Thursday, June 1, 2017

The Team

UCG will only align itself with people that will maintain a vested interest in each community we help long after our preliminary relief efforts are over. UCG believes in Haiti and is committed to helping this country over a period of years, not months. We pledge to each project a minimum of ten years of our time and energy to help every facet become successful and will put forth a true and honest effort to establish viable corporate and cross border relationships that will take pride in their vested long-term interest in helping the people of Haiti maximize opportunities, and more important, their potential.

UCG’s founding partners are three friends with complimentary professional backgrounds. The three partners came together first to solve a major housing shortage in America, currently affecting college and graduate students who attend Universities in California, Texas, and Florida. These three states have large public and private universities and the demand to attend them significantly out-paces the available student housing.

The price of real estate is growing so quickly in each state that cost of renting a house off campus is near impossible for students who lack stable income or credit. For example, students who have been accepted by UCLA School of Medicine are now being sent to UC Riverside for the first two years to alleviate the burden put on the UCLA teaching hospital. Currently housing options are very expensive and even harder to find.

Our team analyzed the issues and challenges at length and developed an approach to the problem.  Using strategies which allow our company to offer affordable high quality housing options in 60% of the time of a traditional commercial project.

The “UCG model” was developed by our team and it’s simply a strategic approach to acquiring, building, and insulating our Investors  money and delivering a superior product ahead of every other traditional development plan.

UCG’S model differs from other developers and the reason why, is how we secure and pay for the sequestered land. A key aspect is locking in favorable rent and rental increase for a period of 20 or more years. Some key elements to our approach is being able to provide affordable high quality, tech-smart buildings that maximize their footprint, incorporate mixed use retail giving the UCG village, a feel of an established community once the building is completed. We address one of the most pressing parts to this problem by being able to deliver a high end project in 30% less time than it takes traditional development firms.

What makes UCG so capable is the diversity and experience our managing partners have gained throughout their careers.

Seth Wiener - Managing Partner, Spent the first 15 years of his career as an Investment Banker. He is a recognized featured tech speaker in Asia, Europe and the U.S. in subject matter ranging from IoT, Clean Tech and Ag Tech. He has completed more than $4.3 Billion in sell-side transactions, was a Global Clean Tech Open final panel judge for five years 2010-2014 and prior to co-founding UNIVERSITY CAPITAL GROUP, LLC. Helped create acquire and exit from one of the first true pure Ag-Tech funds located in Northern California. Seth is responsible for deal sourcing and portfolio management. The combined aggregate value of his Morgan deals is $1.2 billion in buy-side/sell-side transactions. At LionChase he achieved a 30% IRR on deals he sourced and managed, focused specifically on clean energy that optimized wind based power generation and subsequent energy storage.

Jon Vaughn - Founder and Managing Partner, is a Global Freight and Logistic expert, who has moved cargo, for major companies with a 100% success rate. Jon, can quickly analyze and assess the most effective and efficient way to move time sensitive cargo. In addition to Logistics Jon spent 17 years as Broker to both residential and commercial loans and is an expert at securing financing for projects that have variables that are difficult to work with. Jon Vaughn is responsible for our client engagement as well as all investor relations, he has a diverse background that includes finance, management, and sales. He graduated from Bowling Green State University, with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree in History and Business Law. During his tenure at Winoker and Gage, Jon drove net revenue from one million a year to 75 million five years later. His responsibilities included creating new innovative lending packages and products, deal analysis and evaluation on behalf of the firms investors.

Michael Gonzalez - Managing Partner, Has worked as a master commercial construction operations manager for more than 22 years. He started very young apprenticing for some of South Florida's biggest developers. In addition he is a tech savvy entrepreneur who has founded a number of successful developments on his own. Michael Gonzalez is responsible for overseeing all construction pre development and development activities. Michael has a long history in the real estate development sector. Some of his primary functions are development of finance proposals, pro formas, feasibility studies, site development, overall construction management, budgets, project supervision, site selection, as well as working with all construction related objectives such as, architects, engineers, building departments, zoning and all other construction related activities.