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David Hartzell examines issues related to the construction of institutional real estate portfolios, publicly traded real estate companies, real estate private equity performance, and real estate finance. He teaches courses in finance and real estate.

He is director of the Leonard W. Wood Center for Real Estate Studies. He also is the faculty advisor and also serves on the board of the UNC Real Estate Investment Fund, the real estate private equity fund that is managed by students in the real estate concentration at UNC Kenan-Flagler. The fund is the only student-managed private equity real estate fund in existence.

Dr. Hartzell and Andrew Baum wrote Global Property Investment: Strategies, Structures, Decisions (Wiley Blackwell, 2012), which is used by both students and practitioners of real estate. The book has been adopted for use at many universities in the United States and the U.K. including the University of Cambridge and Oxford University, where they have teaching appointments.

He brings valuable experience as a former vice president at Salomon Brothers Inc. in New York, where his primary focus was on institutional real estate finance and investments. His group was the first to bring commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) to market.

He also worked as a research associate for The Urban Institute and as a financial economist for the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency. He served as president of the leading academic real estate group, The American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA), in 2000.

Dr. Hartzell serves on the board of directors of Highwoods Properties, a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses its investment and development in the office sector in southeastern markets in the United States. He serves on the investment committee and the audit committee of the board.

He has worked with numerous companies on a consulting basis, notably Heitman Capital Management in Chicago, with whom he has been affiliated since 1994. Additional consulting engagements have included the board of directors of Citigroup, CB Richard Ellis, Weil Gottschall, Cornerstone Research, Henderson Asset Management (U.K.), PRA Securities, Heitman/JMB Advisory Corp., JMB Institutional Realty Corp., Salomon Brothers Inc., Prudential Real Estate Investors, American Council of Life Insurance, Travelers Realty Investment Corporation, GE Capital, Metropolitan Life and ABP (Dutch Public Employees Pension Fund).

Dr. Hartzell served in many administrative roles since joining the faculty. He was the associate dean for MBA Programs, with administrative responsibility for the full-time MBA Program and all Executive MBA Programs from 1994-1998. For most of his years at UNC Kenan-Flagler, he served as director of the Real Estate Program and coordinator of the Real Estate Concentration in MBA Program.

He received his PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill and his MA and BS from the University of Delaware.

What is your favorite part of your job?

“The students and alumni of our real estate program, and the relationships that I have been fortunate to develop over the 40 years since I started graduate school, and 34 years that I have been on the faculty, at UNC. I can go almost anywhere in the world and find great UNC real estate alums to connect with to have a beer or meal.” 

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Jim Spaeth serves as Director of the Leonard W. Wood Center for Real Estate Studies at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In this capacity, he is responsible for supporting the faculty, academic programs, students and extracurricular activities of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s nationally-recognized real state program. Prior to joining the Wood Center in 2013, Jim spent two years in UNC Kenan-Flagler’s MBA Career Management Center, where he worked with students and employers in the real estate and investment banking industries.

Originally from the Washington DC area, Jim earned undergraduate degrees in Finance and Political Science along with an MBA from the University of Florida. Prior to his arrival at UNC Kenan-Flagler in 2011, Jim held positions in investment banking (Raymond James and CNL) and real estate development (Remora Partners), gaining development expertise in the office, retail, multifamily, hospitality and senior housing sectors.

During his time in Florida, Jim was also involved with the University of Florida’s Center for Real Estate Studies, and has been active in ICSC, NAIOP, and ULI during his real estate career.

What is your favorite part of your job?

“I love hearing from a student that they have secured their dream job or internship!”

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Jeff Tucker (MBA ’00) has been named the new executive director of the Leonard W. Wood Center for Real Estate Studies. Tucker is a long-time friend of the program, an engaged alumnus of UNC Kenan-Flagler, a dedicated leader, and an experienced professional within the real estate private equity arena.

Tucker has more than 20 years of private equity experience with the last 16 focused specifically on real estate. He has most recently worked as the co-chairman and chief operating officer of Century Bridge Capital, a Beijing and Dallas-based private equity real estate firm focused on middle-class residential developments in China. Since starting the firm in 2007 with his partners, he has built and managed Century Bridge’s operations, which included building the firm’s investment team in Beijing, designing and implementing an investment strategy and process, raising institutional capital, and overseeing investor relations with the firm’s Limited Partners around the world. Under the leadership of Tucker and his partners, the firm invested approximately $650 million of equity and debt in 19 developments and co-developed 22,679 residential housing units in 16 cities across China.

Along with his industry experience, Tucker brings a vast knowledge and intimate understanding of the business school to this role. He has been the chair of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Advisory Board since his appointment in 2019 and he is the former chair of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Alumni Council. He received UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2001 and its Global Leadership Award in 2015. In 2001, he also formed the Rollie Tillman, Jr. Development Fund, an endowment fund aimed at enhancing UNC Kenan-Flagler’s development efforts.

What are your goals as you step into the executive director role?

“The Wood Center is one of the crown jewels at Kenan-Flagler, and it gives me great confidence knowing that such a strong foundation has been laid. My goal is to work with the team to take it to the next level without losing the fabric of the culture that has been very deliberately built over the past twenty years.”  

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Lynn Tocci is the Wood Center Associate Director of Undergraduate Affairs. She works with all things real estate education for undergraduates, including: career coaching and advising students completing the real estate coursework, promoting and handling admissions for the new real estate minor, overseeing the Undergraduate Real Estate Club (UREC) and the Wood Center’s diversity initiatives with undergraduates. Lynn has been a fixture on UNC’s campus for more than a decade, with a tenure working in Kenan-Flagler admissions and academic advising.

Lynn has her Masters in Social Work from UNC and Masters in Counseling Psychology from Marist College. She also has her Bachelors in Psychology from the State University of New York – Albany.

What is your favorite part of your job?

“My favorite part is having conversations with students to enhance their self-awareness and how to harness and promote their individuality and strengths.”

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Katie Hambrick is the Associate Director of Alumni Relations and Employer Engagement. Her primary roles include working with employers to hire Tar Heel real estate program talent, developing strategy to engage UNC real estate alumni and serving as a liaison to the Wood Center Advisory Board. She brings to the team ten years of experience working in higher education at the University of South Carolina, most recently leading alumni engagement efforts for the alumni association. She has a decade of experience in planning large-scale events, customer service, external relations, and program and team management.

Katie received her M.Ed. from the University of South Carolina in Higher Education Administration. She also has her Bachelor of Arts in Human Services from Elon University.

What is your favorite part of your job?

“I really enjoy working with our alumni and employers to promote professional opportunities to students and then seeing our students get a dream job offer.”

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Kelsey Faulkner is the Communications and Events Manager of the Wood Center. She updates the Center’s website and social media, as well as handles internal and external marketing initiatives. She joined the staff in 2021 after working as the Publications Coordinator at Vance-Granville Community College, where she conceptualized, designed and printed the marketing materials for the school.

Prior to transitioning to the higher education sector, she worked in print media, and designed and edited newspapers all over the country. Her first love is writing and she won awards from NC Press Association during her time as a news reporter.

She received her Bachelor of Science from East Carolina University in Communications with a concentration in media studies.

What is your favorite part of your job?

“I am a born writer, so I am excited to be able to use that skill to better tell the story of the Wood Center and our impressive staff and students!”

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Julie supports the overall operations of the Wood Center and act as the first point of contact for guests and visitors of the Center. She manages financial data, generates expense reports, and reconciles receipts for the Center.

While she is new to the Wood Center this year, she is not new to the Carolina community; She joins us from UNC Orthopaedics. She also has a background in residential real estate and is a licensed realtor in NC.

“I automatically felt comfortable in my new position due to my background and all the wonderful and supportive staff,” she said. “I look forward to being involved in real estate again, the work-life balance, and learning more about the Wood Center for Real Estate Studies.”

She holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and wellness with a minor in public health from UNC Greensboro.