Mack Real Estate hires Tishman, Aetos execs – exclusive

The New York-based real estate firm has recruited a new senior fundraiser and chief compliance officer to join its credit business.

Mack Real Estate Group has added two senior hires to its lending platform, Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies (MRECS). Dave Germond, formerly a managing director at Tishman Speyer, has joined the firm as managing director and head of capital raising and investor relations. Meanwhile, JD Siegel, formerly the general counsel and chief compliance officer at Aetos Capital Real Estate, has joined Mack Real Estate in a similar role to his previous post. Both executives are assuming newly created positions at the firm.

At MRECS, Germond will oversee its global capital raising strategy, the execution of marketing activities, and investor relations for the platform’s investment products. Prior to joining MRECS, he acted as a managing director in the equity capital markets group at Tishman Speyer and was part of the team responsible for raising capital from institutional investors. Before Tishman, he worked at Prudential Real Estate Investors for five years in portfolio management and asset management roles for the firm’s PRISA II, a core plus open-ended fund.

Siegel will oversee the legal and compliance aspects of launching investment vehicles and executing portfolio investments, and will also be involved with the management of day-to-day operations. Previously, at Aetos Capital, he managed legal, compliance, operations, HR and technology for private equity investment funds and separate accounts investing in real estate and real estate-related assets in Asia, principally Japan and China. Before working at Aetos, he was assistant general counsel at Centerbridge Partners, serving as in-house counsel for private equity and distressed credit funds.

“Our goal from the outset has been to establish MRECS as a world-class institutional debt investment platform, and from day one when the Mack family joined together with Peter Sotoloff we have focused on assembling and integrating the right people,” said Richard Mack, chief executive of Mack Real Estate, in a statement.

Mack, along with his father William, founded Mack Real Estate in 2013 after selling its interest in AREA Property Partners to Ares Management. In October 2014, the firm launched MCRES as a direct lending platform to led by both Richard Mack and chief investment officer Peter Sotoloff, formerly the head of originations at The Blackstone Group’s Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies business. At the time, PERE reported that Mack Real Estate was looking to raise approximately $750 million for a fund for MCRES, which will be focused on transitional and distressed assets throughout North America and in Europe.

The hires of Germond and Siegel follow the firm’s recruitment of Michael McGillis last year as chief financial officer (CFO) and a member of MCRES’ investment committee. McGillis previously worked at JE Robert Companies between 2006 and 2011 in a variety of CFO positions, including CFO of JER, its US fund business and JER Investors Trust, an externally managed, publicly-traded mortgage real estate investment trust.