ARIZONA
SCOTTSDALE
Spirit Finance Corp. appointed Thomas Nolan as chairman and chief executive officer, succeeding Chuck Cremens as CEO.
Nolan brings to the company over 25 years of REIT and capital markets experience.
He previously served as chief operating officer at General Growth Properties from 2009 to 2010, becoming president in 2008 and was a director of the company from 2005 to 2010.
CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
Preferred Bank appointed Wellington Chen senior executive vice president.
Pending notice of nondisapproval from the FDIC and the California Department of Financial Institutions he will also be appointed chief operating officer.
Prior to joining Preferred Bank, Chen was executive vice president and director of corporate banking for East-West Bank in Pasadena.
Prior to that, he was senior executive vice president and a director of Far East National Bank in Los Angeles.
FLORIDA
FORT MYERS
Hudson Realty Capital’s Southeast regional office appointed Timothy Hall and Edward Wacker as vice president and associate, respectively.
Hall joins Hudson from the regional accounting firm of Thompson, Cobb and Bazilio in Washington, where he was the asset portfolio manager.
Previously, he was a board member and chairman of the loan committee for Chesapeake Capital, senior vice president at Provident Bank of Maryland, and group vice president and deputy director of the Real Estate Resolution Group at First American Bank.
Prior to his new role at Hudson, Wacker was assistant vice president of finance and asset management for McGarvey Development and J. McGarvey Construction.
He formerly served as a senior credit analyst with Colonial Bank NA.
MIAMI
Parmenter Realty Partners appointed Timothy Shine as a managing principal of the firm.
Shine has more than 30 years of institutional real estate experience, and prior to joining Parmenter held the position of managing director and co-head of Commonfund Realty since 2000.
Prior to joining Commonfund, his real estate experience included positions with CB Richard Ellis Investors, formerly Westmark Realty Advisors/TCW Realty Advisors, as well as with the New Boston Fund.
INDIANA
FISHERS
Stonegate Mortgage Corp. hired Dan Bettenburg as president.
Prior to joining Stonegate, Bettenburg was executive vice president and senior managing director at GMAC-Residential Funding Corp. where he was employed for over 17 years.
MARYLAND
ROCKVILLE
Federal Realty Investment Trust said that Jeffrey Chambers has joined the trust as senior director of development and acquisitions, West Coast.
Chambers most recently served as director at WestCap Corp., a commercial mortgage banking and investment firm, where he sourced acquisitions for clients and new lending opportunities for life insurance companies and pension funds.
Prior to that, he was vice president, development at Donahue Schriber Realty Group where he sourced, underwrote, acquired, developed and managed shopping centers in Southern California and Nevada.
NEW YORK
NEW YORK
RREEF, the real estate investment business of Deutsche Bank’s asset management division, said that Mark Roberts joined the firm as a managing director and global head of research.
Roberts brings more than 25 years of real estate experience to RREEF.
He joins from Invesco Real Estate where he was most recently the global director of research, chairman of the firm’s investment strategy group, and a member of the executive and investment committees.
NORTH CAROLINA
CHARLOTTE
Real Estate Mortgage Network Inc. said that Richard Lester is taking on the newly created role of area manager for the Carolinas region.
Lester comes to REMN with more than 30 years experience in the mortgage industry garnered from working with both bank and nonbank lenders.
He most recently held the position of senior vice president with Charlotte’s Fifth Third Bank, and also held senior positions with PNC Bank Mortgage, Banc One Mortgage Corp. and Diamond Savings & Loan Co.
CHARLOTTE
Ginkgo Residential named Nazar Elwazir as director of acquisitions.
Elwazir will oversee the growth of Ginkgo’s apartment portfolio, including the identification and evaluation of acquisition opportunities throughout the Southern United States.
He was previously an associate in the real estate investment banking group at Deutsche Bank Securities.
PENNSYLVANIA
FORT WASHINGTON
Aklero Risk Analytics Inc., a provider of automated data and document validity assurance for the mortgage industry, promoted Craig Riddell to senior vice president, client solutions.
Riddell previously was Aklero’s vice president of product management and client relations.
He brings to the company more than 20 years of industry experience.
PITTSBURGH
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh said that Kristina K. Williams has been named chief operating officer in addition to her role as chief financial officer.
Williams joined the FHLBank of Pittsburgh in December 2004 as chief accounting officer and became chief financial officer in February 2006.
In August 2010, she was promoted to executive vice president and chief financial officer with additional responsibility for oversight of technology and operating services.
Prior to joining the bank, she served as chief financial officer of wholesale banking for PNC Financial Services Group.
TEXAS
AUSTIN
Holliday Fenoglio Fowler said that Douglas Opalka has joined the firm as a managing director in its Austin office.
He has more than 12 years of experience in commercial real estate finance and joins HFF from Texas Realty Capital, where he was a partner and founding member.
Prior to that, Opalka worked at GMAC Commercial Mortgage, and began his career as a real estate analyst at Archon Group/Goldman Sachs.
