Who We Are
“Great vision without great people is irrelevant” – Jim Collins, Good to Great
Rick Jones, a real estate development and building professional with thirty-five years of industry experience is the founder and president of Advantage Storage. Mr. Jones leads the Advantage team in all aspects of development, construction and management operations. He has expertise in market research, design, development, construction and operations of storage facilities. Under Mr. Jones’ direction Advantage developed their first facility in 1996 in Sherman, Texas. Since then they have developed, acquired, managed and sold more than 40+ self-storage facilities comprising more than 34,000+ storage units and 4+ Million leasable square feet and growing. Mr. Jones is knowledgeable in real estate investment financing and is a licensed Texas Realtor. He has served as a member of the board of directors for the Texas Self Storage Association.
Cory Horne graduated with a business degree from North Carolina State University in 2000. Beginning his career at Mobile Mini Inc., the world’s largest portable container company, he advanced to upper management overseeing the entire central division. Cory joined Optivest Properties as regional manager in November 2007 and was made a partner in 2008. He oversaw all operations of the Texas / Arizona facilities and collaborated with his supporting staff to make those markets the largest and most financially successful regions at Optivest Properties. Cory joined Advantage Storage in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer and oversees all aspects of self storage operations.
Mr. Deadman has been a Partner with Advantage Storage since 2012. In that role, he is responsible for sourcing and executing on new acquisitions and development activity. His background resides in lending/banking, valuation, commercial real estate and institutional money management. Mr. Deadman served as Chief Lending Officer of Triumph Savings Bank during 2012-2014 and currently serves on the Board of Directors of both Triumph Savings Bank, SSB and Triumph Community Bank. During 2004 – 2011, he served as Chief Executive Officer and President of NexBank, a financial services organization that included a broker-dealer and an investment banking and corporate advisory firm. In that role, Mr. Deadman grew a $50 million rural community bank into a $600 million urban commercial bank with a diversified loan portfolio and significant non-interest income. During 1998 – 2007, he served as a Senior Portfolio Manager and ultimately partner with Highland Capital Management L.P. In this role, he managed a team of investment professionals responsible for a several billion dollar portfolio of credit investments across multiple industries. Additionally, he oversaw various real estate investments for the firm including the notable $200+ million Chase Tower (Dallas CBD Office) acquisition. Prior to 1998, he served as an investment officer at Mutual Benefit Life, where he managed a $200 million commercial real estate-backed loan portfolio.
Mr. Deadman received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance, Cum Laude, from Southern Methodist University – Cox School of Business. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charter holder.
Brian Baca has been involved in the management of commercial construction for 19+ years. He joined Advantage Storage in 2000 as a project manager and was subsequently promoted to vice president of construction. He oversees approximately six to eight million dollars of construction volume annually. He is responsible for all aspects of construction including final project design and specification, budgeting, bidding and administrating and leading project superintendents.
Kristen Plum graduated with a Master of Science in Business Management with a 4.0 GPA from Texas A&M University-Commerce in 2016 after completing her undergraduate degrees at the University of Texas at Dallas. From 2011 to 2018 and while completing her graduate program, she worked as a Tax Accountant and Assistant Manager for a premium tax software company based in Texas. Responsibilities focused on communicating with and resolving audits from state departments regarding premium and corporate tax returns for all fifty states, several U.S. territories, and Canada while also increasing efficiency in the tax department’s procedures and policies. Kristen joined the Advantage accounting team in 2018 and has proven her capabilities to further the growth of the company.
Cliff began his career in the self-storage industry in 2004. He spent over a decade with Public Storage in Orange County, California as a Property Manager and Trainer before relocating to the Phoenix area. Cliff joined Advantage Storage in 2016 as a Facility Manager and was promoted to Regional Manager in 2018. His experience and in-depth knowledge of the industry makes him a vital member of the Advantage Storage team. In 2019 Cliff was promoted to Director of Operations and currently oversees facilities in Arizona, Colorado, and Texas.
Narmada Satarasinghe is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) and the Chartered Global Management Accountants. With over 20 years of residential real estate accounting experience, she joined Advantage Storage in 2014 as an Accounting Assistant and was promoted to Accounting Manager in July 2019. She has developed significant expertise in self-storage operations and accounting and is responsible for all aspects of payroll including H/R responsibilities, sales tax, preparation of 1099s, accounts payables and receivables and bank transactions. She also handles the coordination and compilation of individual storage facility accounting data and oversees all the Accounting assistants.
Robert serves as the IT Services Manager for Advantage Storage. He has worked in the services industry for 40+ years with Eckerd Corporation, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, and Advantage Storage. During this time, he has held a number of leadership positions working as a Senior Network/System Engineer, Digital Engineer, Production Manager, Consultant, and a Facility Manager. He attended Saint Petersburg College and also served his country in the United States Marine Corp. Robert started with Advantage Storage in 2010 as a Property Manager and joined the Corporate staff in 2014. He brings his depth of experience, technical skills, and management capabilities to his current positions where he supports the needs of Corporate, Properties, and the Advantage Storage mission.
Prior to Advantage Storage Ken worked at the Frisco Stonebriar Country Club as an Assistant Golf Professional. He also served as the Manager of the Fox Restaurant in Surrey, England. After 8 years of running a family-owned fine dining restaurant he returned to the U.S. in March 2013 to pursue a career in the golf industry. As well as playing high school and college golf, Ken was selected to play on a local club team (Surrey County) and placed 1st in the Merrist Wood Club Championship. In 2010, he placed 1st in the West Hill Club Championship. Away from golf, Ken enjoys most sports, particularly NHL Hockey and English Premier Football. Ken joined Advantage Storage in December 2015 as a Facility Manager.
Suzy comes to Advantage with 23 years’ experience in the storage industry. She started her career in 1995 with Shurgard Storage as a Property Manager and Trainer for 10 years. Suzy then moved to Public Storage in 2006 as a District Manager in Virginia. She relocated to Houston in 2009 and was promoted to Regional VP in 2010, where she spent the rest of her time with Public Storage.
Jaimi started her storage career back in 2001. She credits her understanding of the storage business to her stepfather who was in upper management at UHaul Moving Company. He instilled in her at a young age all the aspects of the Self-Storage industry. Jaimi ran one of the biggest locations in Dallas at the age of 19. She then moved to the regional office for UHaul where she held the position of Route Manager for the Dallas region. After a few years her passion for fitness lead her to pursue a career in personal training and while working at LA Fitness in 2006 she achieved the title of Personal Training Director. In 2011, she transferred to Miami to oversee the Florida region. In 2014 she was ready to get back into the Self-Storage industry. In early 2019 she joined Advantage Storage as a Facility Manager, thereafter, promoted to Regional Manager to cover the North Dallas area.
Rene started with Advantage Storage on 11/9/20.
Christopher graduated from the University of North Texas in 2016 with a BBA in Accounting. He worked in Public Accounting as a Tax Accountant specializing in Emergency Room Doctors and high net-worth individuals. Chris joined the Advantage Team in July of 2019.
Samantha joined Advantage Storage in July 2019 as an Accounting Assistant. The past 5+ years she has done real-estate accounting, and with all the experience that she has gain she has decided to pursue her degree in accounting.
Jared joined Advantage Storage in February 2020 as an Accounting Assistant.
Paige joined Advantage Storage in June 2020 as an Accounting Assistant.