Bio
Kim Diamond has over 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate and structured finance debt
capital markets industries. Prior to joining Crescit Capital, Kim was a Founding Executive and Senior
Managing Director at Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. (KBRA). Kim played a pivotal role in the
establishment, growth and ultimate sale of the start-up ratings firm. As a member of the KBRA executive
team, Kim was responsible for formulating and executing the initial strategic business plan that enabled
the new rating agency to penetrate the U.S. debt ratings market and achieve profitable operations in
under 3 years. In addition to running all aspects of KBRA’s Structured Finance Ratings group, including
recruiting and training staff, establishing policies and procedures, developing rating criteria, designing
presale reports and other publications, Kim was a member of the firm’s policy committee and
participated in raising capital, identifying and analyzing strategic investment opportunities, managing
investor and board relations and representing the firm with the media and regulators.
Prior to joining Kroll, Kim was a Managing Director at Standard and Poor's. Kim joined S&P in 1989, just
as the CMBS industry was being established. As an early member of S&P’s CMBS group, Kim participated
with other industry veterans in developing the standards and criteria that became the foundation for
the US CMBS business. As the Practice Leader of S&P’s US Commercial Mortgage Ratings Group, Kim
was responsible for all criteria, policy and analytic decisions and served as S&P’s primary relationship
manager for all CMBS and CRE CDO issuers and investors. Under Kim’s leadership, S&P achieved annual
CMBS ratings revenue of $115 million with a profit margin in excess of 65%. In addition, S&P rose to
and maintained the number one market share position for US CMBS ratings for approximately seven
years. Given the success of her team in the US, Kim was asked to play a role in the development of
S&P’s international CMBS and other Structured Finance efforts via short term management positions in
the firm’s Melbourne, Australia and London, England offices. Kim also served as the interim head of
Structured Finance Ratings for S&P’s Asia/Pacific region in Tokyo, Japan where she designed and
implemented a business plan and strategic issuer and investor outreach program that increased the
firm’s market penetration in the region from 35% to 64% in 6 months. In 2008, during the height of
the financial crisis, Kim’s scope of responsibility was expanded when she was appointed Business Leader
for S&P's U.S. Mortgage Group, which comprised new issuance and surveillance for both commercial
and residential mortgage-backed securities and Servicer Evaluations. In this role, Kim managed the
process of post-crisis criteria and ratings adjustments and served as a senior liaison between the firm
and its regulators.
Kim received a BA from Cornell University and an MBA from Columbia University.