Jim Walter, President
Jim Walter founded the first Crystal Creek Capital entity in January 2009, building on years of collaborative experience and leadership in investment and real estate. Prior to starting Crystal Creek Capital, Jim worked alongside a talented team to co-manage the real estate strategies for Nevada Pacific Consulting (“NPC”), where he contributed to shaping the firm’s approach to real estate investment and development. Jim also served as Executive Director of The TVRC Education Foundation.
Jim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Lawrence University and was a grant recipient from the School for Social Innovation at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He is also a trustee of the Antonio V. Glassberg Educational Foundation, where he works alongside others to support educational initiatives and community projects.
Thomas J. Saylak, Chairman
Thomas J. Saylak is the president of Teewinot Holdings, the private investment holding company for the Saylak family interests, which invests in a broad array of traditional and alternative asset classes. In turn, Teewinot Holdings is a primary investor in Crystal Creek Capital Fund I.
Prior to forming Teewinot Holdings, Mr. Saylak spent over 27 years as an investor focusing on distressed and underperforming commercial real estate assets around the world. Following graduate school, Tom served as a Principal in Trammell Crow Ventures (“TCV”), the firm’s opportunistic real estate investment arm, where he was responsible for completing over $5 billion of investments between 1987 and 1992.
Following Trammell Crow, Mr. Saylak co-founded and for over 9 years was co-head of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, one of the largest and most successful real estate managers in the world. During his tenure at Blackstone, he and his partners created four real estate investment partnerships with more than $4 billion in total equity commitments, and completed over $13 billion of real estate investments, financings and restructurings. The completed investments comprised over 30 million square feet of office space, 35,000 hotel rooms, 15 million square feet of industrial warehouse space and 30,000 apartment units. Investment structures included direct asset purchases, privatizations of real estate operating companies, acquisitions of impaired debt positions leading to asset control and newly-originated high-yield structured financings.
Over the nine year period from the inception of Blackstone’s real estate investment activities in 1993 through his withdrawal in 2001, Mr. Saylak and his partners invested $2.8 billion of equity capital in 110 transactions and generated returns on realized investments of 45% with an equity multiple of 2.4 times. Blackstone and its investors harvested over $2 billion of realized investment profits during Mr. Saylak’s tenure. Mr. Saylak was responsible for all aspects of the Blackstone’s activities, including day to day operational management of the 60-person professional and support staff, fundraising initiatives, investor relations, financial reporting and asset management.
Following Blackstone, Mr. Saylak served as President of Merrill Lynch Global Commercial Real Estate (“GCRE”), the fully-integrated commercial real estate division of Merrill Lynch which at the time had over $1.6 billion in annual revenue, 500 employees, and operations in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He retired from Merrill Lynch in 2006 to form Teewinot Holdings.
Mr. Saylak has served as a Director of three NYSE-listed companies: Cadillac Fairview Corporation (then the largest owner and operator of retail centers in Canada), Interstate Hotel Corporation and Prime Group Realty Trust. He is a Trustee of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, and a Trustee of WETA, the PBS affiliate in Washington, D.C . He is also past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Texas A&M University Foundation, and formerly served as Chairman of the Foundation’s investment committee.
Mr. Saylak received a BBA in 1982 from Texas A&M University (magna cum laude) and an MBA in 1987 from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, where he graduated with high distinction and was designated a Baker Scholar.
Mark Berry, Chief Operating Officer
Joining Crystal Creek Capital in 2022, Mark is responsible for the firm’s operations, which include asset management, human resources, and project oversight. Prior to joining Crystal Creek Capital, Mark spent ten years at Grand Teton National Park Foundation as its Chief Operating Officer executing a variety of public-private capital development and real estate acquisition projects within the national park. He was previously Vice President of a general engineering contracting firm in California, and has extensive experience in fundraising, capital construction, and real estate projects in the non-profit sector in Jackson, Wyoming. Mark earned a B.A. in geography from the University of Oregon.
Brian Kelley, Chief Financial Officer
Prior to The Yarrow Group and Crystal Creek Hospitality, Brian held roles as the CFO of Fine Dining Restaurant Group, CFO of Teton Resorts and Vice President of Finance and Administration for MetWest Terra Hospitality and the Terra Resort Group. Brian has built his career on becoming a strategic partner to operators by the creations of controls, procedures and reporting that protect assets while providing the actionable business intelligence to allow operators to focus on top line revenues, employee development and guest satisfaction. Brian’s experience also includes roles as a Corporate Finance Director with Gold Key|PHR and Area Controller with Vail Associates. Brian holds an Accounting degree from the University of Missouri and is a licensed CPA.
Alex Bertles, Principal
Alex is a Principal at Crystal Creek Capital where he leads the firm’s investment strategy alongside Jim Walter and Noelle DesLauriers. He joined Crystal Creek in 2024, bringing extensive experience in real estate investments and capital management. Before joining Crystal Creek, Alex spent three years at Slate Asset Management, where he launched the Dallas office and led investment origination efforts across Texas and the Southeast. During this time, he executed numerous structured real estate investments on behalf of Slate’s discretionary funds. Prior to Slate, Alex was part of the Commercial Real Estate investment team at Annaly Capital Management in New York City from 2018 to 2021. Earlier in his career, he held positions at Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College and an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Noelle DesLauriers, Investment Associate
Noelle serves as an Investment Associate at Crystal Creek Capital where she focuses on identifying new investment opportunities and overseeing the firm’s existing portfolio in collaboration with Jim Walter and Alex Bertles. Prior to joining Crystal Creek, Noelle spent three years at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) as part of the Hotels & Hospitality Group, working in both New York City and Boston. During her tenure at JLL, she specialized in luxury and full-service transactions as a member of the Investment Sales & Equity Placement team. Noelle earned a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration, cum laude, with a Minor in Real Estate from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in 2021.