Our Team

Dan, who has been fully engaged in the multi-family housing industry since 1978, founded Cowboy Partners and its sister company Cowboy Properties in 2001. He is acknowledged in the industry as a pioneer in the development of mixed-income communities and mission-driven affordable housing, and as an innovator in the multi-family space. Included in a long list of awards and industry recognition, Dan is the recipient of the 2018 Envision Utah Common Good Award, 2017 NAIOP Developer of the year in Utah and the Utah Apartment Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

With 33 years of experience in multi-family finance, and as part of the original Cowboy Partners team, Mark has had the lead in structuring the capital for the Cowboy Partners portfolio of innovative real estate developments. Mark has robust relationships in the capital markets and deep experience in a wide range of capital structures, including conventional debt, bond financing, institutional equity and debt, HNW investing, affordable housing finance and a variety of others.

Lee joined Cowboy Partners in 2010, coming from the banking industry. Lee drives the business and financial operations of Cowboy Partners. He leads, coaches, organizes, and orchestrates the development team at Cowboy Partners and has the central role in leading Cowboy Partners’ collaborative committee process to ensure that the company is consistently accessing and leveraging the depth of experience on the team. Lee has a strong hand in shaping Cowboy Partners business strategy and has a passion for process and is a force for continuous improvement throughout the company’s endeavors.

Jenifer leads the Cowboy Properties team in all aspects of operations and management of the Cowboy Partners-developed portfolio. Part of the original Cowboy Partners team, Jenifer’s experience includes leading a team managing a wide variety of properties throughout the western United States, including luxury rentals, LIHTC properties and mixed-income and mixed-use properties. A recognized leader in the industry, she was president of the Utah Apartment Association from 2005-06 and has had a variety of leadership positions in the National Apartment Association.

While his experience and command of detail contribute in a wide variety of ways, Brent’s primary focus is the successful construction of Cowboy’s development projects from initial concept to transition to property management. His experience ranges across a wide variety of product types, structural systems, building configurations and development densities. He is a master of the construction process and the literally thousands of components that go into that process to ensure success.

Educated as an architect and having practiced globally as a designer and planner, Chris brings to the Cowboy Partners team a capacity for exploring new development opportunities to guide the team’s process in ideation and development conceptualization. Chris has the lead in guiding that process through preconstruction which includes opportunity acquisition, regulatory and municipal entitlements, and project design. He has been involved in the design, development, planning, and construction of a wide range of projects across three continents, including work in mixed-use, residential, retail, hospitality, healthcare, institutional, industrial, lab and R+D, and urban design sectors.

With experience in a wide variety of development assignments, Zack’s current focus is on the capital structure of new development undertakings. Zack’s role is ensuring that while preserving Cowboy Partners’ bias for stability and resiliency in development financial structures, Cowboy Partners is favorably positioned vis-a’-vis the extraordinary range of capital with an appetite for multi-family debt and investment.

As a Portfolio Leader, Holly is responsible for a varied portfolio of properties including market, tax credit and mixed-use communities. She has been with Cowboy Properties since 2009, starting as a leasing agent where she gained invaluable rubber-meets-the-road kind of experience. Holly’s role is in leading and coaching her team in day-to-day operations, annual budget preparation, capital project management and preparing marketing strategies. Holly was the president of the Utah Apartment Association in 2021.

McKenna has been a part of Cowboy Properties’ team since 2008. She’s had a variety of property management roles and has developed some special expertise in initial lease-up operations for newly developed properties. As a Portfolio Leader, she leads a team that is responsible for a portfolio of market-rate, tax credit and mixed-use properties, including garden style to an ultra-luxury high rise building. McKenna’s role includes coaching her team in daily operations, capital project management, preparing annual budgets and creating marketing strategies for each community.

Matt has served in a variety of roles for Cowboy since 2004. In his current role as Property Specialist, Matt works to ensure that the properties in the Cowboy portfolio are being well cared for. His attention to detail of the appearance of the properties is at the forefront of the Cowboy priorities. Matt works with the leadership at each community on opportunities to improve our appeal, diagnosing the short and long-term needs of the properties and identifying solutions to effectively eliminate those concerns.

Steve has been a part of the Cowboy team since 2011. Steve leads and directs the financial reporting process as well as a host of internal functions. Steve’s work is at the heart of the data-driven asset management process at Cowboy. He has a key role in training the community-based teams and in directing the collaboration within the property management team to ensure optimum financial performance on a property-by-property basis.