Managing Director of Real Estate Finance

Mr. Joseph brings to DPG Investments over 30 years of experience as a financial and operational executive in public and private companies.  As a consultant to lenders, attorneys, and business owners, Joe’s consulting assignments have included asset management, forensic financial investigation, financial analysis, underwriting, creditor’s rights matters, expert testimony, and RTC work. Joe’s industry experience has principally been in the real estate development and real estate lending sectors. Joe will be involved in investment origination, client management, asset management and general oversight regarding various DPG portfolio holdings and overall mandates. His early career included stints as a senior financial executive for private and public builders and developers of substantial size, where his principal responsibilities included negotiating complex loans and managing relationships with lenders. Joe was Chief Financial Officer of Bridge Financial Corporation and its publicly traded parent, NZ Corporation. Joe was recruited to be the senior financial officer at NZ coincident with the launch of Bridge Financial Corporation, a new subsidiary engaged in hard money lending. Most recently Joe was Chief Administrative Officer of and a consultant to IMH, a hard money lender organized as a Regulation D offering with a $750 million loan portfolio which focused principally on the Southwest. At NZ and IMH, Joe’s responsibilities included general management, loan committee, workouts and foreclosures, SEC and other securities-related work, compliance, external reporting, and investor relations. Joe has operational and financial experience in several industries including but not limited to land development, homebuilding, offices, health clubs, restaurants, hospitality, property management, retail, healthcare, food manufacturing, dance and fine arts.

Managing Partner DPG Africa LLC
Managing Director DPG- US Corporate and Energy Special Situaitons

Mr. Walker joins DPG as Managing Partner of newly formed DPG-Africa LLC, a private merchant banking and investment vehicle focused on Africa regions, Mr. Walker will also serve a dual capacity within DPG as Managing Director of DPG -US Corporate finance and special situations businesses.

Mr. Walker is a disciplined, multi strategy, creative financier with sound judgment and excellent structuring, valuation, negotiation and due diligence skills. Mr. Walker has originated and executed over $25 billion of highly negotiated, complex investments and transactions across the capital structure, including private equity, leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, high yield and convertible bonds, leveraged loans, PPPs, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, distressed & special situations adding great value to DPG investors and counter parties.

Mr. Walker also serves as a capital markets executive within DPG extending DPG co investors base and distribution of DPG proprietary products, his network of relationships covers Africa’s/US key region-s and with a diversified investor base thru out US, Asia and Europe,.

Mr. Walker internal role at DPG will be to originate co-investments and advise principals and investors in agriculture, power, energy, financial services, housing, consumer and infrastructure ventures focused on Africa and special situations thru out the US. He is currently affiliated with Persephone Capital Partners, Peacock Investments, GMP Mining and MPP Africa.

Previously Mr. Walker joined Marco Polo Capital Markets in January 2008 as Managing Director of Marco Polo Network AFRICA. He formulated the company’s Pan-African strategic and business development plan and established C-level relationships with bond and stock exchanges, banks, dealers, corporates, private equity firms, institutional investors, regulators, governments and a network of over 50 brokerage firms in leading African markets. He expanded the Marco Polo Network in Africa by negotiating strategic agreements with broker and dealer partners in Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, advised on development of Pan-African capital markets and electronic exchanges, and structuring of a financial services joint venture in Angola.

He has served as a principal of Walker Capital Strategies (WCS), a vehicle to make deep value investments and transform operations, with a particular focus on special situations, distressed control acquisitions and turnarounds. Prior thereto, he was a senior member of a merchant banking boutique focused on buyouts, private equity and growth capital financings for special situations, privatizations and start-ups of telecom, media, broadband, wireless, content and e-commerce enterprises.

Mr. Walker co-developed, led capitalization and served as Managing Principal of Strategic Resource Partners, a $675 million fund providing bridge loans and “one-stop” financing to private equity firms in leveraged buyout transactions. As a Senior Vice President in the Leveraged Finance Group with Lehman Brothers, Mr. Walker advised financial sponsors and led origination and execution of buyout, high yield bond, leveraged loans and distressed M&A transactions for industrial, consumer, transportation, energy, utility, structured finance and infrastructure clients.

He has worked with OPIC, IFC, African Development Bank, AFREXIM Bank, NYSE Euronext and private insurers to develop credit enhancement and other structures to improve access to international capital markets for African issuers. Mr. Walker is well versed in corporate governance through Board service as Chairman, Committee Member and Director.  An engineer by training, with a BSME in Mechanical Engineering from University of Michigan, Mr. Walker received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Managing Director and Senior Director of Originations

Mr. Gross serves as Managing Director of DPG Lending LLC, DPG Private Capital LLC and DPG Capital Markets LLC with asset management responsibilities across DPG special purpose entities and various private partnerships post closing.

Mike is a multi-strategy financier with a deep understanding asset level diligence and client origination from inception, leading due diligence and assisting with final funding.

Mike has 25 years of experience as an financier, Mike has worked in various other capacities which add value when communicating with borrowers, developers agents and sponsors… Mike has been a Lender, agent, builder, appraiser, speaker, writer and consultant. He has been a consultant to Fortune 500 companies; including Land America, Premis and Countrywide . He has been invited to speak on the subject of ethics in real estate at real estate conventions in the southeast.

Michael has been interviewed on radio and TV for his expert opinion on the real estate crisis and a deep understanding of the distressed debt markets. With an expansive knowledge of real estate and an ability to communicate the company’s core competencies to clients on all levels, Michael brings a wealth of experience to the DPG brand.

Michael was the founder and president of Dividend America Commercial Lending which DPG acquired. He was responsible for creating the vision of a platform designed to assist non-bank lenders and funders with complicated processes of business development, origination, processing and pre-underwriting in a market space that was typically controlled by banks and mortgage lenders.

Managing a pipeline of deals with deal-flow volumes as high as $1 billion and a rotational average of over $500 million has prepared Michael for his current task of filling DPG’s expansive multi-strategy platform with trades that generate significant secured returns for DPG affiliated investment entities and longtime and trusted family office and private clients.

Managing Director

Jerry Hudspeth is a senior executive at DPG investments responsible for national and global origination of proprietary investments and advisory assignments within DPG. Jerry is a highly successful senior executive with over 25 years of experience in the Financial Services industry. Mr. Hudspeth has served as President and CEO for a number of public and private multi-national corporations and is also currently retained by several major financial institutions and government agencies to provide consulting, analysis and expert opinion regarding ongoing business and legal matters. Mr. Hudspeth has published a number of papers and articles on management and portfolio servicing, lectured on management at several universities and presented papers at many industry conferences.

Mr. Hudspeth will focus on origination of proprietary advisory and investment opportunities across corporate finance, real estate, energy and special situations for DPG investments and affiliates, Mr. Hudspeth will also engage with various private investors for co investment on DPG sponsored investment vehicles.

Jerry will also assist in managing DPG portfolio investments and clients.

Mr. Hudspeth has been formerly CEO of following coporations, Hilco Managed Assets, Portfolio Financial Servicing Company a $900 million AUM financial services platform which grew to $18 billion AUM, TMI/ LH Research, Everett Charles Corporation.

Mr. Hudspeth has served on the following external public/private boards, Peter Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate School – Claremont University, Casa Colina Hospital, Everett Charles, Saab-Scania Combitech, Orange Systems, Gateway Communications, Omnichrome International, SK&A Research, NuMedics, Firestorm.

Mr. Hudspeth has significant international experience having responsibility for operating companies in Japan, Malaysia, China, England, France, Germany, and Italy. Mr. Hudspeth has also served on a number of external Boards of Directors.

Mr, Hudspeth received both his Bachelor’s degree and MBA from South Carolina University.