CUREC Faculty

Mike DelPrete
Scholar in Residence

mdelprete@gmail.com

Mike is a new ventures guy, and has spent his career building, investing in, and growing new businesses. He's a former tech entrepreneur, CEO, strategy director, and head of corporate development with broad expertise in online real estate tech.

Mike is internationally recognized as an expert and thought-leader in real estate tech. His evidence-based analysis is widely read by global leaders, and he is a sought-after strategy and new ventures consultant.

By age 30, Mike had boot-strapped and sold his own startup tech firm, Agora Games. Agora worked on epic games such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. Four years in with a reach of over 100 million gamers, Mike sold Agora to the eSports giant Major League Gaming. After Agora, Mike moved to New Zealand to work as a corporate strategist identifying investment opportunities at Trade Me -- New Zealand's largest marketplace and classifieds website -- a $2 billion business.

During his time at Trade Me, Mike analyzed hundreds of promising businesses for potential investment and acquisition with an eye focused on growth. He led several seven- and eight-digit investments.

After moving back to the U.S. in 2016, Mike intensified his focus on online real estate tech. He has travelled the world forging relationships with leading property portals and real estate tech startups, gathering first-hand knowledge and insights on tech trends and themes. He enjoys working with startups, advising founders and executives, and working on challenging entrepreneurial projects.

Craig Ferraro
Lecturer

Craig is the managing partner of East West Partners, a resort and urban area real estate development firm with projects from Charleston, SC to Vail, CO to Kauai, HI. As managing partner, Craig oversees the overall practice, management and day-to-day operations of East West Partners and each of its development projects. Craig enriched his love for skiing and the outdoors as Chief Financial Officer of Aspen Skiing Company. Craig earned a BS in Accounting from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

John Gallo
Lecturer

Dr. Gallo has over twenty-five years in business academia teaching graduate and undergraduate finance courses, most recently at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. His research has been published in financial journals including Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, Journal of Portfolio Management, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Journal of Financial Services Research. He also has over twenty-five years of experience in the investment industry serving as a portfolio manager, research analyst, and compliance officer. He is currently Chief Investment Officer and Director of Research for Liberty Partners Financial Services, LLC, a FINRA member broker-dealer and Registered Investment Advisor. John holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and the Certified Financial Planner professional designations in addition to six FINRA securities licenses.

Matt Morris
Lecturer

matthew.morris@colorado.edu

Matt Morris is an Instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Construction Engineering and Management program in the Department of Civil, Environment al and Architectural Engineering. Matt teaches the Construction Engineering and Management Fundamentals course for the Real Estate Development Ivanoff Track.

Matt was formerly a Captain in the U.S. Air Force where he led engineering and construction projects and taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point as an assistant professor in the Civil and Mechanical Engineering department. Matt was also a construction Project Manager at Mortenson Construction and led multiple projects in the Denver area.

Education

BS, Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder
MS, Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tom Ragonetti
Lecturer

tjr@ottenjohnson.com

Thomas J. Ragonetti is a senior shareholder and director of Otten Johnson Robinson Neff + Ragonetti PC, a leading commercial law firm in Denver, where he specializes in land use, government regulation, urban and real estate development and construction law. He represents private and public sector clients locally and nationally in matters involving complex governmental approvals and large scale development and construction, and he is active in civic matters including the same issues. He has degrees in law from Harvard Law School and in City Planning from Cornell University. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, in both land use and real estate; in the top tier of land use lawyers, the top tier of real estate lawyers, and the top tier of resort lawyers in the Chambers USA guide and in Colorado Super Lawyers. He has just been named the winner of a 2014 Corporate Intl Magazine Global Award as “Land Use Law – Attorney of the Year in Colorado.” He is an adjunct professor in the School of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado at Denver, where he teaches Growth Management and “The New American Landscape,” and he is an adjunct professor in the University of Denver College of Law where he teaches Land Use Planning and related subjects. He also teaches at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business on the same topics. He is Chairman and past President of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute and has served on the Colorado Land Use Commission. He has served as co-chair of The Colorado Blue Ribbon Panel on Housing. He frequently chairs and speaks in continuing legal education and planning programs devoted to land use, development, and related topics.

Tim Van Meter
Lecturer

tim@vmwp.com

Tim Van Meter, a firm partner and founder [1989] of Van Meter Williams Pollack, LLP, an Architecture and Urban Design firm in San Francisco and Denver, is a leading architect and urban designer whose work has focused on green architecture and sustainable urban design for the last 23 years. Tim heads the firm’s Denver office, which he established in 1999. He has led the design team on many of the firm’s complex and award-winning architecture and urban design projects in Colorado, Hawaii, Texas, New Mexico, and California. He is experienced in a wide range of architecture and urban design projects at various scales, focusing on transit-oriented development, neighborhood design, mixed-use urban infill, adaptive reuse, and high density and affordable housing.

On the national level, Tim is an Urban Design Adviser for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s [EPA] Smart Growth Program and sat on the Board for Design Arts Grants for the National Endowments for the Arts [NEA]. He also was co-chair of CNU XVII, the 2009 national conference of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and is a board member of the Colorado chapter. He is a licensed architect in Colorado, California, Hawaii, Texas and Utah.

Education

BS, Environmental Design, University of Colorado