Creating a Focused Approach to
Real Estate Investing
Meet Our Executive Team
Forum’s personnel bring a wide range of capabilities and experience that enable us to identify opportunities that others miss.
The backgrounds of our team members include real estate, private equity, public equity, investment banking, investment management, securitization, and international law. Our collective knowledge and experience provide us the advantage of an all-encompassing and uniquely focused approach to real estate investing.
Russell C. Platt Co-founder and CEO
Russell C. Platt is a Co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Forum Partners and is based in Palm Beach. He has over 30 years’ experience in real estate finance and investment in Europe and North America including a period as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley & Co. Russell founded and managed the global real estate department of Morgan Stanley Asset Management and was Director of the company’s real estate fund. Before founding Forum Partners, he was Managing Director of Security Capital Research & Management and President of JER Partners. Russell has a BA in economics from Williams College, Massachusetts, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Noah Hopkins Managing Director and Head of North America
Noah Hopkins is a Managing Director and head of North America. He has over 10 years of experience in real estate investment banking, M&A, corporate advisory and principal investing. Prior to joining Forum, he worked in JLL’s M&A, Strategic Advisory and Private Capital group. Previously, Noah worked at FBR Capital Markets & Co. focusing on private equity capital raising and formation capitalization transactions. Noah started his career in the principal investment group at Choice Hotels International focusing on select-service hotel transactions.Read More
Andrew FaulkManaging Director and Head of Australia
Andrew Faulk is a Managing Director and Australian country head for Forum Partners. Previously Andrew was head of St. George Bank’s structured and institutional real estate, which originated and managed A$3.5 billion in senior and mezzanine loans across commercial and development property assets nationally. Prior to this Andrew practiced law with Weil Gotshal in London and Clayton Utz in Sydney. He was also previously a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney, specializing in structured finance, transactions and restructures. Andrew holds bachelor degrees in Arts and Laws, Masters of Laws (Taxation) Masters of Applied Finance (Corporate Finance) and a Masters of Business Administration. He is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia and a Member of the Law Society (NSW).Read More
Gavin Norris Managing Director
Gavin Norris is a Managing Director and has over 20 years of international experience in investment management specializing in real estate and infrastructure. Previously he was head of opportunistic real estate at Eureka Funds Management (AXA Asia). Prior to this Gavin was with Colonial First State’s real estate funds management team. Gavin holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honors) and a Master of Commerce, International Finance.Read More
Renee Farmer Senior Advisor -
Asset Management & Administration
Renee Farmer has over 25 years’ experience as a Senior Executive driving strategy, operations, investment management, and business development. Prior to joining Forum Partners, Renee spent 15 years in Investment Management at Goldman Sachs and 7 years in Asset Management at Westfield Shopping Group. Read More
JulieAnn Villanueva-Barela Director of Finance
JulieAnn Villanueva-Barela has primary responsibility for the firm’s accounting and financial reporting. Prior to joining Forum Partners, she spent six years with the accounting firm Neff & Ricci LLP, most recently as a Audit Manager. She has an BA (cum laude) in business administration from the University of New Mexico. Read More
Joshua O'Connor General Counsel
Joshua O’Connor is the General Counsel of Forum Partners and is based in the UK. He has significant experience in commercial property law, dispute resolution and commercial litigation. He applies this experience to advise Forum Partners on an array of cross-border transaction and structuring considerations.
Joshua holds both a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) and Master of Laws (LL.M) from Manchester Law School and is a member of the Law Society. Read More
Jonathan (Bo) Sutcliffe Asset Management & Administration
Jonathan Sutcliffe is responsible for residential asset management and administration including due diligence and execution. Previously Bo was a residential portfolio manager with McGrath Limited and commercial property manager for Ooh Media Limited.Read More
Patrick LeBlanc National Sales Director
Patrick LeBlanc brings almost 15 years of professional experience to his role with Forum Partners. Most recently he worked at Megatel Capital Investment, where he directed their West Coast regional sales team in capital raise efforts for residential real estate funds. During his tenure, he led its top producing territory, and prior to that, he served as top wholesaler for 10 consecutive quarters at Hartman Income REIT.
He started his career on the insurance side of the business as a senior marketing consultant for Dressander BHC, where he managed a book of nearly $50 million in annuity production and assisted as many as 30 carrier partners and broker-dealers, and over 500 financial planners conceptualize individual marketing plans to increase their business.
LeBlanc earned his bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State University and holds his FINRA Series 7 and 66 licenses. He is also licensed to sell life and health insurance.Read More