About Us
Anderson Roberts Financial is a short term private lender specializing in commercial real estate properties. Our dedicated team provides a depth of knowledge and experience unmatched by most real estate lenders. Our efforts are magnified by the many industry contacts, advisors and colleagues involved in our business, many of whom are former or current real estate professionals who we look towards for help in segments of our business.
Robert Schonefeld
CEO & Founder
Schonefeld is a 30+ year career professional in commercial real estate lending and securities capped by founding Bridger Commercial Funding, a leading CMBS lending firm. He grew Bridger to 100 staff, 8 offices nationwide, $5 billion in loan funding and $24 million in annual revenue. Investors in Bridger included Prudential Securities (NY), C3 Holdings (KS) BofA Strategic Investments (NC), and Koch Ventures (KS). Since 2010, Schonefeld has been solely involved in arranging private mortgages in commercial real estate, investing on his own behalf and that of others. Schonefeld has held various executive positions in the commercial real estate arena including senior manager in BofA's real estate capital markets group, the CFO of a mortgage banking firm in SF and an officer in five publicly traded mortgage loan REITs. Schonefeld holds a BS in Business from the University of San Francisco, an MBA in Finance from San Francisco State University and is an active California real estate broker. Ca DRE license # 00717346
Karen Kauh
Lead Underwriter
Ms. Kauh is an experienced lender with over 25 years in banking and finance, inclusive of 5 years managing and training a team of underwriters and analysts. She has closed over $1 billion dollars in commercial real estate financing representing over 200 transactions nationwide. Her underwritten loans include both permanent, construction and bridge loans secured by a variety of commercial property types including office, retail, multi-family, manufactured housing, and hotels. Ms. Kauh's career includes 10 years with Wells Fargo Bank in internal audit and community lending functions, 9 years with Bridger Commercial funding underwriting CMBS loans and 4 years with Anderson Roberts Financial underwriting structured real estate loans. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of California, San Diego and is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California.
Sydney Schonefeld
Operations Manager
Sydney Schonefeld joined Anderson Roberts Financial in March of 2020 as an Operations Manager and in her first three months assisted the team in funding $3.7 million in loans. Prior to Anderson Roberts, she worked at Marcus & Millichap, an international commercial real estate brokerage firm. While there, she worked for one of the top earning investment sales teams at the firm's San Francisco office aiding in the closing of over $75 million in real estate transactions. Sydney graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut in May of 2018 where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies. During college she held a variety of internship positions in real estate related companies and played on the varsity women's tennis team.
Ian Stuart
Director of Loan Originations & Investor Relations - Southern Region
Based in San Diego, Ian Stuart brings 30 years of banking and commercial real estate lending experience to Anderson Roberts, where he leads loan originations and investor relations for the Southern region. Ian has held positions of increasing responsibility with multiple banks, starting as a Corporate Banking Trainee at Bank of America in 1985 and culminating as V.P. and Regional Director of Originations for the Wells Fargo Real Estate Capital Market Group. Ian ultimately left Wells Fargo to become an early shareholder and officer of the newly formed Commercial Capital Bank in 1999. Commercial Capital grew exponentially as a commercial and multi-family lender from zero to $2 billion in market capitalization in only five years and was sold to Washington Mutual in 2007. Ian is a multi-state investor in several diverse sectors of commercial real estate and has invested alongside our outside investors in nearly every Anderson Roberts loan.
Ian enjoys exploring the outdoors on his road and mountain bicycles, and also enjoys almost any other outdoor, muscle-powered activity. He and his partner Laura have five grown children, and reside in San Diego with their dog Trixie and cat Morty.
John Ward
Director of Loan Originations & Investor Relations - Northern Region
John Ward joined Anderson Roberts Financial in early 2021. He brings over 30 years of commercial real estate experience to the company. Previously, he held positions of increasing responsibility during a 23-year career at Wells Fargo in the Wealth Investment Management division. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President and Regional Manager for an 11-state region, managing a $3 billion real estate portfolio for private clients and oversaw a team of 35 real estate professionals. His group provided extensive and varied services to high-net-worth individuals and their families, including advisory services, acquisitions, dispositions, and ongoing real estate asset management.
John holds a BA from Lafayette College, an MBA in finance from Golden Gate University and an active California real estate license. He enjoys skiing, tennis and cycling.
Kenneth Edwards
Advisor
Kenneth Edwards retired from Bank of America (San Francisco) where he served as Group Executive Vice President of the Commercial Real Estate Services Group. This encompassed a multi-billion dollar loan portfolio, and his responsibilities included management and direction of all aspects of secured and unsecured real estate lending on a nationwide basis. Ken also served as the Chief Financial Officer for Woodcrest Development in Orange County, California. Prior to this he held positions of increasing responsibilities within the Real Estate Industries Group of Wells Fargo Bank, including Senior Credit Officer. He served as the independent director for Bridger Commercial Funding from 1998-2010. After retirement he became active with a local homeless organization and served eights years on the Board. He was the Board member responsible for the development of four building projects.
Michael Sapuppo
Advisor
Michael Sapuppo is a 35 year veteran of commercial real estate finance and development business. Currently, he is a development partner in a 2,000+ unit affordable housing portfolio. In this capacity, he arranged tax-exempt debt and low-income housing tax credit equity for 15 affordable, rental housing developments. As the portfolio matures, Michael is involved in the sale, refinance and re-syndication options for the developments. Prior to Michael's tenure in the development business, he was a Vice President with a San Francisco based multi-family mortgage firm. He arranged Government insured debt financing of approximately $500MM for multi-family developments nationwide. He started his career in the commercial real estate finance industry with Hartford National Bank (Connecticut) as a Commercial Real Estate Officer, as a Vice President with Barclays American Real Estate Finance (Connecticut), and as a Vice President with Krupp Mortgage Company (Boston). Michael is a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.