Leadership Excellence Awards Dinner: Our Honorees

John Saraceno Jr. is co-founder and managing principal of Onyx Equities, LLC, one of the most active commercial property investment, management and development firms in the New York Metro Market. Since founding in 2004 with co-managing partner Jonathan Schultz, Onyx has acquired more than $4 billion of real estate assets throughout the New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut marketplace, and executed over $350 million in asset repositioning projects across all property types.

Serving as the firm’s primary Investment Strategist, Saraceno directs the firm’s approach to investment and portfolio management. Since Onyx’s inception, he has successfully led its mission to partner with some of the country’s most significant institutional investment firms. In addition, Saraceno leads the management of the top in class operating team of professionals who have established Onyx as the leading re-development platform in the New York/New Jersey market area.

Saraceno is an alum of Fordham University and holds a Juris Doctor degree from New York Law School. With children’s health and welfare as a major concern, he is an annual supporter of the March of Dimes of New Jersey, the United Way of Bergen County, and the All Stars Project of New Jersey. He served on the Ridgewood Public Library Board of Trustees and on Governor Phil Murphy’s Real Estate Restart and Recovery Board. He currently serves as a board member for All Stars Project of New Jersey and Choose NJ. Saraceno is married and has three sons: Matthew, Alex, and Sam.

Jonathan Schultz is co‐founder and managing principal of Onyx Equities, LLC, with John Saraceno Jr. Since its founding in 2004, Onyx has become one of the most diversified and active real estate investment, management, development, and property service organizations in the New York Metro market.

Schultz leads the investor capital raising initiatives for Onyx, along with the fund‐raising efforts for the Phalanx Funds. He also oversees the strategic planning, real estate technology development, and overall investment strategy for Onyx. His passions for both real estate and CRE technology investing have translated into a creative and innovative vision that has made Onyx unique among real estate developers and transformed nearly every aspect of the company’s operations.

An avid podcaster, public speaker, and blogger, Schultz has helped foster a new culture of tech savviness and awareness throughout the New York Metro area’s commercial real estate industry. Through his podcast, “The Jon Schultz Podcast: The Myth of Overnight Success”, Schultz unpacks lessons from industry leaders who discuss their stories, failures and the way they “flipped the script” to create success; emphasizing that success is never really overnight.

Schultz is a graduate of Syracuse University. He is Chairman of the Board of the Big Apple Chapter of YPO, (Young Presidents’ Organization) the premiere network of chief executives and business leaders, Chairman of the Board of the Riverview Medical Center Foundation, which serves Hackensack Meridian Health Network, serves on the board of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, and is Chairman of the Innovation Committee, for TechUnited. Schultz has sat on the boards of both publicly traded and private technology companies, and is a proud member of Mindaligned, which is a collective impact initiative to create arts‐ engaged schools. Schultz is also a recipient of the Award of Courage Humanitarian Award for raising significant funds for Memorial Sloan‐Kettering Cancer Center.

Gretchen S. Wilcox founded G.S. Wilcox & Co. in 1994, becoming the first woman in the nation to open a commercial real estate mortgage banking firm. Wilcox has grown the firm to become one of the most successful independently owned commercial mortgage banking firms in the country with a loan servicing portfolio of over $1.6 billion. She has regularly been designated as the top loan producer for numerous local, regional, and national lenders. Additionally, the firm still remains the only female founded commercial mortgage banking firm in the nation.

Wilcox remains actively involved in all aspects of the business and guides the team towards achieving any objectives their clients set forth. She is or has also been involved in numerous industry organizations throughout her career. She has served on the National Board of NAIOP and was a trustee for its New Jersey Chapter for 15 years. Wilcox also previously served on the Board of Directors for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade and has been involved with the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce, IOREBA, ULI, the Advisory Board for the Rutgers Center for Real Estate, and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Furthermore, she has regularly been recognized by numerous publications, to include NJ Biz, ROI-NJ, and Real Estate NJ, as one of the most influential people in New Jersey real estate and business. In 2024, she was featured as one of the top 60 most influential people in business in New Jersey by ROI-NJ and was also named as the most influential woman in business in the state.

Due to her robust track record and status as a trail blazer in the industry, Wilcox is regularly featured as a speaker/panelist at numerous industry/state events. She has also been the recipient of some the industry’s top awards which include the Financial Tribute Award (Boy Scouts of America, 2008), Community Impact Award (Crossing Boarders, 2009), the Pillar Award (NAIOP, 2011), Industry Service Award (NAIOP, 2019), Legacy Award (Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce, 2022), Hall Fame Inductee (NAIOP, 2022), and the Champions of the C-Suite Award (ROI-NJ/NJ Chamber of Commerce, 2023).

Wilcox is equally passionate about helping child-victims of domestic violence. In 1998 she created The Daniel J. Wilcox Memorial Fund, in honor of her late husband, to send children to The Daniel J. Wilcox Camp Hope in partnership with Jersey Battered Women’s Service (JBWS). Wilcox is a graduate of Babson College with a double major in Finance and Quantitative Methods.