Team - Oak Real Estate Partners

Meet the Team

The Oak Real Estate Partners team of finance and commercial real estate experts bring nearly eight decades of experience and are adept at raising, deploying and managing capital investments into alternative asset vehicles.

Gary Bechtel

Managing Principal, Chief Executive Officer

Gary Bechtel leads the Oak Real Estate Partners’ investment management leadership team and has direct oversight of all loan portfolios and operations. The Michigan-based firm manages a vertically integrated, small-balance sheet credit strategy that targets short duration commercial mortgage assets secured in a first lien position by income-producing properties.

Gary’s career spans 35 years and encompasses involvement in all aspects of the commercial real estate finance industry, as a lender and as.....

Paul Cleary

Managing Partner, President

Paul Cleary serves as Managing Partner and President of Michigan-based Oak Real Estate Partners. He is responsible for overall company operations, including managing finances, business partnerships, and funding opportunities, as well as overseeing and measuring the success of business and employee initiatives.

Paul brings nearly 25 years of national commercial real estate lending experience involving small-balance originations, construction loans, as well as a federally chartered credit union’s national CRE loan portfolio. He most recently served as a Senior Loan Originator....

Paul Cleary

Managing Partner, President

Raymond Davis

Managing Principal, Chief Strategy Officer

Raymond Davis serves as Principal and Chief Strategy Officer of Michigan-based Oak Real Estate Partners.

Ray’s role includes developing, communicating, and sustaining the company’s medium- and long-term strategic initiatives including joint ventures, M&A opportunities, and the development of future business lines. He leads capital market strategies including fund formation and due diligence for the institutional, insurance, pension fund, and family office investors. Ray works to identify strategic risks and develop strategies to reduce these risks. He also concurrently....

Brook Scardina

Managing Partner, Capital Markets & Investments

Brook leads the implementation of our external Capital Markets strategy focused on solving and delivering alternative investment solutions that support the institutional return objectives of Foundations and Endowments, Family Offices, Corporate and Public Pension Plans, and Sovereign Wealth Funds.

Prior to joining the Firm, Brook served as a Managing Director with responsibilities for leading and directing the financial and investment risk complexities for well-known organizations such as the Georgia Tech Foundation....

Brook Scardina

Managing Partner, Capital Markets & Investments

Erik Stamell

General Counsel

Erik Stamell serves as General Counsel of Michigan-based Oak Real Estate Partners. He is responsible for all legal aspects of the company’s corporate and business operations.

Erik previously served as Senior Vice President of LCA Bank Corporation, a Utah-based industrial chartered bank that focuses on small to medium sized business finance. His duties included serving as General Counsel and overseeing the capital....