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Diana M. Peterson is the Founder and CEO of AW Properties Global and a nationally recognized authority on complex real estate dispositions and Article 9/UCC foreclosure sales. An attorney, managing broker, auctioneer, and entrepreneur, Peterson has been involved in more than $1 billion in real estate transactions during her career.
She advises lenders, law firms, institutional investors, receivers, fiduciaries, and other stakeholders on UCC sales, bankruptcy and receivership dispositions, auctions, portfolio sales, and other complex transactions nationwide.
Peterson's distinctive combination of legal, real estate, auction, and transaction experience enables her to design competitive, defensible sale processes for sophisticated and often unusual assets. She is also a frequent speaker and author on UCC sales and distressed real estate and has served as an expert witness in real estate-related litigation.
Peterson earned her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School, where she served as an editor of the Minnesota Law Review, and her B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago.
Diana M. Peterson, Esq.
Founder & CEO | Attorney | Managing Broker | Auctioneer
Diana M. Peterson, Esq, is the Founder and CEO of AW Properties Global, a national real estate advisory and disposition firm specializing in complex, distressed, and accelerated transactions. An attorney, real estate executive, auctioneer, entrepreneur, and recognized authority on Article 9/UCC foreclosure sales, Peterson has been involved in more than $1 billion in real estate transactions over the course of her career.
Peterson advises lenders, law firms, institutional investors, receivers, trustees, fiduciaries, and other stakeholders on the strategy and execution of complex transactions throughout the United States. Her experience encompasses UCC foreclosure sales, §363 bankruptcy sales, receivership dispositions, commercial real estate sales and leasing, auctions, sealed-bid sales, portfolio and bulk transactions, sale-leasebacks, and other special-situation dispositions.
She has developed particular expertise in secured-party sales under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Working closely with lenders and their counsel, Peterson designs and executes competitive sale processes intended to maximize market exposure and value while supporting the secured party's obligation to conduct a commercially reasonable disposition. Her UCC assignments have involved diverse and often highly specialized collateral and real estate-backed businesses nationwide.
Peterson brings an unusual combination of legal, transactional, brokerage, auction, and entrepreneurial experience to these engagements. As a licensed attorney, she understands the legal framework surrounding complex and distressed transactions; as a broker and auctioneer, she understands valuation, marketing, negotiation, and execution. This multidisciplinary perspective enables her to work effectively alongside counsel, lenders, financial advisors, fiduciaries, and other professionals in transactions where process, timing, documentation, and defensibility are critical.
Prior to founding AW Properties Global, Peterson co-founded AuctionWorks, an online real estate auction platform, where she applied her auction and brokerage experience to the development of a technology-driven transaction platform.
Earlier, Peterson founded and operated PMD Realty, LLC for more than a decade. Recognizing an emerging opportunity to provide homeowners with an alternative disposition model, she built PMD Realty into a leading provider of flat-fee MLS services. During that period, Peterson was recognized by the Chicago Association of Realtors as one of the area's top-producing real estate brokers, closing more than $130 million in residential sales and negotiating more than 500,000 square feet of commercial lease and sale transactions.
Her experience also includes sophisticated competitive procurement and RFP processes. Peterson successfully secured a U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration contract involving the auction disposition of specialized equipment from the Savannah River Nuclear Solutions site.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Peterson worked with U.S. Equities Realty and JLL, providing strategic planning, site-selection, and tenant-representation services to corporate office users nationwide.
Before transitioning into real estate and transaction advisory work, Peterson practiced law with D'Ancona & Pflaum and Hedlund Hanley & John. Her legal training continues to inform her approach to negotiation, transaction structuring, risk assessment, and the execution of complex sale processes.
Peterson earned her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School, where she served as an editor of the Minnesota Law Review. She earned her B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago.
She is a licensed attorney and holds professional licenses in real estate brokerage and auctioneering, including managing broker licenses in Illinois and Florida, as well as auction and real estate education credentials.
Peterson is a frequent author and speaker on Article 9 sales, distressed real estate, workouts, and complex disposition strategies. She has presented to attorneys, lenders, restructuring professionals, and other industry participants and has been engaged as an expert witness in real estate-related litigation. She has been quoted or featured in publications including DS News, GlobeSt.com, Crain's, Illinois Real Estate Journal, Real Estate Executive, and NS Magazine, among others.
Peterson is a member of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), and the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC).
Through AW Properties Global and its AuctionWorks platform, Peterson brings together legal sophistication, real estate expertise, transaction strategy, technology, and national marketing capabilities to create competitive markets for complex assets and execute transactions that often fall outside traditional brokerage models.
state related litigation.
