Leadership

Lee Zieben is Founder and President of ZG Companies (ZG). Mr. Zieben serves as the visionary for all of ZG’s investments and is heavily involved in all aspects of project site selection, design coordination and implementation, project financing, and asset management. His experience includes almost two decades as an award-winning residential developer of projects with a cumulative value of over $800 million.

A strong advocate for his community, Mr. Zieben currently serves as an active Board Member of the Houston Museum of Health and the Silicon Valley Venture Fund. He previously served in the following board positions: Board Co-Chair for Texas Southern University’s Jones School of Business, Board Member of the University of Houston’s College of Technology, Advisory Board Member for Teach For America, and was appointed by Governor Perry to the Texas Online Authority.

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Charisse Harris is Vice President of Multifamily Development for ZG Companies and serves as the Asset Manager for ZG Management’s Real Estate portfolio. She has over 16 years of affordable housing and commercial real estate development experience. She previously worked as a Vice President for the Chaparral Group, a company, which specializes in Commercial Real Estate Development of Affordable Housing properties. Charisse’s portfolio experience is valued in excess of $300M.

In her current role with ZG Companies, she specializes in Development, Acquisitions, Financial Analysis, Asset Management and all Regulatory Compliance for the company’s Tax Credit and HUD projects.

Charisse attended the University of Southern Mississippi and later transferred to the University of Phoenix in Houston where she received her B.A. in Business Administrative and Finance. She is a licensed Texas Real Estate Agent and is also a member of the Houston Association of Realtors, Texas Association of Realtors, and National Association of Realtors. She has received compliance certifications with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Development and HUD.

Alexander vonFischer is the Controller for ZG Companies and brings 10+ years of accounting and finance experience to ZG Companies with extensive experience in budgeting, cash flow forecasting and analysis, and financial modeling across multiple industries. Alex holds an active CPA and Real Estate license, and completed his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Bryant University.

As Controller of ZG Companies, Alex is responsible for developing and implementing all accounting policies and procedures, coordinating and reviewing annual tax returns and audits, and maintaining company compliance with applicable tax rules and regulations.  He is tasked with managing capital project finances, which includes performing reserve analysis, identifying funding options, determining optimal draw and payment schedules, and managing intercompany transactions. Alex also provides monthly budgeting reports with cost analysis and develops models for timely cash flow analysis used for potential growth opportunities.

Eric DeVelasco is the Director of Operations and Asset Management for ZG Companies. During his tenure at ZG Companies, Eric has overseen the rehabilitation of approximately 1,000 apartment units across (5) properties in both Texas and Arkansas and has implemented a cloud-based document management solution and asset management software.

Eric is responsible for creating the annual budgets which are utilized to identify value-add rehabilitation projects. He is responsible for supervising and/or executing capital projects.  Additionally, he monitors daily operations to achieve monthly and yearly objectives, develops new and preserves current vendor and supplier relations, monitors city, state and federal regulatory statues to ensure compliance across the portfolio and works directly with the properties’ management staff as their point of contact.

Eric attended the University of Texas at Austin where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration with degrees in Finance and Accounting.