Derrick Grahn
Co-Founder | Chief Executive Officer | Board Member
Vision, Structure, Execution

Derrick leads The Coveted Group with a focus on execution, aligning real estate, design, construction, and capital from the outset. He began in real estate in Chicago in the early 1990s, when Wicker Park was largely overlooked. Alongside a small group of early developers, he recognized its potential and began acquiring and rehabilitating properties, while also opening retail and restaurant concepts that helped shape the neighborhood’s early identity. His background in art and design was shaped in part at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and continues to inform his approach to development and spatial thinking. He later relocated to Los Cabos, Mexico, where he opened restaurants, launched Cabo Social, a high-end coffee table publication, co-founded Santo Cabo, and produced events that drew international attention. In 2011, he began shaping the real estate arm of Flora Farms and played a central role in establishing it as one of the region’s most recognized lifestyle-driven second-home developments. In 2017, he co-founded Outpost Cabo, where he continues to serve as an owner and board member. Since then, he has grown The Coveted Group across multiple markets. His approach is direct: identify the opportunity, structure it correctly, and move it forward. He remains closely involved in the work, guiding projects through critical moments, contributing to architectural design, and maintaining a consistent standard across the firm.

Anastasia Grahn
Co-Founder | Board Member
Governance, Alignment, Oversight

Anastasia is Derrick Grahn’s partner in both life and business and joined him when he relocated to Los Cabos, working alongside him as the foundation of what would become The Coveted Group. She is also co-founder of Santo Cabo and has been closely involved in the evolution of the firm’s broader platform. In 2017, she co-founded Outpost Cabo, where she continues to serve as an owner and board member. She provides oversight, structure, and long-range perspective across the business. As a co-founder, she has played a central role in shaping The Coveted Group’s direction and standards. Her role centers on decision-making, governance, and maintaining alignment as the company grows. She operates with clarity and restraint, ensuring that what is built is not only successful but durable.

Blackhawk Jones
Partner | Board Member | Head of Construction
Operations, Build, Delivery

Blackhawk is a partner and board member of The Coveted Group, working closely with Derrick Grahn and Anastasia Grahn to lead the firm's day-to-day operations. His role sits at the center of the business, where strategy is translated into action. He oversees operations, construction, budgets, and delivery across projects, maintaining alignment between acquisitions, capital, development, and build. His responsibility is continuity, ensuring that what is planned is executed correctly and carried through to completion. Operating across the United States and Mexico, he manages teams, coordinates trades, and maintains real-time control over execution. He ensures projects move forward with discipline and are delivered to a consistent standard.

Brion Hickey
Advisor | Board Participant
Strategy, Insight, Leverage

Brion serves as a trusted advisor to Derrick Grahn, contributing perspective on strategy, product, and decision-making across select areas of the business, he participates in board-level discussions on key matters, offering input where clarity and outside perspective are most valuable, his background spans product, growth, and performance-driven systems, with a focus on identifying leverage, improving outcomes, and aligning strategy with execution, his role is selective, engaging where insight can materially improve direction and complement the firm’s internal leadership.    

Noah Knisely
Director of Capital, USA
Capital, Structure, Close

Noah leads capital across The Coveted Group, structuring and delivering financing through the firm’s lending division for its projects, investors, and operating partners, his work spans fix and flip financing, ground-up construction loans, DSCR rental loans, bridge and short-term capital, and more complex structures when the deal requires it, he approaches each transaction from the asset and the exit rather than the narrative, his role is to understand what is actually there, what is possible, and how to align capital accordingly, he is involved across the lifecycle of a deal from early structuring through execution, ensuring financing supports the project rather than constrains it, whether straightforward or complex his focus is the same, keep the deal moving and get it closed.

Marco Guevara
Director of Coveted Collective, USA
Deal Flow, Access, Placement

Marco leads Coveted Collective, the firm’s acquisition and off-market arm focused on sourcing, structuring, and placing deals, he identifies opportunities others do not see, working across buying, selling, and connecting investors with off-market properties that are not broadly available through the firm’s home acquisition arm, his role sits at the front of the pipeline, where access, relationships, and timing determine outcome, he also brings in investors aligned with the firm’s white-glove execution model, ensuring opportunities are matched with the right capital and carried through with precision.

Iván Báez
Director, Development & Acquisitions, Mexico
Positioning, Development, Joint Ventures

Iván leads acquisition and early-stage development across The Coveted Group’s work in Mexico, identifying large-scale opportunities. He operates across real estate, hospitality, resorts, and brands with a strong instinct for how place, concept, and timing come together. He serves as the operational partner for Outpost Cabo, on behalf of the Grahns, maintaining alignment among ownership, concept, and execution. His focus at The Coveted Group is transformation, turning unrealized assets into destinations people recognize, return to, and value.

Luis Montalvo
Operations Executive
Continuity, Execution, Control

Luis supports day-to-day execution across The Coveted Group, working closely with leadership to keep priorities aligned and moving, with nearly a decade at the firm he brings a deep understanding of how the business operates across both the United States and Mexico, his role spans multiple areas, ensuring continuity, organization, and follow-through across projects, he is steady, reliable, and maintains a high standard of execution under pressure.

Manuel Rodríguez
Administrative Operations
Records, Systems, Support

Manuel supports administrative operations across the U.S. and Mexico, maintaining records, organizing documentation, and ensuring information is accurate and accessible across the business. His role centers on consistency, helping to keep internal processes organized and running smoothly. He brings experience in inventory management, documentation, and payment follow-up, with a focus on structure and reliability. He also supports select customer service and logistics functions, ensuring details are handled and nothing important is missed.

Natalie Prescott
Executive Assistant & Strategic Operations
Coordination, Priorities, Flow

Natalie works directly with Co-Founder Derrick Grahn, managing communication, protecting time, and ensuring priorities move forward with clarity and discretion. Her role sits close to leadership, maintaining alignment and continuity across the business. Her background spans executive support, operations, and relationship management. She brings organization, intuition, and the ability to anticipate what is needed before it is asked, working behind the scenes to maintain order and forward momentum across the firm.

Ada L. Gardener
Executive Assistant & Strategic Operations
Structure, Detail, Follow-Through

Ada works directly with Co-Founder Anastasia Grahn, managing communication, protecting time, and ensuring priorities move forward with clarity and discretion. She supports leadership through organization, coordination, and consistent follow-through across key priorities. Her background spans executive support, operations, and relationship management. She brings a thoughtful, detail-oriented approach, helping maintain structure, alignment, and continuity across the business.

Utham Varma
Lead Architect & Visualization, USA
Architecture, Visualization, Clarity

Utham leads architectural design and visualization for the firm’s U.S. projects, developing concepts into clear, buildable, and fully realized representations. His work allows decisions to be made early and with confidence, forms to be resolved, materials to be understood, and spaces to be experienced in advance. He combines technical discipline with a strong visual sensibility.

Paco Heredia
Lead Architect & Visualization, Mexico
Design, Planning, Integration

Paco leads architectural design and visualization across The Coveted Group’s work in Mexico, developing projects from early concept through planning to ensure they are clear, buildable, and aligned from the start, his work sits at the intersection of architecture and development, translating ideas into projects that are both functional and commercially sound, he brings a disciplined approach to design and execution, working across teams to move projects forward with clarity and precision.

Ariana Parry
Director of Residential Sales, USA
Positioning, Pricing, Negotiation

Ariana leads residential sales in Arizona, managing positioning, pricing, and negotiation for buyers, sellers, and investment opportunities. Her approach is both analytical and intuitive, grounded in an understanding of how homes are perceived and how timing affects outcome. She focuses on clarity, presents the property correctly, reads the situation accurately, execute.

Brian Balsley
Director of Residential Sales, Mexico
Market, Positioning, Close

Brian leads residential sales across Los Cabos, working with buyers, sellers, and development opportunities. He brings decades of experience in the region, with a background spanning hospitality and real estate. He began in Los Cabos in the mid-1990s, owning and operating several restaurants before transitioning into real estate sales and leadership roles with major developments. He joined The Coveted Group in 2012, working directly under Co-Founder Derrick Grahn during the firm’s tenure at Flora Farms, where he was an essential contributor to the project's overall success.

Mike Martinez
Senior Residential Project Manager, USA
Coordination, Alignment, Delivery

Mike leads project execution across The Coveted Group, coordinating teams, vendors, budgets, schedules, and client communication to keep work moving forward, he brings over a decade of experience managing project-based work across construction, retail, and service environments, his focus is alignment, ensuring teams stay coordinated, timelines are maintained, and projects progress without unnecessary friction, he is steady under pressure and known for keeping people aligned and moving toward a clear outcome.

Jim Doane
Senior Commercial Project Manager, USA
Systems, Precision, Consistency

Jim oversees project execution across The Coveted Group, managing schedules, budgets, vendors, and on-site coordination to keep projects on track. He brings over 30 years of experience in the building industry, along with a 35-year career as a commercial pilot, where precision and disciplined systems were essential. Originally from Seattle and having come to Arizona to play baseball at Arizona State University, he maintains a steady, methodical approach, ensuring details are handled, timelines are met, and projects are delivered in alignment with client expectations.