Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation announced that Sumit Sasidharan has been appointed as Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Debt Capital Markets at its external manager, a subsidiary of Ares Management, L.P. Based in New York, Sasidharan will manage and oversee liquidity and financing opportunities within Ares’ Real Estate Debt platform, including through ACRE and other managed funds. The firm’s real estate debt team directly originates and invests in a wide range of financing opportunities for middle-market owners and operators of U.S. commercial real estate and manages approximately $3.0 billion in assets as of June 30, 2017. Sasidharan will assume the responsibilities of Precilla Torres, who will remain at Ares and take on a new role managing funds that invest in a variety of real estate securities, including commercial mortgage-backed securities.
“Sumit is an industry veteran who brings more than 20 years of commercial real estate debt experience, which further enhances the capabilities of our experienced team,” said Jamie Henderson, Partner in the Ares Real Estate Group and Co-Head of Real Estate Debt as well as President and Chief Investment Officer of ACRE. “I look forward to working with Sumit to further expand our sources of efficient capital to support the growth of our platform.”
Prior to joining Ares, Sasidharan served as Managing Director of the Annaly Commercial Real Estate Group. During his six years at Annaly, he had wide ranging responsibilities covering the investment, financing and management of the firm’s real estate activities. Most recently, Sasidharan was the Head of Capital Markets and Operations, where he served on the investment credit committee, overseeing loan pricing and structuring, whole loan financing and broad capital markets initiatives covering note syndication, sales, CMBS trading and CRE CLO securitization. Previously, Sasidharan held senior positions at CWCapital Investments, where he managed leveraged debt funds and other structured CRE products. He started his real estate career at Fitch Ratings where he analyzed CMBS new issuance and contributed to the group’s policy formation on structured products. Sasidharan holds a B.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.