Albert C. Nichols oversees concept strategy, design, and operations for Cardinal Lands, guiding the vision and execution of its properties.

Mr. Nichols is a multi-time founder, operator, and investor with a background in civil and computer engineering. Over the past decade, he has built and scaled software-powered businesses across real estate, healthcare, and consumer sectors—often at the intersection of technology, logistics, and the built environment. His ventures are known for their operational complexity, requiring tightly integrated systems, specialized teams, and engineering-led innovation.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Nichols developed the institutional testing strategy for Harvard University during the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering a robotics-enabled lab platform that drove substantial cost savings and operational resilience. He also founded and exited Hall, a venture-backed platform that activated underutilized real estate for in-person gatherings through proprietary booking and payments infrastructure. His first company, Dabbut, was acquired by IBM, where he went on to lead product initiatives within IBM Cloud.

Mr. Nichols is an active advisor and investor in early-stage companies, and a committed steward of organizations focused on preservation, education, and architecture. He holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Tufts University and is a graduate of Deerfield Academy. As a competitive sailor, racquet-sports player, angler, and student of architecture, Albert enjoys competition, preserving nature, and exploring our built environment.

Bryan Dunn leads sourcing, capital markets, real estate development, and other investment centric initiatives. 

Prior to Cardinal Lands, Bryan served as Managing Director at Life House, where he helped scale the company into the fastest-growing hotel operator in North America’s leisure markets. Life House ultimately partnered with Lark Hotels to become the largest operator of small independent hotels in the United States, with a portfolio of over 100 properties open or in development. Backed by leading investors including Booking Holdings and JLL Spark, Bryan worked closely with real estate private equity firms to raise discretionary capital for the acquisition and repositioning of boutique hotels in high-barrier outdoor leisure markets across the United States, Canada and Mexico. 

Earlier in his career, Bryan held acquisitions and development roles at Yotel, the Starwood Capital Group-backed lifestyle hospitality brand, and worked in strategy consulting at Ernst & Young, advising institutional real estate owners from the firm’s New York headquarters. Prior to his focus on real estate investment and development, Bryan worked in the resort industry, including at Ski Portillo, and across a range of hotels, resorts, and restaurants globally.

Bryan is a member of the Next Gen Leadership Council for U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the governing body for the U.S. Olympic ski and snowboard team. He is also an active investor and advisor to companies, including AI Hospitality Group, Way, Kindred, HostGPO, Naya Homes, and Intro, and a direct investor in projects across the ski resort, outdoor hospitality, and boutique hotel sectors.

Bryan is a graduate of Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and is based in Jackson. He spends his free time in the mountains, most often on his snowboard.