Brian's undergraduate degree was a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design (1994), with a major in Architecture and two separate minors: City & Regional Planning; and Social & Cultural Factors in Design. At the graduate level, he furthered his education in both fields: obtaining separate master's degrees in both Architecture (M.Arch) and City & Regional Planning (MCP). During graduate school, he chose to specialize in Housing & Project Development, and he took courses from the business school in a variety of subjects related to those topics. All of this formal education was undertaken at UC Berkeley. Over time, this has been supplemented by education provided by real estate industry organizations such as CCIM and ULI, and training certificate programs such as REFAI and A.CRE.

In the middle of graduate school, Brian took a job with Hellmuth, Obata, + Kassabaum (HOK), one of the world's leading architecture firms. He then relocated to Hong Kong to work on projects across rapidly growing Asia. Asia is where most of of the world's people live, where urbanization is happening the fastest, where infrastructure is most lacking - it is, in short, where the need for design and planning services is greatest. 

After Hong Kong, Brian spent time in Taiwan working and studying Mandarin, before returning to finish his graduate degree(s) in 2000. Post graduation, Brian worked in San Francisco for Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM) - another leading design firm - before returning to HOK. 

Brian obtained his urban planning certification and architecture license in 2003 and 2004, respectively. He later obtained a certification in commercial real estate investment management and advisory services.

Initially, Brian's work was in the design realm. Gradually, however, he began to shift towards consulting, taking a position with HOK's Consulting Group in 2005. In this role he began to focus more real estate topics, particularly for corporate clients and major institutions. In 2008, Brian relocated back to Asia, taking a position with EDAW, one of the world's leading urban planning firms. He held roles in both the Economics and Urban Planning teams. EDAW was later acquired by AECOM, the world's largest engineering and design firm. AECOM then acquired Economics Research Associates and expanded the Economics team. Brian stayed at AECOM for 8 years, working in the re-branded "Design, Planning + Economics" group, and focusing on market analysis and financial feasibility of large-scale land development and other urban planning projects. He grew and managed a consulting team and became a Regional Director for Southeast Asia, with staff in 4 different cities: Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, and Singapore.

In 2018, Brian relocated back to the United States (Chicago) to take a position with former colleagues that had joined a firm that is now called The Lamar Johnson Collaborative (LJC), a growing design practice that is part of Clayco, a leading design-build firm. 

After leaving LJC in 2020 to start Data-Driven Plans and work directly for a developer client based in Texas, Brian joined Stantec - a leading design and planning firm - in 2021. For two years he led consulting assignments in the Real Estate Strategies and Urban Planning groups. In 2023, Brian enrolled in a part-time MBA program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign to broaden his education in finance, accounting, operations, management, and strategy. This includes training in software applications used for big data analytics, artificial intelligence, GIS mapping, and digital marketing, as well as continued exploration of topics in real estate feasibility, planning and design visualization, and large-scale project management.  

Cumulatively, Brian has over 25 years of experience, most of it with large, leading firms. About half of that has been in the US (San Francisco and Chicago), and about half of it has been international, based in cities like Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore. Brian has also undertaken shorter stints of less than a year for specific assignments in places such as Beijing, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Doha.

Research, analysis, and strategy consulting regarding the amount, type, location, positioning, pricing, feasibility, impacts, and timing of real estate development. We help clients understand opportunities and constraints (including cost, value, and return on investment) and minimize risk.