Advisory Board

As the San Francisco managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle, a global commercial real estate firm, Jak Churton has negotiated millions of square feet of leasing transactions for clients in industries ranging from technology to professional services to healthcare. His diligent, caring style is proof positive that there’s more to real estate than wheeling and dealing. “The most important aspect is the lasting relationships we build with clients,” says Churton. As a fourth-generation San Franciscan, he leverages his intimate knowledge of the city to find the best location and structure for his clients. He lives in Marin County with his family and enjoys cooking, swimming, and cycling.

Mous ElBialy is the chief information officer at Kleiner Perkins, where he leads all technology efforts. Prior, Mous was the director of technology at Social Capital and the technology services manager at Sequoia Capital. He is an active board member for VCPEIT, a nonprofit community for forward-thinking technology executives, CIOs, CTOs, and key decision makers from private equity, venture capital, and leveraged buyout firms.

Curious, supportive, and a teacher at heart, Louise Englehart shines among top-echelon business consultants in the Bay Area. Her hybrid approach marries the formal principles of business management with the accountability, discipline, and planning techniques of professional coaching. “It’s a fantastic combination for getting powerful results,” says Englehart, who has vast experience in the building sector and specializes in helping design industry clients strategically grow their companies. About her motivation she remarks, “Success is when my clients begin to implement strategic business principles and surpass their goals.”

A Bay Area native, Heather Hebert’s career has centered on the intersection of design, wine, and writing. For over 25 years, she directed marketing for an international architecture firm specializing in hospitality design, where she guided the firm’s brand identity, wrote about the firm’s projects, and worked with their clients to develop their early brand concepts. In 2017, Heather left to pursue her love of storytelling and now works with numerous design, hospitality, and winery clients both large and small to help them develop and convey their stories. Her first book, The New Architecture of Wine, was published by Gibbs Smith Publishing in 2019. Her second, At Home in the Wine Country (Gibbs Smith), was released in 2021.

A branding and marketing consultant, Nish Nadaraja is deeply passionate about community management, brand evangelism, and customer loyalty. Nish is known for being one of Yelp’s first employees, serving as the brand and marketing director and original community manager. Today, he’s a restaurant investor (Foreign Cinema, Noosh) and a Commonwealth Club of California board member.

Alf Nucifora is chairman and founder of LuxeSF, an influential sales and marketing organization known for its thought leadership and trend foresight in the luxury marketplace. The Australian-born, Harvard-trained professional brings more than three decades of experience in multinational advertising and Fortune 500 strategy to the respected Bay Area group, which specializes in real estate, wine, travel, home, style, and design. Additional expertise in brokered relationships, top-tier networking, and event programming have made LuxeSF a model in the industry.

Cassie Rosenthal is a third-generation stakeholder and the chief marketing officer of her family’s commercial finance firm, Rosenthal & Rosenthal—the largest privately held lending company in the nation. Before this, she co-owned and directed the New York City and Berlin art galleries of Goff + Rosenthal. Her thought leadership has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, WWD, Footwear News, BBC Radio, and CNBC. A native New Yorker, Rosenthal received her BA from Colgate University and holds a master’s degree in art history from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She and her husband are avid travelers and frequent visitors to California wine country.

Zahid Sardar is a San Francisco–based editor, writer, educator, and curator specializing in architecture, interiors, and design. Currently, he coproduces a webcast series, Spotlight with Zahid Sardar, featuring West Coast design personalities. In addition to serving as an editor at SPACES magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle, Zahid has written several books and taught design history at the California College of the Arts. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Dwell, Elle Décor, and House Beautiful.

Melissa Wagner, founder of Wagner Creative, is a marketing and business development professional who has found her niche in the architecture, design, and construction industries. An important part of her bicoastal practice, she says, is “crafting an integrated, purposeful brand strategy for each client and promoting women in design.” Her full-service agency combines creative vision and intelligent networking and values the potential of collaborative promotion. Originally from Detroit, Wagner is also a fine artist, maintaining her creative practice at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.