½ Day Event: Digital Transformation

Sara Maffey is the Head of Industry Relations at Local Logic, a location intelligence company, where she combines her passions for real estate development and placemaking with data analytics and PropTech. She is responsible for building Local Logic’s brand and driving its growth across the U.S. and Canada. Sara has deep experience throughout the built environment lifecycle. She previously served as the Managing Director of Placemaking and board member at commercial real estate services and advisory firm Transwestern, where she led the repositioning of major commercial assets. Her career also includes running her own economic development consulting firm, Edgewood Strategies, and stints with real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and a Presidential Management Fellowship with the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Obama Administration. Sara holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Yale University and a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Design and Architecture from New York University.

Gregg is an experienced and passionate Internet and real estate executive, investor, advisor, co-founder and industry leader with pre- and post-launch experience at companies like IAC’s Ticketmaster/Citysearch, Cars.com, Realtor.com/Move, and RealSavvy.com, where he most recently served as investor/advisor and EVP Sales. Gregg is also a partner/owner at Austin-based Hindsite 20/20 Real Estate Investments, which produces $150MM+ in transactions annually. Learn more about MyHouseby Innovations.

An architect by trade, Jennifer spent more than 13 years as a designer, product development manager and director with leading production homebuilding companies, including Ryland, Beazer and PulteGroup before joining Higharc in 2019. Her expertise includes consumer research, feasibility studies, strategic planning, product catalogs, full architectural services, design and value engineering.

Mike Wisnefski has been on the cutting edge of trading, as well as a FinTech innovator in the commodity trading business, for more than 20 years. In addition to co-founding MaterialsXchange and serving as its CEO, Mike is the owner of STX Trading, a proprietary firm that specializes in lumber futures and options. With a deep understanding of trading market dynamics, Mike worked with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) group to introduce electronic trading to the lumber futures exchange. Mike was Vice President of Business Development for Bloch Lumber, a wholesale lumber distributor, where he expanded the risk management program and developed an overseas lumber import department.

John spent almost two decades in retail leadership and strategy working for a variety of global lifestyle brands during a time of hyper growth and emergence. From Abercrombie & Fitch, to Michael Kors before their IPO, to the first Brand House Division store for Under Armour he has had the privilege of working for some of the most powerful lifestyle brands known to consumers. He is an expert in retail strategy, customer experience, and the recruitment and training of teams and people. John grew up in a family built-on entrepreneurial spirit. His mother, Kathleen Cecilian, has helped to create powerful brands for some of the most respected master planned community developers across North America.  For years, John has gleaned insights into the broken nature of the customer journey in real estate and noticed a parallel between retail and residential real estate. In the end of 2018, John assembled a dynamic team of outside industry experts and formed Cecilian Partners. A business focused on transforming customer experience through data, technology, and human capital. He holds a Master of Business Administration in Systems Thinking and Global Finance from Villanova University, and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Psychology from Duquesne University. He is a full member of the Urban Land Institute.

For more than 20 years, Betsy Scott has excelled at helping people think differently by taking complex ideas and concepts, analyzing them from the perspective of others, and translating the results into action. If you want to meet people bringing innovation to the housing industry, or know what’s new, she’s your ticket. A natural collaborator with a great social sense, she connects the dots between smart people, forward-thinking companies and big ideas. With Betsy in your corner, everyone wins. That’s why she helms the Housing Innovation Alliance, a passion she’s pursued since 2008 with founding partner IBACOS and now as the Executive Director, Program + Engagement of an independent entity focused on bringing business and technical innovation to housing. Her responsibilities for strategic planning, member and sponsor engagement, and programming speak to her fierce attention to detail, creative mind, and ability to make complex subjects tangible, relevant and actionable.  She adds depth to ideas, finds and shares new opportunities, and conveys greater understanding to business issues. Armed with a degree in Marketing from the University of Pittsburgh, Betsy cut her teeth in the agency world and as an independent B2B and B2C marketing consultant before joining IBACOS in 2006. In her off-time, she’s either feeding her farm-to-table foodie jones, working on her century-old house, or spending time with her husband and fur children, Watson and Finnegan, at one of Pittsburgh’s many parks and rivers.