Preserve Communities Leadership Team

James Sinnott has served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Preserve Communities for over seven years and has been instrumental in leading the company’s development activities through its impressive recent growth period. Prior to joining Preserve Communities, James spent 19 years in corporate and securities law, investment banking, project finance and alternative asset investment management. He has also successfully launched and grown several of his own companies.

From 1995 to 2005, James practiced law at several prestigious US law firms. Most recently, he helped lead the Insurance Capital Markets Group of the Atlanta office of Lord, Bissell & Brook LLP. Immediately prior to that, he was a senior member of Morris, Manning & Martin LLP’s Real Estate Capital Market Group. His practice focused on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, public and private debt and equity offerings, and SEC reporting for clients in the insurance, financial services, private equity, and REIT and real estate fund industries (or for the sources of capital that fund companies in such industries).

During his tenure as an M&A and Securities lawyer, James was counsel for hundreds of transactions with combined transaction values of well over $7B USD.  He represented clients in their formation, joint-venture, investment, roll-up, public and private securities offering, ongoing corporate governance and securities law compliance matters. He was primary counsel in numerous registered public offerings (including several IPOs) and private offerings of securities (including common stock, preferred stock, warrants, and senior and subordinated debt securities).  During the last several years of his practice, James served as issuer’s counsel in securities offerings in excess of several billion – much of this for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and real estate funds, including Behringer Harvard Funds, a sponsor and operator of several multi-billion dollar REITs.

James obtained a B.A. in economics from the State University of New York, College at Geneseo and was awarded a Juris Doctorate with honors in law, from the University of Georgia.  He is admitted to the bar of the State of Georgia. He is currently active with the Urban Land Institute.

Prior to joining Preserve Communities, Vi spent over 15 years in general corporate and securities law, as well as over 3 years’ in general civil litigation. He is also an experienced businessman, having successfully launched several companies. Previously, Vi was an Executive Vice-President and the General Counsel of the US asset origination subsidiary of a German investment company. The German managed funds specialized in alternative investments in the real estate, telecommunications, and life insurance asset classes.

Prior to that, Vi was the General Counsel of an insurance premium finance company where he was responsible for regulatory compliance and oversight of the firm’s related hedge fund. Previously, Vi was the General Counsel for a publicly traded wireline telecommunications provider, where he was responsible for overseeing all of its telecom, corporate, regulatory and securities matters, including the preparation and filing of its SEC filings, as well as its private and public offering documents and Federal and State regulatory filings.

Previously, Vi served as an associate with the Cutler Law Group where he practiced general corporate and securities law. In addition to his corporate and securities background, Vi was an associate of Royce, Grimm, Vranjes, McCormick & Graham in San Diego where he practiced civil litigation. Vi is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science. He achieved his Juris Doctor degree, with honors, from the University of San Diego School of Law and is admitted to the bars of the States of California and Georgia, as well as the District of Columbia.

David has been working with founder Jack Fisher for over 18 years, envisioning, planning and designing Preserve Communities projects from the mountains to the coast. He has a keen sense of awareness of the finely tuned balances of interests necessary to create special places that honor the integrity of the land—yet also give rise to innovative planning and development practices that ultimately offer all of the features to community stakeholders that make Preserve Communities developments stand out from the ordinary.

David founded his own design company, Site Rhythms, which functions as Preserve Communities inhouse design firm. Prior to that, beginning in 1995, David worked with Wood & Partners and Land Design, Inc, two of the country’s most respected land planning and landscape architecture firms. That experience enabled David to be involved in planning major communities throughout the southeast and garnered him valued “hand’s on” time working with major developers in building many iconic communities.

David holds a B.S. in Landscape Architecture from Clemson University.

With an experienced background in accounting, finance, and tax, Jeff is a highly experienced executive having served in the capacities of Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer throughout career which includes foreign and domestic entities. He served as President/CEO of The SIM Group for over 30 years, which was engaged in several industries, including agriculture, real estate development, home building, golf operations, consulting and management services. SIM represented a derivation of the McDonald Estate (UK) and its related holdings within the US, UK, Switzerland, Spain, Lichtenstein, Panama, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. During his time at SIM, Jeff was responsible for the development of some of the most successful communities in the southeast, including Brickyard Plantation in Charleston, SC, The Golf Club of South Carolina in Florence, SC and many more. Jeff not only headed up the acquisition and development of these projects but also established and ran a successful homebuilding company that built and sold over 5,000 homes.

Early in his career, Jeff had the opportunity to work with iconic developers, Canal Wood Corporation, Leonard, Call & Taylor, and Snowshoe Resort.

Jeff holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of South Carolina. During his career, he has Provided oversight and management of McDonald Estate international holdings, operating entities and related trusts. He has also been responsible for facilitating philanthropic grants to worldwide charities for children and educational institutions.

Bobby Masters has been developing and marketing highly amenitized master-planned communities since the mid 1980’s. Beginning with Wild Dunes Resort in Charleston, SC and most recently at St. James Plantation in Southport, NC, Bobby has led the development and sales activities at over 15 large communities comprising over 25,000 acres of land, over 30,000 residential homes, and multiple golf courses, clubhouses, aquatic centers, food and beverage outlets, marinas, hospitality operations and homeowner association management.

Having served in an executive role, Bobby has been involved in projects from start to finish, from acquisition, to planning and permitting, to construction of infrastructure, to building of homes and condominiums, to overseeing the marketing and sales processes for all products, creating and operating clubs and organizing and managing homeowner associations.

Bobby obtained both an accounting and law degree from the University of South Carolina and is currently an active member of the South Carolina Bar.