Jay T. Clark

    CEO and Founder

     

    Jay is Founder & CEO of SEC. Jay began his professional career in public accounting and later founded Apartment Realty Advisors (“ARA”), a real estate brokerage firm, in 1993. After successfully selling ARA, Jay focused exclusively on SEC with initial investments in multifamily.

     

    Jay is highly regarded as an expert in the multifamily and residential marketplace and has been the General Partner on over $2 billion of residential acquisitions and developments. Under Jay’s direction, SEC has received multiple project honors and awards, including Community of the Year (Smyrna Grove) and 50+ Community of the Year (Soleil Laurel Canyon), both from the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association.

     

    Jay received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Jay is a licensed Georgia real estate broker and a previous Certified Public Accountant. He is an active member of the National Multi-Family Housing Council and Urban Land Institute.

    Hugh L. Nelson

    Chief Financial Officer

     

    Hugh is the Chief Financial Officer and joined SEC in 2001. He presides over all financial matters of the company, including accounting, finance, risk management, investor relations, and human resources. Hugh has in-depth accounting experience having been a CPA for 20 years in several major industries including non-profit, public accounting, and real estate.

     

    Hugh is responsible for project-level accounting and asset management reporting for the Company’s real estate portfolio, which is comprised of complex and diverse ownership and partnership structures. Hugh is also actively involved with the evaluation, debt and equity structuring, and due diligence of potential real estate development pursuits.

     

    Hugh earned a B.S with a double major in Accounting and Finance from Florida State University. He was a Certified Public Accountant from 1998 through 2017. Hugh’s current and/or former memberships include The Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants, Inc. and The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

    Gary M. Buechler

    Chief Investment Officer

     

    Gary joined SEC in 2023 with responsibility for all aspects of the firm’s investments and development of multi-family, for-sale residential, and mixed-use real estate projects.  Gary has more than 30 years of experience as a real estate executive and attorney.  Gary has overseen the acquisition, capitalization, development, construction, renovation, and operation of more than $14 Billion in assets since 2001 – including approximately 56,000 multi-family units with an aggregate investment of $11.3 Billion. Gary’s experience also includes the ownership, capitalization, development, and operation of healthcare, hospitality, retail, office, and industrial properties.

     

    Prior to 2001, Gary was a partner at Kelley Drye & Warren, an international law firm, where his practice specialized in real estate transactions.  Gary received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.A. from the University of Michigan. Gary and his wife reside in Roswell, GA.

    John S. Huckaby

    Vice President – Operations

     

    John joined SEC in 2016 and is Vice President of Operations. He has 33 years of experience in the investment, development, sales, and operations of multifamily and residential real estate. At SEC John is responsible for construction services, marketing, sales, and asset management for ground-up and completed multi-family and residential properties. Throughout his career John has closed more than $1 billion in transactions including $450 million in multifamily transactions, with many of the top REITS and private capital funds, as well as aggregate residential condominium sales in excess of $650 million.

     

    Prior to SEC, John held a senior leadership role with ST Residential, the consortium formed by Starwood Capital and the FDIC. John was instrumental in the launch, marketing, and liquidation of ST Residential’s Atlanta real estate portfolio, comprising approximately $500 million in residential condominium sales (1,200 units), an $89 million bulk-sale of a fractured condo, the disposition of 32,000 square feet of retail space, the sale of two entitled land parcels, and the sale of some 1,200 condominium units to individual end-users.

     

    John received a B.A. in Communication from The University of Alabama. He is a licensed real estate agent in Georgia and holds several certifications from the Institute of Real Estate Management, the National Apartment Association, and the National Manufactured Housing Association.

    Bennett Butler

    Real Estate Analyst

     

    Bennett joined SEC in January of 2023. Bennett uses his Microsoft Expert Certification in Excel to lead the financial modeling and analysis for SEC.

    Bennett received a B.S. in Business Administration with a Major in Finance from Auburn University.