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Shape the Future of CREFC: Call for Forum Chair-Elect Nominations

March 3, 2026 

A vital part of the CRE Finance Council’s mission is driven by our Forums—specialized peer groups that serve as the engines of industry progress. Beyond providing a platform for discussing sector-specific trends and regulatory shifts, these groups are instrumental in tackling systemic issues and driving tangible change in how the industry operates, including the development and widespread adoption of market-leading best practices.

To ensure these groups continue to lead the industry conversation and catalyze meaningful change, we are officially opening nominations for our next class of Forum Chair-Elects.

This is a unique opportunity for members to take a leadership role within the Council, helping to curate programming and advocate for the interests of their specific market segment.

About the Forums

Our Forums are divided by constituency and asset focus to ensure relevant, high-level engagement across the CRE Finance industry. We are currently seeking leadership for the following groups:

• Alternative Lenders and High Yield Investors
• B-Piece Investors 
• GSE/Multifamily Lenders
• Investment-Grade (IG) Bondholders
• Issuers
• Portfolio Lenders – Bank & Insurance Company
• Servicers – Master and Special

Nominee Requirements

To maintain the high caliber of leadership our members expect, we invite nominations for individuals who meet the following criteria:

• Member Alignment: Nominees must be current employees of a CREFC member firm.
• Sector Expertise: Candidates should demonstrate significant professional experience and a proven track record within the specific Forum’s sector.
• Commitment to the Industry: A desire to contribute to the collective voice of the CRE finance community and a willingness to collaborate with fellow industry leaders.

Submit Your Nomination

Whether you are interested in stepping into a leadership role yourself or would like to recommend a colleague who has demonstrated exceptional insight and dedication to the industry, we want to hear from you.

The nomination process is straightforward and can be completed via the link below: SUBMIT A NOMINATION 

For a detailed breakdown of each Forum’s mission and current activities, please visit our Forums Overview page.

Join us in steering the future of CRE finance—nominate a leader today.

Contact Rohit Narayanan (RNarayanan@crefc.org) with any questions.

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Collaboration in Focus: Highlights from the CREFC Servicer/Investor Roundtable

February 10, 2026

CREFC’s President and CEO Lisa Pendergast recently hosted the trade association’s latest industry roundtable, bringing together Master and Special Servicers with Bond Investors to foster dialogue and build consensus across the commercial real estate finance landscape.

The gathering featured a robust lineup of industry leaders. 

• Servicers were represented by firms including Berkadia, CW Capital, K-Star, KeyBank, LNR Partners, Midland, Situs, and Trimont. 
• Bond Investors in attendance included representatives from Alliance Bernstein, DWS, Ellington, JP Morgan, Lord Abbett, MetLife, Prime Finance, Torchlight, and Webster Bank.

Common Ground and Constructive Dialogue

The evening’s discussion was characterized by a spirit of collaboration. Participants moved beyond individual interests to identify shared challenges and potential solutions for the broader market.

What they're saying: "The discussion at the table left me believing that we have more in common than we do in conflict," noted Adam Smith, Director at DWS Group and Chair of the CREFC Investment Grade Bondholders Forum. "I found it very worthwhile to identify shared pain points and agree they should be addressed."

Key Discussion Points

The conversation spanned high-level market trends and specific operational improvements, including:

• Macro Market Outlook: The current status and future trajectory of the Conduit, SASB, and CRE CLO sectors.
• Operational Enhancements: Improving the reporting processes for property releases.
• Technical Resolutions: Streamlining non-recoverable determinations to ensure market clarity.

Dana Jo Martino, SVP – Managing Director, Asset Management Servicing at Berkadia and co-Chair of the CREFC Servicer Forum, emphasized the value of these face-to-face interactions, stating:

"Our roundtable proved that when we combine diverse expertise with candid conversation, real solutions emerge," she said. "The meeting was both collaborative and highly productive, reinforcing the value of working together to address the challenges ahead."

Get Involved

CREFC Forums provide a platform for members to shape industry standards and solve complex market issues.

Click here to learn more and join a CREFC Forum.

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Forum Spotlight: Key Takeaways from Miami

January 27, 2026

The CREFC Forums presented their viewpoints and updates at the January 2026 Conference in Miami. The sentiment across the board was constructive, driven by a resurgence in lending and securitization volumes. 

Issuers Forum. The Issuer Forum kicked off the Forum panels on Monday highlighting the ~$150 billion in issuance for 2025 – a nearly 40% improvement over 2024 and the strongest volume since the post-GFC era. Discussion points included the:

• Growing financing of data centers, 
• Today’s interest-rate volatility, 
• The integration of AI, and 
• Market nuances within the office and multifamily sectors.

Alternative Lenders and High Yield Investors Forum. The Forum covered topics ranging from:

• Capital deployment across the capital stack in 2025 vs. expectations for 2026, 
• Structural protections as the primary credit tool, and 
• Refinance assumptions vs reality.

The discussion also drilled down into South Florida real estate—specifically West Palm Beach and Miami—analyzing the market from both borrower and lender perspectives.

Portfolio Lenders Forum. The Forum covered topics ranging from the competitive landscape, pricing dynamics, and underwriting divergence. Panelists also shared their conviction for new investment across industrial, multifamily, retail, office, and other property types, alongside back-leverage options.

B-Piece Investors Forum. Participants focused on conduit issuance trends, noting volumes remain slightly below pre-COVID levels. Other topics included deal size, underwriting standards, and the impact of the cost of debt on acquisitions and refinances. The panel also addressed credit concerns regarding recent-vintage multifamily assets and the hospitality sector outlook.

IG Bondholders Forum. The forum kicked off Tuesday with a spirited panel discussion offering a balanced view that cited strong tailwinds—such as expectations of record issuance to continue into 2026 and improved CRE CLO reporting, as well as headwinds like delinquency upticks and ratings migration. The Forum emphasized that enhanced transparency is critical to maintaining positive market momentum. 

Servicers Forum. The discussion prioritized operational resilience (covering cybersecurity and data privacy), shifting regulatory compliance, and loan workout trends. The panel also explored workforce evolution and talent management in the age of AI.

GSE/Multifamily Lenders Forum. The Forum panel series concluded with a robust discussion on multifamily fundamentals, the macroeconomic environment, and the interest-rate trajectory. The panel provided an outlook on 2026 GSE caps, volume expectations, and the broader capital markets landscape, including the potential impact of deregulation and capital easing.

Please Join Us for an Upcoming Webinar: 

• Meeting of the Seven Families: CREFC Forums Roundup. 
• Did you miss the insights in Miami? Join leaders from all seven CREFC Forums for a cross-disciplinary webinar that synthesizes the common themes for navigating today's markets and offers views on what lies ahead. 
• The Webinar is scheduled for Thursday, February 12, 2026 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST. Click here for complimentary registration.

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The CRE Finance Council Announces New Chairs for Industry Forums 

New Chairs and Chair-Elects Introduced at Annual June Conference

The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) announced new Chairs for the 2025-2026 industry Forums. The new Forum leadership was elected at CREFC’s Annual June Conference in New York City on Tuesday.

CREFC’s Forums represent specific market constituencies that drive the U.S. commercial real estate finance industry. Forums include:

• Alternative Lenders and High-Yield Investors
• CMBS B-Piece Investors 
• CMBS Investment-Grade Bondholders 
• CMBS Issuers 
• CMBS Servicers 
  • Master Servicers
  • Special Servicers
• GSE/Multifamily Lenders 
• Portfolio Lenders
  • Bank Lenders 
  • Insurance Company Lenders 

Each Forum interacts and addresses issues critical to their business sector, while working to achieve solutions that serve a common purpose. CREFC’s Forums manage disparate and converging market views, advocate a consensus of positions to policymakers and lawmakers, educate members, develop market best practices and standards, and work to improve the entire commercial real estate finance market.
  
The incoming slate of Forum leaders includes:

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Forums Update: Servicing Administration and Special Situations

November 26, 2024

Pamela Dent and Adam Fox (Forum Chairs), Alex Killick and Dana Jo Martino (Chair Elects), and Leslie Hayton and Tony Yousif (Past Chairs) form the “Leadership Working Group” of CREFC’s Servicing Administration and Special Situations Forums. This group sets agendas and priorities for the Forum based on members of their Forum and represent the constituency on CREFC’s Policy Committee.

What’s New: Ongoing market challenges continue to drive discussions within the Servicers Forum:

• At the CREFC June conference, servicers focused on performing and non-performing loans in various markets.
• Today, the focus is on non-performing loans, from all perspectives —borrower, lender, and investor.
• There are no easy answers. The general consensus is that every loan and asset must be individually evaluated for the option that yields the best results.
• Recent interest-rate volatility and improved market issuance through 2024 continue to create a dynamic servicing environment.

Key Servicer Focus Areas:

• Upcoming maturities and borrowers’ ability to refinance
• Monitoring and tracking servicing activity
• Transparency
• Complexity of non-recoverable advance decisions and their impact on transaction waterfalls
• Collateral/asset valuation
• Rising delinquencies
• GSE focus on property quality and tenant protections
• Loan covenants
• Increasing costs and complexity associated with maintaining required insurance coverage
• Special Servicer remediation plans

What they’re saying: Today’s discussions focus on:

• Uncertainty surrounding asset valuations and the impact on workouts and advancing
• The pick up in new issuance and the notable increasing complexity of loan covenants
• As of September 2024, there were 200 securitized transactions with transaction-level Holdback accounts, more than half of which had a balance of $50,000 or less
• Exit strategies for loans in special servicing
• Balancing borrower requests for extensions with Special Servicers’ recognition of improving interest rates and modification structures to encourage payoffs.

What's next: Servicers are highly focused on the increase in delinquencies, the volume of loans transferring to special servicing, the timing around exit strategies, and when valuations will stabilize.

Servicing Forum leadership expects forum discussions at the January conference to focus on:

• Uncertainty surrounding valuations and their impact on the master servicer role as liquidity provider,
• Providing timely market commentary on performing and non-performing loans, and
• Identifying loans in real distress and expectations around exit strategies.

Key Policy Issue: National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Reauthorization.

• Unless Congress takes action, the NFIP is scheduled to expire after Dec. 20, 2024, along with government funding. Short-term extensions of the NFIP, tied to government funding, have been the status quo since the long-term reauthorization expired in 2017.
• Congress has yet to agree on a long-term NFIP extension due to sharp disagreements on program costs and coverage from Senators in flood-prone states. While the program is not expected to expire, a lapse would prevent the NFIP from issuing new policies and reduce the program’s existing borrowing authority.
• Commercial mortgages with a mandatory flood insurance purchase requirement can satisfy the obligation through the NFIP or private insurance, but CRE policies are limited to $500,000 in coverage through the NFIP.

What’s Next: Forum Leaders look forward to presenting members with an update at CREFC’s Annual January Conference in Miami. As June 2025 approaches, the chairs will seek nominations for the next Chair-Elect to join their leadership slate.

To join the Servicing Administration and/or the Special Situations Forum, please register here.

For any forum related questions, please contact Rohit Narayanan (Rnarayanan@crefc.org).

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2024-2025

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The CRE Finance Council Announces New Chairs for Industry Forums

June 11, 2024

New Chairs and Chair-Elects Introduced at Annual June Conference

The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) announced today new Chairs for the 2024-2025 industry Forums. The new Forum leadership was introduced at CREFC’s Annual June Conference in New York City.

CREFC’s Forums represent specific market constituencies that drive the U.S. commercial real estate finance industry. Forums include:

• Alternative Lenders and High Yield Investors
• B-Piece Investors
• GSE/Multifamily Lenders
• Investment-Grade Bondholders
• Issuers
• Portfolio Lenders
• Servicers

Each of these Forums interacts and addresses issues critical to their business sector and works to achieve solutions that serve a common purpose. CREFC’s Forums manage disparate and converging market views, advocate a consensus of positions to policymakers and lawmakers, educate members, develop market best practices and standards, and work toward the betterment of the entire commercial real estate finance market.

The Incoming slate of Forum leaders includes:

Alternative Lenders & High Yield Investors: CREFC welcomes Rachel Hunter-Goldman (KKR) as Chair-Elect, Samantha Rotchford (MSD) as Chair, and Samir Tejpaul (Square Mile Capital Investments) as Past Chair.

B-Piece Investors: CREFC welcomes Frank Yin (KKR) as Chair-Elect, Peter Lindner (Rialto) as Chair, and Jason Nick (LNR) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, Lyndsay Stephenson (Prime Finance Partners) served as Past Chair.

GSE/Multifamily Lenders: CREFC welcomes David Haynes (CBRE) as Chair-Elect, Ahmed Hasan (Capital One) as Chair, and Kate Whalen (BMO) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, the Past Chair was Emily Schultz (Berkadia Commercial Mortgage). Alonzo White (Fannie Mae) and Jason Griest (Freddie Mac) serve as government-sponsored enterprise representatives.

Investment-Grade Bondholders: CREFC welcomes Adam Smith (DWS) as Chair-Elect, Rajesh Bansal (Quiq Capital) as Chair, and Richard Razza (Webster Bank) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, Jane Rivers (T. Rowe Price) served as Past Chair.

Issuers: CREFC welcomes Shaishav Agarwal (Deutsche Bank) as Chair-Elect, Brigid Mattingly (Wells Fargo) as Chair, and Jane Lam (Morgan Stanley) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, David Schell (BMO Capital Markets) served as Past Chair.

Portfolio Lenders – Banks: CREFC welcomes Kristin Khanna (Barclays) as Chair-Elect, Rob Grudzinski (U.S. Bank) as Chair, and Scott Dixon (Truist) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, Jonathan Salzinger (Bank of America) served as Past Chair.

Portfolio Lenders – Insurance Company: CREFC welcomes Melissa Farrell (PGIM) as Chair-Elect, Kevin Pivnick (Blackstone) as Chair, and Chris Miculis (Nuveen) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, Stefanie Stewart (Voya Investment Management) served as Past Chair.

Servicers – Servicing Administration: CREFC welcomes Dana Jo Martino (Berkadia) as Chair-Elect, Adam Fox (Fitch Ratings) as Chair, and Leslie Hayton (Wells Fargo) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, Stacy Ackermann (K&L Gates) served as Past Chair.

Servicers – Special Situations: CREFC welcomes Alex Killick (CWCapital) as Chair-Elect, Pam Dent (Freddie Mac) as Chair, and Tony Yousif (SVN) as Past Chair. In 2023-2024, Andrea Helm (Midland Loan Services) served as Past Chair.

“We want to welcome the new members of our CREFC industry Forums and thank existing and past Forum members for their dedication and excellent work,” said Lisa Pendergast, Executive Director of CREFC.

“For 30 years, CREFC has served as the voice of the now $6 trillion commercial real estate finance industry and CREFC’s industry Forums continue to play a key role in ensuring all industry voices are heard and respected. CREFC’s Forums serve a vital industry function, as they represent key components of the CRE finance markets. A core function of Forum leaders is to work toward consensus among their constituents and then advocate those positions to other market segments and to policy and lawmakers. Forum leaders are also charged with assisting the development of industry best practices and implementing new initiatives critical to their business sectors. I and the entire CREFC community are grateful for our Forum leaders and their contributions and dedication to CRE finance.”

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