Our Team:
Leslie Burke,
President
leslie@athena-rea.com
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Ms. Burke has over 25 years of institutional real
estate experience, in a wide variety of management roles. Prior
employers include Arthur Andersen, MetLife, Archon Group/Goldman
Sachs, and Prudential Financial. Ms. Burke is well versed in
accounting/reporting, asset management, portfolio management,
acquisitions, dispositions, and the development and execution of
strategic plans on an enterprise level. She has also been very
active in collegiate recruiting and analyst training and development
throughout her career.
As a Director at Prudential Mortgage
Capital, the commercial lending arm of Prudential Financial, Ms.
Burke was involved with underwriting both securitized conduit and
balance sheet loans. Prior to joining Prudential, Ms. Burke was
employed by Archon Group/Goldman Sachs as a Portfolio Manager where
she was responsible for debt placement and leveraged returns for
seventeen of Goldman’s Whitehall Fund portfolios. After obtaining
her MBA, Ms. Burke entered commercial real estate when she joined
MetLife's Real Estate Investment division. Over her thirteen year
tenure at MetLife she was involved in a variety of asset management,
special project, and transaction roles. In addition, Ms. Burke was
selected to spend five years on Met's Real Estate Investment
Committee.
Ms. Burke’s primary area of expertise is the
development and execution of strategic plans for both asset-specific
and portfolio- level debt and equity holdings. She is well versed in
all property types and asset classes and has familiarity with most
major U.S. markets. Ms. Burke is a non-practicing CPA, and earned
both her BBA and MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
Texas. She graduated with honors and was selected to be the Graduate
Assistant to Dr. Bill Bruggeman, who chaired SMU’s Real Estate
Department.
Ms. Burke was a charter member of NAIOP’s Asset
Management Forum and is also active in CREW (Commercial Real Estate
Women) at the Atlanta Chapter and National Network levels, holding
numerous leadership positions over the last 10 years. Ms. Burke is
also on the Board of Directors of the John Ripley Forbes Big Trees
Forest Preserve, a 30 acre old-growth urban forest in Sandy Springs,
Georgia.
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Sheri Welch
Operations Manager
sheri@athena-rea.com
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Ms. Welch handles all staffing and logistics
for Athena Real Estate Advisors, including all administrative
matters related to FDIC assignments. She also is responsible for
processing new independent contractor inquiries.
Ms. Welch’s
professional background encompasses 10 years with Equity Office
Properties Trust as the Senior Regional Lease Administrator for the
Atlanta and New York regions. In this capacity she was responsible
for 11 Equity Office leasing professionals, and the accuracy of
landlord leases for 47 buildings containing 15 million square feet.
She earned her beloved nickname as “The Claw” due to her
zero tolerance for mistakes and unwillingness to sign off on a lease
until it was in perfect compliance with Equity standards. Ms. Welch
brings that perfectionist attitude to Athena, where it is used
extensively in FDIC processing and compliance. Ms. Welch’s
background and extraordinary commitment to detail allows Athena to
provide its clients with national talent which has been vetted,
cleared, and processed seamlessly according to a client’s
requirements.
Ms. Welch holds an Associate Applied Science
degree from the Berkeley College of Business in Woodland Park, NJ.
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