A massive pork processing plant in a small Illinois town is powered by solar thanks to CSRE’s commercial PACE financing — a first for the company, and for Illinois, and an example that advocates hope will inspire other industries to embrace the form of financing for clean energy projects.
Eric Alini is the Managing Partner of Counterpointe Energy Partners and its various subsidiaries. Prior to founding Counterpointe, Mr. Alini was responsible for investing and risk management of over $21 Billion for Merrill Lynch’s own capital in he Principal Finance Group as a Managing Director in Global Structured Finance and Investment. Also while at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Alini held a number of senior positions including Head of International CMBS, Global Corporate Loan Portfolio Management, and CMBS trading along with management of Merrill Lynch Bank USA’s portfolio of asset-backed securities.
During his career, Mr. Alini has structured financing for media companies including Ivan Reitman’s Monticello Pictures, Paramount Studies, and the launch of Marvel Studios. He was an executive producer for several film projects including The Stamford Prison Project and Ride.
Mr. Alini started his career as a corporate bond trader at Bear Stearns and has served in government for the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). He is a board member of PACENation and the USGBC chapter in New York City Urban Green.
Michele Pitale heads Counterpointe’s financing team focused on PACE financing for commercial real estate. Prior to focusing on sustainable energy finance, Dr. Pitale was an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Otolaryngology in New York at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a surgeon at the NIH in Bethesda, MD in the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. After receiving her medical degree from Temple University, Dr. Pitale completed her surgical residency at SUNY-Downstate and served as the Chief Resident at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Dr. Pitale was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Critical Care Medical Department at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Pitale holds a BS in chemistry from Juniata College in Pennsylvania and has authored a number of peer-reviewed research articles and surgical chapters in textbooks. Dr. Pitale’s background provides a unique perspective on the business needs of sustainable finance real estate markets.
Bernard Bartolome brings more than 20 years of financial and business process management experience. He has spent years in the residential lending arenas of Processing, Underwriting, Servicing, and Insuring. Bernard achieved his firsthand experience in process optimization while spearheading the design and implementation of standard operating procedures, streamlining processes through development of operational and business policies and automation of processes at Digital Risk from 2007 until 2015.
Terry Stark is an Executive Director and is responsible for business development and origination. Located in Southwest Florida, Terry brings an extensive financial background to the PACE team. Terry previously spent over 15 years with PNC Bank in the St. Louis, MO market running the Business Banking division in St. Louis and Southern Illinois. Terry also worked with the City of St. Louis on the creation of their Property Assessed Clean Energy program. His drive helped the program come to life with PNC Bank as the lender. After relocating to the Ft. Myers market in SW Florida, he continues to open doors to new markets and new opportunities for PACE to shine whether a client is doing a retrofit or new construction project.
CJ DeSantis is responsible for establishing new partnerships with cities and counties and managing existing relationships with participating PACE municipalities. Prior to CES, CJ was a Managing Director in Deutsche Bank’s CRE Group where he managed relationships with conduit originators, federal agencies and financial institutions helping them liquidate their bad real estate.
Devesh Nirmul is a leader within the energy, sustainability and resiliency space with demonstrated experience in government and public policy, residential and commercial real estate/property management and sustainability-focused non-profit organizations. He works on expanding the PACE Market in Florida, creating value-driven financing solutions for commercial building ownerships and their trusted advisors and engages relevant non-profit organizations on the strategic use of PACE financing to accelerate the uptake of energy and resiliency investments amongst private building owners. Devesh brings a mix of science, policy, and strategy to the firm and sustains his effectiveness by maintaining globally recognized industry credentials. He is an accredited LEED AP, a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and a Certified Sustainable Development Professional (CSDP).
Mary-Stuart Freydberg serves as Head of ESG Research and Executive Director, Retrofit Transactions at Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate, where she focuses on efficiency and renewable investments to upgrade commercial properties. Prior to CounterpointeSRE, Ms. Freydberg was Senior Director at Merrill Lynch CMBS Research where she advised the originators, trading desk and institutional investors on North American Real Estate. While at Fitch IBCA, she published extensively and headed CMBS research while rating both domestic and international transactions. Mary-Stuart brings extensive construction loan experience as well as underwriting experience from her time at J.E. Roberts Co., an Archon Group Joint Venture with Goldman Sachs.
Ms. Giaccio is responsible for all legal, regulatory, litigation and compliance matters for CounterpointSRE. She brings extensive in-house and law firm experience in diverse corporate and commercial real estate transactions, including acquisition, joint venture, private equity, financing, leasing, development, construction, project finance and private placement. At The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Ms. Giaccio counseled the real estate debt and equity, private equity and private placement investment teams on portfolios exceeding $18 billion. While Counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison LLP and at Dewey Ballantine LLP, Ms. Giaccio represented and advised lenders, owners, developers, investors, sponsors and other clients on a variety of real estate and private equity transactions. At Goldman, Sachs & Co., Evelyn was the first in-house real estate counsel responsible for all owned, leased and developed properties in the Americas and internationally. Evelyn earned a B.A. from Barnard College, M.S. from NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Mr. Harmon serves as Managing Director at Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate, where he leads the Principal Transaction Group focused on construction, transitional and rehab investments. Prior to CSRE, Mr. Harmon served as a Managing Director at Arden Group, where he served as Portfolio Manager of the Arden Credit Fund. Previously, Doug was an Executive Vice President with A10 Capital, a commercial real estate lending platform focused on bridge and permanent lending for middle-market borrowers throughout the United States. Mr. Harmon was also a Managing Director and senior originator for RBS Securities, Inc. commercial real estate platform as well as co-head of the Leveraged Capital Markets effort. During his tenure at RBS, Doug originated and syndicated in excess of $1 billion of commercial real estate loans. Preceding RBS, Doug was head of the commercial real estate syndication platform for KeyBank, and was co-head of the Mortgage Desk for European commercial real estate platform at Merrill Lynch. Doug earned a B.A. from Colgate University and an M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management – Northwestern University.