Team
Turf is a team of infrastructure, technology and finance experts with 130+ years of experience.
Lisa Diaz (She/Her)
Founder & Managing Partner
Lisa is the Managing Partner and Founder of Turf Advisory. For the last 7 years, she has built a unique ecosystem in the construction sector.
Lisa sits on the board of MIT Delta V and was a Smart Infrastructure Executive-in-Residence at Cornell Tech. She was Committee Chair for Westchester Climate Crisis Taskforce, a member of the Steering Committee of NY Blue Tech and a member of the Smart Cities NY Advisory Board.
Prior to founding Turf, Lisa was CEO of Prince Street Capital Management, an emerging markets asset management company and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where she worked for 23 years, spearheading the firm’s relationship with Sovereign Wealth Funds, global hedge funds and mutual fund complexes.
Kareem Tayara (He/Him)
Chief Investment Officer
Kareem Tayara is a technology and consulting expert with over 10 years of experience who has worked with Turf since 2019.
Kareem’s experience includes Battery Road Digital––an emerging market venture fund where he worked on venture capital due diligence and deal structuring––and Prince Street Capital––an emerging market investment company, where he worked on investment research within the technology sector as well as marketing and investor relations.
Previously, Kareem spent 7 years as part of a boutique strategy consulting and corporate finance company in Dubai working across the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. While there he consulted on several infrastructure projects. Kareem attended Durham University; he is a native of Lebanon and is conversant in Arabic and French.
Roger Begelman (He/Him)
General Counsel and COO
Roger is Chief Operation Officer and General Counsel. He spearheads operations management, executes compliance procedures and advises on legal matters.
Previously, Roger was a Managing Director and co-chief compliance officer of Goldman Sachs Bank USA. He was the primary liaison with new regulators (Federal Reserve Board of NY, Department of Financial Services) for bank compliance reviews. He was responsible for firmwide development of compliance strategy, policy, and systems for global control rooms, regulatory reporting, and surveillance systems.
Anjaneya Naik (He/Him)
Advisor
Anjaneya(AJ) brings a rich background in product design and business development from his tenure as a founding member at TracFlo and his advanced studies at Northeastern University.
Specializing in revenue growth strategies and operational excellence, Anjaneya's expertise lies in leveraging technology to solve complex challenges within the construction industry. At Turf Advisory, he continues to drive innovation and excellence, embodying a commitment to enhancing industry standards and fostering sustainable growth.
Varad Mohod (He/Him)
Venture & Portfolio Advisory Analyst
Varad is an Analyst at Turf Advisory, where he specializes in analyzing startups, industry trends, and markets. He plays a key role in shaping growth and business strategies for Turf's portfolio companies, using his expertise in market analysis and financial evaluation to identify high-potential investment opportunities.
​
With experience at 5+ startups across diverse sectors—including Data, Blockchain, Gaming, AI, and Health Tech—Varad has successfully applied his skills in business analysis, product management and data science to deliver impactful results. During his undergraduate engineering degree, he conducted research on data science applications in health technology and later expanded his knowledge in emerging technologies through a Master's degree from Northeastern University.
​
At Turf, Varad also leads platform development for capital and advisory operations, ensuring the seamless integration of these efforts across the company’s ecosystem. He oversees the screening of startups and manages the due diligence process for new markets, industries, and startup evaluations. His work is crucial in driving strategic decisions, identifying emerging trends, and fostering growth within the portfolio.
Andrew Souza (He/Him)
Advisory Partner
Andrew has nearly 20 years of advisory and investing experience.
Prior to joining Turf, Andrew spent 7 years at the Lowy Family Group (LFG), the private investment business and family office for the Lowy Family (founders of Westfield Malls which was sold for $23 billion in 2018), where he was a Senior Portfolio Manager. Prior to LFG, Andrew spent 6 years working for Leon Cooperman at Omega Advisors, a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund and began his career working in investment banking and credit at Goldman Sachs.
Andrew graduated from Skidmore College, where he was a member of the Men’s Soccer Team.
Maria Molina (She/Her)
Business Analyst
Mafe is a Business Analyst at Turf Advisory, where she focuses on social media strategy and business development for portfolio companies. She plays a key role in enhancing the digital presence of startups by leveraging her expertise in crafting impactful social media campaigns that boost engagement and drive business growth. Mafe also identifies strategic opportunities to support long-term scaling efforts across the portfolio.
​
Mafe co-founded WarmiShine, a non-profit promoting gender equity in Peru, where she led key initiatives in health and education. She also worked with the United Nations Capital Development Fund, focusing on policy development and partnership expansion. Additionally, she has experience in EdTech, where she drove market research and strategy.
​
She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Hult International Business School and a Master’s in Business Analytics from Northeastern University. Mafe’s combination of social impact work and analytical expertise makes her an invaluable part of the Turf Advisory team.
Corey Baker (He/They)
Design Thinking Specialist
Corey is a graduate student at Stanford University studying Management Science & Engineering with a concentration in Technology and Engineering Management. Prior to this, he worked for a year as a Product Manager at New York-based AI startup Dataminr. While at Dataminr, he worked with Data Scientists on Computer Vision model releases, led the integration of a strategic source enabling the detection of threats against persons of interest for Fortune 500 companies, and partnered with Engineering to ensure the data pipeline guaranteed timely alert delivery.
Corey has also worked at Warner Bros. Discovery as Technical Product Management Intern, Stanford University as a Human-Computer Interaction Researcher, and as a Design Intern at a variety of start-ups ranging from sustainable fashion to IoT sensors. Their undergraduate major was Product Design with a minor in Computer Science.
Madeline Faul (She/Her)
Urban Governance and Built Environment Specialist
Maddy initially joined Turf Advisory in 2019 as an Analyst and Research Assistant while attending Stanford University. She has since graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies, with a concentration in Urban Sustainability. In this position and previous positions with Turf, she primarily assists in the production and publication of consulting reviews. The scope of her work includes performing research and other tasks on behalf of multinational clients on subjects within the urban environment, such as smart infrastructure opportunities or other potential target markets. She further assists with audits of client marketing materials and other communications. As an analyst, she gathers, documents and analyzes macroeconomic trends related to the future of cities and the opportunities therein. As an Urban Governance and Built Environment Specialist, she provides unique insights fostered through her studies and her work within the public sector.
​
In compliment with her job at Turf Advisory, Maddy currently works as a planning intern in the Community Development Department of a San Francisco Bay Area municipality.
