The Adaptive Commons leadership team brings with it decades of real estate development and investment experience, coupled with a long and successful track record of convening strategic partners to advance holistic and impactful projects.
DERWIN SISNETT
Chief Executive Officer
Derwin is the founder and CEO of Adaptive Commons, a real estate development and investment firm that adapts public spaces for public good. Prior to Adaptive Commons, Derwin co-founded and co-led Maslow Development Inc., a real estate & community development firm that advises, designs, and develops mixed-use communities anchored by high-quality schools. Prior to Maslow, Derwin co-founded and served as the CEO of Gestalt Community Schools, a charter management organization that develops high-quality, community-based charter schools in Memphis, Tennessee. Honored by the White House and the U.S. Department of Education, GCS grew into one of the highest-performing networks of schools in Tennessee, anchoring over 40 acres of a mixed-use development that Derwin spearheaded, including a performing arts center and affordable housing.
In partnership with the Menkiti Group, Derwin also co-founded Grove Social Impact Partner’s Obsidian Catalyst Fund, a real estate investment vehicle that aims to drive neighborhood-level social impact by capitalizing a new category of Black real estate developers. Derwin’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including Urban Land Institute’s Urban Land Magazine, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He has also lectured at various colleges and universities, including Harvard Graduate School of Design, Yale School of Management, and Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.
Derwin has held private, mayoral- and gubernatorial-appointed board seats at healthcare, foundation, education, and arts-based companies, including Collage Dance Collective, one of the largest Black-led performing arts organizations in the American South, and the developer of Crosstown Concourse, a 1,500,000 sq. ft. adaptive reuse of a historic Sears distribution center. In 2015, Derwin became the youngest person to chair the board of Memphis Light, Gas and Water, the nation’s largest 3-tier public utility.
Derwin holds a bachelor’s degree from Emory University, a PhD from the University of Memphis, and he is an alumnus of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where he was a Loeb Fellow. Derwin is also a Broad Fellow and a Pahara Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, where he was selected as a Braddock Scholar.
MARGARET M. TOWLE
Senior Advisor
Throughout her career, Dr. Towle has functioned in a variety of asset management roles. She is a Senior Advisor to Adaptive Commons, a real estate development and investment firm that adapts public spaces for public good. In addition, she was a member of BAMLʼs Global Institutional Consulting Group (“GIC”), providing consulting services to institutional clients.
Dr. Towle received the Investments & Wealth Institute “Investment Consulting Impact Award.” In addition, she was recognized as one of the “Top 50 Women in Wealth Management” and was selected as a delegate to the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford, England. The Kauffman Foundation selected Dr. Towle to attend the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership as a Kaufman Fellow. She was also the recipient of IMCAʼs Stephen L. Kessler Writing Award. She has published in the areas of finance and economics, including the book, Masters of Finance and Economics: Interviews with Some of the Greatest Minds in Investing and Economics.” She frequently speaks at industry events and has appeared on FinTech TV, CNBC and Bloomberg Financial.
Dr. Towle earned BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington-Seattle, with emphasis on political economy and public finance. She attended the Oxford Impact Investment Programme, Wharton Social Finance Gender-Lens Investing Program, and completed the Executive Education Program in Risk Management at the University of Chicago. Dr. Towle completed post-graduate studies in quantitative methods at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.