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Jay Sugarman
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
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Jay Sugarman is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iStar Financial (NYSE: SFI), a leading provider of custom-tailored capital to high-end private and corporate owners of real estate in the United |
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States. iStar also invests in other investment areas through its European, AutoStar and TimberStar platforms, and in the leveraged finance markets through its affiliate, Oak Hill Advisors.
Prior to forming iStar Financial and its predecessors, Mr. Sugarman managed private investment funds on behalf of the Burden family, a branch of the Vanderbilts, and the Ziff family. Mr. Sugarman received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, where he was nominated for valedictorian and received the Paul Volcker Award in Economics, and his M.B.A. with highest distinction from Harvard Business School, graduating as a Baker Scholar and recipient of the school’s academic prizes for both finance and marketing. |
James D. Burns
Chief Financial Officer
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Jim Burns serves as Chief Financial Officer of iStar Financial. Prior to assuming this position, he served as Treasurer of iStar Financial since 2003. Mr. Burns is responsible for managing all of iStar Financial's capital raising initiatives, |
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| financial reporting and investor relations activities. He also supervises all other finance, treasury and accounting functions. Prior to joining iStar Financial, Mr. Burns was Global Treasurer of Cantor Fitzgerald. He also worked for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong as Treasurer of the Asia-Pacific region and in New York as Treasurer of the Americas region. Previously Mr. Burns held various positions in capital markets, capital planning and cash management at PepsiCo, Inc. He received his M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and his A.B. in Economics from Harvard College. |
Nina B. Matis
Chief Legal Officer & Chief Investment Officer
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Nina Matis currently serves as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Investment Officer of iStar Financial. She assumed her current position after service as Executive Vice President since 1999 and as General Counsel |
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| of iStar Financial (and its predecessor) since 1996. Ms. Matis is responsible for legal, tax, structuring and regulatory aspects of iStar Financial`s operations and investment and financing transactions. From 1984 through 1987, Ms. Matis was an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law where she taught real estate transactions. She is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, Ely Chapter of Lambda Alpha International, the Chicago Finance Exchange, the Urban Land Institute, REFF, the Chicago Real Estate Executive Women, The Chicago Network and The Economic Club of Chicago. She was recently named by the International Who`s Who of Business Lawyers as the World`s Leading Real Estate Attorney. Additionally, in 2005 she was selected as a LawDragon 500 Leading Lawyer in America as well as being listed for the third consecutive year in Chambers USA as one of America`s Leading Lawyers for Business. Ms. Matis received a B.A. degree with honors from Smith College and a J.D. degree from New York University School of Law. |
Daniel S. Abrams
Executive Vice President - Investments
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Dan Abrams has served as Executive Vice President of iStar Financial since November 2001. Previously, Mr. Abrams was a founding principal of Citadel Realty Group, LLC, a New York based |
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| boutique investment bank specializing in advisory work and debt and equity placements for all forms of commercial real estate properties and companies in North America and Europe. Prior to forming Citadel, Mr. Abrams was a Managing Director at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, where he was responsible for the hospitality and leisure practice, focusing on debt originations, equity offerings and advisory assignments to public and private companies in that area. Before DLJ, Mr. Abrams was a Managing Director and the head of the Hospitality Finance Group of Nomura Capital. While at Nomura Capital, Mr. Abrams led the financing of over $6.5 billion in the hospitality sector and over $600 million in the office, multifamily and retail sectors. Before joining Nomura Capital in 1993, Mr. Abrams had been a partner at Rosenman & Colin, a major New York City law firm. He received an LL.M. in Taxation from the New York University School of Law; a JD from the National Law Center of the George Washington University, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review; and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as a member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Industry Real Estate Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC) and is a member of the Hotel Development Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). |
Steven R. Blomquist
Executive Vice President - Investments
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Steve Blomquist has served as Executive Vice President – Investments of iStar Financial since January 2003. He assumed his current position after serving as Senior Vice President – |
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| Investments since September 1998. Mr. Blomquist is responsible for the origination and acquisition of new financing with borrowers in the Phoenix Home Life-serviced mortgage loan portfolio and related loan correspondents. He also shares responsibility for managing several of iStar Financial’s relationships with financial institutions and other loan correspondents. Mr. Blomquist has over 24 years of loan origination and investment management experience. Previously, Mr. Blomquist was Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Phoenix Realty Securities, a Phoenix Home Life subsidiary specializing in providing real estate securities investment advisory services. Mr. Blomquist directed the origination of over $1.5 billion of mortgage loans and maintains strong correspondent and borrower relationships. Prior to this position, Mr. Blomquist was responsible for the debt and equity management of $750 million Phoenix Home Life portfolio in the Western United States. Mr. Blomquist is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), and received both his bachelor’s degree and an M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut. |
Chase S. Curtis, Jr.
Executive Vice President - Credit
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Chase Curtis has served as Executive Vice President – Credit of iStar Financial since January 2005. He assumed his current position after serving as Senior Vice President – Credit since June 2001. |
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| He is responsible for coordinating the initial and on-going underwriting of corporate credit risk, with a particular emphasis on corporate tenant risk assessment. He joined iStar Financial in 2001 from Bank of America following a 16-year career in credit risk management and structured corporate finance. Immediately before joining iStar, Mr. Curtis was the Chief Credit Officer of Bank of America Commercial Finance responsible for its credit approvals, risk policy and risk process controls. Prior to that, he was on a three-year assignment in Hong Kong as an executive credit risk review officer overseeing portfolio, transactional, business and overall strategic risk assessment across Asia. He began his financial services career in 1985 with Continental Illinois National Bank initially as a specialist lender in mining, construction, natural resource and project finance and subsequently highly leveraged corporate finance. Mr. Curtis holds an M.S. from the University of Arizona and a B.S. degree with high honors from Bates College. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. |
R. Michael Dorsch III
Executive Vice President - Investments
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R. Michael Dorsch III has served as Executive Vice President - Investments of iStar Financial since March 2000. Prior to joining iStar Financial, Mr. Dorsch was a principal of ACRE Partners LLC, a privately |
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| held firm focused on providing public and private corporations with highly-structured, value-added financing solutions for their corporate real estate facilities. Mr. Dorsch was a founder and managing partner of Corporate Realty Capital, a Boston-based real estate investment bank from 1990 to 1997. CRC was formed as an affiliate of Corporate Property Investors and focused on originating, structuring and financing net lease transactions. Prior to the formation of CRC, Mr. Dorsch was a partner in a Boston-based real estate development, ownership and management concern. From 1984 to 1986, Mr. Dorsch was a vice president of Winthrop Financial Associates, a private real estate syndication firm. Mr. Dorsch graduated with a Sc.B. in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University and has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. |
Barclay G. Jones III
Executive Vice President - Investments
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Barclay G. Jones III has served as Executive Vice President - Investments of iStar Financial since March 2000, focusing on the Company`s corporate finance and leasing business. Prior to joining |
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| iStar Financial, Mr. Jones was a principal of ACRE Partners LLC, a privately held firm focused on providing public and private corporations with highly-structured, value-added financing solutions for their corporate real estate facilities. Prior to that, Mr. Jones served in a variety of capacities, including vice chairman and chief acquisitions officer, for W.P. Carey & Co., Inc. from 1982 to 1998. During that period, Mr. Jones was responsible for originating in excess of $2 billion of sale-leaseback financings and over $1 billion of mortgage placements. During his tenure at W.P. Carey, the firm grew from fewer than 10 employees to over 70, and from approximately $100 million in assets to over $2.5 billion. Mr. Jones holds a B.S. degree in economics from of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. |
Michelle M. MacKay
Executive Vice President - Investments
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Michelle MacKay has served as Executive Vice President – Investments of iStar Financial since February 2003, and Head of Corporate Fixed Income since April 2005. Ms. MacKay is responsible for |
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| direct real estate origination, working with real estate opportunity funds as well as Oak Hill Advisors. She joined iStar Financial from UBS Warburg, where she was an Executive Director in commercial real estate and a senior member of the commercial real estate approval committee. She originated and closed over $1 billion of first mortgage and mezzanine real estate transactions while at UBS. Ms. MacKay was also responsible for mezzanine structuring and distribution. From 1996 to 1998, Ms. MacKay was Vice President at Chase Bank where she was part of a two-person team hired to establish the commercial mortgage-backed securities trading desk and real estate products distribution. Prior to Chase, Ms. MacKay created and managed a $1.8 billion portfolio of real estate investments at The Hartford (HIMCO). Her responsibilities included analyzing and investing in CMBS, CMBS IO, unsecured REIT debt, FNMA multifamily, credit tenant lease structures and junk rated real estate companies. Ms. Mackay holds an M.B.A. from the University of Hartford and a B.A. from the University of Connecticut. |
Barbara Rubin
President - iStar Asset Services, Inc
| Barb Rubin has served as President of iStar Asset Services, Inc. since September 1998 in our Hartford-based loan asset management and servicing operation. She has more than 20 years of real estate investment experience, including loan and real estate equity origination, portfolio management, loan servicing, and capital markets activities. Prior to joining iStar Financial, Ms. Rubin was President and Chief Operating Officer of Phoenix Realty Securities, Inc., a real estate advisory operation that managed portfolios of real estate securities (including mortgage loan investments and real estate equity securities). She is currently Chair of the Connecticut Health and Education Facilities Authority. Ms. Rubin received a B.A. from Williams College and an M.B.A from the University of Connecticut. |
Vernon Schwartz
President - AutoStar
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Vernon B. Schwartz is the President of AutoStar. Mr. Schwartz has been active in real estate investment and development for almost 30 years. Previously, Mr. Schwartz was a founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of
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| Falcon Financial, the predecessor of AutoStar before it was acquired by iStar Financial in 2005. Prior to forming Falcon Financial, Mr. Schwartz was the Chief Executive Officer of Soros Real Estate Advisors, the advisor to Quantum Realty Partners, an offshore real estate investment fund sponsored by George Soros and Paul Reichmann. Prior to that, he was Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Catellus Development Corporation, the largest private landowner in the state of California, and also held executive positions with The Hahn Company, a developer, owner and operator of regional shopping centers, and Bank of Montreal. His education includes a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Economics and an M.B.A. from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. |
Andrew G. Backman
Senior Vice President - Investor Relations and Marketing
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Andrew G. Backman has served as Senior Vice President – Investor Relations and Marketing of iStar Financial since January of 2008. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of the same office since |
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December 2004. Mr. Backman is responsible for directing all efforts focused on positioning the Company with major institutional investors and leading brokerage analysts worldwide, and serves as spokesperson to the financial media and general press.
Previously, Mr. Backman served as Vice President of Investor Relations and Public Relations for Broadwing Corporation. Under Mr. Backman`s direction, Broadwing, formerly known as Corvis Corporation, was nominated by Investor Relations Magazine for "The Best Investor Relations Program for an Initial Public Offering" for the year 2000. Prior to joining Broadwing, Mr. Backman had a ten-year career in various finance, accounting and investor relations positions at AT&T Corporation and Lucent Technologies, where he specialized in international business, including mergers and acquisitions, and helped manage several strategic financial transactions in Asia. Mr. Backman received his B.A. from Boston College in economics and is a graduate of Lucent Technologies Executive Financial Leadership Program. |
David M. DiStaso
Chief Accounting Officer
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David M. DiStaso has served as Chief Accounting Officer of iStar Financial since June 2008. Mr. DiStaso is responsible for managing the Company’s accounting and tax departments,
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including compliance with generally accepted accounting principles and REIT requirements, internal and external financial reporting and the maintenance of a sound internal control environment.
Mr. DiStaso previously spent 11 years with The CIT Group, most recently as Chief Financial Officer of the Consumer Finance Division. He spent the first 10 years of his career in public accounting with KPMG, serving as a Senior Manager within the audit group, providing audit and consulting services to clients within the financial services industry. Mr. DiStaso received a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and is a Certified Public Accountant.
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