Stephen Kelly
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
Boston, MA, United States
Toptal member since December 16, 2020
With 20 years of experience working with family offices, institutional and entrepreneurial private equity funds, and consulting Big Four accounting firms, Stephen brings unique insights into the variety of investor mindsets. He freelances to help startups and established investors determine ideal investment, asset management, and fundraising strategies. As a senior executive, he has advised on multi-billion mergers, equity raises exceeding $2 billion, and transactions totaling over $5 billion.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Industry Expertise
Other Expertise
Work Experience
Managing Director | COO
Grand Coast Capital Group, LLC
- Oversaw an over $150 million debt and equity portfolio comprised of multiple asset classes across the United States and Ireland.
- Built an asset and portfolio management platform from the ground up for both debt and equity investments. Determined investment parameters, drafted property management agreements, and modeled asset valuations for the entire equity portfolio.
- Produced business plans, ran lease negotiations and capital projects across retail, office, and multifamily equity investments. Created loan risk ratings, asset management processes, and monthly review process for debt portfolio.
- Designed troubled loan and real estate owned (REO) workout processes and procedures, resulting in millions of dollars saved across the lending portfolio.
Asset Manager | Portfolio Manager
TA Realty, LLC
- Managed leasing of 3.7 million square feet of retail, industrial, and office assets and more than 1,100 multifamily units.
- Developed comprehensive asset strategies, included hiring local leasing and property management teams and detailed ROI and financial analysis for potential capital improvement projects to add, maintain, or recapture value.
- Served as a co-portfolio manager for a $1.6 billion core fund of retail, industrial, office, and multifamily assets.
- Assisted in developing and executing the fund's operational and investment plan, including the adoption of a top-down research-driven portfolio management approach to market selection and investment strategy.
- Evaluated potential acquisitions from an adjusted risk and return basis across a diverse portfolio of core assets. Built detailed financial, market, and submarket statistics model to project NOI growth and appreciation.
Asset Manager
REIT Management & Research, LLC
- Led the lease negotiations and strategic planning for a 60-asset/9.6 million square feet portfolio of office and industrial assets.
- Formulated and executed business plans for each asset. Produced returns analyses and valuations, researched market leasing and sales assumptions, and recommended detailed hold, develop, and sell strategies.
- Selected and managed brokerage groups responsible for sales and leasing. Managed in-house property management, budgeted for revenues, expenses, and capital projects, and performed financial reviews for prospective tenants.
Senior Manager
Ernst & Young Global Limited
- Advised clients on underwriting, value creation, development programming and feasibility, and capital raising options. As a Boston office leader, I expanded existing relationships and created new ones to generate incremental business.
- Managed teams in performing due diligence, capital markets, and advisory assignments for institutional investment managers, REITs, banks and non-traditional lenders, SWFs, foreign entities, and local and regional municipalities.
- Underwrote over $1 billion in retail, office, and multifamily developments and acquisitions as part of the due diligence process for clients, including Chinese and Middle Eastern organizations, investment banks, and real estate PE fund managers.
Associate Vice President (Acquisitions and Investment Sales)
BlueGate Partners, LLC
- Provided buy-side guidance for high net worth family office and investment sales services for institutional clients.
- Drafted PPM and supported fundraising effort for multiple CMBS funds targeting underpriced AAA-rated bonds and capitalizing on Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). Developed an underwriting approach and created a portfolio management model.
- Led the PPM preparation for a $35 million Florida real estate tax certificate fund. Created and modeled underwriting methodology for auction bids. Managed portfolio and constructed a tracking module for the portfolio.
- Advised a sovereign wealth fund on a financing strategy for a multibillion-dollar midtown Manhattan office portfolio.
- Formulated valuation, assembled an offering memorandum (OM), managed due diligence process, and engaged in contract negotiations for more than $300 million in transactions.
Senior Associate
RCLCO
- Delivered advisory and valuation services to PE firms, opportunity funds, REITs, developers, and government agencies.
- Designed and built comparative cash flow, risk analysis, and valuation models for leading hotel operator and developer for two luxury hotel properties in New York City and DC, totaling over 890 hotel keys and valued at over $580 million.
- Built model to value the master-planned community on 3,000-acre landholding in Florida. Performed due diligence to forecast revenue, costs, and project phasing while overseeing the duties of an outside consultant team of five.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance, Real Estate
Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business - Durham, NC
Bachelor of Arts in Economics
Middlebury College - Middlebury, VT
Skills
Finance
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), Valuation, Fundraising, Fund Structure, Financial Modeling, Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Market Research, Valuation Modeling, Revenue & Expense Projections, Investment Memoranda, Forecasting, Capital Raising, Credit/Debt, Debt, Secured Loans, Cash Flow Modeling, Capital Formation Strategy, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Budgeting, Lending, Commercial Mortgage-backed Securities (CMBS), Capital Structuring, Evergreen Funding, Asset-based Lending, Home Lending, Accounting, CFO, Asset Valuation, DCF Valuation
Output Software
Microsoft Excel
Industry Expertise
Real Estate, Commercial Real Estate Analysis, Asset Management, Residential Real Estate, Financial Services, Real Estate Development, Venture Capital
Geographic Expertise
United States
Other
Waterfall Modeling, Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), Negotiation, Financial Analysis, Modeling, Underwriting, Investment Strategy, Investor Presentations, Deal Structuring, Financing, Investment Banking, Business Strategy, Distressed/Special Situations, Investor Relations, Pitch Decks, Pitch Deck Consultant, Excel 365, Investment Analysis, Business Plan Consulting, Investor Reporting, Family Office, Argus, Fundraising Strategy, Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF), Economics, Economic Analysis, Portfolio Analytics, Portfolio Management, Business Planning, Consulting, Urban Development, Interim CFO, Startups, Complex Transaction Agreements, Luxury Industry, Operations, P&L Analysis, Revenue Strategy, Sensitivity Analysis
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring