Meridian Creates COO Post

Jim Reichek, a 15-year veteran of the real estate finance industry, has been named to the newly created position of chief operating officer at Meridian Capital Group LLC, New York.Mr. Reichek, who will assume the new post on Sept. 2, is a managing director of Kushner Cos., a real estate firm based in Florham Park, N.J. He was previously a senior managing director at Bear, Stearns & Co., where he created and managed the firm's commercial mortgage department. Meridian, a mortgage broker for multifamily properties in the Northeast, said the appointment is aimed at helping to manage the company's "rapid growth and national expansion." The company said it is expanding into new markets such as Connecticut, South Florida, and the Philadelphia and Baltimore/Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas, and plans to enter the Chicago market in the next several months.