Our Team

Mr. Adler oversees the Special Situations vertical for Civitas. In this role, Mr. Adler is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and closing strategic acquisitions, property-level financings, joint-venture opportunities, and platform investments that enable the firm to pilot an investment strategy with potential to grow into a new vertical.

During his time at Civitas, Mr. Adler has overseen investments in multifamily, net-leased office, high street retail, and healthcare real estate, among others.

Prior to Civitas, Mr. Adler served on the Capital Markets team for Howard Hughes Holdings (NYSE: HHH), where he closed over $1.2 billion of transactions through a variety of structures for an array of asset types.

Mr. Adler holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California.

Eric Celeste is the Director of Communications & Public Policy for Civitas, leading all external and internal communications efforts for the firm. He ensures that the firm’s communication efforts align with its brand as a different kind of alternative asset management firm, one focused on niche, differentiated investment strategies in real estate, lodging, and alternative credit.

Mr. Celeste has been an editor, writer, and communications professional in Dallas for 29 years. He has worked at D Magazine, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Observer, and the in-flight magazines for American and Southwest Airlines.

For five years prior to joining Civitas, he was the education editor and city columnist for D Magazine, the city magazine of Dallas. (He remains a contributing editor to D Magazine.) As a communications consultant, Mr. Celeste has run successful political campaigns for Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, Dallas City Councilwoman Angela Hunt, and Dallas-area judges. His communications clients have included the Dallas Housing Authority, the Coalition for a New Dallas Super PAC, Oncor, and others. Until recently, he was the Associate Director for Publications at Learning Forward, a national nonprofit that advocates for high-quality professional development for teachers that improves student outcomes. Mr. Celeste graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University.

Bill Dunne is General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Civitas Capital Group. He is responsible for all legal and compliance matters, including joint ventures and partnerships, investment structuring, financings, and day-to-day legal matters impacting the firm’s investments and operations.

Prior to joining Civitas in 2015, Mr. Dunne was an attorney at Busch Ruotolo & Simpson, LLP, where he provided legal advice and representation to regional clients concerning securities offerings, regulatory matters, litigation, arbitration, and corporate matters. Prior to becoming a licensed attorney, Mr. Dunne began his career at Fifth Third Securities and worked as a financial advisor at Fidelity Investments. Mr. Dunne has previously held FINRA Series 7, 63, and 65 licenses.

Mr. Dunne received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Cincinnati School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration – Finance from Northern Kentucky University. Mr. Dunne is admitted to practice law in Texas.

Stephanie Fang is responsible for developing and managing global investor relations for high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutions with a focus on East Asian markets. Since joining Civitas in 2013, Ms. Fang has helped hundreds of families and individuals invest in U.S. real estate through Civitas EB-5 and alternative investments.

Prior to joining Civitas, Stephanie had experience working at China Everbright Bank and Citibank in Shanghai and New York.

Ms. Fang holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hefei Normal University and a master’s in Finance from the University of Denver. Ms. Fang completed the Certified Financial Planning Program from Texas A&M University in 2019.

Austin Khan is an experienced hotel and real estate investment management professional and a senior member of the Investments team at Civitas. Mr. Khan’s 23 years of experience in real estate principal investment and advisory roles encompasses hospitality, office, multifamily and retail investments throughout the capital stack. Mr. Khan brings over $1.2 billion in lodging investment experience and $3 billion of total real estate transaction experience to Civitas Capital Group.

At Civitas, Mr. Khan is responsible for general management of the firm’s lodging investment team. He serves on the firmwide Investment Committee as well as various other committees, boards, and the like related to Civitas lodging investment vehicles.

Mr. Khan most recently served as Managing Director of Blue Lion Capital, LLC an investment and advisory firm focused on real estate special situations investing. Prior to Blue Lion Capital, Mr. Khan was Chief Investment Officer of Ethika Investments, a $1.2 billion real estate private equity platform focused on opportunistic equity investments and high-yield credit, with a significant focus on the hotel sector. There, he oversaw investments in 15 hotels throughout the United States, including acquisitions and significant redevelopments.

Prior to Ethika, Mr. Khan served for five years as Vice President of Acquisitions at TRT Holdings, the parent company of Omni Hotels, among other holdings. In this leadership role, in addition to he worked with senior management to build three key lodging verticals for the firm: distressed credit, public-private development partnerships, and public company investing. Mr. Khan helped to lead the teams that developed the Omni Dallas Hotel and Omni Nashville Hotel.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Khan served as Real Estate Acquisitions Manager for OTO Development, focused on development of upper-midscale and upscale select service properties. Mr. Khan started his real estate career in investment banking roles at Banc of America Securities and Arthur Andersen. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

Jeff Kiser joined Civitas after spending years specializing in EB-5 fundraising and investor relations. In the aggregate, he has helped raise over $1 billion in EB-5 capital across a range of projects. Kiser has worked closely with hundreds of families and individuals looking to pursue U.S. residency through EB-5 investment. Kiser’s clients have originated from all over the globe, including Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Kiser has particularly deep experience building relationship with investors and intermediaries in China and Taiwan. Prior to his EB-5 work, Kiser worked for the U.S. Department of State and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, China. Kiser holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Ohio University and a master’s degree in Politics from East China Normal University.

Mr. Lindig has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of the development and construction process. At Civitas, he is currently overseeing construction of eight projects totaling over $448 million in the office, multifamily, hospitality, and senior housing sectors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Lindig was Vice President of Development and Acquisitions at Medistar, where over seven years he developed more than 3,000 acres, primarily for mixed-use developments including hospitality projects, retail, and office. In addition, Mr. Lindig project managed the development of over $1.2 billion of hotel and resort construction, including complex historic preservation and adaptive reuse projects. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Land Planning and Real Estate Development from the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University.

In this role, Lizak focuses on managing the credit strategy of and expanding the firm’s equity and debt investor base across the Civitas lodging platform, as well as growing Civitas’ credit business across the firm’s other target asset classes, including multifamily and niche opportunistic investments.

Lizak takes an active role in the capital raising process for the firm’s lodging-focused investment vehicles, including engagement with institutional LPs, consultants, and other counterparties. She plays a large part in overseeing deal underwriting and structuring, portfolio performance, and credit risk management in addition to assisting in the execution of capital markets initiatives.

Lizak joined Civitas with a professional background that spans more than two decades in which she has led the investment strategy, underwriting, structuring, fundraising, investor relations, and portfolio/asset management of highly complex, transitional CRE assets, across all asset types (with a focus on hospitality), geographic markets, and positions within the capital stack, and through various points in the real estate cycle.

On the lending side, Lizak has underwritten, structured, and closed more than $10B of debt‐related transactions for leading financial institutions, most notably as SVP & Head of Underwriting at Starwood Property Trust. Having worked with both balance sheet and CMBS lenders, her experience covers the full debt stack of senior, mezzanine, and preferred equity on a floating and fixed rate basis for bridge, construction, and permanent financing.

Lizak most recently held leadership positions as COO of Global Hospitality Investment Group, an early-stage private equity real estate firm focused on hotel assets located in major cities worldwide, and as CIO of Axle Companies, a Korean Family Office, where Lizak oversaw an investment portfolio with primary assets in hotel real estate and focused on optimizing existing and sourcing new investment opportunities.

Prior to joining Axle, Lizak was Director of Capital Markets & Investment Management at Ethika Investments, LLC, where she implemented strategic thought leadership for debt and equity capital markets activities as well as executed capital raising, IR, and investment strategy initiatives related to the company’s private equity real estate funds (value-add/opportunistic and credit).

Lizak holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

Sonja Milton is responsible for human resources at Civitas. In this role, Ms. Milton is responsible for all day-to-day HR operations at the firm, as well as for continuously improving the employee experience. She supports all firm growth and leadership initiatives, including mentorship, coaching, recruitment, performance management, compensation and rewards, employee relations, and people development.

In addition, Ms. Milton serves as a strategic partner to executive leadership, ensuring the firm maintains a people-oriented environment by recruiting, developing, and retaining talent; leading team-building initiatives; and overseeing employee engagement. She is the “culture keeper” of Civitas.

Ms. Milton is an integral part of living the firm’s purpose: “creating opportunities that enrich our investors, employees, and communities alike.” She aligns and refines how the Civitas team reflects the firm’s core values in our work and our actions. She previously served as the Manager of Culture and Administration at Civitas.

Ms. Milton holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences, both from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Mr. Patel is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and evaluating prospective investments and providing detailed analysis for consideration by the Civitas Investment Committee. He has originated, underwritten, or closed more than $500 million in debt and equity investments at Civitas, utilizing relationships with numerous best-in-class development, capital, and operating partners to access quality deals in U.S. gateway and other top markets. Prior to joining Civitas, Mr. Patel was an Investment Manager with Headington Companies, where he managed over $300 million in real estate assets in hospitality, multifamily, and healthcare. Mr. Patel holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.