As a founder of ARGUS Software, the world-wide standard since 1991, for annual valuation of over $6 trillion in properties, portfolios and loans, Christopher Gongolas has over 32 years experience in virtually all aspects of commercial real estate finance and deal structuring, and has advised clients with single tenant properties to multi-billion dollar portfolios. He was responsible for much of ARGUS’s original user interface, reporting & audit trail, and calculation designs, as well as overseeing marketing, advertising and large institutional client relationships.

He holds a B.S. in Finance and a Minor in Fine Art from Penn State (1980). From the age of 23, he has guest lectured extensively in finance theory, valuations, structuring, regulatory compliance and risk management at over 30 graduate and undergraduate university real estate & finance programs including all major Business Schools such as Wharton, MIT, Harvard, Univ. of Wisconsin, NYU, Columbia, Northwestern, Penn State, UCLA, USC, Georgia State, Univ. of Texas, Texas A&M, etc. as well as professional organizations such as MBA, ICSC, NAIOP, NACREIF, and in regulatory oversight and A.L.L.L. for U.S. government agencies such as The Federal Reserve, FDIC, FSLIC, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and in portfolio management in hundreds of banks, Wall Street firms, REITS, insurance companies and pension funds.

As a direct real estate investor/developer his portfolio is weighted in the retail, industrial and raw land sectors, and believes that the only real value is in the lease, and that the enemy of time is the true economic risk to any investment.

He is also actively involved in the visual arts community in both Houston, Texas and Athens, Greece, and has served several consecutive terms on the Board of Directors of several contemporary arts museums.