Board of Directors

Steven R. Mumma

Chairman

Steven R. Mumma is our Chairman. Mr. Mumma was Executive Chairman January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.  Mr. Mumma served as Chief Executive Officer from February 3, 2009 to December 31, 2021.  Mr. Mumma was named Chairman of our Board of Directors effective as of March 30, 2015 and also served as our President until May 16, 2016.  Mr. Mumma was appointed President and Co-Chief Executive Officer effective March 31, 2007, which marked the divestment of the Company’s mortgage lending business, and served as Chief Financial Officer from November 2006 to October 2010. Prior to serving in the above capacities, Mr. Mumma served as our Chief Investment Officer, a position to which he was named in July 2005, and as Chief Operating Officer, commencing in November 2003. From September 2000 to September 2003, Mr. Mumma was a Vice President of Natexis ABM Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Natexis Banques Populaires. From 1997 to 2000, Mr. Mumma served as a Vice President of Mortgage-Backed Securities trading for Credit Agricole. Prior to joining Credit Agricole, from 1988 to 1997, Mr. Mumma was a Vice President of Natexis ABM Corp. Prior to joining Natexis ABM Corp., from 1986 to 1988, Mr. Mumma was a Controller for PaineWebber Real Estate Securities Inc., the mortgage-backed trading subsidiary of PaineWebber Inc. Prior to joining PaineWebber, from 1981 to 1985, Mr. Mumma worked for Citibank in its Capital Markets Group, as well as for Ernst & Young LLP. Mr. Mumma received a B.B.A. cum laude from Texas A&M University.

Jason T. Serrano

Chief Executive Officer

Jason T. Serrano serves as our Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Serrano was appointed Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2022. On January 7, 2019, the Board of Directors appointed Mr. Serrano to serve as the President of the Company. The Board of Directors appointed Mr. Serrano as a director of the Company on March 19, 2019. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Serrano was a Partner at Oak Hill Advisors, L.P. (“OHA”), an alternative investment management firm, from April 2008 to December 2018. While at OHA, Mr. Serrano ran the mortgage investment business. Prior to joining OHA, Mr. Serrano served as a Principal at The Blackstone Group, where he led the structured finance investment team. Before Blackstone, he spent five years at Fortress Investment Group as Vice President, assisting in the management of $2 billion of distressed structured products and whole-loan portfolios. He also spent five years at Moody’s as a rating analyst for collateralized debt obligations and derivatives. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Oswego State University.

Lisa A. Pendergast

Independent Director

Lisa A. Pendergast has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 15, 2018.  Ms. Pendergast has served as the Executive Director of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) since September 2016. Prior to joining CREFC, Ms.  Pendergast spent over 25 years in the fixed-income structured-finance markets; first in the MBS/ABS markets and then, beginning in 1998, the CMBS market.

Ms. Pendergast has been a leading research analyst in the highly competitive Institutional Investor All-American Fixed-Income Research Team and Orion surveys in the CMBS category. Throughout her career, Ms. Pendergast provided analysis and commentary on commercial real estate credit fundamentals and relative value within the private-label and agency CMBS and structured-product markets, and published several articles and reports on various aspects of the CMBS markets that appear in industry handbooks and academic journals.

Prior to joining CREFC, Ms. Pendergast was with Jefferies Group LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation. She joined Jefferies in July 2009 as a Managing Director and Head of CMBS Strategy and Risk in the Fixed Income Division’s MBS/ABS/CMBS Group. Before joining Jefferies, Ms. Pendergast was a Managing Director in the Fixed-Income Strategies Group at the Royal Bank of Scotland/Greenwich Capital, where she worked for eight years. Ms. Pendergast began her career in 1987 as a research analyst focused on single family and commercial MBS at Prudential Securities.

Ms. Pendergast has a long history with the CREFC, having served as President of the Board of Governors in 2010 and as a Board member from 2001 through 2010.   Ms. Pendergast received a B.A. in English Literature and Political Science from Marymount College of Fordham University.

Michael B. Clement

Independent Director

Michael Clement has served as a member of our Board of Directors since June 2016. Mr. Clement has been a professor in the Department of Accounting at the University of Texas at Austin since 2011 and served as an associate professor from 2004 to 2011 and as an assistant professor from 1997 to 2002 in the Department of Accounting of the University of Texas at Austin. From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Clement was the Vice President of Global Investment Research for Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. Clement was a Vice President of Capital Planning and Analysis and a Manager of the Audit Division from 1982-1986 at Citicorp. Prior to his employment at Citicorp, Mr. Clement was a Senior Assistant Accountant at Deloitte Haskins & Sells. Mr. Clement holds a B.B.A. in Accounting from Baruch College, an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Accounting from Stanford University. Mr. Clement also serves on the Board of the AXA Equitable funds complex, where he serves as member of the audit committee.

Steven G. Norcutt

Lead Independent Director

Steven G. Norcutt has served as a member of our Board of Directors since completion of our IPO in June 2004. Mr. Norcutt has served since October 2009 as the President of Schafer Richardson, Inc., a commercial real estate management, construction, development, leasing and investment company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From April 2008 to October 2009, Mr. Norcutt served as Senior Vice President - Regional Manager of Guaranteed Rate Mortgage, a single family mortgage banking company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to joining Guaranteed Rate, Mr. Norcutt served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Centennial Mortgage and Funding, Inc., a single family mortgage banking company based in Minnesota. Prior to joining Centennial Mortgage and Funding, Inc., Mr. Norcutt served as Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager of Structured Finance for Reliastar Investment Research, Inc. from 1993 through 2001. Mr. Norcutt joined Reliastar Investment Research, Inc. in 1988 as Vice President and Portfolio Manager of Single Family Mortgage Loans. Mr. Norcutt received an M.B.A. in Finance from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Finance from St. Cloud State University.

Audrey E. Greenberg

Independent Director

The Board of Directors appointed Ms. Greenberg as a director of the Company effective July 9, 2021. Ms. Greenberg is Co-Founder, Board Member and Executive Managing Director of Discovery Labs and its sister operating company, Center for Breakthrough Medicines, a biopharma real estate and services platform enabling the path to commercialization for novel cell and gene therapies. Ms. Greenberg’s diverse experience spans over two decades in real estate private equity where she managed several REITs, including time as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President at ING Clarion Partners, Senior Vice President at Exeter Property Group, and Chief Financial Officer and Principal at CBRE Global Investors. Prior to her time in private equity, Ms. Greenberg worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Ms. Greenberg started her career in public accounting at Deloitte and has an MBA from Wharton.

Eugenia R. Cheng

Independent Director

The Board of Directors appointed Ms. Cheng as a director of the Company effective June 6, 2022. Ms. Cheng is currently Managing Principal of Prospect Avenue Partners, a position she has held since August 2019. From July 2014 to February 2019, Ms. Cheng was Managing Director, Global Investors Group, of USAA Real Estate Company. From March 2010 to March 2014, Ms. Cheng served as Managing Director, Marketing and Investor Relations, of Forum Partners. Prior to her employment at Forum Partners, Ms. Cheng was Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of JT Partners LLC from October 2006 to August 2009. From 2002 to 2006, Ms. Cheng was a Portfolio Manager, Private Real Estate, at ABP Investments US (now APG Asset Management). Ms. Cheng was an Associate in Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc.’s investment banking division from 2000 to 2002. From 1993 to 1996, Ms. Cheng was a consultant with Arthur Andersen LLP’s real estate advisory services. Ms. Cheng holds a B.A. in Architectural Theory and Design from Princeton University and a J.D. and M.B.A. from New York University. Since October 2021, Ms. Cheng has also served on the board of directors, compensation committee and governance committee of Generation Income Properties, Inc., a publicly traded REIT focused on the net lease sector.