Rich founded Vestra Advisors in June 2023 to focus on the homebuilding and broader housing eco-system. Since its formation, Vestra had advised on several of the most impactful transactions in the housing sector, including serving as exclusive financial advisor to MDC Holdings on the $4.9 bn sale to Sekisui, Landsea on its $225mm acquisition of Antares, Builder Homesite Inc on the sale of BDX to Zonda and as capital markets advisor to Smith Douglas on its $162mm IPO.

Prior to Vestra, Rich led the homebuilding and building products group at Citi for over 28 years. Rich began covering the homebuilding and building products industries in 1993, before it was a recognized coverage sector on Wall Street. In the early days, Rich established relationships with many of the pioneering, founder-led companies which have become today’s industry leaders. Examples of these decades-long relationships include Lennar, DR Horton, Pulte, Toll Brothers, MI Homes, KB Home, Beacon Roofing, Interface and Masco Corp. Rich played an integral role in advising many of these companies on their M&A growth strategies. Notable transaction experience includes DR Horton/Continental Homes merger in 1996 – the largest merger of the day; Pulte Homes acquisition of Del Webb and Centex Homes; Lennar’s acquisition of Cal Atlantic – the largest homebuilding M&A transaction to date; and Beacon’s acquisition of RSG Supply and Allied Building Products▪

Post the housing crisis of 2007-2010, Rich was actively involved in recapitalizing the housing-related sector with numerous debt and equity capital markets transactions, including the IPOs for Taylor Morrison Homes, Tri Pointe Homes, William Lyon Homes, New Home Company, WCI, UCP, Five Point Holdings, Summit Materials and JELD-WEN▪

Rich approaches his advice to executives through the primary lens of shareholder value creation. As the industry has transformed into large-cap, scale-oriented companies, Return-on-Invested Capital (ROIC) and Return-on-Equity (ROE) are recognized as the primary measures to drive valuation multiples and relative share price performance. Using this framework, Rich’s advisory roles incorporate a multi-pronged approach to capital allocation which includes organic and inorganic growth to achieve scale, while concurrently balancing appropriate leverage with return of capital through share repurchases and dividends▪

After graduating from Colgate University, Rich started his career in the audit department of Coopers & Lybrand. Rich received an MBA from NYU Leonard Stern and was a licensed CPA in New York.