One Vision United. Veterans of the real estate industry, the True Life Communities management team is guided by a shared vision—to create communities that bring people together. Sound business principles, a passion for excellence, and respect for every individual inside the organization are the driving forces behind the company's decisions and success.
To carry the torch of the American dream is a privilege; one the team at True Life Communities is dedicated to delivering each and every day.
As the Managing Partner of True Life Communities LLC, Scott's expertise is defined by over 25 years of executive management and sales experience across multiple industries. Leading a team of 14 business partners, he has built True Life Communities LLC into a land investment company and homebuilder across California, Arizona and Colorado. Scott is a charismatic and visionary leader who sees exceptional opportunity in the market today. He has assembled a team of top talent giving the organization the ability to seize those opportunities. The resulting team has a diverse background with expertise in acquisition, due diligence, entitlement, land development, vertical construction, marketing and sales.
Scott has had previous experience building a company from the ground up when he co-founded The Consummate Group in 1993 with Don Kirby, True Life Communities' partner in charge of Community Relations. Over a six-year period Scott built this equipment leasing company into a successful business and sold the firm in 1999.
Scott then established a capital investment firm to provide funding to local developers and national homebuilders. Between 1999 and 2007 the company underwrote $5 Billion in land development projects. In 2007, Scott and Don Kirby formed Americap Development Partners LLC to capitalize on opportunities in distressed land subdivisions and REO properties. Under Scott's guidance the team of partners has grown to 14, with decades of top-level experience. The company was rebranded as True Life Communities in early 2011 to reflect a complete focus on real estate investment, land development, and the company's evolution into homebuilding.
Mark brings over 20 years of land development and home building experience to his role leading community vision and sales for True Life Communities LLC. He has held key positions with major public and private homebuilders such as Regional President for Lennar and, most recently, Warmington Residential.
As Division President for KB Home he increased revenues from $28 Million in 2004 to $146 Million in 2006. He successfully restarted the Northern California region for Richmond American Homes, resulting in revenue growth of $9.2 Million in 1998 to $250 Million in 2001. Over the last eight years prior to joining True Life Communities, Mark entitled and developed 8,300 residential lots in Northern and Southern California, and built over 6,600 homes.
Mark's knowledge spans the full range of development and construction: from securing and mapping land to building and selling homes. At every turn he has improved revenue generation, reduced costs, and increased inventory turn rates. He has a keen understanding of market conditions and consumer demand.
Mark has served as Division Controller for Shea Homes, co-founded the Charity of Dreams foundation of Northern California, holds a California real estate broker license, and is a non-practicing CPA.
Russ Schaeffer manages the administrative and organizational needs for True Life Communities, ensuring day-to-day efficiency in operation. With a long history as an Owner/Builder, Russ has a comprehensive background in managing the full organization. His experience in real estate is broad, having developed subdivisions, single-family homes, retail strip centers and office buildings. Some of Russ' recent accomplishments include multi-family senior housing communities in Redding, Citrus Heights, San Leandro and Manteca.
In the commercial real estate sector, Russ co-founded Schaeffer and Foster, Inc., where he negotiated more than 500 lease and sale transactions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He also ran a full-service mortgage brokerage and owned and operated senior housing communities with more than 300 employees. Russ has been a licensed General Contractor since 1986.
Formerly with Catellus Development Group, Mr. Barry has extensive land development and construction experience across Northern California. He managed a joint venture between Shea Homes, Shea Properties and Centex Homes with the goal of turning 700 acres on the San Francisco Bay into a thriving mixed-use development. He has served as the Vice President of Construction for the Harbor Bay Isle project a master-planned community of 1,000 acres of land supporting 3,000 homes and 2 million square feet of commercial office facilities in Alameda, CA.
For five years, Mr. Barry also worked in partnership with the City of Alameda in negotiations with the United States Navy in order to accomplish the transfer of a shuttered Naval Air Station facility to the City of Alameda. Mr. Barry also worked on brownfield developments with The DeSilva Group, a major land development firm based in Dublin, California, focusing on redevelopment opportunities throughout Northern California.
Taber Anderson leads the company's acquisition team with an extensive background in development and residential home building that spans nearly 25 years. His expertise covers real estate investment, development of infrastructure, community amenities and both production and custom home building. He is accomplished in acquisitions, project level finance, entitlements, master-planned residential communities and hospitality/residential mixed-use resorts.
Taber's development experience includes some of the most notable award-winning master plans in the Scottsdale and Phoenix submarkets: Desert Highlands, Desert Mountain, Superstition Mountain and Sun City Festival/Festival Ranch as well as Las Campanas in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Hokuli'a in Kona, Hawaii; and Loch Lomond in Luss, Scotland.
As a Managing Director with Crown Realty and Development of Southern California, Taber was responsible for the resort/residential division which acquired prime in-fill properties and developed a prominent $330 Million Montelucia Resort, Spa and Villas project in Paradise Valley/Scottsdale. Prior to that, Taber served five years as President of the Lyle Anderson Company in their investment, operating and development entities. Over his 17 year tenure with this iconic real estate investment and development firm, he held several project management and executive level positions.
Taber received his Bachelor of Arts from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and performed selected studies in the Real Estate Development Master's program at Columbia University in New York. Recently Taber has been a managing partner with New York based Columbus Nova Partners in multiple real estate investments in the Southwest.
Joe joined True Life Communities in 2001, and has made a massive impact in the company since that time. Joe has demonstrated ability in capital raising, marketing and corporate branding. One of his projects before joining Americap was successfully raising a two million dollar angel investment for an internet start up, and securing the sixteen million dollars in venture capital to fund continued operation. Joe's true passion is sharing the many opportunities available to investors who are willing to disregard media hype and look for sound investments in land and real estate.
With a career spanning over two decades and multiple industries, his passion and skill for finding the right partners, setting correct expectations and guiding growth is extraordinary.
With over 30 years' experience in the field of title insurance and new home construction, Mr. Vossekuil has proven sales and management experience, accompanied by knowledge and consistent application of client and customer service procedures.
While serving as VP Sales Manager-Builder Division at Chicago Title Company, Mr. Vossekuil's efforts were key to developing relationships with companies including Pulte Homes, Signature Properties and Ponderosa homes. His efforts improved market share by 39% in a three year period, and produced annual revenues up to $4,000,000.
Mr. Erickson is a finance executive who brings over 25 years of expertise in real estate and business development, financial analysis, legal compliance and strategic planning to Americap's Investor Relations division. He is a results-oriented leader with strong communication skills who has built solid relationships throughout the lending community.
Before becoming the Chief Financial Officer for Realty Investments/KSK Property Management, Inc, Russell held senior management positions at the St. Frances Yacht Club, Auberge Resorts, Larkspur Hospitality, Tamalpais Hotel Services, IDG Resorts, and Trust House Forte hotels.
Russell is a graduate of San Diego State University. He has earned the CHAE and CHTP designations from the organization of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals.
Russell has contributed to his community by volunteering as treasurer and member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco International Program, by assisting The Jewish Community Federation's Budgets and Planning department, and by serving on the Finance Committee of Achievekids.
With over thirty-five years of experience in both public and private sectors, Bob Selders brings a wealth of knowledge and relationships to the Americap team. Bob started his career at the City of Oxnard serving as an Assistant Planner, and was quickly promoted to Associate Planner in charge of special studies and neighborhood development. He then moved to the City of Brentwood where he served as the Planning Director, as well as an interim Assistant City manager. He was instrumental in the preparation and adoption of a new General Plan, Redevelopment Plan, and zoning ordinance management for the city.
After serving in the public sector for over fifteen years, Bob transitioned into private development, eventually becoming the Vice President of Forward Planning for D.R. Horton. His accomplishments in the private sector are considerable, and include the management of a planning team in charge of the entitlements, due diligence and project management of eighty Northern California residential projects ranging from forty to seven hundred lots. He has also processed entitlements for a variety of commercial, industrial and office properties, including—most recently—a sixteen acre light industrial mixed use project and a forty-three acre industrial park. He has also been instrumental in the negotiation of several mergers between private development firms.
Bob received his Bachelor of Science degree in Urban Planning from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California.
David Day's career history speaks to his holistic approach to land development. He has served in nearly every sector of the industry, and seen multiple projects through the acquisition, development and construction process. From large scale wetlands mitigation to the reconstruction of waterfront areas, Day's projects are characterized by an innovative and environmentally conscious approach to any development challenge. Some of his most recent residential and mixed-use projects include the Bayport Alameda Project, Encinal Terminals and the Grand Marina Village, all located in Alameda, CA.
His experience with large scale public utilities and public works projects is also unparalleled, having worked in various capacities on projects including the Hyperion Treatment Plant in Los Angeles; BART's Pittsburgh-Antioch Extension Project; a seismic retrofit of the Interestate-280 viaduct; the design, bidding and construction of seven major interstate bridge projects in Alameda County; and the design and management of infrastructure construction for the Mission Bay development in San Francisco.
Day received is MBA from UCLA with a Real Estate Development emphasis and his BS in Civil Engineering from California State University, Chico.
Derek Spalding is currently heading Americap's acquisition efforts in the Sacramento and Central Valley of California. He has extensive experience in these areas, having managed residential development and construction projects there since 1993.
Derek's considerable experience in land acquisition and forward planning is complemented by his considerable research and due diligence capabilities. As Manager of Land Acquisition at KB Home and Vice President of Land Acquisition at DR Horton, he has been instrumental in the acquisition and development of over 3750 lots in the region, managing projects from preliminary research, financial and market analysis as well as providing strategies for project segmentation, market capture and product recommendations.
Derek began his career as a construction superintendant for KB Home. The experience of performing over 100 homebuyer walk-through orientations solidified Derek's emphasis on the homebuyer, even from the earliest phases of development. His passion for acquisition, development and end user experience are a true asset to the Land Acquisition division.
Derek obtained his Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from California Polytechnic University in San Louis Obispo, California
.Mike Bedker's extensive and diverse background in the development and construction industry includes land acquisitions, building acquisitions, forward planning, architecture, engineering, development, and project management of over two hundred twenty projects, including multi-family (Section 8 and/or HUD projects), single-family residential and mixed use PUD's totaling approx. 8,400 units with budgets from five hundred thousand to two hundred million dollars.
Mike spent 18 years as President of Land Based R&D Corp., during which time he was responsible for the pre development or development of about 3,700 custom, semi-custom and multi-family residential and mixed use units in six states. The development process included direction and supervision of land acquisition, processing of entitlements for various land uses, product design horizontal development, building construction, and marketing and sale of finished units.
Much of Mike's career was spent as the senior land acquisition executive with The Meyers Group and The Muller Group in Washington and Arizona, and more recently, with Pacific West Companies in Nevada. In these positions, he led teams of up to 32 members in several states in identifying and evaluating land for development, which included market studies, due diligence and feasibility analyses. He directed the process of obtaining entitlements, dealing with many diverse government agencies, including city councils, county boards of supervisors, planning commissions, Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Fish and Game and the Sierra Club.
Cynthia has an extensive background creating and implementing successful marketing strategies for condominiums, condominium conversions, and single-family homes in urban and suburban settings. She began her career in real estate marketing with a privately owned home building company in Southern California and went on to become a manager in Los Angeles based brokerage firm, King New Home Sales and Marketing. She directed marketing and sales on REO workouts and new home developments for financial institutions and privately held builders.
In 2001 Cynthia joined publicly owned D.R. Horton as the Vice President of Marketing and Sales. During her tenure she was a key player in creating and executing the strategy to enter the new home market in Central California, selling 200 homes in 22 months. Cynthia then joined Lennar in 2006 as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the company's urban team in Los Angeles. She was responsible for establishing the marketing department for the Los Angeles division from start-up. Throughout her career, Cynthia has managed as many as 16 developments simultaneously, and closed as many as 400 homes annually.
In 2003 Cynthia was named Marketing Director of the Year by the Sales and Marketing Council of Los Angeles and Ventura. She has twice served on the Board of Directors for the Sales and Marketing Council of the BIA.
Over the last 28 years, Tracy Anthony (CSLB #714817) has built a legacy of successful projects, spanning nearly every facet of the construction industry. He specializes in total solution development and construction for single and multi-family residential projects, and has been directly responsible for the construction of 1,300 homes in the last 15 years. Tracy has been responsible for developing a variety of products ranging from entry level production residences and custom homes to mid-rise condominiums and commercial complexes throughout California and Nevada. From architectural planning and development to construction management and close out, Tracy has a rare combination of field experience and business acumen, enabling him to take on any project and bring it home. Tracy is a graduate of UC Berkeley's Architecture Program.
Tenacity and determination characterize Don Kirby's approach to every situation. His skills as an entrepreneur, organizer and team leader are second to none, and he is a main force in keeping our communities on track. Don is currently responsible for responsible for our community relations activities, negotiating key relationships, engaging jurisdictions and, most importantly, managing the hundreds of components necessary to keep our communities on course. His efforts are visible in the sales of one of our current communities, The Chanslor Place.
He spent ten years in the corporate world before founding The Consummate Group with Scott Clark in 1993, and over the years their business partnership has proven very successful. Under Don's leadership, The Consummate Group's revenues grew over 1000%. Through industry changes, geographic relocations and market fluctuations, he has remained a steadfast market leader with the vision and the ability to bring Americap Development Partners to national eminence.
Anthony Vidergauz is the former CEO of California Closets, a high-end custom storage company he led for 23 years. Mr. Vidergauz joined California Closets in 1987 as corporate counsel responsible for all legal related work for the company including franchise agreements, domestic and international trademarks and real estate leases. He served on the Board of Directors from 1987 until he left the company in 2009. Mr. Vidergauz acquired the struggling company, along with his partner in 1994, and embarked on a brand strategy that helped the company evolve from a small home improvement supplier to a lifestyle brand. By sourcing outstanding products supported by creative marketing and great customer service the company soon became the dominant brand in the industry. Through a series of brand extension programs Mr. Vidergauz negotiated strategic alliances with major retailers Costco, Whirlpool, Target and Home Depot and implemented a showroom program that provided the company with great visibility and increased sales. Through his leadership the company implemented national advertising campaigns to increase market share, eventually growing the business into a multi-million dollar enterprise with over 100 franchises and becoming a highly respected national brand and a household name.
Mr. Vidergauz is a native of South Africa and earned his law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He began his law career in 1980 before following his entrepreneurial inclinations and moving to the United States in 1986. He currently serves on three corporate boards where he is a director and a consultant and is also active on two non-profit boards including WPO (World Presidents Organization) and Dominican University of California where Mr. Vidergauz serves on the Board of Trustees. Mr. Vidergauz lives in Marin County with his wife and two sons.
Don was recently the CFO of the Grupe Company and was instrumental in guiding that company through a series of growth phases. Don was responsible for the operational aspects of the company, overseeing cash and risk management, IT systems, finance, accounting, H.R. and Legal as well as asset management and property management. He also managed the acquisition of income producing properties such as apartments and self-storage.
In addition to his CFO experiences, Don brings years of experience in the real estate banking industry (Union Bank in L.A. and San Francisco). As the head of the bank's Real Estate lending practice, he oversaw 5 regions in Northern California and the International Real Estate Department in Hong Kong. Don holds a Bachelor Degree in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College, a Masters in Business Administration from UCLA, and a Certificate in Financial Management from Stanford University. Don retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserves in 1990 as a Lieutenant Colonel. His 20 year military career included a year in Vietnam where he was in charge of all fixed wing medical evacuation throughout the country.
In addition to serving as principal of the company Tom Marckwardt is also a member of our Advisory Board. He has more than 20 years of experience dealing with all aspects of mortgage lending. In the course of his career he has successfully completed 23,000 loans with a combined total of $8.4 Billion. He has also traveled extensively throughout the United States conducting seminars for mortgage professionals, real estate agents and financial planners on integrating mortgages with broader aspects of financial planning and wealth creation. Before entering the mortgage field, he spent 18 years with Xerox, where he advanced from field sales to National Sales Manager when he left in 1988. Tom earned his Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from San Diego State University.