GENERAL SESSION: San Diego Reimagined – Seaport Village & NAVWAR Revealed

Stath Karras

Executive Director, Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate, Knauss School of Business, University of San Diego

Stath Karras is responsible for establishing and leveraging strategic priorities and initiatives for the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate to advance its mission. He works closely with the faculty and Burnham-Moores Center’s team of professionals to create meaningful learning experiences for USD real estate students and works with the students to enhance their career opportunities. Karras also cultivates relationships with key stakeholders to create fundraising strategies, activities and programs to sustain Burnham-Moores Center operations. Prior to this position, he spent seven years as an executive managing director with Cushman and Wakefield. Karras also served as president and chief executive officer at Burnham Real Estate where he spent 19 years. He is past chairman of the board of CONNECT, the EDC and LEAD San Diego and still serves on the executive committee of the board for CONNECT. Karras is also an advisor to several technology companies. He received his bachelor's in mathematics and an MBA with an emphasis in finance from the University of Utah. He later returned to the University of Utah as a teaching fellow in real estate investment and appraisal. Karras is very active in the San Diego community where he has served as chairperson and/or board member of many community organizations.

Gaf Gaffen

Founder and Chairman of the Board, GP-FH, LLC

Yehudi "Gaf" Ga􀆯en has built a career around delivering complex projects to support vibrant communities. In 1987, Gaf founded Gafcon which grew to become one of Southern California’s most respected construction consulting firms. Under Gaffen’s leadership, Gafcon delivered high-profile public works projects including Great Park in Irvine, CA; Del Mar Fairgrounds Improvements in Del Mar, CA; West Harbor in San Pedro, CA; and the China Basin Landing Waterfront Project in San Francisco, CA. In 2024, Gaffen sold the operating assets of Gafcon to GSI, Global Infrastructure Solutions, Inc., a global consulting firm with over 11,000 employees in 100 countries. He now focuses his attention on bringing prominent future development projects such as Seaport San Diego to life. Seaport San Diego is the reimagining of the downtown San Diego waterfront as a vibrant hospitality and entertainment district. Since 2021, Gaffen has served on the board of Alta Sea, a public-private ocean institute dedicated to accelerating and advancing the blue economy and inspiring the next generation. Recently, he founded the Wild Blue Foundation to honor his late son by advancing marine conservation and blue economy workforce development.

Greg Geisen

Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, Program Manager, United States Navy

Greg Geisen is the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) Revitalization Program Manager. He is leading the Navy’s redevelopment of 70-acres of Federal property to acquire modern NAVWAR facilities on Naval Base Point Loma Old Town Campus. He will discuss the critical relationship of the Navy and San Diego, NAVWAR's mission and the role it plays within the Navy and provide an overview of the opportunity and potential of the NAVWAR redevelopment, a once-in-a-generation, massive transformational development for the San Diego region.