A new kind of hospitality

Bio

Roman Pedan is the Chief Executive Officer of Kasa Living, Inc., a flexible accommodations brand he founded in 2016.

Roman has over a decade of experience in real estate investing and technology entrepreneurship. He was an early team member at KKR's Real Estate Private Equity group where he worked on hotel transactions totaling $1.2 billion across the U.S. and was involved in every hotel transaction that KKR closed during his tenure. Roman was also an early team member at Juniper Square, a market-leading investment management platform, and was the founder of a startup called book.ly, a profitable, vertical e-commerce website that sold more than $15mm of textbooks.

Roman earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.S. in Economics with a Real Estate and Finance concentration from The Wharton School, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition to leading Kasa, Roman is an avid skier, traveler, and reader with particular interests in hospitality organizations, history, and leadership.

Bio

Jordan joined Kasa in 2021 as Vice President, Head of Real Estate and Growth. Jordan has significant real estate investment experience in both the hospitality and apartment sectors, uniquely positioning him to drive the overall growth strategy of the organization.

Prior to joining Kasa, Jordan spent 15 years at private equity real estate investment manager Walton Street Capital LLC.  Most recently, Jordan was responsible for all of firms investment activities in the Southeast US and New England across its investment vehicles.  Jordan closed over $5B of real estate transactions and was personally responsible for  over $2.5B of real estate acquisitions and development in the hotel, apartment, office, single family rental, and industrial sectors.  

Jordan graduated with a BS from the  School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University with a concentration in real estate.  While at Cornell, Jordan played safety for the varsity football team.  He earned an MBA from the  Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with a concentration in finance.  Jordan is a national product council member of the Urban Land Institute. 

Outside of work, Jordan lives in Chicago with his wife, two children, and beloved lab Charlie.  He loves spending time with his family, enjoys home cooking,  and is an avid, yet mediocre, golfer.

Bio

Raja joined Kasa in 2021 as General Counsel. 

Prior to joining Kasa, Raja worked at Tishman Speyer, most recently as the Global Head of Property Management. Previously, Raja was Tishman Speyer's Chief Risk and Compliance Officer.

Prior to joining Tishman Speyer, Raja was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, serving as the Global Head of the Anti-Corruption Group, the Global Head of the Special Investigations Unit, and Global Franchise Committee Officer. 

Raja began his career as a prosecutor, initially as an Assistant District Attorney in New York County, and later with the Department of Justice, Criminal Division Fraud Section, in Washington DC. He holds a BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland and a JD from Temple University School of Law.

Outside of Kasa, Raja loves spending time with his family and friends, playing tennis, and talking about cars.

Bio

Ben joined Kasa in 2020 to lead the company’s Operations team where he applies his mix of technical, operational, and strategic experience to ensure Kasa’s operations are world class.

Ben comes most recently from vertical farming startup Bowery Farming, which he joined pre-revenue and where he built and led several operational teams including the company’s farm design, construction, and supply chain orgs.  Ben oversaw growth in the company’s supply chain as the company added multiple new farms, hundreds of employees, hundreds of new customers, and raised over $200M in venture funding.

Prior to Bowery, Ben was a Senior Manager at Bain & Company where he led management consulting teams across a variety of business and private equity clients, including in the hospitality industry.  While at Bain he was highly involved in recruiting, global training, and mentorship programs

Ben received dual BS degrees in Computer Science & Engineering and Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the MIT Sloan School of Management.  He has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.  

Ben lives with his wife, daughter, and dog outside New Haven, CT.  Outside of work he enjoys travel, performing live music, running, and completing the New York Times daily crossword puzzle.

Bio

Jeff joined Kasa in 2021 as the head of the Engineering team, leading engineering across the United States and Hungary.

Throughout his career, Jeff has shown success taking startups through all growth phases as an engineering leader. Ultimately, he has helped to build several very strong brands in multiple business verticals.

Most recently, Jeff built 6D.ai, focused on augmented reality, building a real time 3D reconstruction engine using neural networks running on mobile phones. The output of this helped to create a revolutionary way that the real world can effectively and scalably be scanned and stored in 3D. The technology ended up with a successful acquisition by Niantic, the makers of Pokémon GO.

Prior to that, Jeff spent over 12 years growing Trulia from a team of four people to thousands, scaling the engineering team to hundreds. Trulia became a giant in the Real Estate Search category and enjoyed a successful IPO in 2012, and later a $3.5B acquisition by Zillow in 2015. 

As an executive with over 25 years of experience, Jeff enjoys building highly performing, energized teams with a strong engineering culture. He enjoys mentoring and building leaders, and focusing on strong cross team collaboration.

Bio

Mike joined Kasa in 2018. He focuses on forming partnerships with real estate owners, investors, and lenders, as well as managing Kasa’s ongoing financial performance and liquidity initiatives. He brings a blend of real estate, corporate finance and capital markets expertise to ensure Kasa’s financial success amid rapid growth.

Real Estate: Mike was one of the early members of Apollo’s real estate private equity acquisitions team, helping scale AUM from $5bn to $15bn. He has acquired and managed over $2bn of hotels, office, retail and residential real estate. He was also the primary investment professional responsible for building and managing Apollo’s single family rental platform.

Corporate Finance: Mike was on a two-person team managing a $1.5bn, long/short real estate securities portfolio at Citadel Global Equities. He analyzed and managed active positions in over 50 gaming, leisure, lodging and real estate companies, including the multifamily and lodging REITs. 

Capital Markets: As an investment banker, Mike advised REIT clients on structured debt initiatives (CMBS, private placements), as well as M&A advisory for REIT and lodging clients. 

Outside of work, Mike is an avid skier and hiker who enjoys exploring new destinations across the globe.

Bio

Craig joined Kasa in February 2019 and leads Product and Company Operations. His professional experiences include companies large and small, with a common thread of rapid growth, trusted brands and great customer service. 

While studying Economics at Yale (with Distinction), he began his career in Sales & Trading at JPMorgan. Next, Craig worked as a management consultant at BCG with a focus on Consumer and Strategy work. He transitioned into an operator role at a YC-backed dating startup in NYC, leading Growth and Business Intelligence. 

Craig next joined Airbnb in 2014, starting in Product Strategy, before transitioning into Product Management. As a PM, Craig led teams focused on converting the marketplace to Instant Book and growing the global Host Community. After nearly five years at Airbnb, he joined Kasa to delve deeper into hospitality and help shape a fast-growing organization. 

His role directly oversees the Product Management, Product Analytics and Business Operations departments. He also partners closely with PeopleOps on matters of org design, performance management and employee engagement. 

Outside of work, Craig is traveling somewhere new or training for his next outdoor adventure.

Bio

Elena joined Kasa in 2019 to lead Guest Experience.  She has been innovating in hospitality for the past decade, focused on providing excellent service at scale in a virtual context.

After graduating from Yale (with distinction), Elena’s career has focused on curating exceptional guest experiences within the food, travel and hotel industries in both Europe and the United States. She has curated and led luxury  trips around the world with Conley & Silvers and is a published cookbook author and travel writer.

Since graduating first in her class with an MBA in Hospitality Administration from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland (rated best hospitality program in the world) in 2017, Elena has worked in the short-term rental space. She joined AvantStay as an early team member overseeing business operations and guest experience for group travel.

Outside of Kasa, Elena enjoys traveling, sourdough baking, and seeking out the greatest afternoon tea service.

Bio

Mara joined Kasa in 2020 to lead the People Operations team. The initiatives she oversees are centered around compliance, recruiting, training, and employee engagement. 

Mara’s passion for hospitality and entrepreneurship started at a young age when she assisted her parents with their water purifying and retail businesses in her hometown in Mexico.

While studying at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, Mara was responsible for diversity and inclusion initiatives by serving as the President of the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality. She complemented her studies while working as a Student Manager at the Statler Hotel. During the summers she spent time working at Marriott hotels and Wolfgang Puck restaurants. 

Upon graduation, she joined Hillstone Restaurant Group to help manage and train leaders in one of their flagship restaurants in NYC. She left Hillstone to join The Bay Club Company in California where she spearheaded a number of transformational initiatives, including launching an industry-first member loyalty points program and building an employee communications & training platform now used across the 6,000+ employee organization.

Outside of Kasa, she plans events to help industry leaders network while raising funds for future hospitality students. She enjoys exploring restaurants in the bay area, playing tennis, and designing any residential space her family and friends give her access to.

Bio

Richy joined Kasa in 2020 and oversees Partner Success, responsible for a team focused on fostering relationships with real estate partners. The team’s mission is to ensure that Kasa maximizes value for our partners by providing best-in-class support, continually improving operations, and maximizing financial performance.

Prior to Kasa, Richy founded the LCRE Group, a family-owned and operated hotel real estate investment company where he oversaw development, acquisitions, and asset management. He executed over $450M of real estate transactions and garnered over 25% returns on exited investments.

Previously, he was with Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy & Operations practice where he worked with C-suite executives on mergers and acquisitions, operational strategy, and customer experience in the retail, healthcare, real estate, and hospitality industries. Additional experiences include Tishman Hotels & Realty where he was a development and asset management analyst.

Richy graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and has an MBA from the Harvard Business School. 

Outside of work, Richy serves on the board for APICHA, a community clinic focusing on LGTBQ healthcare. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling the world, karaoking, and taking care of his Frenchie puppy.

Bio

Mike joined Kasa in 2020 and currently leads its Business Operations. He has spent the majority of his career helping build and scale operations and strategy programs at several high-growth companies.

After graduating from The Ohio State University, Mike began his career in Technology Consulting with Accenture. In 2014, Mike joined Uber Technologies to help build out the Ridesharing operations in the midwest of the United States. At Uber, Mike helped grow several lines of business within US Ridesharing, Uber China Ridesharing, and Uber Freight. After several years at Uber, he joined a smaller consumer-tech startup in the micro-mobility space, JUMP Mobility. As the Director of Operations, Mike led the operational and fundraising strategy. In 2018, JUMP was acquired by Uber Technologies, starting his second stint with the company, where he stepped into the Chief of Staff role for this new line of business.

In 2020, Mike began his own advisory and consulting business, helping startups with their overall business strategy and growth.

Outside of Kasa, Mike loves staying active, cheering on his favorite sports teams, and spending time with his wife, Heidi.

Bio

Tomek joined Kasa in 2020 to lead brand and marketing. His focus is to build a strong global accommodations brand, develop Kasa’s direct booking channel, and drive guest loyalty. He has a decade of experience in performance marketing and online travel.

Tomek’s first job was running eBay’s affiliate program in Eastern Europe. After hours he won the Google Online Marketing Challenge for EMEA. He was on the global performance marketing team at Groupon when it was named ‘the fastest-growing company ever’ by Forbes magazine. After that, he built Groupon’s Getaways vertical for Eastern Europe from scratch, which grew to represent Groupon’s 2nd largest booking revenue globally.

He pivoted to entrepreneurship founding the most popular Polish hotel booking platform Travelist.pl, and the second-largest performance marketing agency in Poland. Before his MBA, he sold the two companies to Secret Escapes and iProspect, respectively.

He still owns shares in his three kids, determined to help them achieve product-market fit. He loves endurance sports, and traveling.

Bio

Norbert joined Kasa in 2018 and now leads Kasa’s Product Design department. His background in tech, UX design, accessibility, and project management makes him uniquely situated to tackle complex and multifaceted issues, while his prior experience working and building teams remotely helps Kasa to be a global brand.

In the first semester of his studies as a Software Engineer at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, he started his digital creative agency, providing tech and design services for European companies for nine years. His first step into the hospitality business came after winning a tender to be Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts’ external web design & development partner.

After a transitional period working for US-based startups as a tech consultant (and traveling constantly), his passion for travel and complex processes found the perfect opportunity in Kasa.

In his free time, Norbert is an avid board gamer, powerlifter, and traveler.

Bio

Aaron joined Kasa in 2021, responsible for developing and executing Kasa's growth plan with multifamily owners & investors coast-to-coast. 

Aaron spent a decade at AMLI Residential in a variety of key investment roles, spanning acquisitions, dispositions, development and asset management. From 2015-2021, he focused exclusively on evaluating and executing apartment acquisition opportunities & asset dispositions in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Seattle, South Florida and Southern California. During that time, AMLI’s two-person deal team bought and sold $3B+ of assets (12.1K units across 33 properties).

AMLI is a vertically integrated luxury apartment owner & developer that invests on behalf of Morgan Stanley’s Prime Property Fund (PPF), a $34B+ institutional open-ended core real estate fund.

Aaron graduated with a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in real estate & finance.

Outside of work, Aaron enjoys Peloton, reminiscing about the 1990s Chicago Bulls, perfecting morning smoothies and international travel.

Stella is responsible for leading the interior design of Kasa’s portfolio of full-building and multifamily units. Stella is an interior design executive who has over 15 years of global experience in luxury hospitality and residential design.    

Prior to joining Kasa, Stella was the VP of Interior Design for hotelier and real estate developer Ian Schrager, where she oversaw the creative direction of EDITION hotels and residences. She directed multiple design teams in the creation and implementation of several iconic hotels including EDITION hotels in Miami, New York (Clock Tower), Times Square, Shanghai, Tokyo Ginza, Tokyo Toranomon, Singapore, Sanya and PUBLIC New York.  

Stella received a BA in English Honors from the University of Alberta and BFA in Interior Architecture and Design from the Academy of Art University. 

Stella lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter and dog. She enjoys hiking, yoga and exploring the PNW outdoors.

Bio

Luke joined Kasa in 2021 and is responsible for leading Kasa’s investment activities in the independent and boutique hotel space.

Prior to joining Kasa, Luke spent nearly 14 years at The Chartres Lodging Group, an industry leading hotel owner-operator dedicated to the acquisition and repositioning of distressed hotel assets. While at Chartres, where he most recently led the group’s acquisition and development activities, Luke was directly responsible for over $2.0bn of total transaction activity, including the acquisition of more than 9,000 hotel rooms, investing alongside leading institutional investment partners such as KKR, Elliott Management Corporation, and Morgan Stanley.

Luke graduated with a BS from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, in his hometown of Ithaca, NY, with a concentration in real estate finance and development.

Luke lives in New York City with his wife, daughter, and dog. Outside of work and time with family, he’s an avid New York Rangers fan, and enjoys travel, golf, and the increasingly occasional triathlon.

Dame joined Kasa’s legal team in 2020.

Prior to joining Kasa, she was a commercial real estate attorney at Shipman & Goodwin LLP and at Goodwin Procter LLP.   She has extensive experience representing public and private companies, including institutional investors, national banks, insurance companies, and other owners and operators of real estate in commercial real estate transactions such as acquisitions, dispositions, financings, and leasing across a variety of real estate asset classes including office, multi-family apartments, hospitality, retail and industrial properties.  

Dame received her Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Bates College.

Outside of Kasa, Dame enjoys spending time with her family, traveling and cooking.

Jen joined Kasa in 2021 and is responsible for leading Guest Experience for Kasa’s portfolio. Jen has over 12 years of global experience in the travel industry, including short-term rentals, inn-keeping, and property management software. 

She started her career in travel with the startup HomeAway in 2008. She was instrumental in scaling its North American Customer Experience team, supporting three marketplaces and building a team of over 100 to provide award-winning service. She next spent four years leading the Global Customer Experience team for another of HomeAway’s business units, BedandBreakfast.com. Jen led the platform’s expansion into multiple language support and developed Billing and Trust & Safety teams. Jen also spent several years leading support teams for HomeAway’s software platforms and was successful in leading several major cross-functional strategic initiatives that were critical to the division’s success.   

Jen attended St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas and also received certification in Project Management from Cornell University.  

Jen lives in Missouri with her husband, daughter, two dogs, and three chickens.. She enjoys gardening, reading historical nonfiction, and travel.

Antonio joined Kasa in 2019 to lead accounting and financial reporting. 

Antonio joins most recently from Bon Appetit at Google - where he led the Finance team for all Bay Area operations at a scale of $350MM a year. During his tenure, Antonio helped create a scorecard system originally focused to track financial performance that evolved to total operations health.

Before joining Bon Appetit, Antonio had a long tenure career in hotel management at Kimpton Hotels and Highgate Hotels. Antonio held positions in corporate accounting, construction and development, and operations finance. He last held an Area Director of Finance role, leading the Operations Finance team in CA - with a portfolio of 10 hotels. 

Born and raised in Mexico, Antonio received his BS equivalent in Business Administration from Universidad La Salle - graduating with the highest GPA of his class. He has an MBA and MS in Financial Analysis and Investment Management from St. Mary’s College of California. He also has a Certificate in Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

Outside of Kasa, Antonio enjoys spending time with his son and significant other at home in Walnut Creek. He enjoys all team sports, new experiences and new places to visit.

Brianna joined Kasa's in-house legal team in 2019. With her prior experience as both an intellectual property and real estate attorney, Brianna is well-suited to her role as legal counsel to a technology enabled real estate company. 

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2014, Brianna joined the internet strategy and intellectual property litigation group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.  She represented major technology companies in trade secret, trademark, general commercial and  technology law disputes, and also counseled clients in these areas.  

Brianna has always had a strong interest in real estate, and in 2017, she joined the respected real estate boutique firm Miller Starr Regalia in order to foster that interest and gain industry exposure. While at Miller Starr, Brianna represented clients in a variety  of real property disputes, with a primary focus on commercial leasing litigation. 

Outside of Kasa, Brianna enjoys swimming, photography, working on her travel blog and planning her next big trip.

Amanda joined Kasa in 2021 and is responsible for the development and execution of sales strategy for Kasa’s portfolio.

Prior to joining Kasa, Amanda started her hospitality career with White Lodging in Indiana. Most recently, she spent nearly 15 years at Evolution Hospitality, a premier lifestyle hotel and resort operator based in California. While at Evolution, she held the on-property Director of Sales position in several locations with various hotel brands in Southern California. Her experience in successfully opening Marriotts and Hiltons spurred her promotion to Regional Director of Sales. As Regional Director of Sales, she supported a portfolio of 16-23 branded and independent hotels specializing in the development and opening of hotels throughout California.  

Amanda graduated magna cum laude in 3 years with a Bachelor of Science in Communication and a minor in Marketing from University of Indianapolis.

Amanda lives in El Dorado Hills, CA, with her husband, 3 children and a Great Dane. Outside of Kasa, Amanda enjoys hiking, reading, baking and weightlifting.

Michael joined Kasa in 2022 and is responsible for leading operations strategy across all operating verticals. Michael is a seasoned Real Estate Investment Professional with 8 years of experience across both acquisitions and asset management. 

Prior to joining Kasa, Michael worked at KSL Capital Partners, a travel and leisure sector-focused private equity firm headquartered in Denver. At KSL, Michael helped spearhead KSL’s foray into the select service hospitality space, culminating in the creation of Mission Hill Hospitality, a leading investor and operator of select service hotels.

Prior to KSL, Michael worked at The Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C. He focused on asset management and acquisitions of real estate investment opportunities across all major asset classes in the U.S., including asset management of Carlyle’s $350M South Florida hotel portfolio. 

Michael received a BA in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with concentrations in Finance and Marketing.

Michael lives in Brooklyn. He enjoys architecture and design, and is an avid home renovator and traveler - with a knack for picking the worst times to go places (during coups and severe weather events, for one).

Elliott joined Kasa in 2018 to lead Kasa’s technology efforts. He spent his professional career at the intersection of his two passions: technology & hospitality. At Kasa, he architects its key systems, recruits new engineers, and builds out core functionality.

Elliott’s first job was at the bell desk of his parents’ hotel. Growing up around his family’s hotel business sparked his love for the hospitality industry. 

While studying Computer Science at Stanford, he built out a product for hotel booking engines that improved booking conversion by >20%. He and his co-founders productized this creating Travelnuts where he led technology, raised $2mm, and grew the team to 10 people. 

After Travelnuts, Elliott joined Duetto where Elliott worked for Craig Weissman (ex-CTO of Salesforce) and became a key lieutenant building out the highest performing revenue management platform in the hospitality industry.

Outside of Kasa, Elliott is an avid skier and scuba diver, willing to travel to great lengths for amazing powder and water alike.

JD joined Kasa in 2020 run Kasa’s property operations. 

JD has been running short-term rentals since launching his own private STR operation as part of a Small RE Syndication in 2015 in Chicago. This passion led to his departure from the corporate world at United Airlines to launch a city for then Series B company, Sonder. 

Immediately after Business School JD took a role in the Revenue Strategy department at United Airlines. Working on projects ranging from Basic Economy, to eventually Fleet strategy and aircraft layouts. JD left United after having led a project team across marketing, engineering, network and operations to overhaul and retrofit the entire widebody and large portions of United’s narrowbody fleets.

Prior to Business school, JD was a Surface Warfare Office in the US Navy, qualifying to drive 2 different Aircraft Carriers, the BOXER and PELELIU. JD deployed 3 times on ships, spending nearly 30 months at sea during his first 4 years in the Navy. His last two tours with the Navy ranged from running a strategy and planning team for NATO with the Afghan Police Department in Kabul, and a brief stint overhauling the Navy’s training, dashboarding and tracking systems, FLTMPS. 

JD fulfilled a lifelong dream in 2007 of attending the Naval Academy, and now lives in Chicago Illinois, with his wife, dog and 1 yo daughter.

Austin joined Kasa in 2019 after finishing his MBA at the Stanford GSB. His past experience blends operations and strategy, while cultivating strong relationships with those around him.

Austin attended the University of Michigan and was one of six students in Michigan’s history to complete a mechanical engineering & business administration dual degree. He was captain of the Club Ice Hockey team and VP of Recruitment for Delta Sigma Pi Professional Fraternity. He studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain and minored in Spanish. 

After undergrad, Austin joined Shell in New Orleans as a drilling engineer. He supported offshore operations by designing oil wells and managing two $100M+ projects. He spent one year living on the Mars A TLP in the Gulf of Mexico (traveling to and from work in an S-92 Helicopter). 

At the Stanford GSB, Austin led the Admit Weekend Committee, was co-president of the Management Consulting Club, and was an active member of GSB Pride. He spent his summer at Bain & Company working on an automotive client’s digital strategy. 

Outside of work, Austin loves traveling (has visited 65+ countries), enjoys recreational sports, and occasionally competes in extreme races (3 half marathons & 1 Olympic-distance triathlon).

Morgan joined Kasa in 2019. She oversees Kasa’s in-house regulatory team, performs risk analysis, and due diligence on new real estate transactions and advises the company on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, and business matters.

Before joining Kasa, Morgan ran a planning consultancy where she advised wireless carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon, on compliance risk for network growth. She built her career by taking on challenging, non-traditional regulatory work, such as short term rentals, wireless deployment, the mobile food truck industry, and public utilities, making her uniquely qualified for her role at Kasa navigating an ever-changing and complex regulatory environment. 

Morgan also has experience in traditional land use planning, development, and real estate roles at municipalities, private companies, and nonprofits, where she managed projects for developers, school districts, communities, and governmental agencies across the country.

Morgan received her masters degree in Urban Planning Design and Development from the University of California, Los Angeles. During her graduate program she served as the design editor of the student-run Critical Planning Academic Journal.

Outside of work, Morgan enjoys spending time with her kids, running, baking and learning about different cultures.

Yaran joined Kasa in 2020 and is responsible for building awareness of, and affinity for, Kasa’s brand. He leads the company’s brand strategy and communications functions and is responsible for all external messaging.

Prior to Kasa, Yaran was the VP of Brand and Content at the Related Companies, a world-renowned real estate development firm where he oversaw messaging on corporate channels.

At Blue Apron, Yaran was the Senior Director of Content where he led all brand initiatives and oversaw the creative team of the category-leading meal kit company. He was responsible for the development and deployment of numerous brand and product campaigns as well as creating an award-winning podcast.

Yaran honed his content-creating skills in publishing, first as the assistant features editor at Details magazine, and then at a series of food and travel magazines, most recently as the deputy editor of Saveur where he oversaw day-to-day editorial operations on all platforms—print, digital, video and social.

Yaran graduated from the University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude with a degree in English. He lives in New York City.

Jocelyn leads the company’s Launch Operations team, applying her experience leading operational teams and driving efficiency improvement initiatives to professionalize the company's approach to building out new Kasas.

Jocelyn most recently worked as a Director of Merchandising for Wayfair, where she built a 50-person team focused on improving the quality of merchandising content and imagery. Prior to Wayfair, Jocelyn spent four years with Unum, a leading provider of disability and life insurance.  There, she applied her deep understanding of consumer insights to make insurance more palatable for employees.  She also led the company’s entry into Stop Loss insurance, a growth driver for the company.

Her early career was spent at Bain & Company where she developed her passion for consumer insights, strategy, and relatable brands.

Jocelyn earned her B.A. from Williams College in Economics and Political Science and later attended the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth for her MBA.  

Jocelyn lives in Maine with her partner, Colin, and his children. Outside of work she is the Cheek Execütive Officer of hüga, a heated cushion company (www.hugaheat.com), which strives to bring people together outdoors by warming our cores from the bottom up. She enjoys boating, exercising, the great outdoors, Portland’s thriving restaurant scene, and spending time with family and friends.

Bio

Brian joined Kasa in 2021.

Previously, Brian worked at Rockpoint Group, a real estate private equity firm headquartered in Boston. Most recently he was a vice president evaluating the merits of real estate investment opportunities across various markets, product types, and return profiles.

Prior to Rockpoint, Brian worked at Goldman Sachs as an associate in the Real Estate Investment Banking groups in New York and London. He advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, debt and equity financings, and hostile raid defense across the real estate, gaming, and lodging sectors.

Brian graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. He holds dual concentrations in finance and accounting.

Outside of Kasa, Brian enjoys running (slowly), reading, and attending Celtics games.

Yvette joined Kasa in 2020 to deploy strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing quality, efficiency and profitability. She is experienced in delivering nascent concepts from ideation to POC as well as growing into new markets within Fintech, enterprise SaaS, and marketplaces.

As a consultant with Deloitte, she led process identification and technical design to deliver CRM platform for sales enablement and the first pricing B2C portal for a healthcare provider. As a Sr. consultant with Fannie Mae she oversaw the integration of Desktop Underwriter -  SaaS credit & risk scoring engine handling US$trillions in mortgage originations. Prior to entering Harvard Business School, she interned at UBS investment Bank TMT group.

She  pivoted to entrepreneurship and product, as a co-founder of Property Management company Khidmah or “service” in the UAE that was later acquired. Next she help set up an investment fund with the Qatar Foundation, and advised in the acquisition of hotel properties for investors based in Dubai. 

She led product and founded a food delivery company in Dubai, built lending products for Lendinghome and most recently served as Director of Product at blockchain platform BitCasas.io, which delivered a Real Estate-backed security token platform. 

Yvette was born in Los Angeles, has traveled to over 23 countries and 32 US states.

Tara is responsible for leading the future strategy and delivery for talent acquisition. Tara is a seasoned talent acquisition professional with more than 20 years experience with deploying processes, technology, and programs to optimize the performance of an organization.   

Prior to joining Kasa, Tara worked in a range of capacities on both the delivery and operations side of recruiting. Most recently at Amazon and Stripe, she worked as the Global Recruiting Process & Technology leader focusing on process optimization and technology implementations that enabled the recruiting process to function at scale.  Before working in the  technology industry, Tara spent more than 15 years in financial services with both JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo leading global, cross-functional teams, projects and programs for Talent Acquisition.

Tara received a BA in Business with a concentration in Human Resource Management from the University of Central Florida and also has her Strategic Workforce Planning certification from the Human Resources Institute (HCI).

Tara lives in Orlando with her husband and 3 daughters. She enjoys hosting family gatherings and parties, and watching her girls compete at local dance competitions.

Thomas joined Kasa in 2020 and is responsible for leading the on-site offerings & partnerships efforts. This role focuses on curating a premier on-property experience, increasing guest satisfaction, and driving ancillary revenue in the guest-facing areas of Kasa's hotel and full-building locations.

Prior to joining Kasa, Thomas spent eight years in luxury casino resort management, initially joining The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas as part of the Strategic Planning team and later leading the Revenue Management for the resort. From there, he was the first operations employee brought to the Drew Las Vegas where he spent two and a half years in pre-development for the 3,780 room project - establishing the property’s five year pro forma and developing the revenue strategy.

Thomas received his BS in Hospitality Management from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration with a concentration in Services Marketing and a minor in Information Sciences.

Thomas is based in Las Vegas, Nevada but is taking advantage of Kasa’s remote work culture with frequent trips to visit Kasas throughout the country.  He enjoys hiking, trivia, card & board games, and learning new things (with tennis and watercolor painting being his most recent endeavors).

Matt heads the Task Force Operations team, a group of talented operational tacticians who support the many properties in Kasa's growing portfolio through their most complex and crucial moments, including, but not limited to, pre-launch, the first 30-60 days of operation, and periods of meaningful transition.

Prior to Kasa, Matt spent three years with Highway West Vacations, a boutique hotel and glamping operator. In this role, he led the company’s Central California portfolio of properties through several takeovers, renovations, and new property launches. He also spearheaded task force efforts for the company, including the onboarding a five hundred site glamping ground and ski resort in New Hampshire.

Matt got his start in hotel operations through his work with White Lodging and Disney, after graduating from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.

Matt lives in Chicago with his fiancee and dog. He enjoys cooking, exploring new restaurants, and taking advantage of the return of live shows.

Drew joined Kasa in 2021 and leads Kasa’s trust and safety efforts. In this role, Drew works to ensure the safety of the interactions between Kasa community members and the physical spaces that we operate within. Drew is a safety and security leader with eight years of experience in incident management, prevention, and analysis. 

Before joining Kasa, Drew led the Lyft Operations Center and Crisis Communications team at Lyft. In this role, he managed the Trust & Safety team’s response to all severe incidents within the community. These responsibilities included managing Lyft’s internal actions, their public response, and a root cause analysis process to inform the development of product and process improvements.

Drew received a BA from the University of New Haven in International Justice & Security.

Drew currently lives in Nashville with his wife and german shepherd.

Taju joined Kasa in 2021 and is responsible for leading several strategic programs within the Launch team and beyond. Taju has spent the majority of his career in various operations roles from direct frontline management to strategic consulting.

Prior to joining Kasa, Taju was Manager with in PWC’s Supply Chain Transformation practices where he led numerous engagements across industries such as Fashion & Retail, CPG, Aerospace and Defense, and Healthcare. He specifically focused in Omni - Channel Fulfillment, Network Strategy, Warehouse Optimization, and Strategic Sourcing.  Taju also spent 3 years at Coca-Cola in the DFW market supporting warehousing, manufacturing, and distribution.

Taju received his BS in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Taju lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and dog. He enjoys Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, travel, and spending time outside.