Colorado Real Estate Journal -
McWhinney added two senior vice presidents to its team: Mark Witkiewicz and Dan Cohen. Witkiewicz was named senior vice president of commercial development and Cohen is senior vice president of community, development and acquisitions. The two bring more than 40 years of cumulative experience to the real estate investment, management and development company. Witkiewicz provides strategic direction to the commercial development team for commercial office, medical, industrial and retail opportunities. Prior to joining McWhinney, Witkiewicz served as managing director and chief operating officer for Corporex Colorado, where his responsibilities included asset management, real estate development, construction and management of the Colorado operation. While at Corporex, he assembled and closed more than $226 million in real estate development opportunities, including several recent transformational projects, such as the ART, a hotel in downtown Denver, and the Hyatt Hotel & Conference Center at Fitzsimons Village in Aurora. Previously, Witkiewicz was the vice president of development for Silverman Development Co., overseeing daily operations and leading the company’s development team. Cohen is responsible for expanding the company’s portfolio of urban infill and mixed use developments through land acquisition, public-private partnerships, planning and entitlements. Prior to joining McWhinney, Cohen was the founder and principal of Urban Investment Group LLC, where he led, partnered and advised on urban infill, transit-oriented and mixed-use development projects in Colorado as well as throughout the U.S. Previously, he was the vice president of planning and development for Catellus Development, the mixed-use development division of Prologis, a Fortune 500 real estate investment trust, where he led the company’s national land acquisition efforts, specializing in public-private partnerships, as well as planning and entitlements for a nationwide portfolio of mixed-use, retail and office assets. While at Catellus, he played important roles in large nationally renowned projects such as Mission Bay in San Francisco and Mueller in Austin, Texas. Lia Szasz,a law clerk with Otis, Bedingfield & Peters LLC, was awarded Best Overall performance at the Colorado Appellate Advocacy Competition at the University of Colorado School of Law. She earned the honor for having the best combined performance in the written briefing and oral argument parts of the competition. Szasz has served as a law clerk with the firm for the past two years and will earn her Juris Doctor this month and join the firm as an associate after taking the February bar exam. Brian Dunbar, executive director for Colorado State University’s Institute for the Built Environment, recently was elected to the national Advisory Council of the U.S. Green Building Council. Dunbar will serve a three year term in the USGBC Advisory Council’s education seat alongside leaders in architecture, urban planning, engineering, real estate, facility management and construction. As ambassadors for the global sustainability movement, the 20-member Advisory Council provides visionary industry leadership, connects with key stakeholder groups, and identifies emerging technical and engagement opportunities. The USGBC selected Dunbar as one of the nation’s first LEED Fellows in 2012, and he remains one of only two such Fellows in Colorado. The CSU professor emeritus, who holds two degrees in architecture from the University of Michigan, created the graduate emphasis in sustainable building and multiple courses on sustainability at Colorado State. He also taught interior design and construction management coursework and co-founded the Institute for the Built Environment in 1994. At CSU, he is an advisory council member for the School of Global Environmental Sustainability and a member of the CSU President's Sustainability Committee. The Institute for the Built Environment is in CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences. Elisabeth Cortese, Cassia Furman and Paula Williams were name senior associates at law firm McGeady Becher, which recently changed its name from McGeady Sisneros. Steve Suneson of law firm Coan, Payton & Payne LLC was appointed to the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in CanadaWestern Chapter, based in Calgary, Alberta. The American Chamber of Commerce in Canada is a private, nonprofit, membership organization that promotes the two-way flow of trade, goods, services and investment between Canada and the United States. AmCham Canada West annually organizes approximately 15 events that cover a wide range of networking needs. In addition to his U.S. corporate law practice, Suneson has substantial cross-border and international experience assisting Canadian companies and individuals in the U.S. in a practical and cost-efficient manner. Fennemore Craig expanded its Denver office with the addition of two associates, Ben Leonard and Matthew Broderick. Leonard was editor-in-chief of the UCLA Journal of Law and Technology and president of the Tax and Estate Planning Law Association. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of California Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Marquette University. He is licensed to practice in Colorado. Leonard focuses his practice in real estate. Broderick practices in the areas of professional negligence, medical malpractice, insurance coverage and bad faith, products liability and government entity defense. Prior to joining the law firm, Broderick was an attorney for Senter, Goldfarb & Rice, served as in-house law clerk to Xcel Energy and successfully advocated his clients' positions at bench trials and before a jury. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Santa Barbara. Broderick is licensed to practice in Colorado and before the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado.