Annaly Capital Management Inc., which is in the process of buying commercial mortgage lender Crexus Investment Corp., has hired several people for its existing CRE platform.
Wellington Denahan, chairman and CEO, said, “Given the size of the opportunity that we see in the commercial real estate market, we are investing in additional personnel to further complement our origination, underwriting and asset management capabilities.”
The Crexus deal will close on May 23. Prior to the acquisition agreement,
Robert Restrick, managing director of Annaly, will run the CRE platform. He joined Fidac in April 2010 as executive vice president and has served as Crexus’ chief operating officer since June 2011. He previously was an executive at CWCapital Investments LLC.
Donald Haber has joined Annaly as managing director, head of commercial real estate credit. Most recently, he was co-chief credit officer at Cantor Commercial Real Estate.
Peter Morral will be executive director, focused on origination. He is a former managing director at UBS Securities LLC and also worked at Wachovia Securities, Standard & Poor’s and Bank of America Securities.
Guy Romaniello also has the title of executive director, focused on origination. He comes from CIBC World Markets, where he was responsible for originating commercial loans for the bank’s balance sheet and for securitization.
The new executive vice president, focused on origination, is Matt Higgins, most recently executive director at UBS Real Estate Securities where he was responsible for originating $2.3 billion in secured CRE debt.
Others joining Annaly are Michael Jo, associate general counsel; Henry Gom, senior vice president; and Greg Kiely, senior vice president focused on underwriting.
