Bruce Ford is Transwestern‘s president for the Southeast region based out of Atlanta. In this role, he oversees all the firm’s business lines, including owner services (agency leasing, property management, and investment sales), tenant advisory, healthcare and development. Bruce is responsible for all business development efforts and recruiting strategies. He is also responsible for Transwestern’s regional operations, overseeing the day-to-day management, financial planning, and marketing of the firm’s Southeast offices including Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Nashville. Prior to joining Transwestern, Bruce served with GVA Advantis as regional president of Georgia and the Carolinas. His responsibilities included leading business development activity and managing all brokerage, property and asset management, and construction services for the region. Bruce also directed the companies that ultimately became GVA Advantis, including the management services group of Armada/Hoffler as early as 1989. Before joining Armada/Hoffler, Bruce worked with the Smith Companies in Washington, D.C., where he managed some of the company’s most recognized projects. Bruce Ford and Transwestern were recognized by national research firm CoStar as a “Power Broker” in 2009 for the volume of transactions completed by Transwestern in Atlanta during that year. Bruce holds the designation of Real Property Administrator (RPA) from the Building Owners & Managers Institute, since 2008 he has been included in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Power 50,” a guide to Atlanta’s top 50 industry leaders. Bruce served as the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Holy Innocents Episcopal School and is currently serving on the Board of Directors for Buckhead Coalition as well as an active Board Member with Make A Wish, Georgia. Under his leadership the Transwestern Atlanta office has been consistently recognized as a “Best Places to Work” from the Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Raj Chokshi is the Wealth Manager and Partner at Redwood Wealth Management. Follow Redwood on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Steven Eisenstein started working in the hospitality sector at a young age. His father was a food salesman and exposed him to his clients while growing up. He started his first job as a dishwasher. The restaurant was called Plaza Pizza located next door to Plaza Theatre in midtown Atlanta. He slowly moved over to the cooking side and learned all about Sunday brunch. While in high school he delivered wholesale spices to the Buckhead Life Restaurant group. At age 16, Gerry Klaskala offered him a job as a prep cook working at the Buckhead Diner. He learned all about an upscale restaurant with high volume. Some of the chefs there had studied culinary at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, and a few had graduated from Johnson & Wales University. All throughout high school he worked in various positions in the kitchen learning about the fry station, the pantry station responsible for cold salads, and desserts. As time went on he applied to college to study hotel-restaurant management at several locations. In May of 1991, he was accepted at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. After four years of college and two degrees he started working for Masterpiece Creations by Volume Services at the Cobb Galleria. He learned all about catering in really large banquet spaces and ballrooms. He worked in all the aspects of catering for the “in house caterer”. He spent time in the concessions area, the beverage department, the purchasing department, the culinary team, the stewarding department and ended up in the sales department. He was later tasked for creating the off premise division where he learned a great deal. He figured out quickly that this is the craziest and most challenging position ever. Next chapter was spending time working in hotels. He spent many years working as a catering sales manager at a few different locations. Wyndham International was where he started and worked for them at two different properties. He moved into a much bigger hotel after that at Starwood. The Westin Atlanta North is where he learned about kosher catering. In February 2003, along with a close friend, they started a business called P2 Productions- Planned to Perfection which was a full service event planning business. They helped both corporate events and social event plan everything from start to finish. The business lasted for 2 years and then they both realized that having steady paychecks with benefits was much better for each of them. In October 2004, Steven joined the team at Omni Hotels in the catering sales department. This hotel was a prime location for affiliates hosting events at the Georgia World Congress Center. This was a perfect experience bringing a great of large events with lots of food and beverage and all sorts of themed events. During the time working there, he became the president of the local Atlanta Chapter of NACE which is the National Association of Catering & Events. After four years, a friend recruited him to work for Wolfgang Puck Catering, a division of Restaurant Associates and Compass Associates, located at the Georgia Aquarium. A kosher kitchen was also a part of the equation while working at the world’s largest aquarium. In March 2010 his position at Wolfgang Puck was eliminated and he was ready to take a break from catering. He wanted to still keep my finger on the pulse of events, since he had a passion for the hospitality industry. While networking in NACE, he had met so many different types of business owners and he wanted to help grow a business he could run. Ria Bruns was the current owner of Classic Tents & Events, which had started in 2000. She was looking for an exit strategy and Steven was in search of a business. He studied her operation for a good month and was looking for ways to add more revenue to the operation. In August 2010, they acquired her business and also made Karen Alcock a partner in the company. In 2013 they relocated the business into a 44,000 square foot warehouse. Their previous space had hindered us from growing. They added more staff to the operation and we bought a large washing machine to handle cleaning all of our tent inventory in an efficient manner. In September 2016, Steven and his father, Bernie Eisenstein, purchased Coastal Wholesale and changed the named to Coastal Restaurant Equipment Rentals. In October 2016, they moved all inventory into the Classic Tents & Events warehouse. Steven is happily married to Lynne and is the father to 3 wonderful children.
