Advisory Team Spotlight: Meet the Experts Guiding Bel Air Lending
- Samantha Sykes
- Sep 2
- 3 min read
At Bel Air Lending, we’re grateful for our Advisory Team, a group of experienced and insightful individuals who help guide our mission of providing secure, high-yield opportunities for our investors. We recently asked them three questions to get to know them better:
What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone considering investing with Bel Air Lending?
What professional or life experience do you feel helps you contribute to the Advisory Team?
What’s a fun fact about you that people might be surprised to learn?
Here’s what a few of them had to say:
Gary Bradley
What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone considering investing with Bel Air Lending?
"When I first heard of Bel Air Lending, I was a bit apprehensive. My concern had little to do with Bel Air and much to do with an uneducated view of what the story was. I quickly discovered that this was not real estate investing but a hard money lending opportunity. That opened another door to a room where I was uninformed. Hard money — does that mean pocket change? What in the world is this about? So, I did what anyone should do when you are lending your hard-earned money (new meaning about hard money is developing). I met with John Ford and started asking questions. I pushed hard because a failure here and I am in trouble — I was in my late seventies and a financial mistake is hard to recover from, and I did not want to watch doors at Walmart to recover from a bad mistake.
Well, seven years later, I have invested and seen my investment double, and it continues to grow. This decision has changed our whole future in terms of options that have opened to us that, without this financial growth and security, we would never have experienced."
What professional or life experience do you feel helps you contribute to the Advisory Team?
"I have good sense and experience of how to grow a business as an entrepreneur.
I feel like one of my best contributions is the willingness to ask good and hard questions that help us grow.
I have a lifetime of experience helping business teams develop people skills."
What’s a fun fact about you that people might be surprised to learn?
"In 1950, I marched in a parade in Norfolk, Virginia, in which the last three survivors of the Civil War marched. (They were slow!)"
Ronnie Mixon
What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone considering investing with Bel Air Lending?
"Investing with Bel Air Lending can be a lifelong investment strategy. John and his company has an outstanding reputation, and you are treated as if you are family."
What professional or life experience do you feel helps you contribute to the Advisory Team?
"I’ve bought and sold over 500 properties in my 40+ years of investing. My family and I are looking forward to many years of building generational wealth through Bel Air."
What’s a fun fact about you that people might be surprised to learn?
"I played quarterback for Western Carolina University from 1980 to 1983. We played Clemson my junior and senior years. Clemson won the National Championship in 1981, and they ONLY beat us 17-10. William ‘The Fridge’ Perry lined up in front of me all game. Thank God he never tackled me! LOL!"
David Foster
What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone considering investing with Bel Air Lending?
"Talk with one or two folks who have been investing for a year or two and get comfortable with the process. My wife and I have been investing since 2017 and are very thankful to have this safe and reliable income in our retirement."
What professional or life experience do you feel helps you contribute to the Advisory Team?
"I am a professional civil engineer by training, but I worked for over 15 years in the building trades, so I am very comfortable with the kind of projects that Bel Air is lending on."
What’s a fun fact about you that people might be surprised to learn?
"I was a percussionist in high school and played drums in a beach music band that once backed up ‘Peaches and Herb’ in the late 1960s."
At Bel Air Lending, our Advisory Team is more than a group of advisors — they are trusted voices who bring decades of experience, insight, and unique perspectives to every decision we make. From evaluating investment opportunities to ensuring our investors are confident in their decisions, their guidance is invaluable.
We’re proud to showcase these talented individuals who help shape Bel Air Lending’s growth and ensure our investors have the security and confidence they deserve. Their expertise, curiosity, and personal stories are part of what makes our community so special, and we look forward to continuing to grow together.
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