PARTNER BIOS

ARTHUR A. KLIPFEL III

Arthur Klipfel is one of the founding Partners of Oaktree Development. He oversees project acquisition, and as a licensed architect, the design and engineering aspects of project development. He has a strong financial background, and plays a major role in controlling project budgets, and structuring joint ventures and partnerships.

Mr. Klipfel has a Masters Degree from Yale University in Architecture, and a Bachelors Degree from Cornell in Economics. He also completed a year of post graduate work at Harvard in Architecture. After becoming licensed, he perfected a patented factory-built housing system and completed a successful IPO under the name Unihab, Inc. Unihab’s mission was to design and develop efficient and affordable housing, utilizing factory built technology when possible. Mr. Klipfel served as President of Unihab for roughly 18 years when, during the 1970’s and 1980’s, Unihab completed the design and development of over a 1000 units of housing marketed primarily to young professionals and empty nesters located in urban areas. In the 1990’s Unihab was reorganized as a partnership committed to sustainable design and development, and re-named Oaktree Development.

Mr. Klipfel won the Paris Prize in architecture after graduating from Yale, and spent a year studying in Europe. He has won two design competitions, one designing a museum for Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and the second a State competition for Senior housing in Chelmsford., MA. Mr. Klipfel is married to his partner, Gwen Noyes, and together they have five children.

GWENDOLEN G. NOYES

Gwen Noyes has been a partner of Oaktree Development and its predecessor, Unihab Inc, since 1973, when Arthur Klipfel and she founded Unihab. Her work in these multi-family housing development companies has been focused to date in Cambridge and several metropolitan Boston cities. Trained as an architect, she has been the designer and partner in charge of many complete renovations and new communities totaling several hundred units. She also searches out potential urban sites and does zoning feasibility analyses. Frequently working in neighborhoods that are apprehensive or resistant to change, Ms Noyes has gained substantial experience in successfully permitting Oaktree’s projects. She helps neighborhoods to envision the contribution that an Oaktree community will bring. She also led in the sociologically complex formation and development of the Cambridge Cohousing community, an award winning, nationally acclaimed example of environmentally responsible design. Gwen and her husband, Arthur Klipfel, live in this community.

Ms Noyes has a Master of Architecture degree (honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College. She has lived and worked in Cambridge, MA for thirty eight years, though she enjoyed brief working stints in Japan, Denmark, and NYC. She has traveled extensively and served as an officer and President of the Board for the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She has also served as a founding trustee on the City of Cambridge’s Affordable Housing Trust, and is a member of Cambridge Friends' Meeting (Quaker), where she heads the EarthCare Witness Committee. Growing up on an organic farm in Illinois provided the 'germ' for Gwen's concern for the environment, and has long found expression in the transit oriented, smart growth, green bulidings Oaktree has built over the years.

DR. LING YI LIU

Dr. Liu has been a partner of Oaktree Development for the last nine years and has been involved with every facet of the multifamily development process, from acquisitions to construction to marketing to property management. His broad experience in the development process and his pursuit of technology and innovation to increase the profits of multifamily projects now includes involvement with MIT’s housing research efforts.

Dr. Liu is former Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Oasis Development Enterprises, a real-estate investment and management company aiming to catalyze pockets of prosperity in the inner city. In his three and a half years at Oasis, he oversaw the purchase and financing of a portfolio of more than $17M in real estate.

Previously, Dr. Liu spent over 5 years as a laser/photonics research scientist at the Sony Central Research Center (Tokyo, Japan) and IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY). He has a Ph.D. degree from MIT in electrical engineering.

PRADIP TANDON

Pradip Tandon is responsible for the general finance operations of Oaktree Development, LLC, including coordinating, maintaining and supervising the accounting functions, establishing internal control procedures, preparation of financial and regulatory reports, annual budgets and job profitability analysis. Mr. Tandon is responsible for implementing and monitoring the IT accounting systems that manage, process and report both companies’ financial information. Mr. Tandon is a Chartered Accountant with 20 years of accounting and finance experience. Previously, Mr. Tandon was Vice President of Finance with an early stage business venture, Autospace Corporation, which designs, builds, imports and sells automated and mechanical car parking systems. The company raised over $14 million in private equity from individual and institutional investors.

Mr. Tandon earned an M.B.A. from Johnson & Wales University (Rhode Island) and a BS/BA in Accounting from St. Xavier’s College (Calcutta, India). Mr. Tandon is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.