Meet Kurt Berman

Kurt has travelled the World pursuing his love of luxury hospitality. This journey has taken him from the legendary hotels of Africa and Europe to spectacular villa estates in Thailand. From luxury wellness resorts in Asia to exclusive private islands in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. To his recent challenges of guiding hospitality groups in the USA through the Covid-19 pandemic and recovery.

His deep love for hotels and hospitality, combined with intense creative ability means his ideas are never ‘by the book’ nor ‘borrowed’ from competitors. Kurt brings a unique, cross-cultural sensitivity and worldly perspective to his work.

Kurt’s creative and dynamic mindset allows him to strategically define a project’s vision while also tactically  executing within practical hospitality parameters of time, budget and quality.

With Chandler House, Kurt brings into service his decades of international luxury experience and genuinely reflects who he is as a hospitality guru.

Meet Daniel Hintz

Daniel takes a systems-based methodology to placemaking and design, focusing on the dynamic ways the individual parts of a community interrelate to inform and fuel positive change.

He’s worked across North America, including downtown and neighbourhood master plans, regional economic development initiatives, organizational strategy and capacity building, talent recruitment and retention strategies, special event production, art and cultural initiatives, restaurant and hospitality concepts, food and culinary systems and public policy work.

Recently, Daniel served as Executive Director of Fayetteville Downtown Partners, where he was scoped to execute the downtown master plan vision. Projects included producing the Fayetteville Arts Festival, creating the Fayetteville Arts Council, co-writing the initial Fayetteville Public Art Policy, developing the state’s first municipally formed Arts District and successfully changing state BID law to include the arts as a fundable line item, among other development and activation projects. In 2007, he went on to serve as Executive

Daniel has taught at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business and is a highly sought after speaker, having presented at TEDx, Tyson Foods, Walmart, American Institute of Architects, Arkansas Municipal League, Congress for the New Urbanism, American Association of Landscape Architects, Sarkeys Southwest Regional Leadership Forum, National Town Builder Association, International Economic Development Council, and many others.

Meet Matthew Gyulay

Matthew’s career has given him the opportunity to create work with immensely talented teams and highly collaborative clients. As a Creative Director he counts as his greatest achievement building and working with teams that have delivered award winning ideas that performed well in-market. Matthew has had the pleasure of working on both local and global campaigns for a large array of categories and brands, including IBM, Microsoft, Ford, Citibank, DuPont, Rogers, Ford, Coca Cola just to name a few.

Matthew – an avid lover of the arts – likes to take in gallery shows, plays and the symphony. He is also an artist, painting primarily in oils and watercolour. When not cracking the creative nut for his clients, he can be found in his studio at his easel or working on the set for some play or musical. In order to continue to be artistically inspired and experience the world, Matthew and his wife of 32 years love to travel when they can.

Meet Fareena Contractor

Fareena Contractor leads teams at the forefront of emerging technology and innovation. A former molecular geneticist, she was part of the team that developed the H1N1 vaccine before transitioning into the business world. She earned her MBA from the University of Toronto, specializing in Strategy and Design Thinking.

Fareena spent seven years at Walmart leading emerging technology, globally. Her expertise in technology strategy and implementation led her to DEKA R&D, where she now spearheads strategic partnerships and the development of groundbreaking innovations—from intradermal vaccine applicators to multi-purpose robotic platforms. Working closely with visionary inventor Dean Kamen, she is at the helm of transformative projects that bridge science, engineering, and commercialization.

Fareena is dedicated to fostering STEM education and entrepreneurship, through FIRST Global where she plays a key role in empowering the next generation with the tools to lead and innovate. In addition, she serves on the board of XRP, shaping the future of open-source robotics and education.

Meet Ben Pfinsgraff

Ben had an unusually diverse career path, moving seamlessly from Major League Baseball to investment banking to single-malt distilling and high-end hospitality. A former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, Pfinsgraff is now part of the founding team for Common House, a gathering space that cultivates community through inspirational design, dynamic programming and fine dining across the US.

Meet Chris Baribeau

Chris Baribeau, AIA is the Principal Architect and co-founder of modus studio, a progressive and mutable design collective. The firm is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has contributed a broad range of influential, sustainable, and award-winning place-making projects to the built realm since its inception in 2008.

Together with companion fabrication lab, modus shop, the firm bridges the profession with architectural, graphic, prototyping, and fabrication work. Craft in the hand of design and making is at the core of their design vocabulary, used to create architectures founded in a think, make, do process.

As the leader of the firm, Chris draws daily inspiration and experience from his place, the threshold between the natural and man-made world of the Ozarks. He is an advocate of conscious observation as inspiration for design and views the world around him as an unwritten instruction manual for living.

He follows an idea; the idea that architecture can be sourced from the simple, everyday experiences of life. He believes the architecture that results from these experiences can be inspiring to all people in a personal, practical, and sustainable way. People deserve good space and good buildings, derived from good ideas.

Meet Steve Brooks

Steve is a founding partner of Eldridge Brooks and a former partner at Arkansas’ largest law firm. Most recently, Steve was a partner at one of the state’s largest venture capital and growth equity investment firms overseeing private capital formation and strategy and mergers and acquisitions activities and leading investments in healthcare, software technologies, e-commerce, energy infrastructure and retail and e-commerce businesses. He has over 20 years of experience advising and investing in private capital funds, private companies, as well as advising limited partners and funds of funds. Steve’s practice is rooted in his broad experiences working with emerging high growth companies, investors, and funds, both in business and as a lawyer.

Prior to forming Eldridge Brooks, Steve was a partner at New Road Capital Partners, a venture capital and growth equity investment firm based in Bentonville, AR. He worked extensively with the portfolio companies as well as the funds themselves and their co-general partners, namely Kayne Anderson, based in Los Angeles, CA. Prior to New Road Capital, Mr. Brooks was a partner in the private equity and mergers and acquisitions practice group of Friday Eldredge & Clark, Arkansas’ largest law firm, from 2003 until 2013. Steve represented lower middle market issuers across the U.S. in private offerings of securities; structuring private equity funds and offerings; acquisitions and divestitures, as well as partnership and corporate tax matters. From 1995 to 2000, Brooks practiced as a CPA in both the private and public sectors in the tax section of Frost PLLC, Arkansas’ largest public accounting firm and was senior tax accountant with Tyson Foods, Inc. He graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law (Fayetteville), Cum Laude, and the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business. He is a member of the Arkansas and Texas Bar, is admitted to the United States Tax Court and has served as Associate Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court. Steve has been ranked by Chambers USA as one of America’s leading lawyers and was most recently recognized as a 2020 Mid-South Super Lawyer for his Mergers and Acquisitions practice.

Meet Michael Pedler

Michael is a performance-driven business strategist, integrated marketing communications professional and disciplined brand planner. He’s led cross-functional teams implementing global brand initiatives throughout North America.

Beyond the resumé, Michael is also a passionate arts lover (and musician). He appreciates the role arts play in developing, connecting and enhancing communities.