• The Philippine Navy has two new guided-missile frigates built by South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai.
• The Philippines is pursuing a massive military modernization initiative.
• The frigates and other upgrades better arm the Philippines to counter China in the South China Sea.

One of South Korea's top shipbuilders is turning out new warships for the Philippines as Manila accelerates its naval modernization.

The new frigates mark a major upgrade for the Philippine fleet, offering the country a more credible defense as China turns up the pressure in the South China Sea.

The historically obsolete Philippine naval force is now modernizing to meet current and future threats. "The Philippine Navy is professional and getting stronger," Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, told Business Insider. He said that "adding two guided-missile frigates to their very small fleet means that China's no longer running alone in the arms competition in the South China Sea."

South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has built two HDF-3200 Hybrid frigates for the Philippines. The second vessel, BRP Diego Silang, was commissioned earlier this month, over six months after the first-in-class BRP Miguel Malvar entered service.

Both vessels bring added firepower to the Philippine Navy. They're the first Philippine warships to have vertical launch systems for missiles, a modern capability that allows the Philippines to carry and fire VL MICA surface-to-air missiles made by MBDA, a European missile company. The frigates also carry eight SSM-700K C-Star anti-ship missiles made by South Korea.

Warship vertical launch systems can be refreshed with new weapons over time. They shoot missiles straight upward before they arc toward their targets, a design that works well in all conditions. Each frigate has 16 cells, allowing the Philippines to tailor its missile loadouts for different missions.

The $550 million contract for the two frigates dates to 2021 and is the latest in a string of deals between HD Hyundai and Manila. The premier South Korean shipbuilder is also constructing six offshore patrol vessels and has discussed additional projects. In all, it has built 10 ships for the Philippine Navy.

"As we strengthen our defense industry network with the Philippines and other key Southeast Asian countries, we plan to identify additional potential demand and continuously expand our business competitiveness in the region," the company told Business Insider in a statement.

As Manila races to modernize its military, new warships give its navy much-needed heft in a region where China now fields the world's largest fleet and increasingly throws its weight around.

The South China Sea has been a hotbed of Chinese aggression, accidents, and close-calls in recent years, with Beijing's navy, coast guard, and maritime militia vessels frequently harassing Philippine fishing boats, spraying them with water cannons, chasing them down, and even ramming into them.

Within the contested region, the Philippines' new frigates and firepower now pose a potential challenge for China.

"They would be taking a very big chance of being sunk or knocked out of the sky if they start to push around these frigates," Cronin said of China's ships and planes. Strategies on both sides of this long-running dispute will, however, need to be managed carefully to avoid escalation and a shift from gray-zone aggression to conflict.

China fields a huge coast guard, backed by some of the world’s largest cutters, and typically relies on it for confrontations in the South China Sea while its navy hangs back. In a recent encounter, a Chinese navy destroyer joined in the chase of a Philippine patrol ship. Its unsafe maneuvering at sea led to it slamming into one of China’s own coast guard vessels.

"It is part of China's standard operating procedure to intentionally engage in unsafe behavior and create risks of collision at sea and in the air," Gregory Poling, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider at the time.

The Philippines has been investing in other military might to counter China as well.

Manila's Archipelagic Defense Concept, for instance, has included the acquisition of more missile systems and better intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance capabilities to monitor its waters. Additionally, more military exercises and deeper cooperation between the Philippines, US, Australia, and other Pacific parnters is also helping better prepare Manila.

The Philippines is also planning for a fleet of submarines, with another South Korean shipbuilder, Hanwha Ocean, pitching an offer to build diesel-electric submarines earlier this year, as well as construct a submarine base, with support for local maintenance, repair, overhaul, and training.

Newer submarines would provide the Philippine Navy with additional ways to patrol and monitor activity within its waters and deter foes.

Nick Leeson is an English former derivatives trader who caused the collapse of Barings, London's oldest merchant bank, which had operated for 233 years. Working in the bank's Singapore office, he made a series of unauthorized speculative trades that ultimately lost $1.2 billion.

Leeson joined Barings in 1989 and by 1992 was running its new futures operation in Singapore. Concealing losses in a secret "88888" error account, he hid the scale of his bets from London as deficits ballooned. By 1994, his risky "long straddle" trades were losing millions. After doubling down during the 1995 Kobe earthquake, his losses exploded, wiping out the bank. Leeson fled to Malaysia but was caught and extradited to Singapore, where he served over four years for fraud. In 1999, he published his memoir, which was made into a 1999 film, "Rogue Trader."

Leeson speaks with Business Insider about the lifestyle of bankers in Singapore, how illegal trades happen, and the early signs of fraud.

Leeson is now active on the keynote and after-dinner speaking circuit, advising companies about risk and corporate responsibility. Since 2023, he has been a private investigator dealing with cases of financial misconduct. He also hosts the "Rogue Trader" podcast.

For more:

https://www.nmplive.co.uk/nick-leeson

https://www.nickleeson.com/

• I visited Copenhagen over the summer, but I added one night in Malmö, Sweden, to the trip.
• The city just across the water from Copenhagen was one of the highlights of my entire trip.
• I thought it offered a peek at true Scandinavian living.

For me, the most stressful part of planning a trip is narrowing down what I want to see, especially when I'm traveling to new countries.

I never want to miss out on anything, and when you only get a few days in a place, there's no way to see everything. If I'm going somewhere I'm not sure I'll get to visit again, I feel even more pressure to make the perfect itinerary.

I faced that exact conundrum when trying to decide which part of Sweden to visit as part of a trip to nearby Copenhagen, Denmark.

• An InMarket report found that consumers are favoring private-label coffees as prices rise.
• Although bargain coffee sales are booming, Starbucks beans remain a favorite splurge for shoppers.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that coffee prices have increased by over 41% year-over-year.

Rising costs are prompting shoppers to opt for store-brand coffee, but brand loyalty is keeping Starbucks ahead in grocery sales for now.

An InMarket report, released on Thursday, shows that consumers are increasingly favoring private-label coffees. The average share of private label spend rose from 19% in Q1 to 22% in Q3 this year, with store brand coffee purchases ranking #1 at club stores such as Costco and Sam's Club.

However, Starbucks took the top spot at grocery and mass stores, such as Walmart and Target, and ranked #2 at club and dollar stores, showing that consumers still prefer their name-brand coffee when they can afford to splurge.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average price for a pound of coffee beans in September had increased by over 41% year-over-year — from $6.47 to $9.13 — a surge the country hasn't seen in decades.

A pound of Starbucks coffee, in comparison, generally costs between $12 and $18 — depending on the blend, whether it's on sale, and the location from which you're purchasing it.

"As private label continues to gain traction heading into 2026, it will be critical for name brands to maintain targeted marketing and loyalty strategies to defend share and reinforce consumer preference," reads the InMarket report.

Coffee prices have also risen at restaurants. The average cost of a regular cup increased from $3.46 to $3.57 in the year ending October 2025, according to price data tracked by the menu software company Toast.

An affordability bellwether

"Coffee is once again a leading indicator of sticky inflation," Francisco Martin-Rayo, CEO and cofounder at Helios AI, an agritech startup that models food supply chain risks and agricultural prices, told Business Insider.

Helios models indicate that rainfall in Brazil's Minas Gerais region is running roughly 25% below seasonal norms, compounding the effects of a prolonged drought on the industry. Add to that the risk of new US tariffs on Colombian imports, which President Donald Trump teased in October — at a moment when Colombia supplies nearly 10 % of America's beans — and "you get a perfect storm," Martin-Rayo said.

"Retail prices could climb another 12 to 18% this quarter alone," Martin-Rayo said. "That kind of sustained pressure doesn't just hit café menus — it feeds directly into consumer price index month after month."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month that the White House plans to take action to lower the prices of coffee and produce, as concerns around affordability continue to plague the Trump administration.

• Ukrainian special operators rely on light buggies to carry out missions near the front lines.
• These vehicles are quick and maneuverable, making them useful for the missions elite troops undertake.
• The buggies offer little external protection, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

Ukraine's elite special operators rely on light buggies to swiftly move along the front lines, banking on their speed and maneuverability to execute high-stakes missions.

These run-and-gun vehicles don't come with much in the way of external protection, leaving them exposed and vulnerable to Russian drone strikes, but that's the tradeoff for flexibility in combat.

Two soldiers in Ukraine's 4th Ranger Regiment, a special operations unit modeled after its US Army counterparts, talked to Business Insider about how they found themselves under Russian drone fire near the front lines while riding in the buggies.

Both attacks, which were carried out in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region in recent months, left soldiers injured, the two special operators said. They could only be identified by their call signs for security reasons.

In September, Khyzhak and two other operators were driving back to base from a mission when a Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone appeared behind their buggy and started chasing the vehicle.

Khyzhak said that his driver skillfully maneuvered away from the Russian drone at the last second, which detonated a few feet away on the side of the road. The Ukrainians, having narrowly survived, jumped out of the buggy. One of the operators landed awkwardly and broke his leg.

Two months earlier, in July, Drago and several other operators were out in a buggy when they were attacked by a massive swarm of Russian FPV drones — so many, in fact, that he described how their tiny propellers made the whole sky sound "noisy."

Drago said his buggy was struck and shrapnel from the explosion injured his left hand and pelvis. Then, another Ukrainian buggy that went to help came under drone fire. Multiple operators from the 4th Ranger Regiment found themselves caught in the large attack.

Khyzhak speculated that the Russian drone pilots may be intentionally targeting the Ukrainian buggies because these vehicles are known to carry elite troops, forces that tend to stir up trouble behind enemy lines.

In his case, the Russian drone didn't react to any other vehicles in the vicinity, he said. However, Drago said that when he was struck, the concentration of Russian drones was so high that pilots attacked anything they could, including ATVs and armored personnel carriers.

Although several buggies were caught in the attack, Drago said that it's hard to say whether they were priority targets.

It's unclear to what extent the targeting of buggies may reflect a broader trend. The Russian defense ministry and its embassy in the US did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The buggy is a four-wheel car with virtually no external protection. It is one of the lightweight vehicles used in the conflict for infantry assaults, rapid movement, and other specialized missions, alongside quad bikes, motorcycles, and even electric scooters.

These buggies can also run logistics missions — hauling ammunition to the front or evacuating wounded troops. Ukraine's defense industry has signaled it intends to mass-produce them.

The US Army is notably interested in something very similar, the Infantry Squad Vehicle, a lightweight buggy-style combat asset that comes as the service and soldiers look to prioritize speed and flexibility over cumbersome heavy armor.

Unlike armored vehicles, which have hardened exteriors, the buggies used in Ukraine look more like militarized golf carts. However, their main advantages are speed, maneuverability, and off-road capabilities that allow access to areas other vehicles can't reach and a shot at dodging drones, though these can be tough to evade.

These characteristics are particularly useful for special operators, who try to keep a low profile during their missions.

Khyzhak, who joined Ukraine's special operators forces nearly two years ago and commands a small unit, said that he faced the threat of Russian drones earlier in the war while riding in US-made High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvees) or Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

The September near-miss, though, was the first time he experienced a Russian drone attack while riding in a buggy.

Ukrainian officials have said that attack drones are destroying most battlefield targets now, making large mechanized assaults with armored vehicles far harder for both sides.

The increasing threat of drones has pushed Ukraine and Russia to acquire and field smaller, lighter, and faster vehicles as alternatives to more traditional — often slower, less flexible, and more easily spotted — systems, such as tanks and heavy armor.

At least 14,000 tanks and armored vehicles have been destroyed in this conflict, according to the open-source intelligence platform Oryx, which tracks equipment losses on both sides. Many systems have been taken out by drones.

The expanded use of light vehicles for combat and logistics missions underscores how Ukraine and Russia are adapting to the threat of drones, which dominate the battlefield all along the front line.

• Larry Ellison took a $25 billion hit to his net worth after Oracle shares plunged.
• This marks one of the biggest single-day wealth drops in 2025.
• Ellison briefly took the top spot as the world's richest person in September.

Larry Ellison just took a $25 billion hit to his net worth.

The Oracle cofounder saw billions wiped off his fortune on Thursday, according to estimates on Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, after the software giant's shares fell by more than 11% on weaker-than-expected earnings results.

The hit brought Ellison's net worth down to $258 billion, per the Index, marking one of the biggest single-day wealth drops of 2025.

Other billionaires suffered steeper or similar losses in April: Elon Musk lost $35 billion in just three days, and Mark Zuckerberg shed about $24 billion as Trump's tariff plans sparked fears of retaliation and recession.

Earlier this year, Ellison briefly took the crown of world's richest person, overtaking Musk in September when Oracle shares surged as much as 43% due to a strong forecast for its cloud business.

Oracle missed Wall Street's revenue expectations in its most recent earnings results, which were reported on Wednesday. Shares fell more than 11% in after-hours trading, extending a slide that began in October as investors questioned the company's breakneck spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Despite missing estimates, revenue was up 14% year-over-year during the quarter. But that wasn't enough to calm concerns over the scale and cost of its expansion.

Those worries dominated Wednesday's call with analysts.

Clay Magouyrk, Oracle's co-CEO, pushed back on fears that the company might need more than $100 billion to build out its data centers — a figure some analysts had floated.

"We expect we will need less, if not substantially less, money raised than that," he said, adding that Oracle's debt remains "investment-grade."

Even after Thursday's plunge, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that Ellison's net worth still remains ahead of most tech titans, including Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.

• Law firms can't stop lawyers from tinkering with chatbots, so they're adding hallucination detectors.
• Tools like Clearbrief scan legal drafts for the fake cases and facts that AI tools sometimes invent.
• Courts are catching more bogus citations in legal filings every day.

Law firm Cozen O'Connor has a rule against using publicly available chatbots to draft legal filings. But after a judge penalized two of its lawyers for citing fake cases, the firm is adding some extra protection: an AI hallucination detector.

Cozen O'Connor is now testing software, made by a startup called Clearbrief, that scans legal briefs for made-up facts and produces a report. Think spell-check, except instead of flagging typos, it spots the fictional cases and citations that generative tools sometimes invent.

"You have to be pragmatic," said Kristina Bakardjiev, the Cozen O'Connor partner tasked with harnessing technology to serve lawyers and their clients. She said lawyers will play around with chatbots whether the tools are authorized or not.

Stung by embarrassing AI hallucinations, the legal field has adopted bans on general-use chatbots and AI assistants. But it's hard to stop a curious associate from pasting a draft into a free, browser-based chatbot like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Now law firms and legal tech companies are scrambling to lower the risk of bogus citations and catch those that sneak through before they land in front of a judge.

Two of Cozen O'Connor's defense lawyers in September admitted they had filed a document riddled with fake cases after one of them used ChatGPT to draft it, against firm policy. A Nevada district court judge gave the firm a choice: remove the lawyers from the case and pay $2,500 in sanctions each, or have the pair write to their former law school deans and bar authorities explaining the fiasco and offering to speak in seminars on topics like "professional conduct."

Both lawyers went with option No. 2. Cozen also fired the lawyer who had used ChatGPT.

Earlier this year, Damien Charlotin, a legal data analyst and consultant, began tracking cases in which a court had discovered hallucinated content in a legal filing. Charlotin tallied 120 cases between April 2023 and May 2025. By December, his count had hit 660, with the rate of new cases accelerating to four or five per day.

The number of documented cases remains small relative to the total volume of legal filings, Charlotin said. Most cases in his database involved self-represented litigants or lawyers from small or solo firms. When large firms were involved, the hallucinations often slipped in through the work of junior staff, paralegals, experts, or consultants, or through processes like formatting footnotes, Charlotin said.

Hallucinated content is causing headaches in other professions, too. In October, consulting firm Deloitte agreed to pay a partial refund to the Australian government for a $290,000 report after officials found it was peppered with allegedly AI-generated errors.

Straying from the walled garden

AI hallucinations are hard to eliminate because they're baked into the way chatbots work. Large language models are trained to predict the word that is most likely to come next, given the words before it.

Michael Dahn, a senior vice president at Thomson Reuters who leads global product teams for legal-research service Westlaw, says the model makers can't get hallucinations to zero for answering open-ended questions about the world. However, companies can dramatically reduce their risk by forcing a large language model to cite from a specific data set, like a corpus of case law and treatises. The model can still mismatch or overlook content, but wholesale fabrications are far less likely.

Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis are selling that promise to customers: that an artificial assistant confined to their walled gardens of vetted material is safer than a chatbot trained on the open internet. Both companies have spent decades and heaps of money building deep repositories of case law and other legal content. More recently, they've bolted on AI-powered tools to help lawyers search and cite their data. They now have to defend their positions against services like ChatGPT and Claude that are creeping into the legal field.

LexisNexis has also extended its moat to Harvey, the legal tech startup whose valuation has climbed to $8 billion. Harvey struck a partnership with LexisNexis this year that pipes one of the world's biggest legal databases into Harvey's generative tools.

Harvey also works with AI model providers, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, to constrain which datasets they're allowed to draw from and layer in Harvey's own proprietary datasets, a spokesperson said. Lawyers can then inspect logs that show how an answer was reached and what data fed into it.

An AI fact-checker

Clearbrief makes a drafting tool for litigators that works as a Microsoft Word plug-in. Jacqueline Schafer, a former litigator who founded Clearbrief, says its product detects citations using natural language processing, and creates links to the relevant case law or documents from the case. The tool calls out citations and facts that are fabricated or contain typos. The tool also points to places where the underlying source doesn't quite support what the writer claims.

Cozen O'Connor has been testing a new Clearbrief feature that lets users generate a cite-check report before passing a draft to a partner or filing it in court.

Schafer says partners at large firms trust their junior staff to check citations rather than vetting every case themselves. Still, federal rules hold the partners who sign filings personally responsible for their accuracy.

Part of Clearbrief's appeal for Cozen O'Connor is the paper trail. The firm is upgrading its knowledge management system, and Bakardjiev imagines that someday the firm might store cite-check reports alongside drafts and final filings, creating a chain of custody for every brief.

If a judge ever asks what a partner did to prevent hallucinated citations, Bakardjiev said, partners can point to a report that shows who ran the check and when.

The legal world is likely to live with hallucinations for a long time. The unglamorous part of the solution is training lawyers to treat the chatbot output as a starting point, not the finished work. The other answer: throwing more AI at the AI.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at mrussell@businessinsider.com or Signal at @MeliaRussell.01. Use a personal email address and a non-work device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Brick-and-mortar business has long been the foundation of real estate — figuratively and literally. But as the industry adapts to new technologies and rapidly changing market conditions, new leaders are stepping in to meet unique new challenges.

Each year, Business Insider highlights up-and-coming agents, architects, founders, and other figures making an outsize impact in real estate. The process starts with nominations from CEOs, company presidents, and managing partners. To be considered, nominees must be US-based, under 40, and stand out from their peers. Business Insider's editors make the final selections.

This year's class of rising stars comes from a wide array of backgrounds, with prior expertise in everything from construction and marketing to private equity. From making real estate investing more attainable to developing 500-square-foot homes to fit in your backyard, they're addressing some of the industry's biggest challenges head-on.

Meet Business Insider's 18 Rising Stars of Real Estate for 2025.

Tarek Afifi, 28

Corporate finance and investor relations manager, Better Home & Finance

Tarek Afifi said his secret to success is his deep belief in the American dream.

The 28-year-old, who serves as the corporate finance and investor relations manager at Better Home & Finance, said he gets satisfaction from shaping investors' perception of the online mortgage lender — and helping the company's hard work get reflected in its stock price.

He attributes his success to how deeply he believes in Better's mission, and said the idea of helping Americans buy a home brings him satisfaction.

"Everyone wants to own equity in a home that they can live in, but also, build wealth off of," he said. "What really attracted me to it, I think, is the fact that it really is applicable to all walks of life," he said of buying a home.

Better shares have soared more than 400% since April of last year, around the time Afifi joined the company. That's due to investor optimism on the company's future earnings growth, as well as a surge of interest in the stock after the hedge funder Eric Jackson made a high-profile bet on the company.

Better reported a net loss of $27 million in the second quarter, down from a $40 million net loss in the first quarter. Its funded loan volume for the quarter also rose to $1.2 billion, up 38% for the quarter.

Afifi is optimistic about the direction of the residential real estate market over the next year. He expects refinance and mortgage activity to bloom in 2026 as the Fed continues to cut interest rates.

"Everyone's kind of positioning themselves for the refi rally," he said. "So it's a symbiotic relationship and I think that it's something we're all looking forward to seeing."

Maria Barrios, 35

Executive director of operations and CFO, The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals

The rate of Hispanic homeownership rose to a record 49.5% in 2023. Maria Barrios wants to make that statistic even higher.

As the executive director of operations and chief financial officer of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), Barrios is central to the nonprofit's mission to promote homeownership and expand access to credit in the Hispanic community through education and advocacy. As of 2025, the organization has 85 chapters nationwide, with an additional 30 in development and nearly 58,000 active members.

"While our mission is to promote sustainable Hispanic homeownership, we're about much more than that," Barrios told Business Insider. "We understand that homeownership isn't the end goal for Hispanics; it's just the beginning of their financial journey."

Barrios has played a key role in expanding the organization's reach, assisting with the launch of the AVANCE Global Conference, a business and media platform, and expanding internationally with AVANCE España in January 2026. She also supported the launch of the National Hispanic Construction Alliance (NHCA) and AVANCE Sports.

Overall, Barrios has driven consistent 30% year-over-year revenue growth for the organization and helped launch an average of 10 new NAHREP chapters annually.

"The real estate industry faced a challenging market this year, but our biggest accomplishment was growing despite these difficulties," Barrios said.

Derek Fitzgerald, 33

Senior vice president of operations, McCarthy

Derek Fitzgerald is the poster child for company loyalty. He's been at McCarthy, a national commercial construction company, since he left college 12 years ago, climbing the ranks to become the senior vice president of operations for the builder's San Francisco office.

It's a career he came to after finding a passion for the "built environment" while studying civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley.

Since then, Fitzgerald has been part of a wide range of projects, from the renovation of a 350,000-square-foot naval hangar to the construction of a lab that produced the antiviral drug Remdesivir. The work is varied, and marries his varied set of skills.

"I didn't necessarily want to focus on the design part of it," Fitzgerald said. "But I found this commercial real estate and construction environment that allowed me to merge my technical background with this passion that I have for people and bringing people together."

Nick Friedman, 29

President of home equity, HomeLight

For most founders, selling their company marks the end of a journey. For Nick Friedman, it was the beginning of another chapter.

Friedman's first chapter began at 19, when he dropped out of Williams College and set out to start a company that would "change the world." After joining the famed Y Combinator program with Adam Pollack, the two launched lending startup Accept.inc in 2019. In 2022, they sold the company to the real estate technology company HomeLight.

A lot of founders would've ridden into the sunset. Friedman stayed on board.

"I think that I told the CEO of HomeLight, 'I'm probably going to be your worst employee of all time,'" Friedman told Business Insider. "I am not going to listen to you. I'm going to want to do my own thing. I'm going to want to figure out how to grow this thing on my own. That's just who I am. And I don't think I'm going to last very long."

Three years later, he's HomeLight's president of home equity, overseeing sales, operations, products, and compliance with everything associated with HomeLight's core lending product, Buy Before You Sell, which allows users to purchase their next home before selling their existing one.

Friedman describes himself as an old soul, and said his willingness to get out and talk to people — instead of relying on social media or sending emails — has helped him connect with the right people and grow his career.

"We're not shy," he said. "I think the reason a lot of younger founders today don't make it is because they are very shy."

Joey Gumataotao, 28

Cofounder and COO, Mogul Club

Real estate investment is often considered the easiest way to gain wealth in the US. But high barriers to entry prevent unseasoned investors or people with less capital from getting started.

Fractional real-estate investing, which allows people to invest in a portion of property instead of buying it outright, makes it easier for non-accredited investors to get started — a fact Mogul Club cofounder Joey Gumataotao recognized early on.

"My partner and I actually purchased our home right out of college with what very, very little savings we had from jobs that we worked in college and ended up renting out two of our bedrooms to two of my colleagues at Goldman," Gumataotao told BI. "This is a real way to build wealth that wasn't there before."

Gumataotao started Mogul Club in 2022 alongside his cofounder Alex Blackwood, who he met while they were both working at Goldman Sachs. Blackwood was on the investment banking side, and Gumataotao was in real-estate investing on the private equity side.

They both wanted to make real-estate investing more accessible to everyone.

"Even as someone who was working for a large institution, I actually didn't have a ton of opportunity to invest in these lucrative multifamily, large multimillion-dollar investments myself," Gumataotao said.

Mogul Club allows investors from all financial backgrounds to invest as little as $250 toward a property in markets like Mesa, Arizona, or Ramsey, New Jersey.

As COO, Gumataotao still handles people management and fundraising responsibilities — Mogul Club is still in its seed-extension round — but he also gets his hands dirty working on the acquisition and supply side of the business.

"No matter how much we grow, I'll always prefer to be hands-on," he said. "Real estate's my passion."

Zoe Heyman, 31

Vice president of investor relations, Basis

Zoe Heyman's role at Basis defies a simple job description. As vice president of investor relations at Basis, a commercial real estate investment firm, the 31-year-old oversees all marketing and investor communications, leads the publication of the company's annual Corporate Responsibility Report, and recently spearheaded the implementation of new technology to better track deals and streamline operations across the company.

Her efforts aren't solely focused on the company's bottom line. As a leader on the People, Planet, Policy Committee, Heyman also organizes environmental-justice fundraisers and community cleanup activities for the firm's employees. Through her involvement in Basis' Capital Connect Initiative, Heyman also works to promote minority-led institutions and direct capital to underserved communities.

"Zoe Heyman brings a fresh perspective, a modern approach, and an unparalleled level of resourcefulness and initiative to her leadership role," said Leigh Roumila, head of investor relations at Basis.

Jed Miciak, 35

Senior vice president, revenue & marketing, Landing

Only two-and-a-half years into working in residential real estate, Jed Miciak knows it's his calling.

Miciak is the senior vice president of marketing and revenue at Landing, a company that provides a collection of furnished apartments for shorter-term rentals. It's a job with some similarities to the decade he spent working at Hilton, where he helped grow the data analytics team and worked in global pricing.

This year, Miciak has helped grow Landing's portfolio of properties to about 500 nationally, up from 100 last year. He's also built AI models that use machine learning to identify potential problems, launched Landing's rebrand, and grown the company's online travel agency business while working with companies like Airbnb and Marriott.

Over the next year, Miciak hopes to continue to grow supply and drive marketing efficiency higher — in addition to working toward an IPO down the line. He's motivated by all he's learned from being in the room with longtime real estate pros.

"I was able to be in these rooms with executives who have been in the space for a long time," Miciak said. "I sat there and provided data at the time; it didn't really seem that valuable for my career. Now, looking back, seeing how these executives face the tough problems solves a lot of the issues running this global powerhouse. It's super helpful."

James Murray, 35

Director of design, Samara

James Murray is tackling one of architecture's most challenging tasks: designing small spaces that are functional and stylish.

Murray is the director of design at Samara, a modular startup spun out of Airbnb's research and development team. The California-based company's first product, Backyard, is an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU — a compact backyard home that can serve as an in-law suite, home office, or short-term rental.

Samara is growing at a pivotal moment in real estate, as high housing costs prompt many homeowners across the country to stay put and find creative ways to expand their living space.

"ADU is an acronym that's been spreading across the US for some time, but in California specifically, it's become a very common type of home, one that's now almost ubiquitous as a solution for many people," Murray told Business Insider.

Samara offers a suite of backyard ADUs, ranging from compact studios to XL models, measuring between 420 and 950 square feet. For each design, Murray applies a philosophy he calls "empathetic affordances" — the idea of creating spaces that respond to how people actually live and move through them.

"We're always aware of how we engage in a space," Murray said. "Think about the size of a dining table or a bed in a bedroom. It's also about the right balance of space in that perfect kitchen triangle, where you can cook a meal while staying close to the refrigerator, stovetop, and sink."

Murray's thoughtful designs have been integral to the company's success, helping Samara book more than $100 million in project value in California over the past year.

Griffin O'Brien, 31

CEO and cofounder, Estate Media

With the abundance of TikToks and Instagram Reels showcasing listings and giving homeownership advice, it's not hard to see the connection between real estate professionals and content creators today.

But when Griffin O'Brien launched his real-estate media company Estate Media in 2023, it took some time to convince others it was a good idea for a business.

"There was absolutely a challenge from day one," O'Brien told Business Insider of convincing major realtors and talent that being featured in Estate's content would be good for their brands and businesses.

O'Brien, whose background in media spans consulting for Snapchat and working in content acquisition at Roku and Amazon's Prime Video, founded Estate Media with Andrew Shanfeld and "Million Dollar Listing" star Josh Flagg as a consulting firm, talent agency, and content-creation machine with a talent-focused approach to creating original content for the real estate industry.

O'Brien said that Estate Media reaches close to 35 million people through its podcasts, newsletters, and shows on a number of social media platforms.

"We really did see an opportunity between the traditional publications — largely news-based publications — covering real estate and reality television to create content right around these leading voices," O'Brien said.

Michael O'Connor, 30

Cofounder of The Exclusive Group at Douglas Elliman

Michael O'Connor has worked nonstop in real estate since he was 21. He has no intentions of changing that.

O'Connor started in luxury real estate with Douglas Elliman, where he's been for nearly a decade. Now a sales associate for The Exclusive Group, a boutique real estate advisory group under Douglas Elliman, O'Connor specializes in South Florida luxury real estate, selling over $1 billion in properties alongside his business partner Nicholas Malinosky. The group was ranked number one in Florida and number two in the country for sales volume for medium-sized teams by The Wall Street Journal.

"That right there goes to show how hard we work for our clients and production," O'Connor said. "That's definitely the greatest accomplishment over any one particular sale."

One of O'Connor's proudest transactions was for two contiguous oceanfront lots in Delray Beach that sold for a combined $44 million. He and Malinosky have done about 30 transactions a year, though they prioritize sales volume.

Because many of the buyers and sellers O'Connor works with are "extremely sophisticated" and "typically the best at what they do," they want someone who will go above and beyond in guiding them through the process.

"The phone is always going and you're always getting emails, so it starts early and it goes late," O'Connor said.

Alexander Redfearn, 36

Founder, president, and CEO, Redfearn Capital

There was a time when Alex Redfearn thought things wouldn't work out.

In 2014, at the age of 25, he launched Redfearn Capital, a private equity firm specializing in commercial real estate, based in South Florida. At the time, he had no experience beyond a college case study he completed at his alma mater, the University of Miami.

Redfearn told Business Insider that during the early years of building his business, he often considered walking away and starting over.

"I almost quit after the third year," he said. "I tried to, but my wife wouldn't let me. I wanted to get a cabin and move to New York, but we stuck it out."

Turns out, his wife was right. Since founding the company, Redfearn has built a portfolio exceeding $800 million in assets under management, spanning industrial real estate including small-bay, manufacturing, and logistics warehouses. Despite challenging economic conditions, such as tighter lending standards and higher interest rates, his firm continues to grow. In 2024, the company acquired 13 properties, generating a total revenue of $125 million.

Reflecting on his career, Redfearn said his company's success comes down to persistence — a quality he believes is essential for every young real estate entrepreneur.

"Do what you say you're going to do," Redfearn said. "I think in my line of business, people often commit to something but don't always follow through. Success really comes down to doing what you said you were going to do."

Alexis Xavier Rivas, 32

Cofounder and CEO, Cover

Alexis Rivas believed traditional homebuilding methods were outdated and sought to build homes with the same precision, speed, and cost efficiency as vehicles.

So in 2014, while still in school, Rivas and his fellow Cooper Union classmate Jemuel Joseph co-founded Cover, a prefab homebuilding company. In 2018, they designed and constructed their first accessory dwelling unit (ADU) — a compact, 500-square-foot, customizable backyard home.

"There's a huge housing shortage in the United States, and the problem is getting worse," Rivas told Business Insider. "Our approach to solving this is by building homes in a factory with the same repeatability, quality, and scale as cars."

Los Angeles-based Cover handles the permitting, design, and engineering process for its customers. Like automobile manufacturing, the company produces every component — from framing to doors and windows — on automotive-style production lines in its factory before assembling the home on-site. The production and installation process of their steel homes, which range from 150 to 1,200 square feet, typically takes 1-2 months, depending on size.

In 2025, Cover expanded into full-size custom homes, and in October, it announced it was nearing completion of a rebuild of a house destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fires.

"Cover was always more than a backyard home company," Rivas said. "Expanding to full homes feels like our original ambition becoming visible."

JJ Rivers, 34

Principal studio director, Gensler

A rural farm town in Northwest New Jersey might not be where you'd expect to find the architect responsible for some of the most exciting projects on the East Coast. But in Gensler's case, that's where they found JJ Rivers.

Rivers, who has already notched 10 years at global architecture firm Gensler at age 34, had an early appreciation for how things are built.

"I come from a pretty blue-collar family, so I've got a lot of aunts and uncles in different trades," Rivers told Business Insider. "Growing up, I always had my hands on building things, whether it was at my childhood home or at my relative's home."

Today, he's a principal and studio director in Gensler's DC office, and he also runs mixed-use development for the Southeast region. He manages a team of about 60 people, so his fingerprints are all over a number of projects on the East Coast, like Under Armour's new global headquarters in Baltimore.

Because of the diverse differences in architecture up and down the coast, Rivers is always encountering new challenges. Not that he minds.

"It just provides you different opportunities," he said.

Luke Robinson, 34

North America regional president, WeWork

A lot has changed since Luke Robinson joined WeWork more than a decade ago, when the coworking firm was in startup mode and had only a handful of buildings.

Overseeing the firm's sales, Robinson helped launch and scale WeWork's enterprise business, a major component of its growth over the years. Later, when COVID-19 and the work-from-home trend upended the commercial real estate market, he also led the charge to help its businesses bounce back in New York.

Robinson told Business Insider that being as transparent as possible with clients during difficult times has been key.

"We saw all the extremes. We saw people come back immediately. We saw people fully go remote," he said of the pandemic. "We were able to, number one, hopefully provide solutions, but also provide some perspective."

Robinson, who is now WeWork's regional president of North America, said the firm's recent restructuring to slash its $4 billion debt has been challenging.

"Everything, to a degree, is challenging about that process. I really made a huge effort to be extremely transparent with our landlords and our members throughout the whole process."

Robinson said he expects the commercial real estate market to pick up steam next year as the RTO push continues, and he's focused on continuing the company's efforts to refresh its properties and widen its offerings to customers.

"We've talked about return to office for five years at this point," he said. "I feel very confident in saying that this phase over the past year has been by far the strongest."

Amy Rossetti, 32

Founder, R[AR]E Public Relations

Launching a small business at 27 during the pandemic would have been a risk for anyone, but Amy Rossetti was confident that the strong relationships she built wouldn't fail her. Now, after celebrating her company's fifth anniversary, she's planning for many more years of success.

Rossetti's company, R[AR]E Public Relations, is a boutique agency with a five-person staff that handles the public relations needs of 22 real estate clients. Since launching in Beverly Hills in 2020, the company has opened a New York office, and Rossetti plans to establish a bigger presence in South Florida and potentially international markets in 2026.

Though Rossetti's clientele is mainly focused around the luxury real estate market, R[AR]E has opened its services to all who need them — from architects to investors to startups.

"I'm really adamant that I think R[AR]E can be and will be, if it's not too bold to say, the No. 1 real estate PR firm in the country within the next five years," she said. "That's what I'm gunning for."

Erik Rutter, 33

Managing partner, Oak Row Equities

Erik Rutter cofounded the real estate development firm Oak Row Equities with every intention of dividing his efforts between Miami and his hometown of New York City. Almost eight years after the 2018 launch, though, he and his firm remain laser-focused on South Florida.

That choice has proven to be a winning strategy. With Rutter and his cofounder, David Weitz, at the helm, the company has amassed a $3.9 billion portfolio of office, retail, and multifamily space, luring big-name tenants such as Spotify and Amazon along the way.

Rutter, 33, started the company with the firm belief that South Florida's quality of life would eventually draw a wave of top employers, who in turn would demand top-tier office space and ample housing for their workers. The COVID-19 pandemic "certainly accelerated our thesis," Rutter said, but he still sees plenty of runway.

"We're continuing to see great firms take large swaths of space in the Miami market," Rutter said. "And that's not really slowing down."

Erica Sachse, 33

Cofounder, Powered by Development Marketing Team

Erica Sachse was on a founding spree early in her career.

After spending five years in Australia, Sachse noticed that the US real estate market was lagging in its adoption of technology. She set out to fix that.

"Australia is very far ahead in the utilization of technology and 21st-century marketing techniques for real estate," she said. "I learned how to harness the data being created in the digital space for high-quality lead generation, ultra-targeted campaigns, lead nurture, really strong automation, and data profiling for prospective buyers and renters."

She founded the property marketing company Snaplistings at the end of 2019, then started her own marketing and sales brokerage, Powered by DMT, in 2021.

Being ahead of the curve has its benefits.

"Our clients are just so happy to finally be able to make data-driven decisions," Sachse said. "That's really what our focus is and what my passion is."

Sofia Zavala, 31

Senior associate, Pickard Chilton

Raised in Paraguay, Sofia Zavala developed an early passion for art and design, as well as a clear sense of their socioecological impact on daily life. This perspective now guides her architectural work.

Zavala specializes in large-scale urban projects, and her portfolio encompasses a range of interior corporate work in New York, as well as mixed-use, corporate, and commercial developments across San Francisco and Texas.

"Large-scale projects have a big impact on the cities they're in," Zavala told Business Insider. "I'm involved in a couple of projects in San Francisco and in Texas, and they're all meant to make a meaningful difference in communities and create beautiful spaces for people to engage."

Zavala is currently a senior associate at Connecticut-based Pickard Chilton. She's the architectural firm's youngest employee at that rank and the youngest woman on its senior leadership team.

"I'm very proud of that and grateful for the confidence that the firm has placed in me," Zavala said. "Being in this role motivates me to keep raising the bar and to support younger designers as they grow into leadership roles and find their own voice."

Zavala has plenty to be proud of. In 2024, she was a project designer on 530 Howard, an 840-foot luxury residential tower in San Francisco — the city's largest residential building. In 2025, she will also serve as the design team leader for the recently announced Ritz-Carlton Houston, which is projected to be the downtown area's second-tallest building at more than 600 feet.

"The most rewarding part of my job is knowing that the projects we do at Pickard Chilton aren't just buildings — they're future landmarks that help shape the skyline," Zavala said. "That's the really exciting part of what I do here."

• As General Motors' first chief AI officer, Barak Turovsky hired talent and mapped organizational change.
• The CAIO role is growing in popularity as companies look to effectively implement AI tools.
• Turovsky compared being CAIO to being a master chef, who needs to make sure all parts of a restaurant run smoothly.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Barak Turovsky, the former Chief AI Officer at General Motors, based in Silicon Valley. He also held executive roles at Google and Cisco. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I have worked on AI and LLMs since 2014 — way before they became the hottest thing on Earth.

I'm an ex-Google AI exec who led the first scaled deployment of LLMs and Deep Neural Networks with Google Translate. I also worked as the Chief Product and Technology Officer at a computer vision AI startup, and as the VP of AI at Cisco.

General Motors approached me for the Chief AI Officer role while I was at Cisco, and it felt like a great crash course on using AI to develop physical products. The role no longer exists because I left after GM restructured its software and AI organization; however, until November, I reported to the head of software engineering, who reported to the CEO.

Some people ask, "Do you really need a dedicated AI officer?"

Let's ignore the title because you can call it different names, but I do believe successful AI implementation requires someone in leadership to drive that change, as well as commitment from the top.

Functional business leaders, such as the CTO or CIO, may have little or no understanding of AI. If you want to integrate AI on a software level, you need someone with a different kind of expertise.

Traditional large companies have powerful executives who want to own the benefits of scaling AI, but not necessarily the responsibility. Therefore, someone with deep AI knowledge is needed to direct the traffic.

I like to use a restaurant analogy to break it down.

A CAIO is like a master chef at a restaurant

The analogy is based on three primary resources that create products, or dishes. The first resource includes the kitchen equipment, or the AI infrastructure and models necessary to build AI solutions.

The next can be thought of as the ingredients. It's the data or internal assets used to train and run AI solutions. The last one is talent, or the restaurant staff. You need expertise at different levels — busboys, short-order cooks, sous chefs, and master chefs for the really gourmet restaurants.

The complexity of creating the final product depends on the company's needs, specifically whether the restaurant needs to prepare the food internally. For very advanced, cutting-edge models, which can be thought of as the main course at a gourmet restaurant, companies often need to develop their own AI solutions because standard versions may not perform the required functions.

Think of the CAIO as the master chef. They need to make sure all the different pieces run smoothly. If you are in an industry that requires cutting-edge solutions, you also need to spend a lot of time making sure that the hardest output — a.k.a. the main dish — comes out just right.

The hardest and most important part of the job is securing top talent. Vendors will tell you that their toaster ovens can pop out a French soufflé in 15 minutes. Yet your ingredients will consistently arrive late, of dubious quality, and in incorrect amounts. Your customers will come in, declare they are hungry and want to eat the whole menu, and then leave mid-meal without paying.

What CAIOs should do

The specifics of each role vary. At GM, I worked on a cutting-edge area because AI for physical products, like cars, is largely untouched and getting a lot of traction.

There are three buckets of what a chief AI officer should do. First is AI talent management. I focused a lot on hiring a top-tier team, which is very important because the moment you enter a novel space, you have a small sliver of talent. They need to be motivated and flexible because you're still mapping out those areas.

Then, you need to create a culture of innovation for the company in general. You need to work with internal stakeholders who might be used to doing things in a certain way, but need to change because of AI.

You also need to create organizational change, which starts with mapping the needs and players of your organization. You have people who are AI enthusiasts and skeptics. In a large organization, it's not always easy to identify them. You need to create a top-down and bottom-up framework, which includes clear goals from the top.

In every function, you need to identify champions, and you need to nurture and empower them. The CAIO can't do all the magic while everyone else just sits there.

• McDonald's "Grinch Meal" with pickle salt fries is a big hit. It's selling out across the US.
• The meal hit comes as licensed Grinch merchandise seems more popular than ever. I wondered why.
• I think it all comes down to this: He's a meme-able one, Mr. Grinch.

This week, I had a hankering for a healthful meal, so I headed out to McDonald's for a Big Mac. Not just any Big Mac — I wanted the new "Grinch Meal," which comes in a Happy Meal-style box with a pair of Grinch socks, a drink, your choice of Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets, and fries that come with a packet of dill pickle powder, in this context known as "Grinch Salt."

My dreams were cut short in the drive-thru line when the cashier told me that Grinch Meals were all sold out. It turns out, the meal wasn't just sold out at my location in the suburbs of New York City. The novelty box has been such a hit, it's selling out across the country.

McDonald's marketing director tweeted that it's outsold other big recent promotions, including the Snack Wrap.

(Luckily, or shamefully, my husband had already gotten a Grinch Meal earlier in the week, so I do have the green socks and got to sample the remnants of his pickle fries.)

The runaway success of the Grinch at McDonald's doesn't seem like an anomaly to me.

Look around, and you may notice that it seems like Christmas has gotten a lot more Grinch-y lately. I don't mean that as a metaphor — I literally mean there seems to be more Grinch merchandise, more Grinch content, more Grinch memes than ever before. Right?

Defeated at McDonald's, I sought some retail therapy at some nearby stores and found the aisles flooded with Grinch merchandise.

Walmart had half an aisle in its seasonal section dedicated to Grinch stuff — plush toys, decorations, even neon light-up signs.

There was a ton of Grinch clothing — sweatshirts, pajamas, for both kids and adults. At Marshall's, Grinch throw blankets, socks, toys, and even eyeshadow palettes were all over the store. It seems to me that we are reaching a point of peak Grinch saturation. What gives?

How did the Grinch take over Christmas — and more?

I have some ideas.

On one hand, of course — it's December, and Dr. Suess's 1957 creation is relevant again. But it feels more than that — more than simply seasonal IP.

The Grinch has multi-generational appeal and has endured for decades across formats. There's, of course, the original book, and then the 1964 animated special that included the "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch" song.

There's the 2000 live-action movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," starring Jim Carey, and the 2018 animated version "Dr. Seuss's The Grinch." Those last two movies seem to always be at the top of streaming services when late fall hits. (My own kids have rewatched both an untold number of times.)

The Grinch is also everywhere online

The Grinch has a strange online presence, where he has become highly meme-able in a way that his seasonal IP peers, such as Buddy the Elf or Freddy Krueger, simply haven't.

At the release of the 2018 animated movie, there was some strange Tumblr memeing of the character, partially buoyed by the fact that he was voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, who was at the time a big Tumblr fandom heartthrob.

The memeibility of the Grinch extends to the Jim Carey portrayal, where his grotesque visage and exaggerated movements are perfect for these grotesque and exaggerated times online. But it's also the 1960s cartoon — there's a popular GIF of the Grinch's hair curling as he smiles that works as a perfect reaction GIF.

And then there's the absurdity of Gen Z and Gen Alpha online, where memes are increasingly meaningless (but that's the point), like "6-7."

For a while last year, a meme with an image of the Grinch, with his color tinted to blue, and the phrase "knee surgery tomorrow" was a huge thing for middle schoolers.

And as memecoins were growing in popularity, I lurked in a Discord channel full of people who were trying to pump a $KNEE cryptocurrency by flooding social media with images of the Grinch.

The Grinch's multi-generational appeal

There's something about the Grinch that appeals not just to little kids, but to teenagers and younger adults.

You can see some of that reflected in the merch collaborations. In 2023, Adidas released a Grinch-inspired sneaker for adult men, and in 2020, Kylie Cosmetics introduced a Grinch-themed holiday makeup line.

This year, Nike has a Grinch shoe, which NBA player Collin Gillespie wore on the court last month.

The Grinch has become one of those characters that is ostensibly for kids but has a teen appeal — a sort of Hot Topic aura, like Hello Hitty, Jack Skellington, or Taz in the 1990s.

This makes sense — he's naughty, after all. While children might see the Grinch as a villain, adults can see his lack of holiday enthusiasm as, frankly, relatable.

And look at all the Grinch merch

But back to all the Grinch merchandise and the meal boxes — does it really seem like there's more than ever? Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which manages merchandise licensing for the Grinch and other Seussian properties, did not respond when I asked for a comment.

I do have a small clue that my theory of Peak Grinch is true.

In a 2024 story on License Global, a website about merchandise licensing news, executives talk about how the Grinch is more popular than ever. (This is a press release, so take that as you will.) Other press releases boast about adding more and more licensees, including big chains like Primark.

What does it say about us that the increasingly most monetized character of the holiday season is the one known for hating Christmas? I couldn't say. But as far as inescapable intellectual property, I think I don't mind the Grinch too much.

In fact, my heart has grown a few sizes.