Leadership Team

Dionne is the President and CEO of Laurel Street.  She establishes and manages the overall strategic direction, operations, and growth of the company and has more than 25 years of experience in real estate development, finance, and operations.

Prior to founding Laurel Street, Dionne served as Senior Vice President at Crosland and led the company’s affordable housing development and multifamily operations. Previously, she managed investments at NewSchools Venture Fund and Earnest Partners and built her skills in strategy, organization, and operations as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Dionne began her career in financial services as an Investment Banking Analyst at Salomon Brothers in New York.

Dionne serves on the Board of Directors for Cousins Properties (NYSE: CUZ) and the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) and as a Director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond – Charlotte Branch. She is also a member of the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council (CELC). Dionne is a Trustee for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and a member of the National Advisory Board for the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, and ULI’s Affordable and Workforce Housing Council. She also serves on the Charlotte Community Advisory Committee for the Knight Foundation, Renaissance West Community Initiative’s Advisory Board and Real Estate Committee, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Childress Klein Center for Real Estate Advisory Board. She is a member of Leadership Charlotte Class 29.

Dionne earned a master of business administration degree from Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Spelman College.

Daryl J. Carter, a 41-year veteran of the commercial real estate industry, is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Avanath Capital Management, LLC. Mr. Carter directs the overall strategy and operations of the Company, a California-based investment firm that acquires, renovates, and operates apartment properties, with an emphasis on affordable and workforce communities. Since its formation in 2008, Avanath has acquired $3.5 billion of properties across 14 states in the U.S., comprising 15,000 apartment units. Avanath is vertically integrated and is an SEC registered investment advisor and institutional fund manager.

Prior to founding Avanath, Mr. Carter was the Executive Managing Director of Centerline Capital Group. He became part of the Centerline team when his company, Capri Capital Finance, was acquired by Centerline in 2005. Mr. Carter co-founded and served as Co-Chairman of the Capri Capital family of companies and was instrumental in building Capri to a diversified real estate investment firm with $8 billion in real estate equity and debt investments under management. Previously, Mr. Carter was Regional Vice President at Westinghouse Credit Corporation and a Second Vice President at Continental Bank.

Mr. Carter is a Past Chairman of the National Multifamily Housing Council. Previously, he served as an independent director on the boards of Catellus Development Corporation (CDX), Silver Bay Realty Trust (SBY), and Whitestone REIT (WSR).

He currently serves on the board of Bridge Housing, one of the largest affordable housing non-profit organizations in the U.S. and is a 2022 inductee into the Multifamily Executive Hall of Fame.

Mr. Carter earned a Master’s in Architecture and a Master’s in Business Administration, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he currently serves on the Visiting Committee of the MIT Sloan School of Management. In 2015, Mr. Carter received the MIT Sloan School Distinguished Alumni Award and served as the 2015 commencement speaker for the Sloan School MBA graduation. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Michigan.

Carly Stevenson is the Executive Vice President for Property Management at Avanath Capital Management.  She is a 21-year veteran property management professional. Prior to joining Avanath, she was the President, Property Management at Mandel Group, based in Milwaukee, responsible for the profitability and operations of their multi-state property management platform. Carly also held multiple management positions at AMLI and Waterton Residential where she gained valuable experience in several markets by enhancing the value of various asset types and classes, from Class – A (to C), Garden to High Rise, Mixed-Use, Affordable, and Commercial real estate.

What makes her most unique is her grassroots career where she began as a Leasing Consultant and has grown to now become a strategic leader within Avanath. As a result of her success, she has been the personal recipient of multiple Chicagoland Apartment Marketing & Management Excellence awards, 2019’s Bisnow Power Women in Chicago Real Estate and Connect Media’s 2020 Women in Real Estate – Midwest recipient. Carly was elected and served on the Board of Directors for the Chicagoland Apartment Association.

Wesley Wilson, CPA is Chief Financial Officer of Avanath Capital Management. In this capacity, he oversees all aspects of accounting, tax, systems, financial planning & analysis, and data analytics. Mr. Wilson is also an Accounting and Finance Professor at Pepperdine University and a Board Member and Finance Director of a Los Angeles based non-profit.

Prior to joining Avanath, Mr. Wilson was a Controller with CIM Group, LP where he was responsible for the accounting and finance for $28 Billion in Opportunistic Real Estate Funds. Mr. Wilson has also worked at Bank of New York Mellon, Deutsche Bank, and SS&C GlopeOp, where he managed the finance and accounting for a diverse field of investment funds in both domestic and international markets, such as Private Debt, Private Equity, CLO’s, CDO’s, CBO’s, and Hedge Funds.

Mr. Wilson is a Certified Public Accountant, an MBA graduate of Pepperdine University, and received a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Vanguard University of Southern California.

Jun Sakumoto is the Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Avanath Capital Management.  Mr. Sakumoto leads Avanath’s development initiatives, including affordable, workforce and value-oriented apartment communities in markets throughout the country.

Prior to joining Avanath, Jun Sakumoto was a Director of Centerline Capital Group and co-head of the Equity Group. He was responsible for directing the investment activities of Centerline Urban Capital I, LLC, an institutional real estate investment fund formed with the California Public Employees' Retirement System. Centerline Urban Capital invested mezzanine and equity capital, targeting multifamily properties in urban infill markets. Mr. Sakumoto also was Vice President with Capri Capital Advisors, LLC, a $2.7 billion real estate advisory firm investing real estate equity and debt-related products on behalf of pension funds and institutional investors.

Mr. Sakumoto holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Sakumoto is a member of the Affordable and Workforce Housing Council of the Urban Land Institute and serves on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of the National Association of Securities Professionals.

Sylvia Sullivan is the Vice President of Finance and Operations for Laurel Street.  She leads financial management and business operations for Laurel Street. She is responsible for the oversight and management of daily business operations as well as corporate and project financial management. Her responsibilities include coordination with the CEO on financial planning, cash management, preparation of financial statements, coordination of third-party reviews, and management of payroll and benefits. She also provides oversight on project-level financial requirements. Sylvia has over 23 years of experience in real estate accounting and finance.

Previously, Sylvia was Controller at Northwood Ravin. There, she was responsible for general accounting as well as the development, construction, and management of market-rate multifamily projects.

Prior to joining Northwood Ravin, she worked as Finance Manager for the residential division of Crosland.

Sylvia earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the State University of New York and passed the New York CPA exam. Sylvia is currently completing her studies for a master of business administration degree from East Carolina University.

Ellen Guccione is the Executive Vice President of Administrative Services for Avanath Capital Management. She is responsible for the Venture's organizational administration, including all lease negotiations, insurance, and risk adminstration.

Prior to joining Avanath Ellen Guccione was a Senior Vice President, Facilities for Centerline Capital Group a subsidiary of Centerline Holding Company. Ms. Guccione was responsible for leasing office space for Centerline offices in Washington DC; Irvine, California; and Chicago, as well as handling the sub-leasing of existing offices throughout the country. She was also responsible for creating a corporate-wide file retention program and setting up policies and procedures for ongoing file retention. At Centerline, Ms. Guccione also served as Senior Vice President, Quality Control, where her responsibilities included creating policies and procedures for the Underwriting Department.

Prior to Centerline, Ms. Guccione was Senior Vice President of Capri Capital Finance where her responsibilities included field underwriting and due diligence support during the initial screening of loan submissions.

She has over 30 years of experience in residential and commercial mortgage banking and is well-versed in loan packaging, escrow procedures, loan processing and document review.

Colleen Forness is the Vice President of Human Resources and Administration for Laurel Street.  She leads human resources, marketing, IT, and administrative operations for Laurel Street. She is responsible for the oversight and management of the full employment cycle of the team. She manages staffing, benefit programs, payroll, and analysis of Laurel Street’s compensation structure. Colleen has over 25 years of experience in human resources.

Previously, Colleen was Vice President of Human Resource Operations at LendingTree. In that role, she was responsible for benefits, payroll, compensation, employee experience, training and development, community outreach, and HRIS.

Additionally, Colleen helped establish and ran the LendingTree Foundation for two years. Prior to joining LendingTree, Colleen worked as the Group Director of Human Resources at Baker & Taylor.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in hospitality at Corness University. Colleen is currently a committee member for the St. Jude Celebrity Dinner and Gala committee.