Profile

As a vertically integrated real estate platform, Ascendant is led by a managing partnership comprised of CEO Russell Gimelstob, Co-President & CIO Alex Halpern, and Co-President & COO Eric Calder, which has collectively acquired and developed more than $20 billion of multifamily, retail, hospitality and office assets. Founded on the basis of creating a more investor-friendly and specialized format of real estate investing, the firm has built a team of sector-level specialists across its three operating verticals, and relies on continuous, cross-pollenating dialogue with its limited partners.

Russell Gimelstob
Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Prior to founding Ascendant Capital Partners, Russell Gimelstob was Head of Acquisitions, Partner, Managing Director and Member of the Investment Committee of Dune Real Estate Partners, a manager of real estate private equity funds. Russell previously represented Ascendant on the board of Watermark Lodging Trust.

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Alex Halpern
Co-Founder, Co-President, and Chief Investment Officer

Alex Halpern is responsible for the oversight of Ascendant's investment activities, as well as the day-to-day management of the platform's hospitality, and select residential investments. Alex represented Ascendant on the board of Watermark Lodging Trust, is an active board member of Sentral, and is a board observer of DC Blox.

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Eric Calder
Partner, Co-President, and Chief Operating Officer

Prior to joining Ascendant Capital Partners, Eric Calder was the Co-Chief Investment Officer of Dune Real Estate Partners, a New York City-based real estate investment firm. At Dune, he was a member of the firm’s Investment Committee and led over $6 billion in transactions across the residential, retail, industrial, office and hospitality sectors.

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Ascendant has put together a world-class team of diverse individuals, each with an impressive background and knowledge base. Through close collaboration, we are able to continue to expand our services into new markets and locations across the globe.

Di Mo

Assistant Controller

Zach Gallin

Investor Relations

Dajana Cvijanovic

Executive Assistant

Lara Kiefer
Vice President

Lara Kiefer joined Ascendant Capital Partners in 2021. Ms. Kiefer is responsible for underwriting the Firm’s acquisition activities, as well as assisting in the asset management of existing investments.

Prior to joining Ascendant Capital Partners, Ms. Kiefer worked as an Investments Associate at CIM Group, a vertically integrated real estate private equity firm. Ms. Kiefer joined CIM Group in 2019 and worked in the company’s Los Angeles headquarters. While at CIM Group, she was involved in the firm’s U.S. acquisitions activity and managing existing assets across the data center, industrial, multifamily, office, and retail asset classes. During her tenure at CIM, she was involved in the closing of over $450 million worth of investments.

Prior to joining CIM, Ms. Kiefer was an analyst at Morgan Stanley in the Real Estate Investing group in San Francisco. In her role at Morgan Stanley, she was primarily focused on the underwriting of new investments across the hospitality, industrial, multifamily, office, and retail asset classes in Western U.S. markets. While at Morgan Stanley she was involved with the closing of over $800 million worth of investments for the firm’s opportunistic and core funds.

Ms. Kiefer graduated with honors from the University of Southern California and received a B.S. in Business Real Estate Finance.