and compliance matters as well as managing outside counsel. Prior to joining Arixa, Jelena was in private practice and worked as the Director of the Business Law Program and Lecturer in Law at UCLA School of Law. Jelena began her legal career as a tax and real estate attorney at Irell & Manella LLP.
Ms. Verny received a B.A. in Business/Economics with a minor in Accounting, summa cum laude, from UCLA, and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
Senior Vice President
Jerry Feinstein is Senior Vice President of Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC. In his current role, he manages and oversees Arixa's Commercial Real Estate lending program. Mr. Feinstein has extensive experience with commercial and residential mortgage origination and underwriting, having served throughout his career as a strategic mortgage banking industry expert, building and growing national mortgage banking sales and operations.
Mr. Feinstein is knowledgeable in all aspects of mortgage banking with a cradle-to-grave understanding of mortgage originations, operations, risk management, and servicing. He has strong experience in mortgage lending, sales of real-estate-owned (REO) properties, sales management and credit, and a strong background in consultative selling. Before joining Arixa Capital, Mr. Feinstein was director of REO Sales at Fannie Mae, where he built the REO bulk sale platform from the ground up. His group sold over 15,000 properties in more than 40 transactions. Before Fannie Mae, Mr. Feinstein co-founded SPREO Capital Partners, a private equity real estate fund created to purchase institutional REO properties.
Mr. Feinstein has held senior-level positions at CJ Smith Consulting, Inc., CBA Commercial, and Silver Hill Financial, where he served as executive vice president, senior vice president and senior director, respectively. As a national account manager at Freddie Mac, he managed the annual purchase and securitization of $15 billion in mortgage assets and negotiated credit, pricing, and structure terms for Freddie Mac’s largest customers. Mr. Feinstein has also managed residential mortgage origination centers for The Bank of New York’s mortgage subsidiary, ARCS Mortgage.
Mr. Feinstein holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has earned the Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
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Dan Frankel
Director of Investor Relations and Business Development
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Doug Cochrane
Vice President, Loan Production
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Dung Phan
Controller
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Kristina Sawyer
Director of Loan Operations
Director of Investor Relations and Business Development
Mr. Frankel is the Director of Investor Relations and Business Development for Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC. Dan comes to Arixa with over 12 years of investor relations, business development, capital markets and product development experience.
Prior to joining Arixa, Dan served as the Director of Investor Relations for PennyMac Financial Services Inc. (NYSE: PFSI) and PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT). In his role, Dan managed offerings totaling over $500 million, marketed publicly traded companies through conferences and investor events, and grew relationships with investors and research analysts. Prior to his move to Los Angeles, Dan spent six years with Citigroup in New York City and two years with First Marblehead in Boston. While working for Citigroup and First Marblehead, his roles focused on Capital Markets and Product Development. Mr. Frankel received his B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and is currently completing his MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Vice President, Loan Production
Mr. Cochrane is Vice President of Loan Production for Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC. Doug comes to Arixa with over 20 years of real estate experience as an award-winning Senior Loan Officer, Underwriter, Appraiser, Project Manager and Investor. Most recently, he served as SVP of Acquisitions & Underwriting for Patch of Land, a pioneering real estate crowdfunding company, where he established all lending guidelines, policies and procedures for the platform. During his tenure, he oversaw the underwriting and due diligence of $100 million in loans. Prior to his move to Los Angeles, he was a Project Manager, leading the support for a new 24-unit residential project and the excavation for a 14-unit condominium project in Boston, MA. For 15 years, he originated and underwrote nearly $300 million dollars in conventional residential and commercial loans throughout the US. During this time, Doug was also an active member of the Massachusetts Legislation & Compliance Committee. As a top performing licensed RE Appraiser, he spent several years specializing in appraising single-family, multi-family and condominium projects throughout New England for some of the largest national Banks. As a real estate Investor, Doug focused on acquiring bank REOs and was responsible for property acquisition, budgeting, contractor estimates and renovation oversight. Mr. Cochrane received his B.A. from Fordham University.
Controller
Mr. Phan is Controller for Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC. Dung comes to Arixa with over 18 years of fund accounting, financial reporting, mutual fund operations and regulatory compliance experience. Dung directs the fund reporting for the Arixa funds and leads the financial accounting and treasury operations for Arixa Capital Advisors.
Prior to joining Arixa, Dung worked for Capital Group Private Markets where he served as Assistant Fund Controller. In that role, he led the fund accounting, performance reporting and client servicing for multi-billion-dollar portfolios of several emerging market private equity funds. Dung received his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Southern California, Leventhal School of Accounting.
Senior Underwriter
Ms. Sawyer is the Director of Loan Operations for Arixa Capital Advisors, LLC and Crosswind Financial. Kristina comes to Arixa with over 18 years of real estate experience. She is responsible for managing the operations team and the day-to-day operations of Arixa Capital and Crosswind Financial, as well as the lending operations for their four real estate funds. Ms. Sawyer is knowledgeable in all aspects of real estate lending, portfolio management, risk management, asset management, and property management.
Prior to joining Arixa she was the Regional Sales Manager for Cabo La Estancia/NRG Financial, a resort property leasing and property management company. Her experience also includes being Resident Manager at Century West Properties, a multi-family project in Marina Del Rey, California, and being Vice President and launching the property management division at Portfolio Properties in Bakersfield, California. Ms. Sawyer holds an A.A. degree from Bakersfield College. She is a licensed real estate agent and notary.