Tiedemann Insights

Tiedemann Advisors Speaker Series

Rethinking Real Estate 
with Dr. Peter Linneman and Christine Kwak

Join us for a conversation with real estate investment experts Dr. Peter Linneman and Christine Kwak. They will share their expectations for the economic recovery including how the long-term implications of Covid-19 will impact residential and commercial real estate. They will also discuss the outlook for public and private real estate, including the Opportunity Zone investment program.

Speaker Biographies

Dr. Peter Linneman

Managing Partner, American Opportunity Zone Advisors
Principal, Linneman Associates
Emeritus Professor, The Wharton School of Business

For over 40 years, Dr. Peter Linneman's unique blend of scholarly rigor and practical business insight has won him accolades from around the world, including PREA's prestigious Graaskamp Award for Real Estate Research, Wharton's Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center's Lifetime Achievement Award, Realty Stock Magazine's Special Achievement Award, being named "One of the 25 Most Influential People in Real Estate" by Realtor Magazine and inclusion in The New York Observer's "100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate".

After receiving both his Masters and Doctorate in Economics under the tutelage of Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler, Ted Schultz and Jim Heckman, Peter had a distinguished academic career at both The University of Chicago and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. For 35 years, he was a leading member of Wharton's faculty, serving as the Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate, Finance and Public Policy as well as the Founding Chairman of the Real Estate Department and Director of the prestigious Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center. During this time, he was co-editor of The Wharton Real Estate Review. In addition, he published over 100 scholarly articles, four editions of the acclaimed book Real Estate Finance and Investments: Risks and Opportunities, and the widely read Linneman Letter quarterly report.

Peter's long and ongoing business career is highlighted by his roles as Founding Principal of Linneman Associates, a leading real estate advisory firm; CEO of American Land Fund; and CEO of KL Realty. For more than 35 years, he has advised leading corporations and served on over 20 public and private boards, including serving as Chairman of Rockefeller Center Properties, where he led the successful restructuring and sale of Rockefeller Center in the mid-1990s.

Although retired from Wharton's faculty, Dr. Linneman continues his commitment to education through his Save A Mind, Give A Choice educational charity for orphans and children of extreme poverty in rural Kenya. He has been married for over 40 years and is an exercise enthusiast.

Christine Kwak

Partner, American Opportunity Zone Advisors

Christine Kwak has over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry with expertise ranging from acquisitions and dispositions to debt originations of more than $4 billion. In her current role, Christine serves as senior asset advisor at American Land Fund Management, responsible for asset management and capital transactions activities. She is also co-founder and president of KL Realty, a private real estate investment firm launched in 2010 in partnership with Dr. Linneman, and founder of Aris Real Estate Ventures, a west coast based investment firm.

Prior to joining American Land Fund Management and co-founding KL Realty, Christine was a managing director at Shorenstein Properties in San Francisco, responsible for sourcing, evaluating, negotiating, and closing capital transactions in the Western United States. Before that, she was a vice president in the Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs in New York, and a Senior Consultant with Ernst & Young/Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Practice.

A graduate from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in Architecture, Christine went on to earn her MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as a full member of the Urban Land Institute, and has served as a board member of the San Francisco chapter of NAIOP, as well as an advisory member of the California Alumni Association Finance Committee at UC Berkeley.