Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking (Natixis CIB) announced new senior appointments to the firm’s Real Estate & Hospitality (REH) Americas team. Christopher LaBianca has joined as Managing Director, Head of Conduit Origination, based in New York, and David Kadin has joined as Managing Director, Senior Originator and Head of the Los Angeles Office.

The arrivals of LaBianca and Kadin round out the firm’s strategic reinforcement of its real estate platform which began in June 2022 with the hiring of Precilla Torres, a 30-year veteran in the industry, as Head of REH Americas. Torres’ appointment was followed by the appointments of Julie Han as Head of Underwriting and David Schwartz as Head of Portfolio Lending.  Additionally, Chuck Lee, a seasoned and recognized structured finance expert in the industry, was hired as the Head of CMBS Americas in April 2023. Christopher and David, along with David, Julie, and Chuck report to Precilla Torres.

“We are delighted to welcome Christopher and David to Natixis CIB. Their addition to our executive team complements the recent infrastructure changes that we believe will allow us to deliver value to our clients during this seminal period in the real estate market and emerge as a leader in the sector,” said Precilla Torres. “The new leadership team’s respective backgrounds and deep expertise in critical areas of the industry will be instrumental not only to our revitalized penetration in the CMBS, but also providing innovative capital markets and balance sheet solutions for both our large and middle market clients.”

“We are entering a new era of opportunity regarding our coverage of the real estate sector,” said Thierry Bernard, Natixis CIB Global Head of Real Estate & Hospitality. “The enhancements made to our practice in the US, the caliber of the talent that we have brought on board, reflect our commitment to the space and to accelerating the growth of the business with continued investment.”  

Christopher LaBianca brings with him more than 30 years of experience in the real estate debt markets across the commercial and investment banking and private equity space. He is well-known for his service for the Mortgage Bankers Association.  Most recently, Christopher served as Head of Origination and Business Development for the Commercial Real Estate Finance division of UBS Bank USA, where he led a national lending platform that provided commercial real estate debt for execution through the bank’s proprietary balance sheet. He also led the origination platform for the Real Estate Finance and Mortgage-Backed Securities Group within UBS Investment Bank. Prior to his time with UBS, Christopher served in leadership positions at RCG Longview, Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank, Chemical Bank, and Prudential.

David Kadin holds 25 years of broad-based experience in loan originations, acquisitions, and the asset/property management of office, industrial, retail, life science, self-storage, hotel, and multifamily properties. He joins Natixis CIB from Nuveen Real Estate where he served as Head of Debt for the Western U.S., managing the origination and closing of multi-billion value-add floating rate and core fixed rate loans in major US markets. Prior to his time with Nuveen, David worked in leading roles at firms such as Ares Management, Wrightwood Capital, Merrill Lynch Capital, Irvine Company, and FINOVA Realty Capital.