Operating Group

Andrew Trickett is the Managing Director Investments for Americas at the Lendlease Group.

Prior to Lendlease, Andrew was Safanad’s Head of Investments and a Member of the firm’s Management Committee. Mr. Trickett was responsible for leading and managing the Investment Management Team in all aspects of deal execution, deal origination, due diligence, negotiation, execution, and portfolio management.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Trickett held the position of Senior Managing Director, Investments, at Oxford Properties Group, where he was responsible for acquisitions, dispositions, and global new business development. Prior to joining Oxford, Mr. Trickett was a Senior Vice President with the Redbourne Group, and also held several senior positions at Deutsche Bank and the Toronto Dominion Bank. He has been involved in significant international real estate transactions and has a track record in excess of US $20 billion.

Mr. Trickett holds a BComm. degree from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada and has completed various executive education programs at Harvard Business School.

Ron Packard is the CEO and Founder of Pansophic Learning, a global technology-based education company. Packard is a well-known educator, entrepreneur and visionary as well as the author of the highly regarded and reviewed book Education Transformation. Packard was previously the long time CEO and Founder of K12 Inc. He oversaw the growth of K12 from just an idea to almost one billion in revenue, making it one of the largest education companies in the world. During his tenure, revenue compounded at near 80%.

Before K12, Packard was the Vice President of Knowledge Universe and CEO of Knowledge Schools, one of the nation’s largest early childhood education companies. He was also instrumental in the successful investments in Learn Now, Children’s School USA, Leapfrog, TEC, and Children’s Discovery Center. Packard also worked for McKinsey & Company and for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions.

Packard has received the Education Industry Association’s James P. Boyle Entrepreneurial Leadership Award, as well as the Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the IT Services & Solutions category in Greater Washington. The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business named him a Distinguished Alumni, and he also received an Outstanding Leadership Award from the United States Distance Learning Association. He sits on the Digital Learning Council. Packard previously served on the Department of Defense’s Education Advisory Committee. He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, both with honors. 

Maria Szalay brings over 20 years of strategy, operations, and development capability to her role. She has held key positions at a variety of educational and consulting organizations. Ms. Szalay joined K12 in 2000 and was instrumental in growing K12 from a pre-revenue startup to a $900 million public company. In this time, she served in a variety of roles including product management, product development, operations, strategy, and corporate development.

Prior to joining K12, Ms. Szalay served as practice director at Operon Partners, an e-business consulting firm. At Operon Partners, Ms. Szalay led consulting teams assisting clients with turnkey eBusiness strategy, product management and business transformation consulting services. She worked directly in client organizations developing business plans to obtain funding, and also assisted with the implementation of online initiatives, with specialized expertise in integrating these solutions with their brick-and-mortar business. Prior to joining Operon Partners, she worked at Telecom New Zealand rolling out the company’s Online Solutions business, where she was instrumental not only in developing the online strategy and implementation plan for Telecom Broadband, but also in executing to the implementation plan.

She holds a BS/BA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an MBA from American University.

Dr. Chai Patel is a qualified doctor and entrepreneur. He trained in investment management at banks Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers and has led high-profile healthcare deals. They include Care First, Westminster Healthcare (backed by Goldman Sachs and Welsh Carson) and Care Management Group (through real estate investor Court Cavendish). Priory Group, a mental health and education services provider he bought in 2002 with buyout firm Doughty Hanson, is perhaps his best-known acquisition.

He served as chief executive of Priory Group from 2002 to 2007, overseeing improved services and a significant enhancement in reputation and value. In 2011, Chai launched care home group HC-One from the remaining assets of the bankrupt Southern Cross. He served as chair of HC-One until 2019 and spent four years as its Chief Executive. Under his leadership, the company became the UK’s largest care home provider. Chai is also chair of healthcare real estate investors Elevation Advisors and Court Cavendish.

Dame Ruth Carnall joined HC-One as Chair in September 2022, bringing with her over 40 years’ experience in healthcare at some of the highest levels of executive and strategic leadership. 

A well-known leader in independent consultancy, with extensive Board experience, Dame Ruth has provided strategic advice to leaders in health and care at national, regional and local levels both in the UK and overseas. Her career includes seven years as Chief Executive of NHS London, where she oversaw a significant transformation programme, Non-Executive Director of the Cabinet Office Board and her current position as Vice Chair of healthcare think tank, The King’s Fund. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2011 for her achievements in healthcare. 

In her role as Chair at HC-One, Dame Ruth will, with her fellow board members, guide and support the leadership team to ensure that HC-One delivers on its purpose as the kind care company and its mission to be the first choice to those it cares for, along with their families, Colleagues and commissioners.

James joined HC-One as Chief Executive in September 2020; he cites one of the key reasons for joining was HC-One’s commitment to being the Kind Care Company. He is working with the team to foster a culture that actively encourages simple kindness in everything we do, supporting those in our care to lead their best life and to deliver the company’s mission of being the ‘first choice’ for families, Colleagues and Commissioners in each of the communities HC-One serves.   

James has worked across a wide range of sectors, having started his career in consumer and financial services, before holding leadership roles in healthcare and the broader care sector. Most recently, he led the European and international division of US-based Bright Horizons. Prior to that, he spent a number of years with Bupa where he worked across several parts of the group, including leading Bupa’s NHS commissioning effort. He has also been President and CEO of Boston-based Health Dialog, a ground-breaking health analytics and disease management business acquired by Bupa. James is also Non-Executive Director of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and Non-Executive Chair of Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice.

Based in Northern Virginia, Ken brings 30 years of executive leadership experience to Element Critical as CEO, including significant successes rapidly developing and scaling highly respected companies.

Prior to Element Critical, Ken founded and served as CEO at ByteGrid, a national platform of Tier 3+ data centers in the U.S. During his tenure at ByteGrid, he led the management team in acquiring five data centers with over 800,000 SF of mission-critical space and 500 customers. Ken also led the successful strategic acquisitions of Annapolis-based Sidus BioData (a leading provider of compliant hosting solutions for FDA and HIPAA-HITECH regulated companies), and NetRiver, (a Seattle-based managed services provider) to diversify the ByteGrid portfolio and business.

Before Ken joined ByteGrid, he was the COO of The Mills Corporation, a NYSE-listed, publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust that acquired, developed, leased and operated large-scale commercial real estate properties with total assets valued at nearly $8 billion.

Prior to joining the Mills Corporation, Ken also held various leadership positions with Price Waterhouse and Kenneth Leventhal.

Saif Rahman is a Managing Director, Investments and the Chief Financial Officer for Element Critical, based in New York. He is responsible for executing and managing transactions across the US. Saif brings over two decades of M&A, capital markets and public/private equity investing experience.

Most recently, Mr. Rahman served as Chief Financial Officer & Head of Investments for Argus Holdings, a Media & Technology-focused private equity investment platform seeking to invest in scaled businesses transitioning to a digital-first model. Previously, he served as CFO for Argus Capital Corp and Falcon Capital Acquisition Corp, special purpose acquisition companies focused on the Media, Technology & Health/Fitness sectors, where he led the investment identification & execution process.

Previously, Mr. Rahman spent over 15 years as a Media & Technology-focused merchant banker at AGM Partners, where he led the firm’s private equity advisory & investing activities. Mr. Rahman began his career in Salomon Smith Barney’s Mergers & Acquisitions group after graduating from Cornell University with a B.S.

Joseph Azrack is Safanad’s Chief Investment Officer in addition to being a Board and Investment Committee Member. He brings over 30 years of real estate investment experience to the Safanad team.

Previously, Mr. Azrack was the Chairman and Managing Partner of Apollo Global Real Estate. Prior to joining Apollo, he was Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Citi Property Investors (“CPI”) where he chaired the firm’s Management and Investment Committees and directed investment policy and strategy. Prior to that, Mr. Azrack was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of AEW Capital Management, L.P., Founder and President of the AEW Partners Funds, Founder and Chairman of the Board of IXIS AEW Europe and a Member of the Board of Curzon Global Partners.

Mr. Azrack is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business where he has taught Real Estate Entrepreneurship since 2014 and is a member of the Real Estate Program Advisory Board. Mr. Azrack holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.Sc. degree from Villanova University.

Vincent Pica is a Senior Advisor, based in New York. Since joining Safanad in 2009, Mr. Pica has held various senior positions within the firm focused on its transaction efforts. He currently advises senior management with regards to several key firm initiatives.

Prior to Safanad, Mr. Pica was Managing Partner and President of ARC Global. Mr. Pica joined ARC Global through ARC’s acquisition of Neuwing Real Estate Ventures LLC, the successor firm to Longwing, a US $250 million real estate fund. Mr. Pica managed Longwing from late 2002 to May 2006 as its Chief Executive Officer. Previously, Mr. Pica was Group President at Prudential Securities Inc. and a member of its Board of Directors.

Mr. Pica obtained his B.B.A. degree from Iona College and was awarded his M.Sc. degree in Business Policy from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.