OUR TEAM
James D. Campbell
A co-founding principal of Somerset Development, Mr. Campbell leads the company in identifying, analyzing, and packaging the financing of Somerset’s real estate development portfolio valued at $400 million with over 2,270 multi-family residential units with retail units and new community buildings. He has expertise in forging public-private partnerships and affordable housing development, including Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Historic and New Markets Tax Credits, and federal, state, and local housing finance.
Prior to starting Somerset, Mr. Campbell served for eight years at the AFL-CIO Investments Trusts, primarily as the Chief Investment Officer. The Investment Trusts consist of two co-mingled real estate investment funds: the Housing Investment Trust and the Building Investment Trust. Together the Trusts invested approximately $1 billion of pension capital per year in new housing and commercial real estate projects.
Prior to joining the Trusts, Mr. Campbell was Vice President for Development for Related Companies Northeast, a private developer of housing in the Boston area. Mr. Campbell has managed economic and housing developments for city and state governments; among them, the highly successful $1 billion, mixed-use redevelopment of the East Cambridge Riverfront. He has served as the executive Director of a non-profit community development corporation. Mr. Campbell has a Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University.
Ziad Maalouf
A co-founding principal of Somerset Culinary Concepts (SCC,) Ziad Maalouf leads the company in strategic planning overseeing operations, budgeting, concept development, site selection and construction. He has over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry with a major focus of cost control and profitability.
Prior to starting SCC, Ziad Maalouf owned and operated the highly popular Café Ole, in Tenleytown. It recently closed after 20 successful years for a building redevelopment project. He worked with the late Jean Louis Palladin as Director of Purchasing/Food Beverage Cost Controller/Operations Analyst.
He then was the Project Manager and Purchasing Director at the St Regis Hotel, where he headed up a $20 million dollar hotel renovation and a $5 million dollar budget to open Lespinasse. He has also consulted for several restaurant openings in both the Washington, DC ,and Detroit, MI areas. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Sacred Heart College.
Under the direction of Ziad Maalouf, SCC opened Café Fili in Baltimore, MD 3 rd quarter 2017, The Tilted Row in 2 nd quarter 2019 and Café Filí in DC, 4 th quarter 2019.
Jacques Van Staden honed his early culinary talent at the historic Occidental, Jean-Louis Palladinat the Watergate Hotel, Lespinasse at the Saint Regis, Citronelle by Michel Richard and Alize by Andre Rochat, Las Vegas. Van Staden was applauded as “Rising Star Chef of the Year” and nominated “Best Up & Coming Chef” by the prestigious James-Beard Foundation. In 2007, both Alize and Andre’s each received the coveted Michelin starred rating.
Prior to this Van Staden along with Ziad Maalouf opened their first casual Mediterranean restaurant, Café Olé. It operated for 20 years and was rebranded into Café Filí under his culinary leadership. Shortly thereafter, Van Staden formed his own Culinary Group and joined forces with the hospitality guru, Elizabeth Blau, providing consulting services for all types of F&B Venues. This led to a large consulting deal with Celebrity Cruises who lured him into the position of VP of Food and Beverage and Master Chef for Celebrity Cruises.
Among Van Staden's accomplishments has been the launch of Celebrity's critically acclaimed Solstice class of ships, where Celebrity introduced an entirely new array of dining and beverage experiences. Included among these are an entirely re-imagined main restaurant experience in the ships' signature 1400 seat restaurant, the evolution of the company's signature, French inspired restaurant, Murano, new restaurants Bistro on Five, The Ocean View Cafe Marketplace, Tuscan Grille, Blu, Silk Harvest, and Qsine by JVS.
The re-birth of JVS Culinary Group led Van Staden to create numerous award-winning concepts in Detroit, Michigan. He then launched his own modern fast-casual Mediterranean concept; “2941 Street Food”. Within a period of 30 months, he opened five locations, a central commissary and achieved proof of concept.
Most recently he spent 5 years in Geneva Switzerland as the Global Vice President F&B/Product Development for MSC Cruise Lines S.A., designing F&B experiences for their Explora luxury segment and launching six new ships. He led a team of 86 who oversaw 234 restaurants and 413 bars aboard 22 cruise ships with a total 437€ budget.
He is a graduate of L ’Académie de Cuisine In Bethesda, MD.
Jane leads the company in operational analysis, IT, Marketing and HR. She has over 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry with a major focus on technology planning and implementation along with operational analysis. Prior to working with SCC she co-founded and managed Café Ole in Tenleytown. She worked for Vie de France Yamazaki managing IT for the restaurant division, the Renaissance Hotel as Systems Analyst and Arltec, Inc as director of MIS for 5 local Sheraton hotels. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from Florida state in Hospitality Administration.
Nancy L. Hooff
A co-founding principal of Somerset Development Company, Ms. Hooff leads the company in overseeing pre-development planning and budgeting, design, construction administration, asset management and resident services. With a portfolio valued at $429 million with over 1,750 multi-family residential units, retail spaces and community buildings, the company specializes in revitalizing communities in underserved areas through the use of public-private financing, historic preservation and partnerships with tenant associations, local businesses, and non-profit entities.
Prior to starting Somerset, Ms. Hooff worked in the field of development economics, housing and community development, municipal finance and local government in the international arena for 15 years as a Foreign Service Officer and contractor with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Ms. Hooff managed USAID’s programs in local government, democracy, urban development and housing for Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union. This work included overseeing housing guarantee funds and the development of municipal finance systems.
She also served in Mauritania, Tunisia, Guatemala, and provided technical and program support services to other countries of Central America. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Hooff was founder and principal of a business consulting firm in West Africa. She has a Master’s Degree, with a specialization in international development economics, from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.