ABOUT OUR TEAM
William Orgel
Principal
President/CEO
William E. Orgel (Billy) is a native of Memphis, Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin in 1985. After graduation, he moved to Memphis to work at his family business, Majestic Communications, which he helped build into the areas’ largest retailer of Motorola two-way radios. When the two-way business was sold in 1995 Billy began to build on his existing portfolio of radio communications towers by building cell phone towers for the rapidly expanding wireless industry. Tower Ventures, currently own over 400 towers and they have built and sold an additional 700 towers since the company began its operations. In 2018, he was re-elected to a second term to the Shelby County School Board and served as its Chairman of this body for two years in the past. On the Shelby County Board he chairs the Facilities committee. He is Past President of Temple Israel Synagogue, Board of Trustees. During his 25 years of service to the Board, he oversaw a 25 million dollar capital campaign and a 16 million dollar endowment campaign. Billy is also a past Board Member of the New Memphis Arena Public Building Authority that oversaw the construction of the FedEx Forum, the home of the University of Memphis Tigers and the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. He also became one of the members of the Grizzlies ownership group in 2013. Billy is the Chairman of the Sports Gaming Council for the State of Tennessee. In addition, he is a member of the Executive Board of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, and a member of the Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Board. He is a member of the Memphis University School Board of Trustees and the Board of St Mary’s Episcopal School. In 1999; Billy was selected by the Memphis Business Journal as one of their “Top 40 Under 40” of local community leaders and was inducted in 2010 as a member of the Memphis chapter of the Society of Entrepreneurs. In addition, Billy is an Organizer and Director of the First Capital Bank, a community bank in Germantown with 330 million in assets. Billy was a recipient the 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award by the Chickasaw Council of the Boys Scouts of America. Over the years, Billy became interested in preserving historic buildings in Downtown Memphis, and some of those projects include Radio Center Flats, The Cornerstone Flats, Main Street Flats and Van Vleet Flats. In addition, he has been involved with the development and is a partner in Barbaro Flats, South Junction and South Line. He led preservation efforts at the historic Tennessee Brewery, which is a $43 million-dollar project that will have 273 apartments, 17,000 feet of commercial space and a 339-space garage when complete. Currently, he and his partners are working on a 60-acre mixed-use project in Uptown Memphis, called the Snuff District. There will be a 65,000 square foot corporate headquarters, 430 apartments and a 27,000 square foot event facility in the first 2 phases. Outside of Memphis, Billy has worked as a developer and partner on a 307-unit apartment project outside of Austin, Texas called Hays Junction, a 264-unit apartment complex in Austin called the Crossings at Wells Branch, a 250-unit development called Leander Junction in Leander, Texas and two more developments under construction in Austin and Colorado Springs. Billy has been married to Robin Salky Orgel for the 30 years and they have three children; Benjamin who is 29, Megan who is 26 and Hannah age 22.
Jay Lindy
Principal
COO/General Counsel
Jay has been an advisor and counsel to the Company’s principals for over 25 years. As the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for the company, Jay leads the company’s negotiations to develop tower sites through portfolio acquisitions, build-to-suit projects and organic development. This includes structuring private equity joint ventures, traditional commercial debt financing and real estate investment trusts. His areas of responsibility include: legal, oversight of finance and accounting departments, operations, new business development, marketing, leasing oversight and strategic planning.
Craig Weiss
Principal
Executive Vice President, Carrier Leasing
Craig handles Tower Ventures financing, banking relationships, leasing department and business development. Before joining the team, he worked in the Capital Markets Group at NBC where he was a VP for Fixed Income. In 2005, Craig purchased two Memphis-based security businesses, merged their accounts and created Central Defense Security. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Paragon Bank, a Memphis-based Community Bank with over $300 million in assets. Craig serves on the Advisory Board for Trestle Capital Partners a merchant banking firm. In 2005, The Memphis Business Journal selected him as one of their “Top 40 Under 40” of community leaders. Craig was named by the Memphis Business Quarterly as one of the Region’s Power Players in Security in 2014.
Michael McLaughlin
Chief Financial Officer
Michael handles financial management of Tower Ventures. He handles financial reporting, investor relations, internal controls, human resources and long-range planning. Before joining the company, he served as the Manager of Financial Reporting for Intrepid Aviation. He now serves on the Financial Advisory Commission and the Industrial Development Board for the City of Germantown, Tennessee. He completed Leadership Germantown in 2016 and the Leadership Memphis FastTrack program in 2008. He is an active member of OLPH parish and is a key contributor in their fundraising for athletics. He received a B.B.A. in Economics and Human Resource Management from the University of Mississippi in 2002 followed by an M.A. in Economics in 2004 and has been an adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of Memphis.
Craig Royal
Principal
Vice President of Construction & Operations
Craig’s areas of responsibility at Tower Ventures include: operations management, new site development, and rooftop management. Craig has spearheaded the development of over 150 towers and has been critical in many acquisitions. His expertise includes regulatory and environmental controls along with tower development, maintenance, and removals. Before joining Tower Ventures, he received a B.A in History from the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the Tower Ventures team in 2000 as construction manager.
Benjamin Orgel
Principal
Managing Director, Real Estate
Benjamin Orgel is a native of Memphis, Tennessee and received his BBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. After graduation, he moved to Memphis to work at his family business Tower Ventures which he is now an owner/partner in the organization and oversees tower and real estate acquisitions for the company and directs the new business development and land team. When Benjamin was sixteen, he started a company called OFO which purchased easements under cell towers, in 2015 he sold OFO to a large, public tower company. Benjamin is also a Real Estate Broker with Slovis and Associates in Memphis. In 2018 he and his development partners completed a renovation of the historic Tennessee Brewery built in 1890. In October 2021 they completed a 220-unit apartment complex in Midtown Memphis and recently completed the redevelopment of the former Gibson Guitar factory that is the new location for the FedEx Logistics global headquarters in Downtown Memphis with over 200,000 square feet of office space. In addition to these projects, his development group is redeveloping sixty acres of land on the north side of downtown Memphis which will be a mixed-use commercial and residential development anticipated to complete in late 2022. Benjamin’s team announced in January a 45-acre redevelopment in Arlington, Tennessee and closed on the purchased of the Carrefour shopping center in East Memphis/Germantown, they plan a mixed-use redevelopment to include office, retail, and a boutique. In early February, Benjamin and his team were awarded the 270-million-dollar redevelopment project of the tallest building in Memphis, the 37-story 100 North Main building. Benjamin is currently the Chair of the Downtown Memphis Commission board and is a board member of the Center City Development Corporation. Benjamin is a director on a bank board for the Bank3. Benjamin is also on the board of The Rock and Soul Museum. He has a strong passion for sports and the kids in his community and shares his personal time as the head basketball coach of the Temple Israel Ragin Rabbis.
David Goldstein
Principal
Managing Director, Tenant Leasing
David joined the Tower Ventures team in 2011 as an asset manager. He currently manages carrier leasing for the company. He also works with the Land Acquisition team to facilitate strategic real estate acquisitions. As Director of Leasing, David is responsible for marketing Tower Ventures’ owned assets to cellular carriers and managing the leasing process from inquiry to lease execution. David obtained a BA in History from the University of Colorado in 2004 and an MBA from the University of Memphis in 2012. A lifelong Memphian, David returned to Memphis after graduating college in 2004 and has been involved with commercial real estate since that time. David is a member of the Board of Directors for the Memphis Jewish Community Center.
Tower Ventures offers sites nationwide to cover the needs of any carrier.
Corporate Office:
495 Tennessee Street
Suite 152
Memphis, TN 38103
Toll Free: 1-800-875-5109
Tel: 901-794-9494
Fax: 901-562-0911