The CRE Finance Council Announces New Chairs for Industry Forums

New Chairs and Chair-Elects Introduced at Annual June Conference

NEW YORK, June 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) announced new Chairs for the 2025-2026 industry Forums. The new Forum leadership was elected at CREFC's Annual June Conference in New York City on Tuesday.

CREFC's Forums represent specific market constituencies that drive the U.S. commercial real estate finance industry. Forums include:

• Alternative Lenders and High-Yield Investors
• CMBS B-Piece Investors
• CMBS Investment-Grade Bondholders
• CMBS Issuers
• CMBS Servicers
  • Master Servicers
  • Special Servicers
• GSE/Multifamily Lenders
• Portfolio Lenders
  • Bank Lenders
  • Insurance Company Lenders

Each Forum interacts and addresses issues critical to their business sector, while working to achieve solutions that serve a common purpose. CREFC's Forums manage disparate and converging market views, advocate a consensus of positions to policymakers and lawmakers, educate members, develop market best practices and standards, and work to improve the entire commercial real estate finance market.

The incoming slate of Forum leaders includes:

B-Piece Investors. CREFC welcomes Josh Brand (Argentic) as Chair-Elect, Frank Yin (KKR) as Chair, and Peter Lindner (Rialto Capital Advisors) as Past-Chair. In 2024-2025, Jason Nick (Starwood Property Trust) was Past-Chair.

GSE/Multifamily Lenders. CREFC welcomes Lee Green (Wells Fargo) as Chair-Elect, David Haynes (CBRE Multifamily Capital, Inc.) as Chair, Ahmed Hasan (Capital One) as Past-Chair. John Jang (Fannie Mae) and Jason Griest (Freddie Mac) serve as GSE representatives. In 2024-2025, the Past-Chair was Kate Whalen (BMO).

Investment-Grade Bondholders. CREFC welcomes Wendy Pei (Ellington Management) as Chair-Elect, Adam Smith (DWS) as Chair, and Rajesh Bansal (Quiq Capital) as Past-Chair. In 2024-2025, Richard Razza (Webster Bank) served as Past-Chair.

Issuers. CREFC welcomes Scott Epperson (Goldman Sachs) as Chair-Elect, Shaishav Agarwal (Deutsche Bank) as Chair, and Brigid M. Mattingly (Wells Fargo) as Past-Chair. In 2024-2025, Jane Lam (Morgan Stanley) served as Past-Chair.

Portfolio Lenders – Bank Lender Subforum. CREFC welcomes Bridget Scanlon (Morgan Stanley) as Chair-Elect, Kristin Khanna (Barclays) as Chair, and Robert Grudzinski (U.S. Bank) as Past-Chair. In 2024-2025, Scott Dixon (Truist) was Past-Chair.

Portfolio Lenders – Insurance Company Lenders Subforum. CREFC welcomes Kevin Catlett (Principal Real Estate Investors) as Chair-Elect, Melissa Farrell (PGIM) as Chair, and Kevin Pivnick (Blackstone) as Past-Chair. In 2024-2025, Chris Miculis (Nuveen) served as Past-Chair.

Servicers. CREFC welcomes Amanda Dugat (SitusAMC) and Brett Mann (LNR Partners) as Chairs-Elect, Dana Jo Martino (Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC) and Alex Killick (CWCapital) as Co-Chairs, and Adam Fox (Fitch Ratings) and Pamela Dent as Past-Chairs. In 2024-2025, Leslie Hayton (Trimont) and Tony Yousif (SVN) served as Past-Chairs.

The following slate of Forum leaders remains unchanged this year:

Alternative Lenders & High-Yield Investors. Rachel Hunter-Goldman (KKR) remains as Chair-Elect, Samantha Rotchford (BDT & MSD Partners) serves as Chair, and Samir Tejpaul (Madison Realty Capital) continues as Past-Chair.

"We are excited to welcome the new members to our industry Forums and we want to thank the existing and past Forum members for their dedication and continued support of our work," said Lisa Pendergast, President and CEO of CREFC.

"CREFC's industry Forums work to ensure there is consensus among their constituents and advocate on behalf of them with other industry participants, policymakers, and lawmakers. By playing a key role in developing industry practices and implementing initiatives to support their members, Forum leaders help to ensure all voices are heard. We are grateful for their dedication to CRE finance and their contributions, which ensure the industry continues to innovate and evolve."

About CREFC
The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) is the trade association for the nearly $6 trillion commercial real estate finance industry, with a membership that includes approximately 400 companies and 19,000 individuals. Member firms include balance sheet and securitized lenders, loan and bond investors, private equity firms, servicers, rating agencies, and borrowers. For more than 30 years, CREFC has promoted liquidity, transparency, and efficiency in the commercial real estate finance markets, and functioned as a legislative and regulatory advocate for the industry, playing a vital role in setting market standards and best practices and providing education for market participants.

SOURCE CRE Finance Council