Our Team
Left Field Investors is a group dedicated to educating and assisting like-minded investors negotiate the nuances of the passive investing landscape and world of syndications.
Jim Pfeifer
Founder
Jim Pfeifer is one of the founders of Left Field Investors and the host of the Passive Investing from Left Field podcast. Left Field Investors is a group dedicated to educating and assisting like-minded investors negotiate the nuances of the passive investing landscape and world of syndications. Jim is a former financial advisor who became frustrated with the one-path-fits-all approach of the standard financial services industry. Jim now concentrates on investing in real assets that produce cash flow…
Jim Pfeifer
Jim Pfeifer is one of the founders of Left Field Investors and the host of the Passive Investing from Left Field podcast. Left Field Investors is a group dedicated to educating and assisting like-minded investors negotiate the nuances of the passive investing landscape and world of syndications. Jim is a former financial advisor who became frustrated with the one-path-fits-all approach of the standard financial services industry. Jim now concentrates on investing in real assets that produce cash flow and is committed to sharing his knowledge with others who are interested in learning a different way to grow wealth. Jim not only advises and helps people get started in passive real estate syndications, he also invests alongside them in small groups to allow for diversification among multiple investments and syndication sponsors. Jim believes the most important factor in a successful syndication is finding a sponsor that he knows, likes and trusts. He has invested in over 45 passive syndications including apartments, mobile homes, self-storage, private lending and notes, ATM’s, commercial and industrial triple net leases, assisted living facilities and international coffee farms and cacao producers. Jim is constantly looking for new investment ideas that match his philosophy of real assets producing cash flow as well as looking for new sponsors with whom he can build quality, long-term relationships.
Jim earned a degree in Finance & Marketing from the University of Oregon and a Master’s in Business Education from The Ohio State University. He has worked as a reinsurance underwriter, high school finance teacher, financial advisor and now works exclusively as a full-time passive investor. Jim lives in Dublin, Ohio with his wife, three kids and two dogs. In his free time, he loves to ski, play Ultimate frisbee and cheer on the Buckeyes.
Sean Donnelly
Founder
Sean holds a W2 job in the finance sector and began his real estate investing journey shortly after earning his MBA. Unfortunately, it could not have begun at a worse time … anyone remember 2007 … but even the recession provided worthy lessons. Sean stayed in the game continuing to find his place, progressing from flipping to owning single and multi-family rentals to now funding opportunities through syndications. While Sean is still heavily invested in the equities market and holds a small portfolio of rentals…
Sean Donnelly
Sean holds a W2 job in the finance sector and began his real estate investing journey shortly after earning his MBA. Unfortunately, it could not have begun at a worse time … anyone remember 2007 … but even the recession provided worthy lessons. Sean stayed in the game continuing to find his place, progressing from flipping to owning single and multi-family rentals to now funding opportunities through syndications. While Sean is still heavily invested in the equities market and holds a small portfolio of rentals, he strongly believes passive investing is the best way to offset the cyclical nature of traditional investment vehicles as well as avoid the headaches of direct property ownership. Through consistent cash flow, long term yield and available tax benefits, the diversification offered with passive investing brings a welcomed balance to an otherwise turbulent investing scheme. What Sean likes most about the syndication space is that the investment opportunities are not “one size fits all” and the community of investors genuinely want to help.
He earned a B.S. in Finance from Iowa State University in 1995 and a MBA from Otterbein University in 2007. Sean has lived in eight states but has called Ohio home for the last 20+. When not attending his children’s various school/sporting events, Sean can be found running, golfing, shooting or fly-fishing.
Steve Suh
Founder
Steve has been involved with real estate and alternative assets since 2005, but he has had to earn his investing “degree” at the School of Hard Knocks. His investing adventures began in the late 90’s when he thought he was a NASDAQ tech whiz just because anything he bought through E-trade turned into gold. But, like many others, his day trading “hobby” got decimated during the stock market crash of 2001. Since then, he vowed to find other ways to invest his money. Reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad gave Steve…
Steve Suh
Steve has been involved with real estate and alternative assets since 2005, but he has had to earn his investing “degree” at the School of Hard Knocks. His investing adventures began in the late 90’s when he thought he was a NASDAQ tech whiz just because anything he bought through E-trade turned into gold. But, like many others, his day trading “hobby” got decimated during the stock market crash of 2001. Since then, he vowed to find other ways to invest his money. Reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad gave Steve the impetus to learn about real estate investing. He first became a landlord after purchasing his office condo. He then invested passively as a limited partner in oil and gas drilling syndications but quickly learned the importance of scrutinizing sponsors when he stopped getting returns after only a few months. Steve came back to real estate by buying a few small residential rentals. Seeing that this was not easily scalable, he searched for alternative ideas. After listening to hundreds of real estate investing podcasts and attending REI meetings, he settled on passively investing in real estate syndications. He has invested in multiple syndications involving apartment buildings, self-storage facilities, resort properties, a coffee farm, and even a Broadway show.
When Steve is not vetting commercial real estate syndications in the evenings, he is stamping out eye diseases and improving vision during the day as an ophthalmologist. He enjoys playing in his tennis league and rooting for his Buckeyes and Steelers football teams. In the past several years, he took up running and has completed two full marathons, including the New York City Marathon, and he plans to do no more. He is always on a quest to find great pizza, BBQ brisket, and bourbon. He enjoys traveling with his wife and three college-aged kids. They usually go on a medical mission trip once a year to southern Mexico to provide eye surgeries and glasses to the residents. Steve hopes to utilize Left Field Investors to excite others about the merits of passive real asset investments.
Ryan Stieg
Founder
Ryan Stieg started down the path of passive investing like many of us did, after he picked up a little purple book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The problem was that he did that in college and didn’t take action on it to start investing passively until many years later when that itch to invest passively crept back up. Since 2016, Ryan has focused (or should we say lack thereof) on all different…
Ryan Stieg
Ryan Stieg started down the path of passive investing like many of us did, after he picked up a little purple book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The problem was that he did that in college and didn’t take action on it to start investing passively until many years later when that itch to invest passively crept back up.
Since 2016, Ryan has focused (or should we say lack thereof) on all different kinds of investing, always coming back to real estate and business being his mainstays. Ryan has a small portfolio of one to three unit rentals across five different markets in the US. He has also invested in nearly twenty real estate syndication investments individually or with an investment group that he co-founded with fellow Infielder, Jim. Outside of that, Ryan has investments in note funds, mobile home park funds, life settlements, a development project, cryptocurrency, and a few other items that further cement his self-diagnosis of “shiny object syndrome”.
However, with all of those reaches over the years, Ryan still believes in the long-term success and tenets of passive, cash-flow focused investing with proven syndicators and shared knowledge in investing.
When he’s not working on passive investments, he is working in the transportation insurance industry or found with his wife watching whatever sport one of their two boys is involved in during that particular season.
Chad Ackerman
Founder
Chad has been in banking most of his career with a focus on data analytics. He always had a passion for real estate, so his analytics skills translated well into the deal analyzer side of the business. Through his training, education and networking Chad has aligned with passive investing to compliment his current full-time job while allowing him to grow his wealth and take steps…
Chad Ackerman
Chad has been in banking most of his career with a focus on data analytics. He always had a passion for real estate, so his analytics skills translated well into the deal analyzer side of the business. Through his training, education and networking Chad has aligned with passive investing to compliment his current full-time job while allowing him to grow his wealth and take steps towards financial freedom. Chad has appreciated the help he’s received from others along his journey which is why he is excited to network and educate others based on his experiences while continuing to learn from others.
Chad has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business with a Minor in Real Estate from the University of Cincinnati. He is working to educate his two teenagers in the passive investing world. In his spare time he likes to golf, kayak, and check out the local brewery scene.
