Brian D. Milovich is a co-founder and managing principal at Calvera Partners, a hands-on real estate investment firm that invests their capital and that of their investors in apartment communities located in high-potential markets. He’s also a Berkeley Haas alum and graduated from the full-time MBA program in 2006. He co-founded Calvera Partners with classmates David Saxe, and Brian Chuck, both MBA 07.
All three were active members of the Berkeley Real Estate Club (BREC) and stayed connected post-graduation through their work at CIM Group, a real estate private equity company. The three Haas alumni continued to grow their friendship post-Haas and navigated the Great Financial Crisis together, which served as an impetus to create their own real estate investment firm focused on multifamily. That's how Calvera Partners was born. Read on to discover how their Berkeley Haas experience shaped the name.
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What's in a name? Calvera Partners
Our company name, Calvera Partners, has two meanings—both relating to our studies at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. First, the “Cal” in Calvera is the nickname for UC Berkeley. “Vera” is our abbreviation of the Latin word, veritas, for truth. To us, Calvera represents “True Cal.” Second, for astronomy buffs, Calvera is the name of the closest neutron star to Earth. It’s located in the Ursa Minor constellation. With ursa meaning “bear” in Latin, we were also able to work Cal’s mascot into the name.
Calvera Partners is more than a name. My co-founders and I received MBA degrees from Haas, where its culture helped shape us as entrepreneurs and investors. Questioning the status quo led us to start Calvera in 2010. At that time, many of our colleagues at other real estate private equity firms were getting laid off. Their companies couldn’t raise money. Distressed real estate was still being worked out. Yet we believed we were taking an intelligent risk—our timing proved right.
The Haas (and Berkeley) ecosystem finds students who are confident, but who don’t have attitudes. That’s how we go about our business and how we treat our investors. At Calvera, we strive to be transparent. To do what we say. And to back that up with aligned interests in all investments. Trust is key in any business with a fiduciary responsibility and doing so with humility is how we operate.
And we’re always learning. Haas supports intellectual curiosity and learning from diverse perspectives. For example, we pivoted away from our home markets and into the higher-growth Sunbelt. The data pushed us there. New technologies are changing how we manage our company and properties. Different investment structures are better aligned for personal tax goals and long-term wealth accumulation. Without constantly looking and learning, we’d never adapt or change.
Haas also asks us to think ethically and responsibly. Even as landlords, usually personae non gratae, we attempt to do right by our tenants. We also understand that our investors entrust us with their hard-earned capital. That’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. We believe that Calvera Partners is bigger than ourselves. There’s a reason the Defining Leadership Principles of Haas are as applicable today as they were 20 years ago when I was a b-school student.
While these leadership principles are great, it doesn’t help one understand real estate. Within my first week at Haas, I quickly shifted course from corporate development and went all-in on the real estate program. Why? The faculty was, and still is, first-rate. The San Francisco Bay Area is a dynamic market with all types of real estate, architecture, and companies. The coursework was highly practical and current to the environment at the time. In short, I knew that I’d be prepared for any real estate path I decided to take.
Another benefit of Haas was the large network that we gained. As students, we had access to CEOs and executives of the largest real estate companies in the country. Today, the Berkeley Real Estate Alumni Association (BREAA) is stronger than ever. And my favorite perk of this network is that I constantly get to interact with my classmates 20 years later. Some of whom are investors in our many real estate funds. Others are in the real estate industry, and we get to reconnect at conferences each year. And many receive our bi-weekly newsletters which become good reminders to check-in and touch base, regardless of whether they ever become investors.
I’m lucky to partner with two fellow Haas MBAs. We may each come from different backgrounds, but we share common values. We’ve created an authentic, transparent, and principled approach to real estate investing. This really is the Haas way.
Interested in your own career transformation? An MBA from a top business school can help you grow your network and leadership skills so you can take the next step towards a fulfilling career.
