Throughout his near 20 year Real Estate and Hospitality career Steve has represented best in class multi concept chef driven, corporate, franchised and emerging food and beverage concepts on a regional and national level. Steve has seamlessly implemented strategic development growth plans for his clients by drawing on his his extensive knowledge of the restaurant business, operations and industry trends.

Expertise include an in-depth understanding of an operators business, market and date analysis, site selection, negotiation and relationships with developers and restaurant service providers. He is dedicated to building a true business advantage for his clients by engaging, managing and overseeing the master brokerage model. Steve has also consulted for developers in curating their food and beverage merchandise mix.

Steve’s has been involved in a wide range of asset classes across the US that include mixed use projects, emerging urban neighborhoods, suburban lifestyle centers, land and CBD street retail. His range of representation of restaurant concepts include Multi Unit/Concept Chef Driven, National QSR’s/Fast Casuals, Casual/Polished National Dining and Breweries. Steve’s approach is meticulous, innovative, relentless in pursuing the best markets and locations whilst always reviewing their return on investment. He has a proven track record of long term strategic planning, client retention and closing of deals, Prior to joining EMERGING Steve worked at Colliers International, Goodman Real Estate Group and most recently as part of CBRE’s Restaurant Practice Group where he focused on restaurant tenant representation and consultation

Steve grew up in the UK and graduated with a Hospitality Degree from The University of Salford, Manchester.

David Bagley is Investment Director for EMERGING. He has over thirty years of experience in corporate finance, operations management, profit improvement consulting, and financial advisory services specializing in franchise and the restaurant and hospitality industries. He has been recognized nationally for his work and won recognition for Turnaround of the Year and separately, M&A Advisor for Sale of the Year. Dave has managed or advised a variety of multiunit companies throughout his career including Popeyes, Santa Fe Cattle Company, The Clubhouse, Restaurants America, Bar Louie, Granite City Food & Brewery, Sonic Drive-In, Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, Burger King, Restaurants Unlimited, and Giordano’s. He has served as CFO, COO and CEO, including both public and private boards.

Sydney Venesile is an Associate at Emerging Concepts, with responsibility for national tenant representation and leasing, market research, and supporting all members of the leasing team. She earned her Bachelor's of Science in Hospitality Management from Kent State University in 2018. Sydney is a Hospitality professional with experience in Front of House operations and management, catering and event sales and planning, and wholesale food distribution.

Fernando is a Sr. Developer at Tipzyy, responsible for maintaining, improving Tipzyy's IT infrastructure and bringing new features into life. He was in charge of moving Tipzyy from an outdated monolith to microservices, pushing Tipzyy's infrastructure and scaling capabilities to a new level. Grew up in Venezuela where he studied to graduate as Systems Engineer in 2012. He's always been fond of innovative solutions for everyday problems. Has a strong passion for cars, motorcycles and horsepower.

Jack Neill is an Associate at Emerging Concepts, with responsibility for national tenant representation and leasing, market research, and supporting all members of the leasing team. Jack is a recent graduate of Indiana University. He earned his BSB with a double major in Finance and Real Estate through the Kelley School of Business. Currently holds a real estate license in the state of Illinois

Coming Soon

Jim is the Senior Vice President of Acutely. He is started his career at McDonald’s in 1973 with the primary responsibility to develop statistical and mathematical models to predict new store sales volumes. Starting as a single person department, Jim’s career expanded to his final position as Senior Vice President, Global Development.

Jon Hegwood joined the Emerging family of companies in 2019 as Vice President of Emerging Capital Partners out of the Chicago office. As a proven real estate professional and financier, Jon works with investors and equity partners in helping support owners and operators with strategic real estate and capital solutions.

Prior to joining Emerging, Jon worked with a leading national real estate advisory firm before founding his own real estate investment management company specialized in structuring and sourcing real estate partnerships and joint ventures.

With an innate entrepreneurial spirit, Jon understands the challenges business owners face and can assist in realizing untapped opportunities for growth.

Jon holds his real estate license in Illinois and is an active member of ICSC, CCIM, and YREP.

Clarissa is a seasoned copywriter with 10 years of experience writing engaging advertising copy for e-commerce businesses, SAAS, and the hospitality industry. Clarissa specializes in writing creative product copy and loves to make words dance.

Noah’s passion for food & beverage goes back to his childhood, whether enjoying great home cooked meals or experiencing delicious food while traveling with my family, the love began early.

Noah has spent the entirety of his professional career tied to F&B in one capacity or another. First, on the operator side overseeing and developing several successful beverage programs across at some prominent Chicago restaurants. He then stepped over to the distributor side, selling wine and spirits; growing his business 3x. Most recently, Noah joins us from Pernod-Ricard, where he worked 3 years as a market manager bringing sales and marketing programs alive in both the on and off premise.

Noah grew up in La Paz, Bolivia and holds two degrees; one in Business Administration and the other in International Relations from Beloit College.

He is excited to bring his entrepreneurial spirit and drive to the Tipzyy and Emerging team.

Amy has extensive real estate industry experience working closely with small businesses to build and maintain the most effective accounting systems and strategies. In 2017, she was awarded LinkedIn's Profinder Best of Accounting Consultants

Martin Barboza has been providing marketing and repositioning strategies for real estate investment and development for 15 years. He has built a track record of maximizing investment returns during the hold period by ensuring an appropriate capitalization structure, while focusing on optimal property performance. His ranked in top 1% of REO sales across Chicago for five years running. He has led execution with acquisitions, asset management, investments, construction, development and consulting. Martin delivers economies of scale to his diverse capital group by identifying underutilized properties in prime urban locations with expert analysis, execution of purchase, construction, and sale of investment properties.

Megan Schmidt is a Director at Emerging Concepts, and focuses on national tenant representation strategy and leasing. Since joining Emerging Concepts, Megan has played an integral role in national growth strategy for early entertainment and restaurant concepts from both the US and UK.

Megan earned a BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a double major in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Marketing. She holds her real estate license in Illinois and Wisconsin and is an active member of ICSC. Megan is an Associate Market Director for the Illinois Region of the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association and is also a mentor in the Wisconsin Real Estate Student Mentorship Program.

Prior to joining EMERGING, Megan worked at EY, a big-four accounting firm, in their Transaction Real Estate group, performing commercial valuations in almost every asset class including, hotels, industrial, medical, and retail.

Mathew has a passion for helping best in class restaurant and entertainment operators onto growing as recognized national leader in their category. Mathew has served hundreds of restaurant–entertainment owners and developers of lifestyle and mix-use centers. Mathew is founder of EMERGING, Emerging Concepts, Emerging Capital Partners, and co-founder of Consolidated Concepts, Acutely, and FB Insights. Mathew has helped exciting concepts expand nationally with focusing on real estate, capital, operations, and reducing operating cost.

Mathew has worked with following restaurants and entertainment concepts; Silverspot Cinema, Puttshack, Flight Club, Blue Sushi, Federales, Pour House, City Works, Doc B’s, The PUB, Levity Live, Improv Comedy Club, AZN, TAPS, Flip Side, 3 Palms, Blue Lemon, Adobe Gilas, Bar Louie, Concepts America, Devons Seafood, Houlihans, Cheesecake Factory, Brio, Bravo, McCormick & Schmick, Blue Martini, Hyde Park Steakhouse, BICE, Lucky Strike, Houstons, and many other restaurant and entertainment concepts.

Prior, Mathew was Principal of Sierra Advisors and Vice President of RKF Retail Property Advisors providing comprehensive leasing, marketing, and consulting services to owners and developers of malls, lifestyle centers, and mixed-use projects. Responsible for securing national expansion sites for over a dozen top restaurant and entertainment emerging chains and executing leasing for the restaurant tenant mix for hundreds of thousands of square feet around the U.S. Prior to RKF, Mathew was with Pyramid Companies and Steiner & Associates where he was responsible for restaurant leasing and development the firm’s superior-regional malls and mixed-use lifestyle projects.

Mathew earned a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Real Estate and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He is a member of International Council of Shopping Centers, Urban Land Institute, and National Restaurant.

Luis Lara works with some of the top concepts and private equity firms in the restaurant industry. He is responsible for identifying opportunities for restaurant companies to reduce cost and improve their profitability. Luis has helped clients add millions of dollars to their bottom line without disrupting the restaurant’s operations or affecting quality or the integrity of the brand.

Prior to joining Emerging, Luis worked for a top Illinois financial institution, BMO Harris Bank, and for two of the leading technology companies in Chicago, Careerbuilder and Belly. Luis graduated from the business school at Elmhurst College with a double major in International Business and Finance.

Spending the majority of his career in hospitality, Alan brings extensive experience and knowledge in fundamental business facets including real estate, data analytics/site selection, supply chain, operations, marketing, and technology. Inherently entrepreneurial, Alan has been a cornerstone in building the EMERGING family of companies. Over the years, Alan has worked closely with hundreds of leading restaurant and entertainment groups throughout the country; consulting on creating strategic real-estate expansion plans, fundraising, and building supply chain infrastructures. Alan deploys a dynamic understanding of both growth and operations; having been instrumental in creating back-of-house efficiencies and reducing cost through negotiating distribution agreements, manufacturer contracts, and implementing technologies to help optimize day-to-day operations. Alan holds a degree from Depaul University in History/Pre-Law and Hospitality Management and Leadership. He holds his real estate license in Illinois and is an active member of ICSC.

Veronica has extensive experience building brands nationwide and creating comprehensive sales-driving solutions in the beverage industry. After completing her MBA, Veronica spent eight years working in the advertising agency world creating award-winning campaigns across channels. Her business background coupled with her creative experience fuel her passion for innovative strategy and technology.

As Vice President in the Chicago office, Robert focuses on national tenant representation, new development consulting and strategic capital partnerships.

Since joining EMERGING he has played an integral role in the fundraising, data science and national growth strategy for early to mid-stage restaurants and entertainment concepts in the US and UK.

Robert has been a crucial component in building the national tenant representation group by partnering with teams of data scientists as well as managing real estate brokerages in major markets across the US.

Robert earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Indiana University and Master of Science in Real Estate Finance from Depaul University, Chicago. He holds his real estate license in Florida and Illinois and is an active member of ICSC and CCIM.

Prior to joining EMERGING Robert worked at R.J O’Brien as well as Milliman FRM.

Crystal Rivera is an Associate at Emerging Concepts, responsible for national tenant representation and leasing, market research, and supporting members of the leasing team. Prior to joining Emerging, Crystal worked as a Brokerage Coordinator at Cushman and Wakefield with their Capital Markets group, executing marketing campaigns/materials as well as underwriting office and industrial properties. Crystal also has experience in Asset Management, managing commercial properties at both Cushman and Wakefield and CBRE. Crystal Earned a BA in Public Relations and Advertising with a minor in graphic design and a Master of Science in Real Estate from DePaul University. She also holds her real estate license in Illinois.

Hudson joined Tipzyy three years ago as it's first employee! As COO, he manages the product development and operations teams. He uses his extensive background in team building and project management to deliver high quality products and customer service to Tipzyy clients.

Hudson has held senior roles at leading interactive companies and gamification for over 20 years. He has managed multiple Mobile Gaming Groups and responsible for client management and overall direction of several apps in parallel. Has extensive history with product vision, client coordination and project management for games, educational apps and consumer branded mobile apps.