Schonefeld is a 30+ year career professional in commercial real estate lending and securities capped by founding Bridger Commercial Funding, a leading CMBS lending firm. He grew Bridger to 100 staff, 8 offices nationwide, $5 billion in loan funding and $23 million in annual revenue. Investors in Bridger included Prudential Securities (NY), C3 Holdings (KS), Bank of America Strategic Investments (NC), and Koch Ventures (KS). Since 2010, Schonefeld has been solely involved in arranging private mortgages in commercial real estate, investing on his own behalf and that of others. Schonefeld has held various executive positions in the commercial real estate arena including Senior Manager in BofA's real estate capital markets group, the CFO of a mortgage banking firm in San Francisco, and an officer in five publicly traded mortgage loan REITs. Schonefeld holds a BS in Business from the University of San Francisco, an MBA in finance from San Francisco State University and is an active California real estate broker.

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CA DRE License #00717346

Based in San Diego, Ian Stuart brings 30 years of banking and commercial real estate lending experience to AR Financial, where he leads loan originations and investor relations for the Southern region. Ian has held positions of increasing responsibility with multiple banks, starting as a Corporate Banking Trainee at Bank of America in 1985 and culminating as V.P. and Regional Director of Originations for the Wells Fargo Real Estate Capital Group. Ian ultimately left Wells Fargo to become an early shareholder and officer of the newly formed Commercial Capital Bank in 1999. Commercial Capital grew exponentially as a commercial and multi-family lender from zero to $2 billion in market capitalization in only five years and was sold to Washington Mutual in 2007. Ian is a multi-state investor in several diverse sectors of commercial real estate and has invested alongside our outside investors in nearly every AR Financial loan. 

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Ian enjoys exploring the outdoors on his road and mountain bicycles, and also enjoys almost any other outdoor, muscle-powered activity. He and his partner Laura have five grown children and reside in San Diego with their dog Trixie and cat Morty. 

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CA DRE License #01268113

Karen Kauh is an experienced lender with over 25 years in banking and finance, inclusive of 5 years managing and training a team of underwriters and analysts. She has closed over $1 billion dollars in commercial real estate financing representing over 200 transactions nationwide. Her underwritten loans include both permanent, construction, and bridge loans secured by a variety of commercial property types including office, retail, multi-family, manufactured housing, and hotels. Ms. Kauh's career includes 10 years with Wells Fargo Bank in internal audit and community lending functions, 9 years with Bridger Commercial Funding underwriting CMBS loans and 4 years with AR Financial underwriting structured real estate loans. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of California, San Diego, and is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California. 

Sydney Schonefeld joined AR Financial in March of 2020 as an Operations Manager and in her first three months assisted the team in funding $3.7 million in loans. Prior to AR Financial, she worked at Marcus & Millichap, an international commercial real estate brokerage firm. While there, she worked on one of the top earning investment sales teams at the firm's San Francisco office aiding in the closing of over $75 million in real estate transactions. Sydney graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut in May of 2018 where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies.

During college she held a variety of internship positions in real estate related companies and played on the varsity women's tennis team. She continues to play tennis in her free time and has recently become a pickle ball enthusiast. 

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CA DRE License # 02153283

Spence Sarazin is an experienced lender with 9 years of real estate and business lending experience. Spence spent 5 years as a Relationship Manager at First Republic Bank where he provided private banking and wealth services to clientele of corporations and high-net-worth households including residential mortgage underwriting, originations, and servicing. He passed the Series 7 and Series 63 securities licensing exams in 2018. 

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Spence holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from New York University. He is an avid road cyclist, skier, and triathlete who completed an Ironman in 2021. 

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CA DRE License # 02228684