Stonehill, a direct lender on commercial real estate, announced the expansion of its leadership team with four senior executive hires. Joining the organization are Daniel Siegel, Greg Koenig, Nisu Mehta and Taylor Pike. The addition of these leaders represents a strategic step in Stonehill's vision of expanding its commercial lending business across all real estate sectors.
"We are fortunate to have these four highly accomplished industry executives join Stonehill at a time of strong growth and momentum for our business," said Mat Crosswy, Stonehill's president and a principal. "Their backgrounds closely align with Stonehill's deep industry experience, ingenuity and work ethic. We look forward to working closely with them on key strategic initiatives to grow our commercial real estate lending business."
Founded in 2013, Stonehill provides creative financial solutions for middle-market companies. The principals of Stonehill have originated and structured roughly $5.0 billion in debt. In addition, Stonehill was recently ranked as the tenth-largest U.S. commercial real estate hotel lender by origination volume based on the 2021 Mortgage Bankers Association loan origination rankings.
"Stonehill has earned an industry-leading reputation as an experienced real estate lender able to originate and close complex transactions in hospitality,” Siegel said. “We are excited for the opportunity to join this purposeful organization to build upon their momentum to expand their product offerings."
"As our organization continues to evolve as a best-in-class capital provider for commercial real estate, it is paramount we continue to add experienced or best-in-class team members," Crosswy said.
The new group has decades of real estate experience across numerous facets of the industry and spanning multiple business cycles.
Siegel serves as the president of Stonehill’s commercial real estate lending group overseeing the group's expansion into commercial real estate lending. Before joining Stonehill, he was managing director at a large private equity firm and the head of high-yield investments. Prior to joining that firm, Siegel was vice president of acquisitions at Rialto Capital, overseeing the distressed loan acquisitions platform. During his tenure at Rialto, Siegel directly oversaw the acquisition of commercial real estate loans on both domestic and international opportunities. Additionally, he developed the firm's small balance loan acquisition platform and led the company's first European acquisition. Siegel has a bachelor's degree in Finance from Tulane University.
Koenig is a senior vice president at Stonehill. Before joining Stonehill, he was an executive director at a large private equity company, focusing on debt originations in all asset classes. Prior to that, Koenig was a senior vice president at Newport RE, a German-based real estate investment company, focusing on acquisitions and asset management for its U.S. portfolio. Previously, he was a vice president at Rialto Capital, where he helped underwrite and asset-manage loan portfolios. Before joining Rialto, Koenig worked at TriMont Real Estate Advisors facilitating loan workouts and maximizing returns on distressed assets. Koenig holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut, where he majored in Real Estate and Urban Economics.
Mehta is a senior vice president at Stonehill. Prior to joining Stonehill, he was an executive director at a large private equity company, where he was a senior originator and underwriter focusing on both debt and equity investments in the Southeast U.S. Prior to that, Mehta was the director of investment management at Rialto Capital, where he oversaw the acquisitions of whole loan portfolios and identified and help underwrite equity investments in the Southeast U.S. Additionally, he was involved in assisting Rialto's CMBS B-piece platform to become one of the largest participants in the sector. He received a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Emory University.
Pike is a senior vice president at Stonehill. Before joining Stonehill, he was an executive director at a large private equity company, where he originated debt investments. Prior to that, Pike worked as an analyst at Rialto Capital, where his primary responsibilities included loan asset management and underwriting. He is a graduate of the Terry School of Business at the University of Georgia, receiving a bachelor's in Finance and Economics.