VMD Executive Team
Jim Vitas founded VMD Companies in 2004 and is the Executive Chairman and Founder of the firm. At VMD, Mr. Vitas focuses on the commercial real estate market, from acquisition and entitlements through financing, leasing and disposition. With special efforts directed towards opportunistic and value-add investment strategies, Mr. Vitas strives to optimize the firm’s yields through equity syndication and creative debt structuring.
Mr. Vitas has since been involved in growing the organization by launching multiple verticals, thus ensuring the company remains multi-faceted. Mr. Vitas enjoys deeply analyzing consumer trends and positioning the firm in a manner that will allow it to capitalize on market gyrations.
In 2012 VMD was awarded project of the year by the New Hampshire Planners Associate and American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2016 VMD was awarded project of the year by the State of New Hampshire. Under Jim’s stewardship, VMD has actively overseen and developed in excess of $500MM in real estate, with projects ranging from New England to South Florida.
Mr. Vitas graduated from the University of New Hampshire with degrees in: Business Management, Communications and a Minor in community development. Jim was heavily involved in continuing education programs throughout his college tenure, such as: LEED Accreditation, Development from Beginning to End, and the John T. Riordan School of Professional Development which was hosted in Lansing, Michigan.
Dave Durgin joined VMD Companies as the Chief Operating Officer, with an additional focus on commercial leasing, operations, and asset management.
Prior to joining VMD, Mr. Durgin started his career in real estate focusing on accounting and finance before shifting to operations. He has 5 years of financial and operational experience in the real estate industry, including leasing, property and consolidated budgeting, capital project management, and software integration. Most recently, Mr. Durgin managed the leasing and operations for a diversified portfolio valued over $350M, consisting of multi-family, retail, and office assets located throughout Greater Boston.
He holds a B.S. in Accounting and a M.B.A. from Southern New Hampshire University.
Prior to joining VMD, Mr. Beaton worked at Boston Capital, where he was responsible for the disposition of real estate assets and limited partner interests, maximizing yield for the company’s investors. Since joining Boston Capital in 2015, he assisted in closing more than 300 real estate transactions valued over $1.0 Billion. James has more than 6 years of diversified experience within the real estate industry, including investment sales/capital transactions, asset management and underwriting of a variety of property types across the country.
Mr. Beaton earned a B.S. in Finance from Bentley University. He is a licensed Real Estate Salesperson in Massachusetts.
Kirk Balcom joined VMD Companies as the Director of Construction, his focus on all construction related activities. Mr. Balcom offers over 19 years of construction industry experience bringing a vast knowledge of construction techniques and general practices. He has in-depth experience managing a diverse range of large-scale projects that include new construction and renovation work, from several patient-care facilities, K-12 schools, to occupied additions, and building renovation.
Prior to joining VMD, Mr. Balcom managed all aspects of public, ground-up construction projects including construction document control, complete project financial management, schedule performance, with constant collaboration with owners, architects and subcontractors throughout the duration of each project. He has successfully managed both LEED Platinum and LEED Silver certified projects.
Mr. Balcom earned a B.S. in Construction Engineering from the Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Steve Gallagher joined VMD as Director of Development, with a responsibility for leading the company’s development projects from acquisitions through stabilization. He has extensive experience in real estate finance, design, entitlements, and construction.
Prior to his time at VMD, Steve worked as a real estate developer in Massachusetts and as an architect in Massachusetts and New York. He also has years of site experience in the construction industry. Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in Real Estate Development from MIT. He is a licensed architect in Massachusetts.
Michael Ghiloni joined VMD Companies as the Controller. In this role he handles all accounting responsibilities and financial reporting at both the asset and corporate level. He is responsible for budgeting and forecasting for all assets as well as implementing internal controls to mitigate the company’s risk. In addition, he works closely with the development team on underwriting potential investments and helps to maintain relationships with lenders on behalf of the company.
Prior to VMD, he held financial leadership positions at several real estate companies in Boston, as well as a national general contractor. He handled underwriting, financial reporting, system integration, and both project and property accounting for assets within all industries in these roles.
Mr. Ghiloni earned both a B.S. in Finance and M.B.A. from Providence College.
Aaron Peterson brings a wealth of experience and motivation to VMD Companies in his role as Facilities Manager. After serving nine years in the United States Navy, he returned home to Massachusetts and set his sights on a career in Facilities Maintenance.
Focusing on safety, best practices, and tenant satisfaction, Mr. Peterson excelled in technical roles while employed at CBRE and Longfellow Real Estate Partners. VMD Companies gives him the opportunity to achieve his maximum potential in the high stakes, team oriented environment that characterized his military service.
Mr. Peterson enjoys volunteering at his local VFW Post and is an avid bass fisherman.
Patrick Venne is a zealous attorney and an effective, business minded problem solver. He serves as General Counsel for VMD Companies and has extensive experience permitting large-scale developments, conducting due diligence for and closing complex transactions, negotiating and drafting value-add leases and other agreements and, when necessary, litigating related matters in state and federal courts across the United States. In recent years, he has managed the acquisition and disposition of millions of square feet of commercial real estate across myriad asset classes, closed hundreds of millions in associated financial transactions, and worked with publicly traded companies as well as their large national and international law firms on related matters.
Prior to joining VMD Companies, Patrick spent a decade as general counsel for a national commercial real estate investment firm based out of southern Florida. In prior careers, he also served as a municipal planning and development director, town attorney, and public sector chief executive—a role in which he was a member of the International City and County Managers Association, reported directly to the governing board, and was responsible for all municipal departments and their multi-million-dollar operating budgets. Patrick has also presented and written professionally about a number of professional topics to diverse audiences including as a magazine articles author and a panel expert for trade organizations as well as a regional chapter of the American Planning Association.
As an undergraduate Patrick studied government, was a merit scholar in economics, obtained departmental honors and graduated in the top 5% of his class prior to attending law school, where he finished first in his class for advanced land use law while concurrently completing a graduate degree in planning & development. He also holds a certificate of completion from the Form Based Codes Institute, various state-level certifications in code enforcement and land use, a graduate certificate in commercial real estate through Boston University and has studied advanced real estate finance through NAIOP.
Jonathan Ross’ more than 30 years of experience spans real estate investment and portfolio management, the insurance industry, capital markets and structured finance. He joined VMD from BentallGreenOak (BGO) where he was Managing Director responsible for leading capital raising and investment initiatives in Israel and leading BGO’s insurance solutions initiatives. Prior to BGO, Ross was Head of International Real Estate at Migdal Insurance, Israel’s largest insurance company and pension manager. In this role, Ross spearheaded a $5 Billion strategy of core plus and value add investing primarily in multifamily, offices and industrial asset classes across the U.S. and Western Europe. Before that, Ross was head of investments for a real estate investment house for HNW investors. Prior to the GFC, he spent his career in the capital markets initially as an architect of the TASE’s traded options market, and then trading and structuring derivatives, structured products and securitization. Ross earned his Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Michigan.
Doug Poutasse is an Advisory Board Member to VMD Companies working closely with senior management on thematic investment strategies. In addition, Doug is a Senior Adviser to Tristan Capital and an Investment Committee Member. Doug recently retired from his position as Head of Strategy and Research at real estate advisor BentallGreenOak (BGO. He now serves as an independent member of three BGO client investment committees. He also serves as an independent director of NewTower Trust Company, which serves as the trust company for BGO’s MEPT fund and as manager for its BGO Diversified Fund. These are all positions of independent fiduciary responsibility and are all focused on North American investments.
He has previously served as Executive Director of NCREIF and as the Chief Investment Strategist of AEW Capital Management (USA). With over 30 years of experience as an economic analyst and forecaster, Doug has served as an important member on the Investment Committee of all funds created by Curzon / AEW with Ric Lewis and Simon Martin since the creation of Curzon Global Partners in 1999. He chaired AEW’s Investment Policy Group and was a voting member of its Investment Committee. As the former head of AEW Research, Doug was responsible for developing a number of the analytical tools now applied to the European markets by AEW Europe. Prior to joining AEW in 1991, Doug was with F.W. Dodge, where he managed real estate and construction forecasting. He has also been manager of Metropolitan Forecasting for DRI/McGraw-Hill. Doug is a past President and member of the Board of Directors of NCREIF and was the Chair of the Real Estate Information Standards Board from 2007 to 2010. He has also been an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the Pension Real Estate Association, which awarded him the Graaskamp Award in 2005 for his high-quality research in the area of institutional investment in real estate. He is a graduate of Harvard University (B.A.).
Anthony Orso Joins NKF Capital Markets as President of Capital Markets Strategies (PRNewsfoto/NKF Capital Markets). Anthony Orso is an Advisory Board Member to VMD Companies, working closely with senior management on capital raising and deal/fund structuring. Anthony serves as President of Capital Markets Strategies, the securities division of Newmark. Anthony also oversees the operation of Newmark Securities, Newmark's FINRA-registered Broker-Dealer that provides investment banking and corporate finance services to institutional clients, including M&A Advisory, Private REITs, Leverage Finance, Fairness Opinions and Debt Restructuring. Since joining Newmark in 2018, Anthony and his team have closed $6.0 billion in debt and equity financing. Anthony is the Co-Founder and former CEO of CCRE (Cantor Commercial Real Estate), Cantor Fitzgerald's fully integrated commercial and multifamily real estate finance company. During his tenure as CEO, CCRE closed approximately $50 billion in loans and opened locations across the United States. In 2014, CCRE was ranked as the No. 1 Fastest Growing Company by Crain's New York Business. That same year, Anthony was named No. 1 in Commercial Observer's 50 Most Important People in Commercial Real Estate Finance. Prior to CCRE, Anthony was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse and Co-Head of the Credit Suisse Real Estate Direct Group, where he was responsible for over $200 billion in North American real estate loans. Anthony also oversaw the expansion of the business in the United States, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East. Anthony earned a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from Columbia Business School and a Bacherlor of Arts degree from St. John’s University. Active in his community, he serves on the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York.
Steve Anderson is the Founder and Principal of Hickory Real Estate Advisors. Mr. Anderson was formerly the CEO of LH Charney Associates in New York City, where he oversaw a portfolio consisting of two high-rise office buildings in Times Square and a 250,00 sf shopping center in Manchester, CT.
Prior to joining LHC, he enjoyed a 20-year career in the commercial real estate lending arena as a Managing Director at RBS Greenwich Capital and later Loan Core Capital, where he originated the acquisition loan on One American Legion Highway on behalf of VMD and Atlantic Management. Mr. Anderson’s real estate career began in 1983 as a leasing broker in CBRE’s Midtown New York City office and spanned 15 years with a primary focus on Tenant Representation.
Mr. Anderson lives with his wife in Darien, CT and summers in West Falmouth, MA.
Stephen G. Miller is currently the Co-President of SB360 Capital Partners, LLC one of the premier asset disposition firms in North America. During his career, Stephen has led the charge on many of the largest multi-asset disposition events and has been able to provide enhanced yields to all constituents. He’s widely recognized as an industry leader in the evolution of the disposition model. Stephen was the Co-CEO of Polaroid, Linens ‘N Things, Bombay, and he served as a member of the board of directors for The Sharper Image.
Stephen’s team led the effort in the acquisition and repositioning of these high-profile brands into a licensing model for the global marketplace. These transactions resulted in successful and profitable turnarounds, and returns to their investors. Stephen Graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
