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.

Madhavi Bokil is an Executive Director, heading the Macro Research Team of the Credit Strategy and Standards Group. She is a member of Moody’s Macro Board and the lead author of Moody’s Global Macroeconomic Outlook.

Before joining Moody’s Ratings Madhavi held positions as Senior Economist at AIG and GE Capital, undertaking global macroeconomic analysis, forecasting and CCAR stress testing. Prior to that she held a faculty position in the Department of Economics at Clark University, where she pursued research in and taught International Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics. She holds a BA in Economics from Fergusson College, Pune, India, a MA in Economics from the University of Mumbai, India and a PhD in International Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

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 Executive 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.

Joe Baksic manages new issuance for the Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF) team at Moody’s Investors Service, where he holds the title of Executive 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.

Deryk Meherik is an Executive 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.

Katie Keenan is the Global Head of Core+ Real Estate and the incoming Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT). She previously served as the Global Co-Chief Investment Officer of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (“BREDS”) and the Chief Executive Officer, President and a Director of Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT), a publicly-traded commercial mortgage REIT managed by Blackstone.

Prior to joining Blackstone in 2012, Ms. Keenan held positions at G2 Investment Group, Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds and in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group at Lehman Brothers.

Ms. Keenan graduated cum laude with an AB in History from Harvard College. She sits on the Board of Directors of Getting Out and Staying Out and the Advisory Board of Governors of NAREIT, and is a member of WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate.

Keith Banhazl is a Managing Director, Co-Head of Americas Structured Finance & Head of Commercial Real Estate Finance, Americas at Moody’s Ratings. He is also the Digital Infrastructure and Data Center Franchise Lead for North America covering Project & Infrastructure, Public Finance, Corporates, REITs, Banking, and Structured. Additionally, he leads the teams responsible for CMBS & CRE CLO new ratings and surveillance at Moody’s Ratings. 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 private credit CRE related products. He is also the coordinator for our cross group CRE related initiatives covering Structured, Banking, Corporates, REITs, Public finance, and Project & Infrastructure. He is Moody’s Global Structured Finance Outreach and Research Coordinator and 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. He is on the Board of Governors at CREFC (Commercial Real Estate Finance Council) and also a Board Member at StreetWise Partners - non-profit organization focusing on mentoring and coaching. 

Mr. Banhazl has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in Economics and History.

Robb holds the position of Executive 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.

Christina Boni is a Senior Vice President with Moody’s Ratings and is responsible for a portfolio of investment grade and speculative grade companies in the retail sector. Prior to joining Moody’s in January 2016, Christina was a Managing Director for Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and a sell-side leverage finance analyst at Credit Suisse. She was voted by clients to the Institutional Investor Fixed Income team for the Retail sector for seven consecutive years. She also was appointed to the Institutional
Investor Fixed Income team for her work in the Supermarket and Food and Beverage sector. 

Christina holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a M.B.A from the Harvard Business School.

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).

Through STS Structured Products on behalf of UBS Investment Bank, Jay focuses on commercial real estate finance and mortgage-back securities (CMBS). Jay has been at his current role for over five years. Prior, Jay was a Managing Director at KPMG LLP within its Economic & Valuation Services practice where he worked for 14 years. At KPMG LLP, Jay provided strategic consulting on project feasibility, investment decisions, buy-side and sell-side due diligence, lease abstracting, market studies, valuation, valuation review, and policy & procedures. 

Jay has a B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University, is a licensed real estate appraiser, and is MAI designated. 

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. Lindner began working with Rialto in March 2010 and is currently a Managing Director of Credit Investments, focused on all aspects of Rialto’s B-Piece platform. Since joining Rialto, Mr. Lindner has been involved in the underwriting and acquisition of over $6B of CMBS bonds across 86 securitizations. Mr. Lindner has also been actively involved in several of Rialto’s separately managed accounts in the CMBS space and began at Rialto as part of its non-performing loan (NPL) platform, underwriting, acquiring and working out loans from the FDIC and Regional Banks.

Prior to Rialto, Mr. Lindner worked at Anglo Irish Bank in the firm’s commercial real estate finance group in New York City, focused on originating, underwriting, structuring and syndicating over $2 billion of loans secured by office, multifamily, retail, condominium and industrial assets.

Prior to Anglo Irish Bank, Mr. Lindner worked at NAI New York City and has also worked as a legislative aide for the New York State Senate.

Mr. Lindner holds a Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech).

Leah Nivison is a Managing Director and Head of Agency CMBS Securitization for BMO Capital Markets. Prior to joining BMO, Leah spent 22 years at Goldman Sachs where she was a Managing Director and Head of CMBS Securitization overseeing the execution of all new issue conduit, SASB, CRE CLO and Agency transactions. Since 2002, she has completed several hundred billion of securitized transactions. She is an active member of CREFC, the trade association for the commercial real estate finance industry where she has served as the Chair of the Executive Committee and sat on the Board of Governors and serves on the Advisory Board of the CREFC Women’s Network. 

Leah is a graduate of Rider University and holds FINRA series 7, 63 and 24 registrations.

Daniel (Dan) Penn is a Managing Director and Head of CRE Capital Markets at Deutsche Bank. Dan has been with CRE group at Deutsche Bank for 15 years and manages the pricing, hedging and syndication of CRE whole loans, conduit and SASB CMBS, Agency CMBS and other CRE-related transactions.

Dan joined Deutsche Bank in 2011 from Deloitte where he was a manager responsible for CMBS, CDO and RMBS structuring, valuations, and FDIC consulting. Prior to joining Deloitte, Dan began his career at Condor Capital, a registered investment advisor specializing in efficient debt and equity investment strategies for high-net-worth individuals and corporate retirement plans.

Andrew Tignanelli is responsible for contributing to the management for the firm’s

taxable fixed income investment strategies with a focus on CRE debt securities.

Mr. Tignanelli joined Lord Abbett in 2024. His previous experience includes serving in

various roles at PGIM including CMBS Portfolio Manager and Credit Research Analyst

and Actuarial Leadership Development Program at Prudential Financial. He has

worked in the financial services industry since 2007.

He earned a BA in mathematics from Duke University. He also is a holder of the

Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) and Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA)

designations.

Brennan Woods is a Vice President in the Real Estate Financing Group at Goldman Sachs. In this role, he is responsible for third-party securitization, including CRE CLOs, agency CMBS and other US CRE-backed securitizations sponsored by the bank’s issuer clients. In addition to these responsibilities, he sources and structures warehouse facilities and manages many of the bank’s CRE warehouse client relationships. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2022, Brennan was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan.

Brennan serves on the board for Apraxia Kids, a non-profit organization. He earned a BS in Economics & Finance from Bentley University and is a CFA charterholder and CAIA charterholder.