Meet the RKI Explorers
TEAM
RICHARD KNORR
President and CEO, RKI Companies
With more than 30-years’ experience, Richard Knorr, AIA, is an all-rounder with significant skills in collaborative leadership; creative thinking; design envisioning and branding; master planning and building design; development program management; financial engineering and feasibility analytics; investment banking and underwriting advisement; construction management and work-out consulting; sales and marketing; hospitality operations; and real estate related risk mitigation.
CHARLES PLUMB
Director of Development Operations Emeritus
For the past 40 years, Charles Plumb has earned a reputation of energizing businesses bringing unmatched experience at the highest levels of real estate development, hospitality operations, asset management and corporate management. Charles functioned as the Chief Development Officer for prominent Texas families including the Bass family, the Cullen Family, the Hills family and the McFaddin Group. Charles has also served as the Chief Operating Officer for a variety of entities including two American Stock Exchange listed companies, and he also held the position of Executive Vice President of Americana Hotels and Realty Corporation (NYSE listed REIT). Charles joined RKI in 2006, and has been Richard Knorr’s professional mentor and advisor ever since.
RICARDO CARDENAS
Director of Development Program,
Finance Management, Architectural,
Interiors Design Management
Ricardo Cardenas is a cross-over, multi-lingual, developer-architect that has provided leadership in architectural design, planning, finance, and all aspects of project delivery on RKI projects since joining the firm in 2001. Mr. Cardenas is a strategic thinker with significant expertise in mixed-use commercial and resort development projects located in the Caribbean and Latin America e.g. Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Mexico, and Colombia. Mr. Cardenas holds a Master’s Degree in Business and Real Estate from Columbia University, New York, and a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, Central America.
RAUL AMEZQUITA
Director of Architecture
Experienced, trustworthy, fun. These are just a few of the ways colleagues describe Raul Amezquita. Raul brings excellent design, technical, and management skills to RKI's architecture and planning studio. Raul is an invaluable member of our team and can always be relied upon to come up with truly creative solutions to the most complex design problems.
Raul is also a partner in Mosaic Experience Leadership Development (MELD) that focuses on the human mosaic in which people are tiles and social capital is the mortar that keeps them together. MELD helps communities and business alike, create and sustain strong bonds with one another that in-turn increase productivity and job satisfaction amongst community and organizational actors. For more about MELD please see www.mosaicexperience.com
Raul is uniquely qualified to provide leadership to RKI, both internally and externally, for our project team collaborations.
DEBORAH KNORR
Real Estate Sales & Marketing Officer
Deborah Knorr leads RKI’s handcrafted, permanent vacation home real estate sales and marketing initiatives on new-build project launches. Deborah is a star performer on RKI sales event programs where she has also personally prepared closings on a significant volume of vacation home transactions. Deborah’s extensive experience includes 8-years of corporate sales with a Fortune 500 Company, 6-years as a resort real estate sales agent, and 8-years as a mortgage originator with DSW Mortgage, Inc. Deborah is a professionally licensed real estate broker and mortgage originator in the State of Colorado, where she resides in Boulder.
Deborah is as much explosively friendly and kind, as she is smart. She is a people person. She possesses unmatched skills in managing people with the acute attention to detail required for successful, complex real estate processes and closings. Deborah is a health aficionado, an amateur dancer, and a curator of lasting friendships. People that meet Deborah both love and trust her.
JUAN MELGAREJO PH.D, P.E.
Project Delivery Management Services
Senior Executive Partner, CSA Group
RKI Strategic Partner - Infrastructure Engineering and Project Delivery Management
RKI’s relationship with CSA began at Roco Ki in the Dominican Republic in 2003, where RKI hired CSA to provide Engineering and Project Management services to the project.
CSA is a full-service project delivery company that is consistently ranked among the top 500 design firms in the world by Engineering News Record (ENR) and top 50 Program Management Firms in the United States.
CSA has a strong engineering and architectural history with project delivery services that extend from feasibility studies through project commissioning, maintenance and operations throughout the lifecycle of a project. CSA brings seven core service specializations in Water, Institutional, Hospitality, Housing, Airports, Education, Commercial and Retail, with a professional staff of over 500 Associates located in US offices in Washington D.C., Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Ohio, Maryland; and internationally in Argentina, Brazil, Panama, and Mexico.
CSA has a specific aptitude for complex projects in foreign emerging markets and has demonstrated consistent quality standards in its services to RKI, time and time again.
Together, RKI and CSA bring unmatched creativity and proven technical depth to ensure a well-thought-out development vision realized in a logical, efficient, profitable and sustainable manner, and have collaborated on projects together for the past 18 years. For more information, please see: www.csagroup.com.
NICK SCAVONE
Development Hospitality Operations Officer
Nick Scavone has provided leadership, management and consulting services in the hospitality industry for over 35 years. He has extensive international resort management experience in hotels, restaurants, marinas, bars, nightclubs, and diving operations. Nick has held key positions at resorts located in the US Virgin Islands, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, and several other Caribbean islands. Nick is also a technology expert and has managed large IT support infrastructure systems for YUM Brands, Applebee’s, Pebble Beach Company, Kohler’s American Club, Newport Beach Island Hotel, IBM, Sandy Point Resorts in Belize, Subway, Visa International, and Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados, to name a few. Nick is a citizen of Belize and has lived there for over a decade where he has also been an associate professor of Hospitality and Tourism for a private university in Belize.
GARY EBBEN
Professional Services Officer
Design and Technical Leader
For 35 years Gary Ebben has pursued a passion for design and construction on every scale from musical instruments and furniture, to private homes and commercial headquarter buildings, to master plans for international ski and beach resorts, as well as commercial and university campuses. From cutting his teeth as a design and project architect at the oldest continually operating architecture firm in the world, Holabird & Root, Chicago, Gary became a pioneer in developing sustainable design, construction materials and methods, for new building projects beginning in the early 1990’s, collaborating with the Rocky Mountain Institute, pre LEED. Gary is NCARB registered, he holds both Bachelor’s and Masters’ Degrees in Architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Traveling regularly between the United States and Latin America, Gary keeps his feet, head and heart firmly planted in the various cultures, and his eyes open to bring these visual, tactile, and functional sensibilities to bear while designing for location, experience and aesthetic…working with the RKI team. Gary maintains his permanent residence, and his state of mind, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
JOSH MOSES
Construction Management Officer
Josh Moses is a highly qualified construction manager with both international and US project management experience. Josh has provided project management on a broad array of building types ranging from industrial, resort, residential, and military. Josh worked for one of the largest construction companies in the US, Turner Construction, as well as the United States Corp of Engineers, Venezia del Caribe in Belize, and his own company, Moses Construction, in Jacksonville, Alabama. Moses worked with RKI at Venezia del Caribe, a $100-million-dollar residential resort workout project where he was the key Senior Project Manager and responsible for implementing SAGE 300, project budgets, schedules, cost control systems, technical coordination and Owner Representative communications. Josh holds a B.S. in Industrial Technology and a minor in Management. He is LEED and Green Building Council accredited and a member of the National Home Builders Association.
KAYLEE KNORR
Engineering & Design Management Support
Kaylee Knorr brings support experience in civil engineering, construction, and design management to the RKI leadership team and specialty studios. She has led mentorship programs designed to support young women interested in careers in civil engineering. Her own engineering background includes a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Alabama, and expertise in Microstation V8, Geopak, AutoCAD, Sketch-up, 3D Earthwork and Stormwater engineering software, and AGi32 Photometric Software. Kaylee loves equestrienne sports, scuba diving, softball, surfing, and most of all, pursuing her life-long passion of working with rescue animals.
CAROLINE HASSELL
CALA Region Real Estate Sales Officer
Caroline Hassell leads RKI's Caribbean real estate initiatives where, as a lifelong resident of Sint Maarten, Dutch Caribbean, she brings a deep understanding and love of the people and their cultures from this beautiful region of the world. A multi-lingual, tempo sales specialist, she has successfully led resort real estate ventures throughout Europe and the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) Region, by organizing high-performance sales teams that she trains and manages.
An aficionado of all things having to do with the sea, Caroline owned and operated the first watersports and dive center on Sint Maarten. Most of all, she loves connecting to the natural world and spending time with her family. Caroline strives to help people to interact with the universe in a positive way, in all her endeavors.
VICTORIA FLYNN
Vibe Manager
In her role as a Vibe Manager, Victoria orchestrates the intangible culture of place making within RKI project operations and development branding --whether it be a mixed-use or hospitality environ, or a special event venue. Victoria is a multi-talented professional who creates a sense of community by curating experiences and activities that both inspire and bring people together, and when she does, magic happens.
Victoria is tri-lingual and her work in predictive intelligence software process and analytics, together with substantial international experience in marketing, make Victoria an all-rounder who adds intrinsic value to successful RKI developments. Hailing from Chicago’s Second City she is an aficionado of stand-up and improv comedy, spoken word, breakdancing and singing, as well as playing the drums, guitar, and soccer. Everyone that meets Victoria loves her. She has a magnetic, high-energy personality that is constantly engaged in thinking, happiness, fun and bringing joy to others.
CROWN VIC VIBE
AND.... A PERFORMING ARTIST WE ADORE
BECOMING YOUNG
GWENYTH KNORR
Director of Research
Gwenyth Knorr has an extensive background in research and education with a client list that includes major corporations, universities, and NGO's. She has been working with RKI for the past 15 years providing critical cultural and marketing research, editing, and brand development support.
HAMLET
Director of Security
Hamlet has over fifteen years experience in office and international site inspection at the managerial level. He is renowned in the security industry for his wide-ranging surveillance methods that include a specialized expertise in psyops. He has a reputation for perimeter control that is unmatched and brings with him an experienced security support team. Works for RKI on a treat-based compensation plan.