John Ho
John Ho has served as Landsea Homes’ Chief Executive Officer and Director since 2013. Prior to forming Landsea Homes, Ho spent 10 years in real estate investment and development working at global real estate investment management and consulting firms Colliers International and Jones Lang LaSalle (“JLL”). He served as Director of JLL from 2011 to 2013, and Vice President at JLL from 2008 to 2011. During that time, he led the firm in international business development, focused on delivering transactional, consultancy and other integrated real estate services to businesses investing overseas. Ho received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Mike Forsum
Michael Forsum serves as our Chief Operating Officer since August 2016 and has served as our President since January 2021. Prior to joining Landsea Homes, Forsum spent nearly 30 years in the homebuilding industry as a senior level executive and worked from 2009 to 2016 in private equity as a partner specializing in residential real estate investing for Starwood Land Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Starwood Capital Group Global, a private investment firm. During his homebuilding career, he led homebuilding operations at KB Homes from 1985 to 1993. He also served as a Division President of Ryland Homes from 1994 to 2001. Later, as Taylor Woodrow/Morrison’s West Region President, and was responsible for overseeing multiple operating divisions in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado from 2001 to 2008. Also served on Taylor Woodrow/Morrison’s North American Leadership team, which set strategic direction and established company governance and procedures, from 2000 to 2008. During his homebuilding tenure, he was associated with the acquisition, planning, and development of nearly 25,000 home sites, and the building of over 20,000 homes. In 2008, Forsum co-founded Starwood Land Ventures, an affiliated company of Starwood Capital Group Global, a private equity firm specializing in real estate, which he left in 2016. Mr. Forsum is on the National Board of Directors for HomeAid America and received a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University.
Chris Porter
Chris Porter serves as Landsea Homes Chief Financial Officer. He has over 30 years of diverse experience in corporate finance in both public and private equity settings across multiple industries, including all major commercial real estate sectors, senior housing, defense contracting and banking/finance. In 2013, Chris co-founded, and served as President and Chief Financial Officer of Silverstone Healthcare Company, a senior housing real estate development company, and was instrumental in growing it to nine luxury developments and successfully raising approximately $1 billion in debt and equity. During his tenure he also oversaw all accounting, reporting, finance, human resources, liquidity and asset management functions. Prior to Silverstone, Chris was Vice President and Treasurer of Dyn-Corp International, responsible for its global Treasury, Risk Management, Liquidity and Investor Relations. Chris spent the previous 10 years at Crescent Real Estate Equities, ending as Managing Director, in charge of Capital Markets, Risk Management and Treasury. Throughout his career, Chris has created processes and procedures to streamline operations, drive process standardization and improvement efforts, reduce costs and optimize cash flow. He has extensive experience developing and presenting board and institutional investor financial reporting and has raised over $6 billion in debt and equity.
Dilliana Stewart
Dilliana Stewart currently serves as Landsea Homes Chief Accounting Officer. She has served as the Vice President of Technical Accounting and Financial Reporting at Invited, Inc. (formerly ClubCorp Holdings, Inc.), a private operator of golf courses, since July 2018. Prior to this, she served as the Senior Director of SEC and Financial Reporting at Green Brick Partners, a publicly traded home builder and land developer, from September 2014 to June 2018. Since August 2017, Ms. Stewart has also served as an Advisor to the Technical Standards Review Committee of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy. Ms. Stewart is a Certified Public Accountant and received her BA in Accounting from Kansas State University.
Kelly Rentzel
Kelly Rentzel is currently serving as our General Counsel joining Landsea Homes from First Foundation Inc., a financial services company with two wholly-owned operating subsidiaries, First Foundation Advisors and First Foundation Bank. She served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, working out of their corporate headquarters in Dallas. Prior to joining First Foundation, she was Executive Vice President, General Counsel for Texas Capital Bank, where she began her career as its first in-house lawyer, and built an in-house team of six attorneys. Rentzel graduated with honors and a double major from Rice University. She earned her Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University.