Corporate Governance

Mr. Gilyard serves as the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and an Independent Director and the Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee. Mr. Gilyard is a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (“BCG”) where he is a recognized leader in strategy development and execution (2017-present). Prior to this role, Mr. Gilyard served as Dean of the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University (2012-2017). Under Mr. Gilyard’s leadership, the school significantly increased its national rankings at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prior to joining Chapman University, Mr. Gilyard served as Partner and Managing Director at BCG where he led national and multi-national engagements with large corporations in strategy, M&A, and business transformation (1996-2012). Prior to BCG, Mr. Gilyard served nine years in the U.S. Air Force as a Program Manager, and was then promoted to Major in the U.S. Air Force Reserves where he served for an additional three years. Mr. Gilyard currently serves on the board of directors of First American Financial Corporation (NYSE: FAF) (2017-present), CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE: CBRE) (2018-present), and Realty Income Corporation (NYSE: O) (2018-present). 

Mr. Gilyard holds a B.S. from the United States Air Force Academy, an M.S. from the United States Air Force Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Gilyard offers valuable knowledge regarding strategy development and execution, having worked with management teams and boards to develop and implement successful strategies for over 20 years. His extensive consulting experience includes leading national and multi-national strategic engagements, pre and post M&A activity, and business transformation.

Mr. McDowell serves as the Chief Executive Officer, President of the Company. Mr. McDowell previously served as VEREIT, Inc.’s (“VEREIT”) Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from October 2015 until November 2021. He previously served as VEREIT’s Co Head, Real Estate from January 2015 to September 2015 and VEREIT’s President, Office and Industrial Group from November 2013 until December 2014. Prior to joining VEREIT, Mr. McDowell was a founder of CapLease Inc. (“CapLease”), a publicly-traded net-lease REIT, where he served as Chief Executive Officer from 2001 to 2013 and as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from 1994 until 2001. Mr. McDowell served on the CapLease Board of Directors from 2004 to 2013 and was elected Chairman of the Board in December 2007. He served on the Board of Directors of CapLease’s predecessor from 2001 until 2004. From 1991 until 1994, Mr. McDowell was corporate counsel for Sumitomo Corporation of America, the principal U.S. subsidiary of one of the world’s largest integrated trading companies. From 1987 to 1990, Mr. McDowell was an associate in the corporate department at the Boston law firm of Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP. He previously served as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for Tulane University School of Liberal Arts. 

Mr. McDowell received his Juris Doctor with honors from Boston University School of Law in 1987, and received a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University in 1982.

Mr. Lieb serves as an Independent Director at Orion and the Chair of the Audit Committee. From 2019 until 2023, Mr. Lieb has served as a Senior Advisor of Greenhill & Co., LLC (“Greenhill”), a publicly traded independent investment banking firm which he joined in 2005, and prior to that he served as Managing Director and Chairman of Real Estate at Greenhill. He served as Greenhill’s Chief Financial Officer from 2008 to 2012 and also served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee from 2008 to 2015. Mr. Lieb has also served during his tenure at Greenhill as head of the firm’s Restructuring business and as head of North American Corporate Advisory. Prior to joining Greenhill in 2005, Mr. Lieb spent more than 20 years with Goldman Sachs & Co., where he headed that firm’s Real Estate Investment Banking Department from 2000 to 2005. In June 2018, Mr. Lieb became an Advisory Director for Domio, Inc., a private technology enabled hotel startup company, a position he no longer holds.

Mr. Lieb has extensive experience as a director of publicly-traded companies. He has served on the Board of Directors of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE: “AVB”) since September 2016 and on the Board of Trustees of Star Holdings (NASDAQ: “STHO”) since March 2023. From April 2019 until March 2023, he served on the Board of Directors of iStar Inc. From February 2016 until November 2021, he served on the Board of Directors of CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE: “CBL”). From February 2017 until November 2021, he served on the Board of Directors of VEREIT prior to its acquisition by Realty Income.

Overall, Mr. Lieb has more than 35 years of experience focusing on advisory opportunities in the real estate industry. His work has covered the full range of investment banking services for nearly all property sectors including strategic advisories, IPOs and other securities offerings, asset purchases and sales, property financings, restructurings and merger and acquisition assignments. Mr. Lieb is licensed with FINRA and holds Series 7, Series 63 and Series 24 licenses. Mr. Lieb is an active member of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and served as a member of Wesleyan University’s Career Advisory Council from 2007 through 2012.

Mr. Lieb received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Allen serves as an Independent Director at Orion and a member of the Audit Committee, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and Compensation Committee. Dr. Allen is also Professor Emerita at the Marshall School of Business and the founding director of the Center for Technology Commercialization at the University of Southern California (1991-2016). She was the co-founder and chairwoman of Gentech Corporation (1994-2004) and in 2006 co-founded and became the Chief Executive Officer and served on the board of directors of N2TEC Institute, a nonprofit company focused on technology commercialization in rural America, until it completed its mission in 2013. She served on the board of directors of Realty Income Corporation (NYSE: O) from 2000 to 2022. Dr. Allen has co-founded four private companies, is currently a principal and on the board of directors of a real estate investment and development company, and serves on the board of advisors for a life science company in clinical trials. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Homeland Security, where she advised on issues related to technology deployment, including cybersecurity. She has also worked with many startups and established companies to develop effective leadership and team building skills. She is the author of 15 books in the field of entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, a field in which she is considered an expert. 

Dr. Allen holds a B.A. from California State University, a M.A. from University of California Los Angeles, a MBA from California State University, and PhD from the University of Southern California.

Mr. Whyte serves as an Independent Director at Orion and the Chair of the Compensation Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Whyte has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Realty Income Corporation (NYSE: O) since January 2023. Mr. Whyte served as an independent director of TIER REIT, Inc. (NYSE: TIER) from 2017 to 2019. Mr. Whyte has been involved extensively in the REIT and publicly traded real estate securities industry since 1987, as both an equity research analyst and, more recently, in investment banking. From 2007 until 2016, Mr. Whyte was Senior Advisor in the Real Estate Leisure and Lodging Investment Banking group at UBS Securities. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director, Global Head of Real Estate Equity Research at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) from 1991 to 2006 and was consistently named to the annual Institutional Investor All America Research Team and Greenwich Associates Research Poll. He has previously been a member of NAREIT since 1988.

Mr. Whyte received a Bachelor of Commerce, Business Finance from the University of Natal in 1982, and an Honours Degree, Advanced Business Finance from the University of Natal in 1983.