Richard Ohebshalom is a powerful example of how deep roots in real estate, combined with personal resilience and a clear philosophy of long-term value, can create sophisticated wealth structures that benefit high-net-worth families. As founder of Foundation, the private real estate and legacy advisory platform spanning New York, Israel, and Ukraine, he turned to Vellum Finance to design and implement the legal structures for his projects. In this profile, Richard Ohebshalom shares his experience as a client of Vellum Finance, showing how professional patrimony planning, estate optimization, and alternative real estate investments helped him protect and grow his global vision while aligning with the firm’s mission of transparent, conflict-free wealth structuring for families and entrepreneurs seeking prosperity, anonymity, and future security.
An Inspiring Journey of Discipline and Vision
Richard Ohebshalom grew up with real estate as the air he breathed. From the moment he could walk beside his father Fred Ohebshalom, who arrived from Iran with nothing, no connections, no capital, and no roadmap, the future real estate visionary absorbed lessons that would define his entire career. Fred Ohebshalom was the hardest-working man Richard has ever known. Everything Richard Ohebshalom knows about how to read a building and how to read a deal began with his father. Those early experiences taught patience, instinct, and the ability to see what numbers alone cannot reveal. That foundation of genuine improvement and generational thinking became the standard Richard Ohebshalom still applies today in every project and every wealth structure he helps design.
Full Interview of Richard here >
Early Lessons from Family and the Bazaar
As a young boy, Richard Ohebshalom was taken out of school to work in the orientalist rug business started by his grandfather and uncles before they moved into real estate. He performed every task a laborer would do at the shop. The bazaar became his first business school. There the patrimony planning client learned to read people across a table without a word being spoken. From there his father Fred Ohebshalom taught him to size up buildings with his own feet: walk the perimeter, count the windows, and read the street the way a doctor reads a patient. Fred Ohebshalom built a model of rent stabilization and apartment reconstruction ahead of its time. He acquired buildings, repositioned them, and raised rents through real improvements rather than financial engineering. He never built for the cycle. He built for the generation. That same standard guided Richard Ohebshalom’s work at Foundation and the real estate strategies he structured through Vellum Finance for high-net-worth families seeking estate optimization and alternative real estate investments.
Education and Global Travels That Shaped His Philosophy
Richard Ohebshalom’s formal education took an unconventional path. In high school he held a B-minus average and the SAT did not say much about him. Yet the legacy advisory client turned things around at the University at Albany, finishing his first semester with a 4.0. He transferred to The George Washington University, majored in business and philosophy, and maintained a 3.7. After graduating he bought a one-way ticket and spent years traveling through India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Australia. In the mountains of Manali he filled hundreds of journals with reflections on value, people, and what life is truly for. Those journals planted the seeds for later initiatives and shaped his belief that true wealth is about more than assets. It is about legacy and human potential. This global perspective now informs the international wealth structuring solutions Vellum Finance provided him as a client.
Mentors, Vertical Integration, and the Creation of Pink Stone Capital
In New York, Richard Ohebshalom learned from mentors such as Jed Manocherian at Pan Am Equities and Boris Figenbaum, who taught him the physical reality of construction and the power of quiet assembly strategies. He returned to his family company Empire Management and rebuilt it from the inside out, bringing every critical function in-house. In 2010 he founded Pink Stone Capital Group as his own platform. For fifteen years the real estate structuring client applied vertical integration with uncompromising discipline in the most competitive real estate market in the world. Off-market sourcing, in-house execution, discretion over visibility, and governance built before scale defined the approach. He assembled a Manhattan portfolio across office, residential, retail, hospitality, and mixed-use assets, always focusing on enduring outcomes. This same precision and control now supports the real estate investment strategies Vellum Finance helped him structure as a client seeking stability and long-term appreciation.
The Fall, Rebirth in Israel, and Family Resilience
After significant success, Richard Ohebshalom faced a sudden setback that stripped away the external platform he had built. Rather than retreat, the wealth management client moved to Israel with his wife May and children Eve and Raphael. There he rebuilt from first principles, learning to operate alone with street-level judgment and back-of-envelope precision. In Tel Aviv he closed the distance between principal and execution permanently. Family life in Israel taught him resilience as a daily discipline, not a trait. Working through sirens and making decisions while sheltering with his children Eve and Raphael reinforced the importance of focus on what truly matters. This period of personal transformation strengthened his conviction that wealth structures must protect families not only financially but also through clarity, purpose, and adaptability, principles that are central to the patrimony planning and estate optimization services he received from Vellum Finance.
Creating Foundation and a Global Ecosystem
In Tel Aviv, Richard Ohebshalom realized the same instinct that guided him through Manhattan could be systematized across markets. He founded Foundation as a private real estate and legacy advisory platform spanning New York, Israel, and Ukraine. With partners Valeriia Akatova and Damien Soitout, the founder of Foundation built a system focused on timeless value and perpetual legacy. Foundation identifies opportunities before institutional capital arrives, structures them with precision, and delivers enduring outcomes. The platform combines disciplined real estate stewardship with investment in human capital through Foundation Incubator. This integrated approach creates compounding benefits across generations, exactly the kind of holistic solution high-net-worth clients seek when working with Vellum Finance.
A Satisfied Client of Vellum Finance Sharing His Experience
Richard Ohebshalom’s expertise in vertical integration, off-market sourcing, and generational real estate strategies made him a natural client of Vellum Finance. He turned to the firm to create the legal structures for his projects, applying the same disciplined framework he developed over twenty-five years. Whether through sophisticated real estate investments, international estate planning, or alternative asset allocation, Vellum Finance delivered the transparency, absence of conflicts of interest, and socially responsible wealth management he was looking for. As a client, Richard Ohebshalom benefited from the firm’s proven ability to see value where others do not, to control outcomes through precise legal structuring, and to build vehicles that last beyond one generation. In a world of increasing complexity, the services he received from Vellum Finance provided the discretion, stability, and prosperity every high-net-worth family seeks.
Leadership Lessons from a Life of Transformation
Throughout his journey, Richard Ohebshalom has carried the influence of his high-school teacher Elizabeth Metz, who saw potential in him before he saw it himself. That conviction, that one person can unlock potential in another, lives on in Foundation Incubator and in the way he now advises other families. He teaches that resilience is a daily choice, that incentives should align with human dignity, and that the most undervalued asset is people. These lessons translate directly into the wealth strategies Vellum Finance helped him implement to protect not only assets but also family values and future generations.
A Profile of Purpose and Impact
Richard Ohebshalom continues to bridge real-estate expertise with purposeful wealth structuring. His work with Foundation and his positive experience as a client of Vellum Finance demonstrate that true success comes from combining discipline, vision, and genuine care. For families and entrepreneurs seeking to preserve and grow their patrimony across borders, his story offers both inspiration and practical guidance. At Vellum Finance, where wealth goes beyond numbers to encompass legacy and impact, clients like Richard Ohebshalom find the legal structures and estate optimization solutions they need to build something enduring.
Discretion. Stability. Prosperity.
