About
Investment services for private and public equity vehicles
Paragon SA is a real estate firm providing investment services to private and public equity vehicles focused on real estate and real estate-related endeavours in Switzerland and selected markets abroad. Paragon works with investment partners to identify, asset manage, and operate properties. We are a one-stop shop with expertise in finance, leasing, insurance, redevelopment, construction and building operations.
Paragon’s executives are multi-lingual and multi-national and benefit from an international approach to corporate culture combined with a local presence and expertise in local markets.
Paragon’s key strengths lie in distressed opportunities, underperforming and undervalued assets and value-creation opportunities. Investments include single assets, portfolios, joint ventures, and real estate development, as well as real estate-related loans and debt instruments. We canvas retail, logistics, office, industrial, and senior and student housing opportunities.
Paragon stories
Note from the CEO

Mike Wolfson
Mike is the Managing Director and founder of Paragon SA. He previously worked and managed Westcore Switzerland from 2006 until 2012. Mike began his career at Hewlett-Packard’s European headquarters where for eight years he worked in international finance and corporate real estate.
As we step into 2025, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2024, a year marked by exceptional progress and achievement for Paragon. Thanks to the dedication of our team, the trust of our partners, and the execution of our strategy, we have continued to grow and diversify, solidifying our position as an expert in both property and private equity.
Expanding Our Horizons
This past year, we grew our business both locally and internationally. In Canada and France, we continued to expand our commercial lending business, strengthening our footprint in these markets. Closer to home, we completed the ParaBox Pro property in Chavannes – artisanal workshops with office mezzanines that were fully leased within six months of completion. Additionally, we added to our Swiss portfolio with the acquisition of a 15-year Migros sale-and-leaseback property in Canton Neuchâtel and we are finalizing the acquisition of an asset in the Lausanne region, setting the stage for a dynamic start to 2025.
Diversification and Innovation
Our push into private equity continues to bear fruit. The acquisition of Pépinières Genevoises has added a welcome touch of “green” to our portfolio, while the opening of the ParaBox Self Storage flagship at Geneva’s central train station represents an exciting step into a new operating business. Furthermore, we celebrated the ten-year anniversary of our investment in the construction company Piretti, and we’re proud to continue contributing blue-collar job opportunities to our local community. We will continue to look for opportunistic PE deals linked to the real estate industry and will pursue them when they align with our strategy.
Engaging with Our Community
The annualParagon Cup and the Paragon After-Work Raclette events were once again fabulous opportunities to bring together industry colleagues, partners, and friends in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. These events provide meaningful moments where we can have fun and connect with like-minded people.
Building a Stronger Team
In 2024, we continued to invest in our greatest asset: our people. We’ve strengthened our team and are actively recruiting to further enhance our capabilities. Our culture of purpose, fun, excellence, and balance remains a cornerstone of our competitive edge. Competent candidates who are looking to join an exciting team, invest in deals, and feel like part of an extended family should send us their CVs.
Management Buyouts
Many SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in Switzerland are leaders in their respective industries, and are often managed by their founders. Despite their attractive profitability, these entities are difficult to sell because the management teams are often as close to retirement-age as the owners themselves. Moreover, many industrial business owners have encouraged their children to pursue liberal or corporate professions such as law, medicine, marketing, or similar, leaving no successors to take over. We are interested in supporting these companies by helping competent management teams negotiate leveraged buyouts, especially when a real estate asset is involved, or the activity is related to real estate.
Sale-and-Leasebacks
Paragon has developed expertise in helping companies generate liquidity while remaining in their premises through sale-and-leaseback transactions. See our Paragon Stories to learn about a few examples of how this has benefited select SMEs in Switzerland. We believe that the introduction of Basel III in 2025 will make access to debt more challenging to come by and could present opportunities for alternative sources of capital raising, for example sale-and leasebacks.
Looking Ahead
While geopolitical uncertainties and trade dynamics continue to present challenges, we are confident in our ability to navigate these complexities. The ongoing crises in the Middle East and in Ukraine, combined with inflationary pressures in the US and around the globe will continue to drive stronger demand for the Swiss Franc, which obliges the Swiss National Bank to maintain or even lower interest rates. We may see a return to zero or even negative rates if these trends persist.
Switzerland’s stable environment and sustained low interest rates provide a solid foundation for our operations. However, the strong Swiss Franc poses challenges for local SMEs in exporting goods, and the implementation of Basel III – aimed at strengthening financial stability and banks’ resilience to crises – may significantly impact access to financing, particularly for SMEs and investors. Diversifying funding sources – particularly private debt – and presenting robust projects will be key to adapting to this new banking environment. Moreover, benefiting from our strong Swiss franc to diversify internationally continues to be of strategic importance to us.
As we prepare for the opportunities and challenges of 2025, we are committed to building on our successes and continuing to execute our strategy with discipline and creativity. From expanding our portfolio to fostering deeper connections within our community, we are focused on creating lasting value for our stakeholders.
Thank you for being part of our journey. Together, we are shaping a future defined by growth, resilience, and purpose. Here’s to an exciting year ahead!
Read about Paragon’s 2024 transactions:
Paragon enjoyed a successful 2022 having completed a major reconstruction project in Bex and fully leasing the property, selling a property in Meyrin, completing a first private lending deal in Montreal, commencing a storage building construction project in Chavannes, and getting approval for a significant residential development in Chambesy among other notable achievements. Our pipeline is healthy and we are expecting a productive start to the new year despite the complicated global macro economic and political environment.
As we have been reminded incessantly by the media, inflation has finally arrived, and while Switzerland trails behind North America and Europe, it still shows signs of continued inflationary pressures. Interest rate curves indicate a recession is on the horizon, but our feeling is that the fed and the national banks still need to address inflation and will continue to maintain higher interest rates than we have become accustomed to over the last few years.
Amid the uncertainties presented by the war in Ukraine, the Covid virus still lingering, as well as the consequences of a significant drop in the stock markets, the valuations for institutional portfolios are under pressure. The institutional players who are obliged to maintain certain ratios of debt to value (33% for residential funds and 40%-50% for commercial funds) might be forced to sell off assets to respect legislature if valuations continue to decrease.
Moreover, the increased ESG requirements will also contribute to put pressure on owners of portfolios to divest of secondary assets and those properties requiring major capital expenditures to be brought up to modern standards and norms. These drivers could lead to interesting opportunities for investors like Paragon who seek to add value to distressed assets when possible. Even though interest rates have doubled or tripled, they remain attractive in Switzerland with 10-year rates currently below 2.8% and we feel optimistic that we can create long term value even at these rates.
Diversification remains one of our key objectives for 2023. We want to take advantage of the strong Swiss Franc in order to invest in countries like the UK, Canada, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, or others if the opportunity presents itself. More sustained inflation in those countries and a faster knee-jerk reaction by their national banks means it is possible to find opportunities outside of Switzerland where our strong Swiss franc together with our value-add strategy and expertise may mean we can capitalize on the volatile environment.
Our sister company, Piretti, is thriving thanks to improved management and a sustained demand for construction companies that offer peace of mind and quality construction to clients. We are building our first storage building in Chavannes from A-Z using wood, heating pumps, solar panels, and state of the art design with the aim to build an ESG compliant product that sets the standards in the local market.
Investing significantly to bring the old Coop factory in Bex up to modern norms and standards has been a source of pride for our team as we are fully committed to finding opportunities where we can contribute to improving the environment in the communities where we invest. We understand that for us to continue to thrive, our work needs to have meaning and purpose, and when we have that in abundance, there is nothing that will stop us from delivering excellent results and performance. It is our goal that our people feel a sense of satisfaction with a work-life balance that is sustainable and attractive over the medium to long term.
Our leadership team has been reinforced with the addition of Yan Grandjean and the promotion of Arthur de Rivoire, and we are excited about the potential we have to grow and achieve our goals in 2023. The often-quoted Darwin once said it’s those most able to adapt to change that survive, so we are doing our maximum to adapt to the constantly changing environment in which we operate and we are confident that we have the team, the spirit, and the tools to continue to offer our investors the above market performance they have become accustomed to.
Mike Wolfson
The board
Mike Wolfson
Mike is the Managing Director and founder of Paragon SA. He previously managed Westcore Switzerland from 2006 until 2012. Mike began his career at Hewlett-Packard’s European headquarters where he worked in international finance and corporate real estate.
At Westcore, Mike facilitated over CHF 300 million worth of commercial real estate transactions and achieved an average internal rate of return (IRR) well above investor expectations (20%+). Mike was responsible for acquisitions and dispositions, raising equity and debt, and overseeing day-to-day asset management. He was also an investor in sub-performing loans in the UK and the US.
A graduate of McGill University in Canada, Mike also holds an MBA from the University of Geneva. Mike speaks French, English and German, and has lived in Europe for over 20 years bridging both the European and North American cultures.
Frédéric Berney
Fréderic Berney is a Licensed chartered accountant, HEC Saint-Gall graduate, Partner and member of the board of Berney Associés, a Swiss consulting company.
Frédéric Berney, has worked more than 15 years in broad fields such as audit, accounting, tax and financial advisory, in Geneva and Zürich, serving both Swiss and international clients.
At Berney Group, he specifically focuses in consulting companies, providing them with financial advice and corporate governance guidance , which bring him to be frequently consulted by Paragon’s managers in their real estate related activities.
Kevin Lecocq
For the past 25 years Kevin has been a professional investor at leading firms in New York, London and Zurich. As Global Chief Investment Officer at Deutsche Bank Asset & Wealth Management, he oversaw €310 billion in assets on behalf of wealthy families and institutions.
As chair of the investment committee, he allocated capital across all asset classes but also directly restructured a troubled billion pound UK commercial property fund inherited from his predecessor. Additional former roles include Global CIO at Barclays Wealth and senior executive positions at UBS and Gen Re/Berkshire Hathaway.
Kevin also served five years as an infantry officer in the US Marine Corps and was decorated for heroism in combat. He holds an MBA from UCLA and a BA (honours) from the University of Rochester and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Dr. Alan Wolfson
Alan Wolfson is a principal investor in Paragon deals. He has a PhD in Economics earned at Harvard in 1975. From 1974-81, Alan was a professor at the University of Toronto. In 1980-81, he was a research fellow at Oxford University. Then Alan spent a decade in government, with a number of senior appointments in the Ontario Government, culminating in the presidency of the Workers’ Compensation Board. From 1990-97, he was a senior executive at TD Canada Trust, ending up as president of its mutual fund business.
In 1997, Dr.Wolfson joined Capital One, who had IPO’d some two years earlier. He took on the post of Managing Director, International for Capital One, spearheading its growth into non-US markets. Dr. Wolfson retired from Capital One in 2004.
Since then, he has been involved as an advisor and consultant and has served on the boards of a number of companies, as well as non-profit and charitable institutions.
Mike Wolfson
Managing Director & Founder
Mike is the Managing Director and founder of Paragon SA. He previously managed Westcore Switzerland from 2006 until 2012. Mike began his career at Hewlett-Packard’s European headquarters where he worked in international finance and corporate real estate.
At Westcore, Mike facilitated over CHF 300 million worth of commercial real estate transactions and achieved an average internal rate of return (IRR) well above investor expectations (20%+). Mike was responsible for acquisitions and dispositions, raising equity and debt, and overseeing day-to-day asset management. He was also an investor in sub-performing loans in the UK and the US.
A graduate of McGill University in Canada, Mike also holds an MBA from the University of Geneva. Mike speaks French, English and German, and has lived in Europe for over 20 years bridging both the European and North American cultures.
Yan Grandjean
Chief Investment Officer
Yan brings extensive real estate and strategic advisory expertise to the team. Yan’s most recent position was with PwC, where he managed the Real Estate Advisory practice. In this role he oversaw valuations in the context of acquisition due diligence and year-end portfolio review. Yan advised funds, corporations, and private investors and his mandates included clients such as Swisscanto, Akara Funds or Migros.
Before joining PwC, Yan worked for the Performance Improvement team focused on financial services at EY. As a project manager, Yan worked for financial institutions on various projects related to strategy, management, IT, and compliance. Since 2019, Yan also co-founded the start-up Spirgrips, which commercializes patented bike handles and hopes to contribute to « changing the way people ride, for good! ».
Yan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from HEC Geneva as well as a Master’s degree in Finance from the Universities of Lausanne, Geneva and Neuchâtel. Yan is also a certified RPA developer and a CFA charterholder.
Arthur De Rivoire
VP Asset Management
Arthur is involved in the new acquisitions and development at Paragon. He asset manages all of Paragon’s existing projects but he is also in charge of new acquisitions, brokerage activities as well as business development at Paragon.
Arthur is an entrepreneur and brings to Paragon his experience, creativity, and enthusiasm that has helped contribute to the successful founding of several companies. Arthur successfully raised more than CHF 2m in equity funding for his start-ups, hired and managed professional development and marketing teams, and earned valuable experience in these endeavours. He recently joined Paragon to pursue his passion for Real Estate investment and further develop our activities in Switzerland and beyond.
Arthur holds a Master’s degree in Finance from the University of Lausanne and began his career in Private Banking in Geneva. He is also a former Swiss National Golf Champion and still competes at National level.
Vita Karas
Accountant & Controller
Vita is in charge of controlling all transactions, monitor our financial flows while ensuring that our accounting and accounts are in order. She is also responsible for the HR department of Paragon SA.
She has 20 years of professional experience in accounting and finance, in Switzerland and abroad, in the world of watchmaking, banking, oil, construction and wine company.
Vita is a certified accountant and graduated in Geneva. She obtained a Master’s degree in Economics in Russia and continued her studies in Switzerland. She speaks French, Italian, English, Russian and Ukrainian.
Céline Wolfson
Marketing & Communications Manager
Celine has more than 25 years experience in project management and marketing, both in private and public companies in Geneva and internationally. Her career in the luxury market was forged at Franck Muller Watchland where she presided over sales and purchasing for over 10 years.
For the following ten years, at the University of Geneva she created a successful adult education program (specialized in commodity trading), demonstrating her ability to adapt, her appetite for a challenge, and the commitment to remain focused for over a decade at each venture she commits to.
Celine’s role at Paragon involves maintaining the positive image and reputation of Paragon SA with its partners and investors as well as organizing our corporate events. Celine has a master’s degree in marketing (ESCO Paris and Brooks University, Oxford) and has continued to add to her qualifications throughout her career. She is fluent in French, English, and German and knows the Swiss market very well.
Shahyad Esfandiary
Principal
Shahyad managed Hardstone Real Estate in Geneva, Switzerland from 2006 until 2013, and currently works as a Principal in association with Paragon SA. At Hardstone, with a team of six people, Shahyad acquired and managed a portfolio of real estate assets worth close to a billion euros mainly located in France and Switzerland, achieving double-digit returns for Hardstone’s investors.
Previously, Shahyad worked for 4 years in London and Paris for real estate investment management firm Fountain Capital Partners, where notably he advised on the acquisition of 36, Rue La Fayette for TIAA-Cref, producing double-digit returns. He had moved in 2002 from Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (“SSSB”) where he was a member of the European M&A team.
Shahyad is a graduate of HEC (Paris) and holds a law degree from the University of Buckingham, UK and speaks fluent English and French.
Scott McIlroy
Managing Director & Partner of Paragon Canada
Scott is the Managing Director and a Partner of Paragon Canada. Scott is a Registered Real Estate Broker in Ontario, Canada.
During his career, Scott has facilitated over $300 million worth of real estate transactions. Before joining Paragon, Scott founded Killarney Partners, where assignments led by Scott and his group provided strategic acquisition and advisory services to private family offices, financial services, and real estate firms.
Previously, Scott has held senior-level real estate roles at leading national brokerage firms and public and private real estate companies, including Minto Developments, one of Canada’s largest condo developers. Scott divides his time between Toronto and Geneva, Switzerland.