Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc.

Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc. is an SEC registered non-traded real estate investment trust focused on providing individual investors dependable monthly income through the ownership of a diversified portfolio of 'business essential' office and industrial properties net leased on a long term basis to creditworthy corporate tenants. Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, distributed by Griffin Capital Securities, Inc. through leading independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisers, seeks to raise $1 billion in equity. Manifesting keen alignment of shareholder interest, the principals and certain affiliates of Griffin Capital invested over $26 million of capital into the REIT. - See more at: http://www.griffincapital.com/griffin-capital-essential-asset-reit/about-griffin-capital-essential-asset-reit/overview-and-strategy#sthash.7Fh64LLE.dpuf

Real Estate Specialization
Office
Industrial
Net Lease
Investment Type
Acquisition/Fee Simple
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CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors

Kevin Schields

Mr. Shields is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc., as well as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Griffin Capital and chairs the Investment Committee. His responsibilities include managing the firm's strategic direction and financial management and investor reporting.

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President

David Rupert

Mr. Rupert is the President of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc., as well as President of Griffin Capital Corporation and is involved in all aspects of the firm's activities. Mr. Rupert's 31 years of commercial real estate and finance experience includes over $5 billion of transaction volume on four continents. Mr. Rupert served as Chief Operating Officer of Griffin from 2000-2008 and left to pursue two entrepreneurial opportunities (co-heading an opportunistic hotel fund in partnership with The Olympia Companies, an 800-employee hotel owner-operator, and serving as partner in a private equity firm focused on hotel and multifamily residential development in Eastern Europe) before rejoining the firm as President in 2010. Mr. Rupert and Mr. Shields met while working together at Salomon Brothers (now Citi) in New York in the mid 1980's. Mr. Rupert worked at Salomon for a decade and served in various capacities, including the head of REIT underwriting, and provided advice, raised debt and equity capital and provided brokerage and other services for leading public and private real estate institutions and entrepreneurs. EDUCATION MBA, Harvard Business School BA, Cornell University

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Vice President and Chief Investment Officer

Michael Escalante

Mr. Escalante is the Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc., as well as Chief Investment Officer of Griffin Capital and is responsible for overseeing all acquisition and disposition activities of the firm. CAREER SUMMARY Mr. Escalante has been a prominent player in North American institutional property acquisition and asset management since 1987. With 26 years of real estate related investment experience, he has been responsible for completing approximately $6 billion of commercial real estate transactions throughout the Western United States. Prior to joining Griffin in June 2006, Mr. Escalante served eight years at Trizec Properties, Inc., one of the largest publicly traded U.S. office REITs, with his final position being Executive Vice President - Capital Transactions and Portfolio Management. While at Trizec, Mr. Escalante was directly responsible for all capital transaction activity for the Western U.S., which included the acquisition of such prominent office projects as: Bank of America Plaza, Ernst & Young Plaza, and Landmark Square in Los Angeles, California; One Concord Center in Northern California; Dallas Gallerias in Dallas, Texas and Metropolitan Square in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to joining Trizec, Mr. Escalante was employed for approximately 10 years in various acquisitions, asset management and portfolio management positions with The Yarmouth Group, an international investment advisor. Prominent acquisitions during his tenure at The Yarmouth Group included Murdock Plaza in Westwood, California and the mixed-use projects of Symphony Towers in San Diego, California and Tabor Center in Denver, Colorado. EDUCATION MBA, University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management BS, University of Santa Clara PERSONAL Married, father of two daughters; resident of South Pasadena, CA INDUSTRY ACTIVITIES Full member of the Urban Land Institute and active in many civic organizations.

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Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Joseph Miller

Mr. Miller is the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc., as well as Chief Financial Officer of Griffin Capital Corporation, and is responsible for the accounting, finance, systems, and human resources functions of the firm. CAREER SUMMARY Mr. Miller is a Certified Public Accountant in California, with a combined 22 years of real estate experience in public accounting and real estate investment firms. Mr. Miller came to Griffin Capital from PS Business Parks, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust, where he served as Senior Vice President of Business Operations. In this position he was responsible for the financial operations of the real estate portfolio, policies and procedures of the organization, and systems. Mr. Miller started his six year tenure with PS Business Parks as Vice President and Corporate Controller, where he was responsible for SEC filings, property level accounting, and all financial reporting. Mr. Miller was also with Maguire Properties (formerly Maguire Partners) as the Corporate Controller. At Maguire he was responsible for the accounting operation, treasury function, and systems. Prior to joining Maguire, Mr. Miller was with Ernst & Young, LLP where he was an audit Manager. In this role, Mr. Miller was responsible for attestation engagements for financial services and real estate companies. In this position he also worked on initial public offering teams for real estate investment companies going public. Mr. Miller also worked with KPMG LLP, where he became a certified public accountant. EDUCATION MBA, University of Southern California BS, Business Administration, Accounting, California State University, Northridge

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Vice President, Acquisitions

Don Pescara

Mr. Pescara serves as the Vice President for Acquisitions of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc., as well as Griffin Capital Corporation's Managing Director, heading the firm's Chicago office, serving as a member of the Investment Committee, and assisting in equity capital raising. CAREER SUMMARY Mr. Pescara's 20-year real estate career includes more than $500 million of transactions. His career began in 1985 at Cushman & Wakefield where he became a successful broker of office and industrial properties and was promoted to the Financial Services Group where he focused on institutional property sales and acquisitions. In 1990, Mr. Pescara joined Republic Realty Mortgage (now GMAC) as a Vice President of Production where he established an institutional sales force and developed relationships with various lending institutions including Mass Mutual, New York Life and Met Life. Mr. Pescara joined CB Commercial as a Regional Director in their Mortgage Banking Group in 1993 where his responsibilities included placement of debt on behalf of their exclusive conduit relationship with Merrill Lynch, representation of CB Commercial's Real Estate Mortgage Fund, and broker training for the Midwest region. Mr. Pescara's relationships with CB's top broker colleagues and trainee graduates continue today and lead to extensive acquisition opportunities. Mr. Pescara joined Cohen Financial, a leading financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, in 1996 as a Senior Director. Mr. Pescara joined Griffin Capital in 1997 when Griffin acquired an asset he was selling. Mr. Pescara's clients have included some of the largest and most active institutional investors and lenders including ABB, Computer Associates, Prudential, Household International, Oaktree Capital, and ITW. While at Griffin, Mr. Pescara's responsibilities have focused on sourcing acquisitions directly from corporations, institutions, and from the brokerage community. EDUCATION BA, Economics and Finance, University of Illinois

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Vice President, Acquisitions

Julie Treinen

Ms. Treinen is the Managing Director of Asset Management and is responsible for all of the firm's asset management activities. CAREER SUMMARY Before joining Griffin in 2004, Ms. Treinen was a Vice President at Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, Inc., a Hartford-based, SEC-registered real estate investment and advisory firm with $4.6 billion of assets under management. During her five years at Cornerstone, Ms. Treinen managed the acquisition diligence of approximately 1.2 million square feet of existing assets totaling $238 million, the development of five apartment joint venture projects totaling $152 million, and the disposition of five properties totaling $125 million. Ms. Treinen was also the senior asset manager for a $400 million portfolio of office, industrial and apartment investments, and her responsibilities included developing ownership and value maximization strategies, implementing capital programs, establishing and coordinating budgets, and both selecting and reviewing third party leasing and property management teams. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Ms. Treinen was Director, Field Production at Northwestern Mutual Life in Newport Beach. During her three years at Northwestern, Ms. Treinen initiated, negotiated, and closed three development projects totaling over $100 million and three mortgage originations totaling over $100 million, and acquired four existing assets totaling over $50 million. Prior to joining Northwestern, Ms. Treinen was a Vice President at Prudential Realty Group in Los Angeles.Over the course of her seven year tenure at Prudential, Ms. Treinen originated over $235 million in new commercial mortgage loans, structured and negotiated problem loan workouts, note sale and foreclosures totaling over $140 million and managed a portfolio of office, industrial and apartment investments totaling approximately $500 million. Prior to attending graduate school, Ms. Treinen worked at GM Hughes Electronics as Head of Finance and at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells as a Senior Accountant in the Audit Department. EDUCATION MBA, University of California at Berkeley, Graduate School of Business BA, Economics, University of California at Los Angeles

Griffin Capital Corp

Key Focus Areas
Acquisitions Asset Management Development Leasing Property Management Real Estate Investing
Geographical Area
Mapped Location