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 $23 million in annual revenue. Investors in Bridger included Prudential Securities (NY), C3 Holdings (KS), Bank of America 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 San Francisco, 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

Sydney Schonefeld joined AR Financial in March of 2020 as the Operations Manager and since joining has assisted the team in funding over $100 million in loans. Prior to AR Financial, she worked at Marcus & Millichap, an international commercial real estate brokerage firm. While there, she worked on 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. She continues to play tennis in her free time and has recently become a pickle ball enthusiast. 

​

CA DRE License # 02153283

Based in San Diego, Ian Stuart brings 30 years of banking and commercial real estate lending experience to AR Financial, 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 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 AR Financial 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. 

​

CA DRE License #01268113

Ryan is a commercial real estate finance professional with more than two decades of experience spanning private credit, commercial real estate lending, commercial banking, and real estate capital markets advisory. At AR Financial, Ryan focuses on originating and structuring commercial real estate credit opportunities while supporting strategic initiatives across the firm’s lending platform. He works directly with borrowers and debt brokers to evaluate transactions, position opportunities for credit approval, and guide deals from underwriting through closing.

Since 2005, Ryan has been involved in a significant volume of commercial real estate transactions across multiple asset classes and capital structures. As a lender or underwriter, he has worked with borrowers, brokers, real estate finance companies, lifecos, CMBS lenders, banks, and credit unions. He has experience across all major commercial real estate asset types and financing structures. In addition to his lending career, Ryan is a licensed Oklahoma real estate broker and co-founder of Canvas Real Estate Partners, a brokerage focused on CRE execution. He also provides underwriting support, capital markets positioning, and transaction advisory services to real estate owners and sponsors nationwide. Ryan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Oklahoma.

Karen 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 AR 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. 

A 45-year resident of Portland, Oregon, Luther Barker brings 5 decades of commercial real estate finance experience to the team - about 40 of those years was spent honing his craft at commercial banks (US Bank, West Coast Bank, and Columbia Bank) and the remainder was a sabbatical spent with independent mortgage banking firms. Luther has spent his entire career in CRE finance and has had the privilege of not only learning from the best but experiencing virtually every aspect of the industry, including conventional term debt, construction loans, bridge loans, second mortgage loans, debt/equity investments (i.e. participating mortgages and deferred accrual loans), CMBS, preferred equity investments, agency debt (all manner of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac products and USDA), HUD loans (construction and permanent) and now private debt. Luther has financed a broad range of property types including office, retail, multi-family, industrial, mixed-use, hospitality, land and Mobile Home Parks, as well as unique assets like a gas stations, restaurants, and condominiums.

​

As AR Financial's exclusive correspondent in the Pacific Northwest, you can expect local market knowledge plus a wealth of experience that only time in the market can provide. 

​

Luther and his wife Patty live in Portland and have two grown sons. When not helping clients and enjoying time with family and friends, Luther spends the winter telemark skiing and the summer on his array of mountain bikes.