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Board of Advisors

We are proud to have affiliations with numerous industry and investment professionals who lend their time, energy, and expertise to our strategies and investment vehicles Driftwood Acquisitions Partners, LP; Driftwood Development Partners, LP; Driftwood Lending Partners, LP; and management company DHM Holdings, LP through their presence on our various Boards of Advisors and Investment Committees.

Federico Ayala joined the Family Office of Empresas FPY in 2012 as Chief Financial Officer. Throughout his tenure, he has been involved in the management of the firm’s investments and has helped structure and consolidate its international growth via real estate and hospitality sector investments in the United States. Prior to joining Empresas FPY, Federico worked in private equity and investment banking where he helped execute a wide variety of mergers and acquisitions transactions across various industries, in addition to debt restructuring. Federico holds a degree in Business Administration from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
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Stephen A. Blumenthal is a Managing Member of Coral Rock Development Group located in Coral Gables, Florida. During the past 30 years, via a vast array of real estate development and financing achievements, Steve has accumulated experience and success with industrial parks, hotels, retail shopping centers, single-tenant retail buildings, and office buildings. He also is the President of J/S Commercial Realty, Inc., a full-service real estate brokerage firm. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. Steve generously contributes his time and resources as a Founder at Baptist Hospital, a Golden Angel at Jackson Memorial Hospital, a Young President at Mount Sinai Hospital, and a Patron of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally, he is a Founder of Children’s Resources and sits on the Foundation Board of The Miami Cancer Institute.
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David Buddemeyer is Founder and President of Driftwood Hospitality Management, for which he oversees all operations and management of more than 80 hotels. He has successfully facilitated the financial turnaround and growth of several multi-dimensional hotel companies. Before launching Driftwood, David served as Chairman and CEO of Servico Hotels and Resorts, a NYSE hotel company. During his eight-year tenure as the company’s Executive Vice President, which began in 1990, he was responsible for all facets of Servico’s operations. Under David’s leadership, the company grew from 28 hotels to 140 hotels and from $42M to $650M in sales, with EBITDA growing at a compound annual rate of 41%, from $16M to $280M. In December 1998, Servico merged with another hotel company, bringing the organization’s portfolio to 180 hotels and more than 30,000 rooms. Upon the successful completion of this merger, David – along with several of his executive team members – left to launch Driftwood Hospitality Management, LLC. Prior to Servico, David served as Vice President of Operations for Prime Hospitality.
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Rafael A. Calderon is an entrepreneur, angel investor, owner of The Design House, LLC and a member of the Board of Directors for Driftwood Capital, formerly known as Driftwood Acquisitions and Development (DAD). He received his bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from Boston University, which earned him a spot as the assistant to the Chief Executive Officer of Syratech Corporation in Boston, MA. After five years as the go-to person for acquisitions and turnarounds at Syratech, Rafael earned an MBA from Harvard University, graduating in 2002. He then returned to Syratech to help restructure and sell the company to Lifetime Brands, Inc., which retained Rafael as President of the Home Decor Division. After three years, at Lifetime Brands, Inc. he moved to Nashville, TN to open his own business and successfully founded The Design House, LLC, which imports home decor products to several major retailers across the United States. Rafael is also an avid investor in several start-ups and real estate developments in Costa Rica and the United States. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, TN, where he resides with his wife Karla and 3 children.
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Russell Carson is Chairman of The Carson Family Charitable Trust, a family foundation he manages with his wife and children that supports non-profit organizations in communities where the family has a home.  He is Chairman of Partnership Schools, Co-Chairman of the New York Genome Center, Chairman Emeritus and a Life Trustee of Rockefeller University, a Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a Director of the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, a Trustee of CO-OP Careers, Chairman Emeritus of Columbia Business School, a Trustee Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a Trustee Emeritus of Dartmouth College.  He is also the Lead Director of Select Medical Corporation, a NYSE-listed company.
 
Mr. Carson spent the first eleven years of his business career with Citicorp where he became Chairman and CEO of its Citicorp Venture Capital subsidiary.  In 1979 he co-founded Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe which became one of the country’s premier mid-market specialized private equity funds.  The firm has raised over $30 billion from investors over its history and is a leading investor in the healthcare and information services industries.
 
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia Business School and holds honorary degrees from Dartmouth College and Rockefeller University.
Jose Costa has spent his professional career over the last 25 years as an owner/operator building the world’s largest ornamental plant supplier, Costa Farms, as a founder of a successful hard equity lending business, and as a successful multi-strategy real-estate investor. He formed Fourshore Capital in 2017 in order to create a comprehensive platform for investments spanning the lending and private equity space. Jose earned his Bachelor of Science from the College of Agriculture at the University of Florida and his M.B.A. from the University of Miami. He currently serves on the Board of Costa Farms.
Jorge L. Gomez-Moller is Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel of Driftwood Capital, leading its legal team and outside counsel in new acquisitions, developments, lending and dispositions, as well as asset-level legal issues. He works with leadership on new strategies, fund structuring and fund operations, and spearheaded the launch of Driftwood Capital’s Opportunity Zone program. Jorge serves as Chief Compliance Officer for Driftwood Advisors, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser with the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission.

Prior to joining Driftwood in 2018, Jorge practiced law at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where he represented clients in private equity fund formations, complex joint ventures, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

He graduated Georgetown University with a B.A. in Government and English and earned his J.D. from Boston University. He also holds a certificate in Commercial Real Estate Analysis & Investment from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Architecture & Planning. He is licensed to practice law in Florida.
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Neil Kukreja is a fourth-generation textile and apparel industry veteran with material experience in building and managing large-volume textile businesses throughout the world. In addition, Neil possesses 20-plus years’ experience in commercial real estate and is the principal of Kukreja Realty, LLC, a real estate investment company that combines finance, branding, and talent to acquire multi-family, residential, and hospitality properties in New York City and South Florida. Most recently, he invested in an opportunistic acquisition of an abandoned hotel and developed a 174-room Holiday Inn in Miami that opened in January 2020. Neil earned both an undergraduate degree in Management and Marketing, as well as an MBA from New York University.
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Kent Lin currently serves as Executive President of the Minxing Group, a multinational holding company comprised of various lines of business in manufacturing and real estate. During his tenure with the company, he has served in different roles including Vice President of Minhou Minxing Weaving Co., CEO of Minhou Minxing Co., and founded the first finance company in Fujian, China, Minxing Loan Co. In 2016, Kent took over the real estate business expansion of the group completing 20 projects with over 10,000 condo units. Kent holds a bachelor’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University and resides in Saddle River, NJ with his wife Judy and their two kids Jamie and Kaden.
Roberto E. Macho has practiced public accounting since 1985 and is the Managing Partner of UHY Macho & Asociados, a leading accounting firm with offices in Buenos Aires and Miami, Florida. His principal area of concentration is assisting international clients with business in the United States and throughout Latin America. Roberto sits on the Board of Directors of UHY International, an international association of accounting firms with more than 300 offices in more than 100 countries. In 2003, he established the firm’s Miami office to further develop the UHY’s international capabilities. In that capacity Roberto dealt with a myriad of cross border issues and coordinated multinational engagements. As a member of several business organizations, and President of the Argentine American Chamber of Commerce, Roberto is known in South Florida as the premier contact for facilitating the development of projects both in the United States and Latin America. He taught for over 20 years at several international universities and is often a keynote speaker at professional conferences and clients’ events.
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Jorge Marín Correa is a Business, Finance, and Commercial Executive based in Santiago de Chile. He began his career in 1983 at Banco A. Edwards. In 1985, Jorge returned to his family’s firm, Constructora de Viviendas Económicas Santa Marta Ltda., eventually rising to the position of Chief Executive Officer. In 1990, he helped to found NEVASA, Corredores de Bolsa, a brokerage firm, while in 1992, Jorge founded Inversiones Hemaco Ltda., a company he remains with to this day. He is Chairman of Compañía General de Electricidad, CGE S.A., an important Chilean power utility holding company, Indiver S.A., a Chilean investment company and GASCO S.A, a gas company. Jorge is also a Member of the Board of Directors of Detroit Chile S.A., Empresas C.M.P.C. S.A. and Grupo Security S.A. In addition to these roles, he participates on the Advisory Committees of Universidad del Desarrollo and the Universidad de los Andes’s Business Management School and is a Director of Endowment UC, a reserve fund that invests on behalf of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s development, research and innovation initiatives. Jorge lives in Santiago de Chile with his wife Bernardita and their seven children.
Dev Motwani serves as President of Merrimac Ventures, a Fort Lauderdale-based real estate firm that focuses on value-add investment and development opportunities, including condos, retail, and rental apartments throughout the United States with a primary focus on Florida. Dev is currently involved with over $1.0B in development projects, such as the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences, The Gale Boutique Hotel and Residences, Broadstone Oceanside, and the Tru/Home2 Suites Flagler Village Hotel, all in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area. He is also Founder and Managing Partner of Chieftain Residential, a yield-oriented distressed residential fund purchasing single-family homes and residential land, primarily in the Southeast United States and Texas. Prior to his current role, Dev worked at Credit Suisse in New York City where he first structured OTC Equity Derivative trades for the firm’s largest corporate clients and then for the firm’s largest hedge fund clients. Before that, he worked in The White House and on the 2000 Gore/Lieberman Presidential Campaign. Dev plays an active role in the South Florida Community, currently serving on the board of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, Broward College Foundation, Orange Bowl Host Committee and the Crockett Foundation. He graduated from Duke University with a degree in Economics and Public Policy and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Real Estate Development Program.
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Nitin Motwani has served as the Managing Partner of Miami Worldcenter Associates since 2006. In this role, he has overseen the development of a $4.0B mixed-use real estate project located in the heart of downtown Miami, Florida. Encompassing 27 acres of retail, residential, office and hotel uses, Miami Worldcenter is the largest urban development project underway in Miami and among the largest in the U.S. Nitin is responsible for every facet of the project, including land acquisition, zoning and entitlements, financing (public and private), joint ventures and development. He is currently overseeing $1.2B of development at Miami Worldcenter and has secured over $500.0M of debt in the past twelve months. Earlier in his career, Nitin was the President of Merrimac Ventures where he oversaw the acquisition, entitlement, asset management and disposition of hotel, office, retail and residential assets throughout the country. Prior to joining Merrimac Ventures, he was an equity derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs in New York. An active member of the greater South Florida business community, Nitin serves as a member of the board of the Miami Downtown Development Authority where he is the chair of both the economic development and marketing committees. He also serves as Board Chair of the University of Miami’s Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) program. He has also recently been named as Co-Chair for One Community One Goal, Miami Dade County’s long-term strategic plan for economic development. Nationally, he is a member of both the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). He is also a member of City Year’s Red Jacket Society and The Scleroderma Foundation. Nitin earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Duke University and holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University. He lives in Miami with his wife and three sons.
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Francisco E. Perez founded Empresas FPY in 1978, one of the largest construction and real estate groups in Chile, focused on single family housing with over 120,000 homes built since inception. He is also the founder and Chairman of Inmobiliaria PY S.A. and Constructora Carran S.A., which are part of the Empresas FPY holding company. Francisco has also been involved in the fishing industry since 1995 through Pesquera Confish S.A., a fishmeal and fish oil processing company that merged with Pesquera Itata S.A. in 2002. The company has since been re-named Blumar S.A. and is presently one of the largest fishing and aquaculture companies in Chile. He also has significant experience in the agricultural sector where he is Chairman of Agrícola Los Alfalfales, a company dedicated to the production of nuts. Through his Family Office, Francisco has structured a large portfolio of global investments, mostly in the United States, with a focus in the real estate and hospitality sectors. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the Universidad de Chile.
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Carlos Rodriguez is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO, of Driftwood Capital. Carlos is the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Cardel Hotels, which merged with Driftwood Hospitality Management in 2003. At the time Driftwood Hospitality Management was a national hotel platform founded by Lehman Brothers and David Buddemeyer. Carlos has been in the hospitality business for over 35 years where he has operated, acquired, developed, and made loans to various hotels all over the United States.  He is the recipient of numerous industry awards such as Entrepreneur of the Year for the Doral Chamber of Commerce, the National Excellence in Construction award from the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., the Lifetime Achievement Award from Hilton, Hotelier of the Year for the Latin Hotel Owners Association, Developer of the Year for various hotel brands, among many other recognitions that he has received throughout his life.
He is a native of Costa Rica and holds a B.S. in Finance from Vanderbilt University, a hospitality certificate from Cornell University, and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Carlos was a Board Member of the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI), and he was a Board Member and helped found Bank of Coral Gables which later merged with First American Bank of Chicago Illinois. Carlos was also Vice Chairman of The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social which operates the hospital system and the largest pension fund in Costa Rica.  He currently is serving on the Board of Advisors of First American Bank for Florida, the Board of the Miami Neuroscience Institute Foundation at Baptist Hospital, the Board of the Latin Hotel Owners Association, as well a member of the Board of Advisors of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, the R. Motwani Family Academy of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Broward College, and the MRED+U Advisory Board of the University of Miami.
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Carlos Rodriguez, Jr. is Founder, President and COO of Driftwood Capital, where he oversees day-to-day operations of the company and oversees new product development as well as investment strategy. He previously served as Vice President of Development for Driftwood Hospitality Management, where he oversaw ground-up construction for the company, while implementing a successful EB-5 financing program.

Carlos began his career with LNR Property, the largest global CMBS special servicer and B-Piece loan buyer, working in various divisions including Surveillance, Asset Management, REO, and Special Resolutions.

He earned a B.A. in International Business with a concentration in Economics, and a certificate in Markets & Management from Duke University.
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