Real Estate Symposium 2025

Steve Weikal is a lecturer, researcher, and thought leader focused on innovative new technologies and business models that are reinventing traditional ways of developing, transacting and managing real estate. He is the Industry Chair of the Real Estate Transformation Lab at the MIT Center for Real Estate, which explores how emerging technologies impact the commercial real estate industry, and is also the Managing Partner of MET Fund II, which invests in early-stage, MIT-connected start-ups focused on solutions for the coming Built Environment Transition. Previously, Steve was the Head of Industry Relations at the Center, responsible for managing relationships with its global network of corporate partners and more than 1,300 alumni from 48 countries.

Steve is a member of the CREtech Climate Leadership Board, the advisory board of Noa VC in London, and is on the review committee for the CoreNet Global Innovator Awards. He serves on the boards of eight real estate technology companies. An ardent industry advocate, Steve speaks regularly about real estate technology to corporate clients around the world, and at leading industry conferences including AFIRE, CCIM, CoreNet, NAIOP, and PERE. He has been quoted by numerous media outlets, including BuzzFeed, TechInsider, Medium, USA Today, CP Executive, Harvard Real Estate Review, the Boston Globe, IPE Real Assets Europe, and Anuario Inmobiliario LatinoAmerica. 

Steve holds a Master’s of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) and Master’s in City Planning (MCP) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a law degree (JD) from Suffolk University Law School.

As a partner at Building Ventures, Heather Widman spearheads the firm’s investment activities within the real estate tech (i.e., proptech) sector with a particular focus on sustainability of the built environment. She utilizes 15+ years of operating experience to advise portfolio companies in go-to-market and product strategy. Heather is active throughout the venture and RE tech venture and proptech ecosystems and holds leadership positions at All Raise, CREtech Climate Coalition, CRETI, and the ULI Tech Council.

Parker Mundt is Partner, Head of Platform at Suffolk Technologies, a venture capital platform funding the next generation of companies solving build environment challenges.

Since 2020, Parker has led Suffolk Technologies’ partnership program, which was designed to leverage Suffolk’s operational knowledge base and network and add value to Suffolk Technologies’ portfolio companies. Parker has led BOOST, Suffolk Technologies’ annual accelerator program, which has received over 750 applications (companies that applied have a focus on sustainability, AI, FinTech, Design Optimization, and Marketplaces) in just four years. The program is designed and operated with prominent industry partners emphasizing building sustained innovation within the construction and real estate industry.

Parker is an active participant in the construction technology and venture community. Internally, he has worked closely with Suffolk’s CoLabs, which are staffed, physical spaces found in 7 of Suffolk’s offices across the country and are responsible for onboarding, piloting, and scaling new construction tech

solutions through our projects. Suffolk’s CoLabs has piloted over 180 construction tech solutions, primarily sourced from our operational teams and the Suffolk Technologies team.

Before joining Suffolk Technologies, Parker worked in executive operations at Suffolk as Chief of Staff. While in his role as Chief of Staff, Parker worked with Suffolk’s Operational Excellence group, reporting directly to Suffolk’s CEO, and was responsible for driving best scheduling practices, safety, finance, and

compliance across 85+ active projects in the country. He was also instrumental in restructuring the operational reporting structure, which included digitizing and visualizing specific key operational metrics that were adopted and used by operational executives to identify operational abnormalities and manage their projects.

Parker joined Suffolk as an engineer, a superintendent, and a project manager at the Encore Casino ($1.5B) in Boston, MA. While at the Encore Casino, he managed two critical path activities: mass excavating over 800,000 tons of contaminated soil and installing over 350 rock-anchored pilings, both finished ahead of schedule.

Parker holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Earth and Oceanographic Science and minored in the Chinese language. He was also elected captain of the varsity football team at Bowdoin College.

Riggs worked in commercial real estate for EY, Granite Partners, and Tishman Speyer before founding a contech company called Honest Buildings (HB). They scaled it up with $50M of venture and strategic investment to 125 people. The business was acquired by Procore (NYSE: PCOR) and he led the Owners Business segment for 18 months before transitioning to Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) where he supported founders in the contech ecosystem.

Riggs recently founded Contest Point to invest with entrepreneurs in real estate, technology, and lifestyle projects.

He grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho and Spokane, Washington. He is a graduate of Gonzaga Prep and Boston College with finance degree and a real estate focus.

Josh Levy is the CEO and co-founder of Document Crunch, the document compliance platform for construction. With a strong leadership background and expertise in construction law, Josh has worked for top-ranking construction firms, including JE Dunn, and overseen business units with annual revenues of $1+ billion.

Josh graduated with honors from the University of Florida, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Management. He also holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami, graduating with high honors. 

Under Josh's leadership, Document Crunch is on a mission to empower everyone in the construction industry to know what’s in their contracts. With a focus on innovation and excellence, the company strives to make a positive impact and drive industry-wide improvements.

Ben Keller is the co-founder and COO of Propexo, a YCombinator-backed company building innovative API solutions that modernize data accessibility in the real estate technology ecosystem. Prior to founding Propexo, Ben spent nearly a decade at HubSpot in various leadership roles, culminating as Senior Product Manager for their CRM platform where he led strategic product initiatives and cross-functional teams.

Ben's career bridges technology and real estate, having worked in commercial real estate investment at Stoltz Real Estate Partners where he conducted financial modeling and market analysis for multi-million dollar acquisitions. A Boston College alumnus (Class of 2014), Ben combines his deep understanding of SaaS product development with real estate industry expertise to solve complex integration challenges that have historically slowed innovation in property technology.