People in the News Jan. 28, 2021

Pranika Uppal Sinha Joins Greystone as DEI Managing Director

Greystone, New York, hired Pranika Uppal Sinha as its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Managing Director.

Sinha joins Greystone from Occidental Petroleum Corp in Houston, Texas, where she spent nine years in various senior talent, training and development roles, most recently as Senior Manager of Talent Development & Inclusion. Prior to Occidental, she held talent development and diversity-focused roles at Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston and 21st Century Consulting Inc. in Chicago.

CBRE Hires Charlie Knudsen, Julie Cook

CBRE, Houston, announced Charlie Knudsen and Julie Cook joined CBRE Capital Advisors, the firm’s investment banking division, to scale up its private placement bond finance business for Credit Tenant Lease financings and other types of asset-backed and leased-backed private placement securities.

Knudsen, a founding principal of QuadCapital in Madison, Wis., and. Cook will continue to source transactions from their network of mortgage bankers, brokers and borrowers throughout the country in addition to those originated through CBRE’s global platform. They will continue to be based in Madison and their securities licenses will be held with CBRE Capital Advisors.

Cook, who will serve as a Senior Associate with CBRE Capital Advisors, has more than 25 years of institutional fixed income securities, structured finance and commercial whole loan investing experience, most recently with QuadCapital which she joined in 2010.

Knudsen will partner with Brad Wilmot, an Executive Vice President of DSF in CBRE’s Los Angeles office, to help grow the practice throughout the CBRE platform.

Fannie Mae Names Ryan A. Zanin as Executive Vice President, CRO

Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C., announced Ryan A. Zanin as Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, effective Feb. 1. He is currently a member of Fannie Mae’s Board of Directors. In connection with his appointment as the company’s Chief Risk Officer, he notified the company of his resignation from Fannie Mae’s Board, effective January 31.  

Zanin joins Fannie Mae with more than 30 years of experience in financial services and more than 20 years of experience in risk management. He served as President and CEO of the Restructuring & Strategic Ventures Group at GE Capital from 2015 until his retirement from General Electric in July 2018. Previously, he served as Chief Risk Officer of GE Capital from 2010 to 2015, and again served in that role from November 2016 until his retirement. Prior to joining GE Capital, he served as Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer of International Capital Markets at Wells Fargo & Co., from 2008 to 2010, and as Chief Risk Officer of Corporate and Investment Bank at Wachovia Corp., from 2006 to 2008. Before that, he spent 14 years in leadership roles across Deutsche Bank AG and Bankers Trust Co.

LoanLogics Names Drew Milburn, AMP, as SVP for Correspondent Lending 

LoanLogics, Trevose, Pa., named Drew Milburn, AMP, as Senior Vice President and Product Owner focused on the company’s correspondent lending technology platform. He will be responsible for enhancing the company’s product offerings and driving innovations for automated document processing and audit technologies that address the various needs of the correspondent segment of the industry.

Prior to joining LoanLogics, Milburn was a founding member of the correspondent lending division at Texas Capital Bank. He has more than 20 years of banking and financial services experience, including senior operations and product management roles at community, commercial and regional banks. He has been involved in multiple mergers and acquisitions, core conversions and interstate banking expansions.

SimpleNexus Names Richard Jackman Vice President of Marketing

SimpleNexus, Lehi, Utah, hired Richard Jackman to its executive team as vice president of marketing. He will lead the company’s strategic marketing plan and expand SimpleNexus’ share of voice in the mortgage market.

Jackman brings more than two decades of marketing leadership experience to SimpleNexus. Immediately before joining SimpleNexus, he served as vice president of marketing at Simplifile, which was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange in 2019. During his 12-year tenure holding the senior-most marketing position at Simplifile, he helped the company grow annual revenue from $5 million to $60 million.

Marcus & Millichap Adds Evan Denner, Paul Lewis

Marcus & Millichap, Calabasas, Calif., named Evan Denner executive vice president and head of business of the firm’s financing subsidiary, Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp.

Denner’s nearly 30-year tenure in the commercial real estate industry includes 23 years of capital markets and financing experience. Since 2019, he has served as Marcus & Millichap’s head of corporate strategy and played a key role in the firm’s recent additions of Metropolitan Capital, Mission Capital and LMI to the MMCC platform. His experience includes a leadership position at Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, CEO of the U.S. arm of Hypo Real Estate Capital Corporation and head of merchant banking at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he helped execute several acquisitions that established Newmark as a public real estate services firm. He also co-founded mortgage REIT Quadra Realty Trust, where he served as the company’s CEO.

Marcus & Millichap also appointed Paul Lewis to the newly created position of senior vice president and director of agency programs, as part of the company’s plan to expand its multifamily agency lending capabilities. Lewis spent nearly 20 years at Fannie Mae where he rose to the top ranks. Highlights of his accomplishments include the structuring of $50 billion of multifamily financings with no attributed credit loss, designing key multifamily programs, and implementing changes to Fannie Mae’s counterparty risk functions.

Greg Holmes Named President and CEO of Credit Plus Inc.

Credit Plus, Salisbury, Md., elected Greg Holmes as President and CEO. He succeeds Steve D. Grant, who has moved to an advisory role.

Holmes has more than 25 years of mortgage industry experience and joined Credit Plus 15 years ago. He has served in several roles at the company, most recently as Managing Partner, and previously as National Director of Sales and Marketing and Southeast Regional Sales Manager. Throughout his tenure, he has led various strategic initiatives that have contributed to the success of the third-party verifications company. Prior to joining Credit Plus, Holmes was Vice President of Direct Sales in the Eastern U.S. for LandAmerica.

SitusAMC Holdings Corp. Names Eric Torigian Chief HR Officer

SitusAMC Holdings Corp., named Eric Torigian as Chief Human Resources Officer, responsible for leading all aspects of human resources, including training and development, compensation and benefits, talent acquisition and employee experience. He will also provide leadership across the organization and facilitate a culture of integrity, respect, teamwork and personal accountability.

Torigian brings more than 28 years of HR experience to SitusAMC. Most recently, he served as vice president and assistant general manager, global human resources (U.S.) at Akebono Brake Corp., and as an advisory board member at HR Exchange Network. He also held executive positions with Ford Motor Co., Pepsico, Comcast, Cooper Standard and USCI International.