Diane Smola is a Managing Director at Principal Real Estate, responsible for the development, implementation, and advancement of real estate investment solutions for the defined contribution market, as well as ongoing client and consultant relationships. Prior to joining Principal in 2021, Diane led investment consulting relationships with advisory and delegated corporate, public, and higher education defined contribution plans at various consulting firms. She has over 25 years of defined contribution experience. She actively serves on committees with Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), the Defined Contribution Alternatives Association (DCALTA), and the Defined Contribution Institute.
Mackenzie Clouse is a Commercial Real Estate professional with over 10 years of experience in institutional commercial real estate valuation services. She leads the daily valuation services business line at SitusAMC, focusing on daily net asset value reporting for commercial real estate funds.
David N. Levine is a principal at Groom Law Group, Chartered. He advises plan sponsors, advisors, and other service providers on a wide range of employee benefits matters, from retirement and executive compensation to health and welfare plan matters.
Mr. Levine was previously the Chair of the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (2011-2013) and serves in a number of leadership roles in the American Bar Association Tax Section’s Employee Benefits Committee. Mr. Levine regularly speaks on plan design, fiduciary governance, and legislative issues and contributes a recurring column to NAPA Net — The Magazine. He is recognized in the Chambers USA guide for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation. Mr. Levine received his J.D., from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his B.A., with general and departmental honors, from Johns Hopkins University.
Chris Kostyla is a Principal in the portfolio management team at BGO. Chris serves as Associate Portfolio Manager of the firm’s U.S. core, open-end commingled private equity real estate strategy and the BGO Daily Value Fund. Prior to rejoining BGO in 2022, Chris was a Consultant and Manager at Bain & Company. Prior to Bain, he was an acquisition officer at BGO and participated in the acquisition and development of more than $1.4 billion of multifamily, industrial, office, and retail properties in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast regions. Chris started his career at PwC and has more than 15 years of financial analysis and business strategy experience. Chris holds a BA and Master of Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business. Chris also holds a Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst designation.
Erin Cho is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington DC office where she leads the firm’s ERISA fiduciary practice.
Erin has extensive experience advising financial institutions, asset managers, insurance companies and other retirement plan service providers with respect to the many and varied services and financial products they offer to U.S. pension plans. She advises on the structuring and offering of investment vehicles of all types to ERISA and governmental plans including alternative investment and lifetime income funds for defined contribution plans, private credit funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, hedge funds, bank collective trusts and insurance company separate accounts. Erin also regularly represents pension investors in investment in private funds and other alternative investments.
