Hear From Industry Leaders Shaping Houston's Future
Program Moderator
Lindy Oliva
Division President
DRB Group
Lindy Oliva serves as Division President for DRB Group, Houston. She is a finance executive with over 20 years in residential construction, recognized for driving performance and efficiency through expertise in budgeting, analysis, and internal controls.
DRB Group has set the standard for excellence in homebuilding for over 35 years. It is the third-largest private homebuilder in the United States with award-winning craftsmanship in 14 states, 19 regions, and 35 markets. DRB Homes offers a diverse range of floor plans and personalized designs for every lifestyle while delivering full-service real estate solutions.
Program Speaker
Kirk Laguarta
Designated Broker, Houston
Land Advisors Organization
With more than 34 years of land brokerage experience in the Houston area, Designated Broker Kirk Laguarta focuses on land slated for residential and/or commercial development. He has closed multiple transactions throughout Harris, Montgomery, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Liberty, Waller and Chambers counties.
His extensive knowledge of the Houston market encompasses utility, drainage and development issues as well as land values and trends. He has applied his expertise in thousands of residential transactions for both large and small tracts, serving every top 40 homebuilder in Houston, including Johnson Development, Airia Development and Friendswood Development. Kirk has also closed commercial transactions with large, multi‐site users such as Target, Wal‐Mart, Home Depot and Kroger, and numerous investor clients.
Kirk has been a designated broker for Land Advisors Organization‐Houston since 2002. He launched his career in 1984 with his father’s brokerage company, Laguarta, Gavrel and Kirk. He founded his own commercial real estate company 1991.
A member the Urban Land Institute (ULI) since 2003, Kirk has served on the ULI Community Development Council Silver Committee since 2007. He has also been a member of the Greater Houston Builders Association since 2003, a member of Certified Commercial Investment Institute since 2008, and a director on the Texas Coastal Conservation Association Board since 2016.
Program Speaker
Duane Heckmann
Houston Advisor
Land Advisors Organization
Duane Heckmann is a greater Houston area advisor with more than 39 years of raw land and residential lot brokerage experience in Houston and the surrounding counties. He has developed extensive knowledge regarding water/sewer utilities, drainage challenges, MUDs, surface control and other unique development issues, as well as a comprehensive working knowledge of land values and overall market trends. Duane has very strong relationships with developers, homebuilders, banks, capital funds and investors that are active in the Houston market, and also assists and advises a large number of property owners with their respective land holdings.
He has assisted most of Houston’s master planned community developers, commercial developers, mixed use developers, single family lot developers and landowners with their raw land needs as well as selling land and lots to homebuilders, commercial/mixed use developers, industrial developers and investors. Duane has also completed extensive work for national, regional and local banks including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Enterprise Bank, assisting them to analyze their real estate holdings and disposition of various assets.
Prior to joining Land Advisors Organization, Duane ran his own commercial real estate company for 15 years. He is a member of the West Houston Association, Urban Land Institute, Houston’s Commercial Real Estate Network (CREN), The Greater Houston Partnership, and is active on the Breeders Greeters committee of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.
Homebuilder/Developer Panelist
Holly James
Region President | Southeast Texas
D.R. Horton
Holly James is a highly accomplished homebuilding executive with 30 years of experience at D.R. Horton. She began her career as a Land Development Project Manager and advanced through a series of leadership roles, including VP of Land and VP of Operations in the Phoenix Division.
As Division President of D.R. Horton’s Houston North Division, Holly led a period of exceptional growth, increasing annual closings from 1,200 to 3,550 and growing revenue to more than $1.2 billion in less than three years.
Today, Holly serves as Region President of Southeast Texas and holds the distinction of being the first female Region President in the company’s history.
Homebuilder/Developer Panelist
Carson Nunnelly
Managing Director | Land Development
Starwood Land
As Managing Director of Land Development, Carson Nunnelly helps lead the company’s strategic direction across debt and equity partnerships, oversees all homebuilder relationships, guides the firm on new strategic initiatives and drives the sourcing and acquisition of new development projects. With deep experience in land development and financial strategy, Carson plays a key role in guiding long-term growth and investment planning.
Prior to his current role, Carson served as Managing Director at Hines, where he spent a decade on the Land Development team. His work there included the successful acquisition of approximately 6,000 acres of land that will ultimately yield nearly 15,000 residential lots.
Before entering the development sector, Carson began his career in public accounting. Carson holds both a BBA in Accounting and a Master’s in Finance from Texas A&M University.
Homebuilder/Developer Panelist
Robert Clay
President, Co-Founder
Clay Development & Construction, Inc.
Robert started Clay Development & Construction, Inc. with his father in July, 1998, and has been in real estate since his graduation from Texas A&M in 1989. He began his career with United Equities and Moody Rambin Interests in Houston. His company, Clay Development & Construction, Inc. is a developer and design/builder of industrial build-to-suit facilities for sale or lease. Clay has developed projects ranging from a 10,000 square foot office building to a 1,000,000 square foot distribution building. In the last 25 years, Robert has developed over 300 industrial and office facilities comprising of approximately 23,000,000 square feet with costs exceeding $1 billion. In addition to single building development, Robert has developed twenty (20) industrial parks totaling over 1400 acres of land.
CDC has been named in Entrepreneur Magazines’ “Hot 100” twice; has been in the “Aggie 100” for the first 10 years of its’ inception; has been in the Houston Business Journal’s “Houston’s Small Business 100” for 8 out of the last 12 years; was named Metal Construction News’ number 1 buyer of steel in the U.S. in 2006 and 2007 and was named the 15th largest developer in the country in 2014.
Homebuilder/Developer Panelist
Brett Greene
Director
Land Advisors Capital
Brett Greene joined Land Advisors Capital in August 2021, serving as the company’s Director for the Central United States. Mr. Greene has held positions in business development, originations, asset management, finance and capital markets for residential developers and real estate advisory firms spanning over his 8+ year career. Mr. Greene’s experience has been focused primarily in the Central and Eastern United States in major markets including: Texas, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and North Carolina.
Previously, Mr. Greene served in multiple capacities at The Resmark Companies, a private equity real estate investment manager who manages capital on behalf of institutional and private investors including two of the nation’s largest public pension funds, California State Teachers (CalSTRS) and California Public Employee (CalPERS) retirement funds. Most recently, Mr. Greene served as Director of Finance & Capital Markets for Storybuilt, a developer that operates in Austin, Dallas, Denver and Seattle. Mr. Greene’s primary focus at Storybuilt was arranging project debt and equity for the company’s various residential for-sale and multi-family developments across various markets. This included the origination of acquisition, development and construction loans from both conventional and private lenders and the sourcing of project equity from institutional capital providers, family offices and high net worth individuals. Mr. Greene earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from California State University San Marcos.