Our Team

Joseph Thanhauser began his career in the 1970's working for leading New York owners and developers: first Uris Buildings Corporation (which later became Olympia & York) then Tishman Realty, where he was involved in the leasing and development of their major commercial properties.

In 1975, he joined with a small group of former Uris executives to form a development, consulting and brokerage company. The firm built and sold several office buildings and a hotel for its own account, but it was the firm's emphasis on tenant representation that set it apart from its contemporaries. It was fundamentally different from every other firm that advised tenants: it did not think as an intermediary, trained in the tradition of the broker, but as an advocate for the tenant, knowing the rationales and tactics that each owner would use.

In 1992, he launched Byrnam Wood to put these principles into action in a firm devoted entirely to the interests of tenants. He is known for negotiating aggressively and intelligently and for an articulate style of analysis and reporting to clients, traits that have enabled him to win an unprecedented seven annual Real Estate Board of New York awards recognizing the city's most ingenious and professional deals.

Mr. Thanhauser is a graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in electrical engineering, and he holds an M.B.A in finance from Columbia University.

Gordon Ogden is a founding partner of Byrnam Wood LLC, with Joseph Thanhauser since 1997. Prior to that he was Vice Chairman at CB Commercial Tenant Representation division.
He has handled major transactions for all of Byrnam Wood’s clients in New York, across the country, and around the world. Typical transactions have included headquarters space in Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Paris and London.

In New York City, he has handled headquarter assignments for The New York Times, Warburg Pincus, Gannett, Nike and Publicis on their respective Manhattan headquarters spaces.

Law firms he has represented include WilmerHale in their Boston headquarters, initial New York City office and subsequent expansion downtown. Other law firm clients include Dewey & LeBoeuf, Day Pitney, Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt, and Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti LLP.

Financial industry clients include Robert Wood Johnson Investments, Forstmann Little & Company, Warburg Pincus LLC, Trevi Capital, S3 Partners, Intermarket, and Dorilton Capital.

He represents national food hall retailer Urban Space in both office and retail transactions.

Gordon’s philanthropic work includes service on the boards of Collegiate School, the Boy’s Club of New York, Job Path, and chairing the Annual Fund at Marymount School and a member of Episcopal High School’s development committee.

He is a member of The Real Estate Board of New York and Counselors of Real Estate (C.R.E.).

He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University with a B.A. in political science.

Richard Berzine joined Byrnam Wood, LLC as Senior Advisor and Principal in 2017 following 25 fruitful years at the helm of Richard Berzine & Company, Ltd. (RB & Co) a firm founded to provide strategic real estate advisory and brokerage services. During his quarter century at RB & Co. Richard was lead negotiator in lease and sale assignments totaling in excess of 18 million square feet of office and distribution space in fifty three cities in the U.S., Britain, France, and Hong Kong.

Richard has served as U.S. and U.K. real estate advisor to Pearson plc and subsidiary companies including the Financial Times Group, the Penguin Group and Pearson Education establishing their London and New York HQ’s. In 2011 / 2012 Richard led Pearson teams that negotiated two skyline changing deals in the NY / NJ metropolitan area: a 310,000 sq. ft. anchor tenant lease allowing Beacon Capital Partners to finance the redevelopment & expansion of Manhattan’s 330 Hudson Street and; a 206,000 sq. ft. anchor tenant lease allowing SJP Properties to finance construction of Hoboken’s Waterfront Corporate Center III. Together these two properties would house some 2,500 Pearson employees drawn from 7 different facilities.

Following Pearson’s recent restructuring Richard successfully subleased some 290,000 sq. ft. of Pearson’s 330 Hudson to TED Conferences, Deloitte, John Hardy, Concentric Partners, Adtheorent and erstwhile Pearson companies MergerMarket and Financial Times Group. That same restructuring allowed Richard to negotiate two subleases with JET.com to for 80,000 sq. ft. in Waterfront Corporate Center III.     

Richard represented Interactive Data Corporation (IDC) in creating a new HQ in Bedford Massachusetts; he subsequently negotiated new leases for IDC in Manhattan, and Westchester County while renegotiating its European HQ lease in London.

Richard also established regional HQ’s for FTSE (the global index company) in New York and Hong Kong. Other notable clients served by Richard included The Economist Newspaper Group in London, Hong Kong, New York, Cambridge MA, Chicago and Miami as well as Prudential Insurance Company of America, Wheat First Securities, the law firm of Hunton & Williams, Wexford Management LLC and Great Britain’s Northern & Shell Group. Prior to founding his eponymous firm Richard spent eleven years at Rockefeller Group’s Cushman & Wakefield.

Since joining Byrnam Wood Richard has continued to execute assignments for Pearson plc companies. Notably, during the past year Richard led a Byrnam Wood team representing and advising Walmart Inc, on office lease matters in the NY - NJ metro area; these efforts included successful negotiation of an 80,000 square foot reversionary lease in Hoboken. Richard also participated in the Byrnam Wood team that represented First Jeffersonian Associates in negotiating a twenty (20) year extension / restructure of its lease with The Brinks Company for its 93,000 square foot high-security cash and precious metals warehouse facility located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Prior to founding his eponymous firm Richard spent eleven years at Rockefeller Group’s Cushman & Wakefield.

Richard is a Trustee of Saint Paul’s Cathedral Trust in America; in 2008 he was admitted to the Freedom of the City of London by the Court of Common Council. He served as a director of Pearson Real Estate Holdings Inc. and sat on the Dean’s Alumni Leadership Council at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was twice elected to the Board of Tax Review of the Town of Canaan (Falls Village), Connecticut. A graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Richard holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration; his early career involved diverse areas of Federal, Regional. State and local public service.

Benjamin Mohr has has worked on many of Byrnam Wood’s largest accounts throughout the world, including The New York Times Co., About.com (now Dotdash), Warburg Pincus, IBM, Publicis, FINN Partners, and others. Ben started in commercial real estate in 2004 at Cushman & Wakefield, an international commercial real estate services firm based in New York, and joined Byrnam Wood in 2006. He focuses on corporate real estate strategy and complex lease transactions. 

He received a Masters in Real Estate (M.St.) from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS) and a member of the Counselors of Real Estate (CRE), a credential offered by invitation to real estate professionals having attained the highest levels of expertise and achievement in real estate. He is also a member of the Real Estate Board of NY (REBNY). Early in his career Ben was an English teacher at a top-ranked college preparatory high school. 

Eric Reimer joined Byrnam Wood, LLC as a Principal in the Fall of 2020. During his 38-year career, his primary focus has been in corporate and institutional real estate: acquiring, managing, and leasing office-related properties. Eric completed more than 12 million square feet of office lease transactions for tenants and institutional owners in major markets nationwide. He also oversaw leasing for 4.6 million square feet of office properties and 1 million square feet of retail space.

Prior to joining Byrnam Wood, he served as Executive Managing Director at Cushman & Wakefield and held senior positions at JLL, The Staubach Company, The Trammel Crow Company, Credit Suisse, and Richard Berzine & Company.

In the late 1980s, Eric served as Executive Vice President for Feldman Equities, with primary responsibility for the Manhattan, Arizona, and Florida markets. The firm went public as Tower Realty, Inc. in 1997, and he played a key role in acquiring 100 Wall Street; 810 Seventh Avenue; 90 Broad Street; 286, 290, and 292 Madison Avenue. In 1999, Tower was acquired by Reckson Associates in a $733 million transaction.

His breadth of experience - working on tenant and landlord sides of transactions - has allowed him to represent clients such as GE Capital, Soros Fund, Mitsubishi International Corporation, Kensico Properties, Credit Suisse, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Pearson PLC, LCOR, and Silvercrest Asset Management Group, and to bring an all-encompassing perspective to each assignment.

Eric grew up and currently resides in Bedford, New York, where he and his wife, Ellen, raised their triplets: Sayre, James, and Peter. He served formerly as a board member of the Bedford Historical Society and Neighbors Link and is currently a director of the Committee for the Great Salt Pond on Block Island, Rhode Island. Eric is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a B.A. in English and History. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York and is a licensed real estate broker in the State of New York.

For over twenty-five years, Nick Gilman has acted for many of New York's highest caliber office tenants with skill, integrity and tenacity. Representing tenants exclusively, he has consistently achieved favorable deals for clients regardless of prevailing market conditions.

Nick began his career in the 1980's with the William Kaufman Organization, owner and operator of 747 Third, 767 Third, 777 Third, and 437 Madison Avenue. Having worked through boom and bust with one of the city's premier office landlords, he understands how owners approach lease negotiations in all market cycles. Shifting over to the tenant side, Nick started at global firm CB Richard Ellis before moving on to Byrnam Wood.

Since the 1990's Nick has partnered with Gordon S. Ogden as one of the city's most prolific tenant representation teams. Nick's clients over the years include Volvo North America, The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce, The World Gold Council, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Savanna Funds, MBIA and Mohawk Industries, to name just a few.

Nick has also served, at Morgan Stanley, as a Certified Financial Advisor to high-net-worth clients. Returning to Byrnam Wood as Executive Vice President, Nick continues to advocate for office tenants in his uniquely transparent and creative style.

Bob joined Byrnam Wood in 2012. An industry veteran of over 20 years, as executive director, Bob brings an extensive array of commercial real estate experience, providing tenants with a unique perspective on real estate requirements. In addition to brokerage advisory service, Bob's expertise spans across architectural services, interior space design, and project management. This multi-sector background across numerous integral service lines helps tenants understand all the necessary steps required to implement their immediate and long-term real estate strategy. Bob has completed assignments for an array of tenants across a number of national and New York-based industries. Among others, he has advised GE Capital, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, Oppenheimer Funds, Natixis Banque, Duane Morris, and Story Worldwide.

Prior to joining Byrnam Wood, Bob was a transactional broker at Insignia, CB Richard Ellis, and Cushman & Wakefield.

Jack joined Byrnam Wood in 2017. His assignments have included leasing new space for clients, disposing of their excess space, and restructuring leases in New York City and throughout the region. Clients for whom he has acted include Pearson, Walmart, Brinks, Exact Capital, Nephron Research, Rocket Pharmaceuticals among others. With multiple assignments completed on their behalf, both Pearson and Walmart have entrusted Jack and Byrnam Wood colleague Richard Berzine with ongoing regional assignments and expanding responsibilities.  
 
Prior to joining Byrnam Wood, Jack worked for a hyper growth stage startup where he focused on high-volume transactional sales. In one year, the company grew from 10 to 100 employees, and Jack saw first­hand the ways office space impacts employee efficiency, satisfaction and collegiality - thus spurring his transition to office leasing. His aptitude for representing clients in a logical, creative and aggressive manner resonates with the core values of our firm. In negotiations, he routinely goes above and beyond to achieve favorable outcomes for his clients.
 
Jack graduated from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 2015 where he was a four-year member of the school’s nationally ranked men’s lacrosse program.

James Hart, Director at Byrnam Wood, represents tenants in a variety of industries, advising them in the planning and execution of their real estate strategies, including relocations, expansions, consolidations, renewals, occupancy cost reductions, etc. He plays an integral role in developing new business and enhancing Byrnam Wood's market outreach, while adding significant value to client assignments.

Before joining Byrnam Wood, James, a United States Coast Guard licensed captain, founded and sold a successful maritime company that provided yacht management and captaining services to over 35 clients in six states.

In his spare time, James enjoys shooting skeet and trap, sailing, and running boats through the many back channels and marshes New York has to offer!