"We leverage our team’s unique collective experiences to do good while doing well."

Raoul Thomas

Founder & CEO

With over 25 years of investment and banking experience, Raoul Thomas knows the industry is about more than meets the eye. His approach to alternative investments is finding value where others can’t and putting capital back into the source of his success: the community.

Since founding CGI in 2006, Mr. Thomas has led the firm in applying strategic and effective management and financing to increase the value of its commercial real estate and infrastructure investments and turn assets into Class-A, fully operational ones.

He began his career as a banking regulator supervising international financial institutions licensed in the U.S., a position that enabled him to develop and nurture strong relationships worldwide. He was then recruited to undergo a “Management Development Program” at a global bulge bracket investment bank, where he worked structuring and executing large debt transactions in the global capital markets on behalf of sovereigns, public, and private corporations.

Mr. Thomas then went on to work overseas as an expatriate running the capital markets distribution platform for another global bulge bracket bank, where he spearheaded and executed successful high-profile regional transactions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two years later, he transitioned to the buy-side as an executive for one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, where he was involved in overseeing investments in both the private and public sectors in the Caribbean and Latin America. This experience was the catalyst behind the formation of CGI Merchant Group in 2006.

Mr. Thomas sits on the Advisor Board of a U.S. bank and is an active member of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, New America Alliance, and Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce. He founded the Isabella Alycia Foundation (IA Foundation), an organization run by his daughter, Isabella Alycia Thomas. The IA Foundation makes a social impact in underprivileged neighborhoods and individuals through the provision of tools and capital resources.

Euclid Walker

Senior Managing Director

Euclid Walker has over 26 years of investment and advisory experience with Institutional & family office clients for private equity, real estate and technology opportunities. Mr. Walker is Managing Partner of Parkway Investment Management, LLC, an Investment and Advisory firm focused on alternative investment management and restructuring and capital structure advisory services headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida. He is also Senior Partner and head of Private Markets for Global Oak Capital Markets, LLC a registered broker dealer and investment banking firm and founder of Opportunity Zone Advisors, LLC. He is an author and lecturer on direct alternative investing for family offices and institutional investors. Prior to founding Parkway he was a founding member of an SBIC licensed middle market investment firm with AUM of $400 million, where his responsibilities included marketing new funds and sourcing, analyzing, structuring, executing and monitoring investments from 2010-2013. He also founded Renascent Capital group in 2004 to provide strategic and capital raising advice to corporate clients and family offices. Prior to forming Renascent, Mr. Walker was an Executive Director of Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division in the Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions Departments. 

He was with Morgan Stanley for over 10 years in various capacities. From 1993 until 1996, Mr. Walker worked in Morgan Stanley’s Private Equity group in New York where he focused on evaluating acquisitions for a $1.8 billion Real Estate Private Equity Fund. During this time he also advised Real Estate and lodging and leisure companies on capital raisings and Mergers and Acquisitions. He became one of two professionals in Johannesburg South Africa in 1996, where he focused on business development and the execution of complicated cross-border financings, mergers and acquisitions. While managing the Johannesburg office in 2001, Mr. Walker was asked to move to London to become the Operations Officer for Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance and Banking Departments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He worked in London overseeing a major restructuring of Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance and M&A departments. He moved to Chicago in 2003 to focus on corporate finance business development and execution for important clients in the Midwest region.  

Mr. Walker is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia with a BA in Business Administration with dual concentrations in Banking Finance and Real Estate and a minor in Economics where he currently serves as chair of the  

Trusteeship committee of Morehouse’s Board of Trustees. He is a member of the Palm Beach County Investment Policy Committee, United Way of Palm Beach Finance Committee and has served on the boards of the Benjamin School, Francis W. Parker School, LEAP Africa and Africare.

Robert Festinger

Vice President, Hospitality Asset Management

Robert Festinger is the Vice President of Hospitality Asset Management at CGI. In this role, he leverages his three decades of industry experience across Chicago, New York, and South Florida markets to oversee the day-to-day hospitality operations and play an active role in the firm’s funds. Prior to joining CGI, Mr. Festinger served as vice president of hotel operations for Menin Hospitality, managing all day-to-day operations for the hospitality management and development company’s portfolio of hotels, including the Mondrian South Beach, Shelborne South Beach, Gale South Beach, Gale Boutique Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale, and Raffaello Chicago (now Gale Chicago). Going beyond his role, he also served as a mentor to property general managers and their management teams.

Mr. Festinger graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor of arts in political science and economics and then held prominent management positions with notable hospitality brands, such as Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and The Newport Beachside Hotel and Resort.

Andres Albino

Vice President, Investment Funds

Andres Albino is the Vice President of the Investment Funds Team, which comprises the analyst- and associate-level resources across the organization for portfolio and investment management, financial engineering of closed-end funds, reporting, and analytics. His role primarily is focused on sourcing and underwriting potential investments, managing the successful execution of acquisitions and capital transactions, and tracking fund-level financial performance. Mr. Albino also focuses on optimizing investment strategies and capital structures to achieve established return hurdles, overseeing the integration of market data into the investment strategy, and providing financial guidance on investment decision making based on short- and long-term objectives.

Mr. Albino graduated magna cum laude from the University of Miami with a bachelor of science in finance and economics and earned his master of science from the University of Miami, specializing in financial mathematics. He holds a certification in Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management from Cornell University and is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society and the Rotary Club of Coral Gables, where he has served on the board of the Rotaract Club of Coral Gables. Mr. Albino passed Level I in the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® (CAIA) program.

Beth Cohn

Vice President, Accounting

Beth Cohn is the Vice President of Accounting at CGI. She has more than 20 years of valuable experience managing financial functions and establishing financial controls and accounting systems in accordance with GAAP guidelines for a diverse range of corporations, professionals, and high net worth individuals. Prior to joining CGI, Ms. Cohn served as the Vice President of Accounting / Controller of Meyers Group, managing all aspects of financial operations for this privately held multifamily and mixed-use real estate firm with more than $150 million in assets. Her previous experience also includes roles as Controller for Steelbridge Real Estate Services and Euroatlantic, both based in Miami, as well as public accounting firms and insurance companies.

Ms. Cohn earned her bachelor of business administration in finance, magna cum laude, and her master of science in taxation, magna cum laude, from Florida International University. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (Member of AICPA).

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