Team
At Brandywine Homes, we’re more than a team… we’re partners in a cause. Working together, we come up with innovative ways to help Southern California cities rebuild for the future. We’ve earned a reputation of doing what is right and fair. Our philosophy is to be open, honest and dependable with our homebuyers, our partners and each other. Get to know us.
"At Brandywine Homes, we have stayed true to our vision from Day One. We enjoy the relationships we establish with cities in making the most of limited land opportunities by transforming underutilized and run down areas into beautiful new neighborhoods."
James L. Barisic
Chairman
Jim Barisic knows what it is like to plot the intricate details of a large development – and to wrap his hands around the handle of a shovel and dig a trench for one of his projects.
Our chairman has seen the booms and busts of the building and development industry over a nearly 50-year career. He founded Brandywine Homes in 1994 specifically to focus on in-town residential development.
Jim spends most of his time working with municipal agencies, or securing and maintaining our long-term relationships with lenders. And, most importantly in a company like ours, he makes sure that Brandywine Homes grows in a way that reflects our core principles and values.
He began his career working with the City of Cerritos, specializing in planning and city management. He has developed both infill and planned residential neighborhoods ranging from entry-level housing to half-acre custom homes.
"There is a lot of opportunity out there now in the infill development market. You just have to know what you’re looking for and be open to finding answers in unexpected places."
Brett Whitehead
Principal / CEO
Brett had just earned his MBA at Pepperdine University with his sights set on Wall Street when he decided to lend his financial expertise to Brandywine Homes in 1998. Now, he is our CEO.
His background in finance has played a large role in Brandywine Homes’ development of an impressive network of construction lenders and equity partners in the face of a very challenging building and development market. Brett has his hands in land acquisition, entitlements, forward planning and finance. He has been an integral part of the acquisition and planning of over 60 developments and over 2000 residential units.
His hands-on approach in developing community land plans allows Brandywine Homes to create unique and innovative communities that complement surrounding neighborhoods and help complete the vision of the cities that welcome them.
"Brandywine Homes stays focused on what homebuyers actually want. We don’t take anything for granted. We’re always turning the stone over, watching for new trends and asking ourselves what people are looking for that they can’t find anywhere else."
Dave Barisic
Principal / Sales and Marketing
When it comes to reading the market and knowing what our customers want in a new home, there’s no one better than Dave, who has overseen sales and marketing since 2001.
His duties require a wide and deep understanding of the marketplace that Dave has developed by interviewing residents, poring over local publications and researching the histories of previous developments. He strategically blends this local data into the real estate market by conducting monthly analyses of existing and new home sales data, inventory and pricing trends. This enables Brandywine Homes to develop communities that not only appeal to our customers, but also are a seamless fit into surrounding neighborhoods.
Dave’s impressive track record with us includes overseeing the sale of homes in more than 50 communities across Southern California and driving almost $1 billion in revenue. He has been a licensed real estate broker in California since 2003.
"He has personally been associated with the acquisition, entitlement and development of 70 communities, which represents 2,700 units."
Alex Hernandez
President / Homebuilding Division
With over 30 years of experience with Infill real estate development and land planning in Southern California, Alex has personally been associated with the acquisition, entitlement and development of 80 communities, which represents 3,000 units. Prior to joining Brandywine Homes in November 2013, Alex held numerous positions with The Olson Company including Managing Director of their Orange County Division and Senior Vice President of Acquisition and Forward Planning. Alex also formed and managed TELACU Development’s for sale housing division for six years. Mr. Hernandez started his career as a city planner for major cities including Long Beach, Hermosa Beach and Los Alamitos.
"His expertise today is focused on securing, negotiating and managing debt and equity relationships and all that comes with that part of the business including accounting, reporting, forecasting and budgeting."
Mario Urzua
Chief Financial Officer
A seasoned finance executive with over 25 years of experience in real estate, Mario has worked for real estate companies that have primarily invested, owned, managed and operated real estate portfolios encompassing raw land to new for-sale communities but also has experience in the other real estate asset classes. He has worked with some of the biggest debt and equity providers in the nation and can call on many capital sources for that next great Brandywine community.
Mario previously held a similar role at another privately held in-fill developer in Southern California and prior to that worked for a private equity firm and later a private equity backed land entitlement company. He has been fortunate to call Southern California home all these years and has no plans of leaving this great part of the country. Mario began his career as a CPA (license inactive today) and has the unique ability to call himself a Bruin and a Trojan having graduated from UCLA and later getting an MBA from rival USC.
