2023 Moody’s CMBS/CRE CLO Fall Briefing and Networking Event
How CRE fundamentals & high rates impact performance and shape issuance
* IN-PERSON ONLY EVENT
7 World Trade Center - 52nd Floor
Agenda
13.30
EDT
Registration
14.05
EDT
14.40
EDT
15.25
EDT
Break
15.35
EDT
17.00
EDT
Networking reception
18.00
EDT
Event concludes
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Navneet Agarwal heads the global structured finance ratings business for Moody’s Ratings. Navneet has held leadership roles across asset classes and functions, including new ratings, surveillance, methodology, and technology development. He has also served on the Board of Directors of ICRA Ltd. a publicly traded company in India. Navneet has over two decades of capital markets experience spanning structured and corporate finance, product innovation, and strategic leadership. Prior to Moody’s, he led debt syndication and proprietary trading at a boutique investment bank in India, and held roles in leveraged finance at Bank of America Securities in Charlotte and in absolute return investing as a fund manager at Unit Trust of India.
Navneet holds an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a master’s degree from the University of Mumbai, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delhi. He is also a CFA charterholder.
Darrell Wheeler leads CMBS and CRE CLO research at Moody’s Ratings, with over 30 years in commercial real estate and securitization research. He has developed innovative mortgage models, managed structured finance research at top firms including Cantor Fitzgerald, S&P Global Ratings, and Citigroup, and received multiple accolades, such as repeated Institutional Investors poll rankings. Darrell is also an active contributor and editorial board member for CREFC’s E-primer.
EJ is a Vice President/ Senior Credit Officer for Moody’s Investors Service. She has been with the Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities group since 1998, and has rated transactions in the US and in Japan. She currently oversees the Large Loan/Single Asset Single Borrower segment of CMBS Surveillance. EJ was with Arthur Andersen Hospitality Consulting Group in New York City prior to joining Moody’s, and she also has international hotel operation experience.
EJ has a BA from Ewha Womans University, and a Master of Management in Hospitality from the Hotel School, Cornell University.
Matthew Halpern is an Associate Managing Director within the Structured Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service. He is a team leader within the CMBS Surveillance group focusing on U.S. Conduit/Fusion and Large Loan/Single Borrower transactions. In addition, Matthew is involved in managing the surveillance review of credit assessments for commercial real estate assets within CRE CDO’s and CLO’s as well as Structured Credit transactions. Matthew also has experience rating new CMBS and CRE CDO transactions, and is a contributor to various commercial real estate research initiatives. Prior to joining Moody’s, Matthew worked in the Structured Finance group at Ernst &Young. Matthew graduated from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science.
Deryk Meherik is an Associate Managing Director in Moody’s Structured Finance Group. Deryk is the team lead overseeing the review of primary US CRE CDO/CLO transactions and also contributes to research and methodology development for CRE CDO/CLO products.
He has authored or co-authored three global rating methodologies, including those for structured finance CDOs, SF resecuritizations, and SF interest-only securities. Prior to his current position, Deryk was a lead analyst in the primary CRE team, rating a variety of fixed and floating rate CMBS and CRE CDO transactions, as well as assisting with primary SC MM and BSL CLO deals.
Before joining Moody’s, Deryk was a CRE acquisition and research analyst for a private New York-based real estate firm. He holds a dual M.S. in civil engineering and real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. from the University of Calgary.
Joe Baksic manages new issuance for the Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF) team at Moody’s Investors Service, where he holds the title of Associate Managing Director. His responsibilities encompass all private-label and agency Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) issuance within the United States and Canada.
Joe has over 20 years of professional experience within the industry and has overseen the analysis of CRE issuance across the Conduit, Large Loan/Single Asset Single-Borrower, CLO/CDO, and Non-Performing Loan sectors. He has developed multiple rating methodologies, models, and analytical tools. He has contributed toward research initiatives and authored several publications. He frequently engages with the media to communicate credit views and developments within the sector. Baksic also regularly liaises in the analysis and ratings of other lines of business within Moody’s as a commercial real estate and structured products specialist.
Joe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Robb holds the position of Associate Managing Director at Moody's Investors Service, where he has been part of the Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) New Issuance group since 2006. With a career spanning over 25 years in commercial real estate Robb has developed a deep understanding in commercial real estate, credit analysis, and ratings theory.
In his current position, he co-leads the CMBS New Issuance team, where he has a particular focus on the retail and large loan sectors. This role has allowed him to leverage his knowledge in commercial real estate and structured finance.
Before his tenure at Moody's Investors Service, Robb worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers within the Real Estate Advisory Services Group. Additionally, he also was part of the Real Estate and Lodging Investment Banking Group at JP Morgan.
Robb's gained a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University, and a Master's degree in Real Estate Finance from New York University.
Shaishav has been with CRE, Deutsche Bank for over 18 years and currently heads the capital markets globally. He manages securitization and syndication of CRE whole loans, CRE CLOs, SFR, Agency CMBS and other CRE related transactions. His experience ranges from Underwriting & Rating Agency analysis to Structuring, Pricing and Distribution of CRE loans, CDOs and Correlation trades. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Shaishav worked for 3 years at Banc of America Securities in the CMBS group as a structuring resource.
Prior to that Shaishav worked at Merrill Lynch in Debt Capital Markets.
Shaishav has a BE in Civil Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and an MBA from IIM Bangalore, India.
Marshall Glick is a Senior Vice President and head of the commercial real estate investment team within AllianceBernstein’s Securitized Asset Management Group, He oversees investments in both public and private commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBSs), as well as real estate investment trusts (REITs). He first worked at the firm from 1996 to 2002. From 2002 to 2009, Glick was a managing director and senior credit officer at Fortress Investment Group, where he sourced, underwrote and managed the assets in a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio that included credit-sensitive CMBSs, B-notes, mezzanine debt and whole loans, along with REIT debt and leveraged bank loans. He previously served as vice president, Structured Products, at Alliance Capital Management, where he focused on primary and secondary offerings of CMBSs and covered the REIT debt sector.
Prior to joining Alliance, he was associate director in the Structured Finance Ratings division at Standard & Poor’s Rating Services.
Meena Pursnani is the Sector Lead for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) within structured products for MetLife Investment Management (MIM) Public Fixed Income.
Meena has been with MIM since 2014 and is the team leader for CMBS Credit. Prior to joining MIM, Meena was a portfolio manager and credit research analyst at The Capital Group (American Funds) for five years where her investment responsibilities included CMBS and European Covered bonds. Prior to this role, Meena was a Managing Director at DWS for five years, where she was head of structured research and senior CMBS analyst. Before joining DWS, Meena was a Vice President at Moody’s Investors Service specializing in CMBS. Prior to joining Moody’s, Meena was with UBS and BNY Mellon where she held several roles, within commercial real estate, including loan origination and loan workouts.
Meena earned an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and a B.A. in Biochemistry from Rutgers University. Meena served a three year term on Commercial Real Estate Finance Council’s (CREFC) Investment Grade Bondholders Forum as the Chair Elect (June 2020-June 2021), Chairperson (June 2021-June 2022), and Past -Chair (June 2022-June 2023).
George Voumvourakis heads the rating agency team responsible for all things rating agency within the CMBS group at Morgan Stanley since 2015. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, George headed a similar team at Citi from 2006, inclusive of several years of workouts during the great recession and a return to securitization in 2011. His CMBS career began rating CMBS transactions for Moody’s in 2000. His more than 25 year real estate history began in 1998 and include time at a small real estate developer, Bank Leumi, and MONY Life.
Today, George focuses most of his time on SASB and large loan transactions.
Darrell Wheeler leads CMBS and CRE CLO research at Moody’s Ratings, with over 30 years in commercial real estate and securitization research. He has developed innovative mortgage models, managed structured finance research at top firms including Cantor Fitzgerald, S&P Global Ratings, and Citigroup, and received multiple accolades, such as repeated Institutional Investors poll rankings. Darrell is also an active contributor and editorial board member for CREFC’s E-primer.
Mr. Dann is Prime Finance’s Head of CMBS Investments. Mr. Dann began his career in CMBS at LNR Property Corp in November 1997. LNR is one of the largest and oldest CMBS investors and special servicer. At LNR, he oversaw all facets of credit, investing, and loan origination. Prior to joining LNR, Mr. Dann worked in investment banking for Citigroup in New York City for three years.
Mr. Dann received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Dartmouth College and a Master’s in Business Administration degree from the University of Miami.
Mr. Hayden is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for CMBS and structured CRE debt and a member of the Mortgage Loan Credit Committee at New York Life Real Estate Investors. Prior to joining NYL REI, Mr. Hayden was a Vice President of new issue CMBS and CRE CDO ratings at Moody’s Investors Service. Before Moody’s, he held positions in the MBS and CRE groups at Greenwich Capital Markets and began his career in fixed income sales at Lehman Brothers. He holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation and a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
Alex Killick is Managing Director of CWCapital Asset Management (CWCAM), a third-party special servicing and investment management firm with over $220 of named assignments. Drawing on more than 18 years of experience, Alex leads CWCAM’s special servicing practice, managing a team of loan-workout and REO-operations experts through the resolution of non-performing loans. For each asset in his portfolio, Alex applies a comprehensive approach that involves following CMBS compliance standards while coordinating with project teams including legal counsel, expert vendors, property managers, and leasing brokers, as well as master servicers and other market participants, all to deliver successful outcomes for CMBS bondholders and other third party lender clients.
Outside of his immediate role, Alex serves on the firm’s Credit Committee, reviewing business plans each week to quantify recovery projects and review and approve proposed workout or disposition strategies.
Prior to joining CWCapital, Alex was an origination analyst with J.P. Morgan’s CMBS group in Atlanta, GA. Alex earned a M.A. in Management/Finance from the University of St. Andrews.
Ms. Lee serves as Partner and Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Bridge Debt Strategies Fund Manager LLC. She has more than 19 years of experience in real estate, securitization and financial services.
Prior to Bridge Ms. Lee was an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley where she worked from 2004 to April 2014. From 2013 to April 2014, Ms. Lee was the senior manager responsible for loan pricing, hedging, and structuring for the Commercial Real Estate Lending group within the Fixed Income Division. During her tenure at Morgan Stanley, she was a voting member of the U.S. credit committee and was deeply involved in creating loan pricing models, managing the securitization pipeline, interfacing with rating agencies and investors, and originating loans for securitization. From 2009 to 2013, Ms. Lee was a key contributor in the Commercial Real Estate Lending group at Morgan Stanley where she managed significant portions of the securitization process and helped create new lending procedures for the group. From 2004 to 2009, Ms. Lee was involved in loan acquisitions, underwriting and restructuring of loans, as well as risk management and risk reporting.
Ms. Lee serves as the senior sponsor for both the Bridge Women's Network and Bridge's AAPI (Allies for Asian Americans). She is also a governor of CREFC’s Board of Governors and is a member of CREFC’s Women’s Network and CREFC’s Sustainability Steering Committee.
Ms. Lee received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and her Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.
Lindsey Wright joined KKR in 2022 as Managing Director and Head of Investment Services for the firm’s Real Estate Credit business. She is President and CEO of K-Star Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of KKR Corp, which performs due diligence, underwriting, closing, primary servicing oversight, credit asset management, special servicing, and surveillance activities. Prior to joining KKR, she was a senior managing director and head of special servicing at Greystone, where she managed the loan and REO workout teams, as well as the surveillance, investor reporting and due diligence teams. She joined Greystone as part of the company’s acquisition of the C-III asset management team at the end of 2019. Ms. Wright joined ARCap (acquired by C-III Capital Partners’ predecessor company) in 2001 to be part of the newly formed special servicing platform. During her tenure at the legacy company, she managed the CMBS investor reporting, surveillance and transactions teams. Prior to that, Ms. Wright worked for the Bank of New York in their Irving, Texas asset management shop.
Lindsey received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, summa cum laude, from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Keith Banhazl is a Managing Director and Head of Commercial Real Estate Finance for Americas within the Structured Finance Group and leads the team responsible for CMBS & CRE CLO new ratings and surveillance at Moody’s Investors Service. The team is responsible for reviewing Conduit/Fusion, Large Loan/Single Borrower, Agency CMBS, Credit Tenant Lease, Small Balance Commercial, CRE CLO, CRE CDO and other structured products at Moody’s Investors Service. He is also Moody’s Global Structured Finance Outreach Coordinator. He has been involved in various research initiatives and outreach activities related to the CRE securitization space, publishing and speaking on Moody’s behalf. Prior to being appointed to his current position, Mr. Banhazl was a Managing Director within the Structured Finance Group leading the US CMBS and CRE CLO/CDO Surveillance team and the review of primary US CRE CLO/CDO transactions, including the credit assessment team for commercial real estate assets within CRE CDO’s and CLO’s as well as Structured Credit transactions. Previously at Moody’s, he rated various fixed and floating-rate Conduit/Fusion and Large Loan CMBS transactions. Mr. Banhazl has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in Economics and History
Andrew (Andy) Power is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Digital Realty. Andy also has served as Digital Realty’s President since 2021 and as Chief Financial Officer since 2015 with responsibility for global portfolio operations, technology development and innovation, service provider and enterprise customer solutions, asset management and information technology, as well as the company’s financial functions across its global platform.
Prior to joining Digital Realty, Andy held positions of increasing responsibility at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he most recently served as Managing Director of Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging Investment Banking and was responsible for relationships with over 40 public and private companies, including Digital Realty.
Prior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Andy was employed by Citigroup, where he held similar positions. During his career, he has managed the execution of over $30 billion of public and private capital raises, including the largest REIT IPO to date, and more than $19 billion of merger and acquisition transactions. Andy was part of the lead underwriting team that advised Digital Realty on its initial public offering in 2004 and served as a lead manager on nearly every subsequent public capital raise.
Andy also serves on the Board of Directors of Americold Realty Trust (NYSE: COLD), where he is a member of the audit committee and investment committee. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Analytical Finance from Wake Forest University.
Andrew (Andy) Power is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Digital Realty. Andy also has served as Digital Realty’s President since 2021 and as Chief Financial Officer since 2015 with responsibility for global portfolio operations, technology development and innovation, service provider and enterprise customer solutions, asset management and information technology, as well as the company’s financial functions across its global platform.
Prior to joining Digital Realty, Andy held positions of increasing responsibility at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he most recently served as Managing Director of Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging Investment Banking and was responsible for relationships with over 40 public and private companies, including Digital Realty.
Prior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Andy was employed by Citigroup, where he held similar positions. During his career, he has managed the execution of over $30 billion of public and private capital raises, including the largest REIT IPO to date, and more than $19 billion of merger and acquisition transactions. Andy was part of the lead underwriting team that advised Digital Realty on its initial public offering in 2004 and served as a lead manager on nearly every subsequent public capital raise.
Andy also serves on the Board of Directors of Americold Realty Trust (NYSE: COLD), where he is a member of the audit committee and investment committee. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Analytical Finance from Wake Forest University.
Navneet Agarwal heads the global structured finance ratings business for Moody’s Ratings. Navneet has held leadership roles across asset classes and functions, including new ratings, surveillance, methodology, and technology development. He has also served on the Board of Directors of ICRA Ltd. a publicly traded company in India. Navneet has over two decades of capital markets experience spanning structured and corporate finance, product innovation, and strategic leadership. Prior to Moody’s, he led debt syndication and proprietary trading at a boutique investment bank in India, and held roles in leveraged finance at Bank of America Securities in Charlotte and in absolute return investing as a fund manager at Unit Trust of India.
Navneet holds an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a master’s degree from the University of Mumbai, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delhi. He is also a CFA charterholder.
Shaishav has been with CRE, Deutsche Bank for over 18 years and currently heads the capital markets globally. He manages securitization and syndication of CRE whole loans, CRE CLOs, SFR, Agency CMBS and other CRE related transactions. His experience ranges from Underwriting & Rating Agency analysis to Structuring, Pricing and Distribution of CRE loans, CDOs and Correlation trades. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Shaishav worked for 3 years at Banc of America Securities in the CMBS group as a structuring resource.
Prior to that Shaishav worked at Merrill Lynch in Debt Capital Markets.
Shaishav has a BE in Civil Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and an MBA from IIM Bangalore, India.
Keith Banhazl is a Managing Director and Head of Commercial Real Estate Finance for Americas within the Structured Finance Group and leads the team responsible for CMBS & CRE CLO new ratings and surveillance at Moody’s Investors Service. The team is responsible for reviewing Conduit/Fusion, Large Loan/Single Borrower, Agency CMBS, Credit Tenant Lease, Small Balance Commercial, CRE CLO, CRE CDO and other structured products at Moody’s Investors Service. He is also Moody’s Global Structured Finance Outreach Coordinator. He has been involved in various research initiatives and outreach activities related to the CRE securitization space, publishing and speaking on Moody’s behalf. Prior to being appointed to his current position, Mr. Banhazl was a Managing Director within the Structured Finance Group leading the US CMBS and CRE CLO/CDO Surveillance team and the review of primary US CRE CLO/CDO transactions, including the credit assessment team for commercial real estate assets within CRE CDO’s and CLO’s as well as Structured Credit transactions. Previously at Moody’s, he rated various fixed and floating-rate Conduit/Fusion and Large Loan CMBS transactions. Mr. Banhazl has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in Economics and History
Joe Baksic manages new issuance for the Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF) team at Moody’s Investors Service, where he holds the title of Associate Managing Director. His responsibilities encompass all private-label and agency Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) issuance within the United States and Canada.
Joe has over 20 years of professional experience within the industry and has overseen the analysis of CRE issuance across the Conduit, Large Loan/Single Asset Single-Borrower, CLO/CDO, and Non-Performing Loan sectors. He has developed multiple rating methodologies, models, and analytical tools. He has contributed toward research initiatives and authored several publications. He frequently engages with the media to communicate credit views and developments within the sector. Baksic also regularly liaises in the analysis and ratings of other lines of business within Moody’s as a commercial real estate and structured products specialist.
Joe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Mr. Dann is Prime Finance’s Head of CMBS Investments. Mr. Dann began his career in CMBS at LNR Property Corp in November 1997. LNR is one of the largest and oldest CMBS investors and special servicer. At LNR, he oversaw all facets of credit, investing, and loan origination. Prior to joining LNR, Mr. Dann worked in investment banking for Citigroup in New York City for three years.
Mr. Dann received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Dartmouth College and a Master’s in Business Administration degree from the University of Miami.
Marshall Glick is a Senior Vice President and head of the commercial real estate investment team within AllianceBernstein’s Securitized Asset Management Group, He oversees investments in both public and private commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBSs), as well as real estate investment trusts (REITs). He first worked at the firm from 1996 to 2002. From 2002 to 2009, Glick was a managing director and senior credit officer at Fortress Investment Group, where he sourced, underwrote and managed the assets in a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio that included credit-sensitive CMBSs, B-notes, mezzanine debt and whole loans, along with REIT debt and leveraged bank loans. He previously served as vice president, Structured Products, at Alliance Capital Management, where he focused on primary and secondary offerings of CMBSs and covered the REIT debt sector.
Prior to joining Alliance, he was associate director in the Structured Finance Ratings division at Standard & Poor’s Rating Services.
Mr. Hayden is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for CMBS and structured CRE debt and a member of the Mortgage Loan Credit Committee at New York Life Real Estate Investors. Prior to joining NYL REI, Mr. Hayden was a Vice President of new issue CMBS and CRE CDO ratings at Moody’s Investors Service. Before Moody’s, he held positions in the MBS and CRE groups at Greenwich Capital Markets and began his career in fixed income sales at Lehman Brothers. He holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation and a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
Alex Killick is Managing Director of CWCapital Asset Management (CWCAM), a third-party special servicing and investment management firm with over $220 of named assignments. Drawing on more than 18 years of experience, Alex leads CWCAM’s special servicing practice, managing a team of loan-workout and REO-operations experts through the resolution of non-performing loans. For each asset in his portfolio, Alex applies a comprehensive approach that involves following CMBS compliance standards while coordinating with project teams including legal counsel, expert vendors, property managers, and leasing brokers, as well as master servicers and other market participants, all to deliver successful outcomes for CMBS bondholders and other third party lender clients.
Outside of his immediate role, Alex serves on the firm’s Credit Committee, reviewing business plans each week to quantify recovery projects and review and approve proposed workout or disposition strategies.
Prior to joining CWCapital, Alex was an origination analyst with J.P. Morgan’s CMBS group in Atlanta, GA. Alex earned a M.A. in Management/Finance from the University of St. Andrews.
Ms. Lee serves as Partner and Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Bridge Debt Strategies Fund Manager LLC. She has more than 19 years of experience in real estate, securitization and financial services.
Prior to Bridge Ms. Lee was an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley where she worked from 2004 to April 2014. From 2013 to April 2014, Ms. Lee was the senior manager responsible for loan pricing, hedging, and structuring for the Commercial Real Estate Lending group within the Fixed Income Division. During her tenure at Morgan Stanley, she was a voting member of the U.S. credit committee and was deeply involved in creating loan pricing models, managing the securitization pipeline, interfacing with rating agencies and investors, and originating loans for securitization. From 2009 to 2013, Ms. Lee was a key contributor in the Commercial Real Estate Lending group at Morgan Stanley where she managed significant portions of the securitization process and helped create new lending procedures for the group. From 2004 to 2009, Ms. Lee was involved in loan acquisitions, underwriting and restructuring of loans, as well as risk management and risk reporting.
Ms. Lee serves as the senior sponsor for both the Bridge Women's Network and Bridge's AAPI (Allies for Asian Americans). She is also a governor of CREFC’s Board of Governors and is a member of CREFC’s Women’s Network and CREFC’s Sustainability Steering Committee.
Ms. Lee received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and her Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.
Matthew Halpern is an Associate Managing Director within the Structured Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service. He is a team leader within the CMBS Surveillance group focusing on U.S. Conduit/Fusion and Large Loan/Single Borrower transactions. In addition, Matthew is involved in managing the surveillance review of credit assessments for commercial real estate assets within CRE CDO’s and CLO’s as well as Structured Credit transactions. Matthew also has experience rating new CMBS and CRE CDO transactions, and is a contributor to various commercial real estate research initiatives. Prior to joining Moody’s, Matthew worked in the Structured Finance group at Ernst &Young. Matthew graduated from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science.
Deryk Meherik is an Associate Managing Director in Moody’s Structured Finance Group. Deryk is the team lead overseeing the review of primary US CRE CDO/CLO transactions and also contributes to research and methodology development for CRE CDO/CLO products.
He has authored or co-authored three global rating methodologies, including those for structured finance CDOs, SF resecuritizations, and SF interest-only securities. Prior to his current position, Deryk was a lead analyst in the primary CRE team, rating a variety of fixed and floating rate CMBS and CRE CDO transactions, as well as assisting with primary SC MM and BSL CLO deals.
Before joining Moody’s, Deryk was a CRE acquisition and research analyst for a private New York-based real estate firm. He holds a dual M.S. in civil engineering and real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. from the University of Calgary.
Robb holds the position of Associate Managing Director at Moody's Investors Service, where he has been part of the Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) New Issuance group since 2006. With a career spanning over 25 years in commercial real estate Robb has developed a deep understanding in commercial real estate, credit analysis, and ratings theory.
In his current position, he co-leads the CMBS New Issuance team, where he has a particular focus on the retail and large loan sectors. This role has allowed him to leverage his knowledge in commercial real estate and structured finance.
Before his tenure at Moody's Investors Service, Robb worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers within the Real Estate Advisory Services Group. Additionally, he also was part of the Real Estate and Lodging Investment Banking Group at JP Morgan.
Robb's gained a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University, and a Master's degree in Real Estate Finance from New York University.
EJ is a Vice President/ Senior Credit Officer for Moody’s Investors Service. She has been with the Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities group since 1998, and has rated transactions in the US and in Japan. She currently oversees the Large Loan/Single Asset Single Borrower segment of CMBS Surveillance. EJ was with Arthur Andersen Hospitality Consulting Group in New York City prior to joining Moody’s, and she also has international hotel operation experience.
EJ has a BA from Ewha Womans University, and a Master of Management in Hospitality from the Hotel School, Cornell University.
Meena Pursnani is the Sector Lead for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) within structured products for MetLife Investment Management (MIM) Public Fixed Income.
Meena has been with MIM since 2014 and is the team leader for CMBS Credit. Prior to joining MIM, Meena was a portfolio manager and credit research analyst at The Capital Group (American Funds) for five years where her investment responsibilities included CMBS and European Covered bonds. Prior to this role, Meena was a Managing Director at DWS for five years, where she was head of structured research and senior CMBS analyst. Before joining DWS, Meena was a Vice President at Moody’s Investors Service specializing in CMBS. Prior to joining Moody’s, Meena was with UBS and BNY Mellon where she held several roles, within commercial real estate, including loan origination and loan workouts.
Meena earned an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and a B.A. in Biochemistry from Rutgers University. Meena served a three year term on Commercial Real Estate Finance Council’s (CREFC) Investment Grade Bondholders Forum as the Chair Elect (June 2020-June 2021), Chairperson (June 2021-June 2022), and Past -Chair (June 2022-June 2023).
George Voumvourakis heads the rating agency team responsible for all things rating agency within the CMBS group at Morgan Stanley since 2015. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, George headed a similar team at Citi from 2006, inclusive of several years of workouts during the great recession and a return to securitization in 2011. His CMBS career began rating CMBS transactions for Moody’s in 2000. His more than 25 year real estate history began in 1998 and include time at a small real estate developer, Bank Leumi, and MONY Life.
Today, George focuses most of his time on SASB and large loan transactions.
Darrell Wheeler leads CMBS and CRE CLO research at Moody’s Ratings, with over 30 years in commercial real estate and securitization research. He has developed innovative mortgage models, managed structured finance research at top firms including Cantor Fitzgerald, S&P Global Ratings, and Citigroup, and received multiple accolades, such as repeated Institutional Investors poll rankings. Darrell is also an active contributor and editorial board member for CREFC’s E-primer.
Lindsey Wright joined KKR in 2022 as Managing Director and Head of Investment Services for the firm’s Real Estate Credit business. She is President and CEO of K-Star Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of KKR Corp, which performs due diligence, underwriting, closing, primary servicing oversight, credit asset management, special servicing, and surveillance activities. Prior to joining KKR, she was a senior managing director and head of special servicing at Greystone, where she managed the loan and REO workout teams, as well as the surveillance, investor reporting and due diligence teams. She joined Greystone as part of the company’s acquisition of the C-III asset management team at the end of 2019. Ms. Wright joined ARCap (acquired by C-III Capital Partners’ predecessor company) in 2001 to be part of the newly formed special servicing platform. During her tenure at the legacy company, she managed the CMBS investor reporting, surveillance and transactions teams. Prior to that, Ms. Wright worked for the Bank of New York in their Irving, Texas asset management shop.
Lindsey received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, summa cum laude, from the University of Texas at Arlington.