Patience. Experience. Focusing on the long view. They all add up to the confidence to craft and execute upon customized non-correlated investment theses. At Katz Capital, we take a multi-strategy, value-oriented approach to analytical investing, with the goal to build consistent returns over the long run. We focus on investing in the broader real estate and financial services sectors in strategic locations throughout Florida, Illinois, and the United States, and augmenting returns with non-capital intensive operations. Our goal is to strive towards consistently building wealth for our investors over a broad time horizon.
Bullish on the long view
Are we steadfast in our commitment to honesty, integrity and excellence? Absolutely. Do we take pride in our patient, value-oriented, long view approach? Without a doubt. We’ve found great success in diligently forging our own unique path.
Focused on risk.
Brian Katz, CFA
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
As an entrepreneur with an extensive risk management, banking and bank regulatory background, Brian founded Katz Capital in 2011 and has nurtured its growth as CEO ever since. Brian began his career by launching his own business, Bottlebid.com. In 2001, he went on to join the Office of the Comptroller of Currency as an Associate National Bank Examiner, and was involved in capital adequacy and earnings stability reviews, as well as institutional risk and risk management practices examinations. He then joined Goldman Sachs’ Credit Risk Management & Advisory group. His duties included performing credit analysis across multiple industries to determine internal credit ratings and aggregate exposure levels for jointly managed portfolios with $5 billion of exposure. Brian has also worked in senior vice president roles for two community banks, overseeing loan administration and operations, where he developed problem loan management software, performed problem/non-performing loan analysis and workout, allowance for loan and lease losses determination, capital planning, liquidity planning, and regulatory assistance. Currently, Brian is a board member at Resource Bank, NA.. Brian is a licensed Florida Real Estate Broker Associate, Resident General Lines Insurance Agent and Mortgage Loan Officer. Brian graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2000, and received his MBA, as a Millennium Fellow, from George Washington School of Business in 2006.
Justin Nikolich, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Justin serves as Katz Capital’s Chief Financial Officer. He has a deep understanding of an array of fund structures including masters/feeders, segregated portfolio companies, managed accounts, blocker corporations, multi-currency share classes, carried interest, and special purpose liquidity vehicles. To put it in simple terms: he’s good. Prior to joining the Katz Capital team, Justin had been with PricewaterhouseCoopers since 2010, and was responsible for managing large 40-person teams, determining and negotiating fees, billing/collecting, staffing, creating and monitoring budgets, coaching and reviewing staff work, and coordinating with foreign offices and specialists. His main industry focus was Financial Services clients, specifically alternative funds such as Hedge Funds, Private Equity Funds, and Mutual Funds. Justin also has experience in exotic and vanilla securities/derivatives and their valuation techniques, financial analysis and modeling, option-pricing models, probability weighted expected return, discounted cash flows, and market multiple methods. He was the lead instructor of both statewide general assurance and regional asset management training, covering topics such as complex valuation, financial statements of funds, hedge fund controls, and fund audits from start to finish. He received his Bachelors and Masters of Accounting from the University of South Florida. Justin is also a registered Certified Public Accountant with the State of Florida.
David Wiener
Chief Financial Officer for Financial and Insurance Services.
David joined Katz Capital in 2020 as Chief Financial Officer for the Insurance and Financial Services verticals. David has well over 20 years of financial and operational leadership, domestic and international, developed within the Financial Services, Insurance, Manufacturing, and Publishing industries. Prior to joining Katz Capital, David was Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer for American European Insurance Group, a north east regional P&C company. Driven by a commitment to excellence in the areas of financial management, reporting, treasury, M&A and leadership of HR, IT, Claims, Legal and Office Services, David is most driven by mentoring the leaders of tomorrow through development of talent within the organization. He has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting as well as his MBA in Finance from St. John’s University, Tobin College of Business in New York.
Crystal DiJoseph, CPA
Director of Accounting & Finance
Mrs. DiJoseph joined Katz Capital in 2019 in a growth position given the expansion of the platform. Crystal brings significant fund, real estate, and technology experience with a mix of public and private accounting and a focus on operational excellence. She is intimately familiar with small to large real estate products and related deal structuring, strategies, performance analysis and fees. She manages the financial reporting and treasury processes and is heavily involved in investor relations and strategy formation. Prior to joining Katz Capital, Mrs. DiJoseph served as the Fund Controller for a national private equity real estate investment firm, with $1.5B in AUM at its peak. During her time there, she assisted with fund launches & wind-downs, joint venture fee & waterfall structuring, and FP&A functions. She led a team of superior accounting professionals and was responsible for the investor relations function, deal accounting, management reporting, and quarterly reporting for approximately 45 joint venture deals and four private real estate funds. Prior to this, she was a Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She served domestic and international private equity, hedge, mutual and real estate fund clients. She also participated in PwC’s national engagement quality review program where she reviewed testing for the firm’s largest clients. Prior to PwC, she also served as a financial advisor for USAA Investment Company where she held her series 7 and FL 2-15 licenses.
Staying ahead of the herd.
Katz Capital’s real estate private equity services involve the direct owning of real estate and taking derivative exposure to real estate by issuing mortgages to investor-borrowers to refinance and rehabilitate multi-family, single-family and commercial properties. Seeking stable returns, our focus is attractive real estate markets within Florida that exhibit positive demographic trends.
To enhance control for our investors and ourselves, we take it a step further. In addition to Katz Capital’s investment and lending expertise, we provide real estate-related services that include brokerage, insurance, property management and title through our Pineywoods organization.
Strong strategy. Broad platform.
Our private equity portfolio is well diversified with investments spread across targeted real estate and financial services oriented ventures.
