Seasoned Team of Real Estate & Workout Professionals

Rialto has a dedicated management team made up of seasoned real estate professionals, a number of whom have worked together for many years:

Jeffrey P. Krasnoff

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Krasnoff formed Rialto at Lennar in 2007 to focus on distressed and value-add investments and asset management, workout and turnaround strategies. With over 30 years of experience in residential and commercial real estate investment, finance, development, and management, Mr. Krasnoff has been involved in the evaluation or oversight of over $250 billion of real estate assets around the world. Mr. Krasnoff is the co-founder of LNR Property Corporation, was its President since its spin off from Lennar as a separate public company in 1997 and its CEO from 2002 to 2007. He was also instrumental in taking the company private in early 2005. Mr. Krasnoff joined Lennar originally in 1986 and from 1990 until LNR spun off from Lennar Corporation, Mr. Krasnoff was responsible for the growth of the company’s commercial real estate and joint venture businesses, as well as the formation of LNR Partners and its loan workout and special servicing operations. Prior to LNR and Lennar, Mr. Krasnoff spent 10 years with KPMG/Peat Marwick in New York City and Florida specializing in real estate companies and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Krasnoff is a graduate of Duke University. In addition, Mr. Krasnoff is a member of various real estate organizations including the Real Estate Roundtable, the Urban Land Institute and the Pension Real Estate Association.

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Jay Mantz

President

Mr. Mantz joined Rialto as President in September 2011. Prior to Rialto, Mr. Mantz had an eighteen-year career at Morgan Stanley starting in 1993 in the New York office. He moved to London in 1996 as Head of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds in Europe. In 1999, he was named Head of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing Group with responsibility for the global activities of Morgan Stanley Real Estate’s principal investing business, including the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, other institutional accounts and proprietary funds managed by Morgan Stanley. In 2005, he was named Global Co-Head of Morgan Stanley Real Estate overseeing the Firm’s global real estate business, including banking and capital raising activities, as well as the Firm’s real estate investing program. He was named Global Co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s Merchant Bank Group in March 2007, which included Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing Funds, the Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Fund and other Private Equity Funds. In February 2008, Mr. Mantz was named a member of the Management Committee of Morgan Stanley. He received an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Boston University. He is an active member of various real estate organizations including the Urban Land Institute and the Pension Real Estate Association.

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William W. Landis III

Chief Operating & Investment Officer

Mr. Landis joined Rialto in 2008. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Landis was a Managing Director and member of the Executive Committee for Deutsche Bank (as successor firm to Bankers Trust), overseeing the syndicated and principal finance business for the Commercial Real Estate Group. During this period, Mr. Landis' group underwrote, priced, structured, and distributed in excess of $50 billion of commercial real estate credit on multiple asset classes including land, office, industrial, retail, hospitality, and homebuilding. Mr. Landis and his team led a number of significant "take private transactions, including LNR, Toys R Us and Castle and Cooke, as well as the acquisition financings for Newhall Ranch, Westcor Properties, and KSL Hospitality. Mr. Landis led Bankers Trust’s commercial securitization efforts and was instrumental in launching Bankers Trust’s Mezzanine Fund I. Prior to 1998, Mr. Landis was in the fixed income sales forces of both Smith Barney and Prudential Securities primarily focused on the distribution of asset-backed securities (including CMBS, home equities, credit cards, student loans and manufactured housing) and structured residential mortgage-backed products. Mr. Landis holds a Bachelor’s Degree in history and political science from Drew University and a Master’s Degree (MBA) in Finance from Columbia University.

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Cheryl Baizan

Chief Financial Officer

Cheryl Baizan is the Chief Financial Officer of Rialto Capital Management, LLC. In her capacity as CFO, Cheryl oversees the accounting, finance, tax, treasury, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, internal and external reporting functions. Cheryl started with Rialto in 2008 as the Chief Accounting Officer. Cheryl joined Rialto from LNR Property Corporation where she spent 7 years in the Corporate Accounting and Finance Group. She was responsible for registration statement filings, technical accounting implementation, internal and external reporting, planning and strategic analysis, and various process improvement initiatives. Prior to joining LNR, Cheryl spent 12 years in the Southeast Mortgage Banking Group at KPMG, LLC where she managed a broad range of transaction analysis and provided accounting advisory services to various clients. Cheryl is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Master’s in Accounting from St. Thomas University and a Bachelors in Accounting from the University of Florida.

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Thekla B. Salzman

Chief Administrative Officer

Ms. Salzman joined Rialto in 2009 overseeing investor relations, legal and risk management, human resources and information technology, as well as financial oversight of the Rialto Real Estate Fund. Prior to this, Ms. Salzman worked for LNR Property Corporation serving as the Chief Financial Officer of two divisions, one based in Miami beginning in 1992 and the other based in London in 2002. In these roles, Ms. Salzman was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of accounting, reporting, treasury, domestic and international tax structuring, systems design, and implementation, as well as establishing the financial operations of each of these divisions from inception. Ms. Salzman was instrumental in the development of LNR’s European Investors Fund in early 2005, a fund launched to invest in CMBS and debt-related assets throughout Europe. During her tenure with the Miami division, Ms. Salzman worked on the due diligence, acquisition and establishment of special servicing operations for the first CMBS transactions for LNR in late 1993 and oversaw the purchase and eventual securitization of several large distressed asset pools. Prior to joining LNR, Ms. Salzman was the CFO for a South Florida commercial real estate developer from 1986 to 1992. From 1983 to 1986 Ms. Salzman was a senior auditor for KPMG LLC (formerly Peat Marwick). Ms. Salzman graduated Cum Laude from Florida State University in 1983 and became a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Florida in 1984.

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Anthony Seijas

Managing Director – Head of Real Estate Owned

Mr. Seijas joined Rialto in 2008 and is responsible for overseeing Rialto’s Real Estate Property Operations. Previously, Mr. Seijas was most recently Lennar’s Regional Vice President for Southeast Florida, a position he held since 2005. His responsibilities include overseeing the homebuilding operations, land acquisition and entitlement processes and Lennar’s Urban High Rise operations stretching from South Miami Dade County to Port St. Lucie County. Mr. Seijas has over 15 years experience with Lennar working in various capacities. From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Seijas was the President of Lennar’s Dade County Homebuilding operations. During this time, Mr. Seijas launched the Urban Division within Florida for Lennar, which acquired, designed, and built three high-rise projects in Miami-Dade County totaling more than 1.7 million square feet of construction. The Dade County Division was one of the most successful divisions in Lennar, reaching more than 1,000 closings and generating over $250 million in revenue on an annual basis. Mr. Seijas joined Lennar in 1993 as a Senior Financial Analyst and became the Controller for the Broward Homebuilding Division in 1995, where he gained experience in financial planning, budgeting and land acquisition. During his tenure in Broward Homebuilding, he also worked as a New Home Consultant, eventually becoming the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. From 1990 to 1993, Mr. Seijas worked for Ernst & Young in New York as a Staff Auditor and joined the Miami Office as a Senior Auditor in 1992. Mr. Seijas received a Bachelor’s Degree in accounting from New York University in 1990.

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Eric Feder

Managing Director – Acquisitions

Mr. Feder began working with Rialto in 2008. In 1995 he founded a real estate investment company that specialized in the acquisition, servicing, workout and disposition of residential and commercial distressed debt which has acquired over $500 million in debt from national, regional, and local financial institutions. In addition to debt acquisition, Mr. Feder owned a portfolio of over 400,000 square feet of retail, including Publix grocery anchored shopping centers and in excess of 2,000 multi-family apartment units. In 2001, through a partnership with Turnberry Associates, Mr. Feder was responsible for overseeing Turnberry on the Green and Turnberry Village, both luxury hi-rise condominium projects totaling over 800 units. Further, Mr. Feder has secured in excess of $1.5 billion of financing for the Turnberry companies. Mr. Feder began his career in 1993 as an acquisitions manager for Crescent Heights, an international real estate investment company involved in residential developments in South Beach, Florida.  Mr. Feder graduated in 1992 from Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in real estate finance.

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Steven Engel

Managing Director – Loan Workout

Mr. Engel joined Rialto in 2008. During 2007, Mr. Engel served as Executive Director of Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Head of Morgan Stanley’s Brazil platform. In this role, Mr. Engel implemented strategies for ground-up development with local partners, developed mezzanine lending programs, structured land banking ventures, and established sale / leaseback programs. From 2005 to 2006, Mr. Engel was President of Morgan Stanley Properties of China, managing a team of over 50 professionals responsible for a portfolio of real estate assets in all major areas of China. Prior to his roles at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Engel served as Vice President and Managing Director of LNR. Mr. Engel was promoted to Vice President of LNR in 2002 and was responsible for fostering LNR’s partnership with Salomon Smith Barney and implementing the expansion of LNR’s CMBS activities. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Engel was a Managing Director of LNR’s Asian Division, establishing LNR’s presence in the region and implementing strategies to capitalize on loan workout services in a new market. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Engel served as Director of LNR’s Special Servicing Division, responsible for the company’s first investment in non-investment grade mortgage back securities. Mr. Engel began his career with LNR in 1991 as a Senior Manager in the Loan Acquisition and Workout Division, overseeing asset resolutions. Mr. Engel holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Miami in 1968 and a Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 1971.

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Nelson Hioe

Director – Acquisitions

Mr. Hioe began working with Rialto in 2009. Prior to this, he worked at The Blackstone Group in the firm’s real estate private equity fund, focused on analyzing real estate investments in several property types. Mr. Hioe handles investment opportunities and new business development in residential real estate, including single-family homes, commercial bank loan portfolios, distressed debt and land. He underwrote $10 billion of office buildings as part of the acquisition of Equity Office Properties and negotiated $8 billion of asset sales as part of the same transaction. Mr. Hioe was also engaged in the asset management of Hilton Hotels’ residential timeshare business, including valuation and oversight of key business segments related to timeshare interval sales, consumer finance and resort operations. Prior to Blackstone, Mr. Hioe worked in affordable housing finance at The Community Builders where he executed all aspects of financing multifamily and single-family developments, including structuring equity investments via the syndication of Low Income Housing Tax Credits to institutional investors. Mr. Hioe also worked as a strategy consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young advising global firms on a range of strategic issues. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Matt Shulman

Director – Acquisitions

Mr. Shulman joined Rialto in 2010 overseeing its Atlanta operations. Mr. Shulman was most recently a Partner at Fairway Capital Partners, a firm he founded in 2007. His primary responsibilities included acquisitions of assets secured by commercial and residential real estate, disposition strategy, and raising capital from high net worth or institutional investors. The real estate distressed debt firm purchased over $400 million of secured loans and fee simple real estate from banks nationwide. In 2008, Mr. Shulman opened the Atlanta, GA office where Fairway became one of the most active buyers in the market. Mr. Shulman targeted acquisitions in the residential development and construction market, assembling a team of asset managers, contractors, and brokers to work out loans with borrowers or dispose of the real estate owned assets. Prior to Fairway, Mr. Shulman was with Rossrock, a New York based distressed real estate investment group from 2003 to 2007. There Mr. Shulman, was focused on acquisitions of non-performing loans and other distressed assets. Through direct relationships with banks or property owners, Mr. Shulman originated acquisitions of mixed-use buildings and land assemblages, along with nonperforming loan acquisitions secured by assets ranging from parking facilities to retail projects. He received a political science degree from the University of Arizona and his Masters in Real Estate Finance from New York University. Mr. Shulman was also an adjunct professor of real estate finance at New York University.

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Mark King

Director – Head of Loan Workout

Mr. King joined Rialto in 2010 as a Director and currently heads Asset Management for the Miami office. Additionally, Mr. King has been spearheading efforts related to the pursuit of deficiencies. From 2008 to 2010, as an equity partner with Jones Walker, Mr. King judicially enforced, worked out, and arranged for sales and acquisitions of commercial loans, including the loss-sharing portfolio acquired as a result of the sixth largest bank failure in United States history. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. King was an equity member of Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom, where he defended significant lender liability litigation, domesticated and enforced a pool of bankruptcy adversary judgments arising from a $550MM Ponzi scheme, and sold, acquired, enforced and worked out non-performing commercial loans. Before 2005, as a shareholder with Weintraub, Rosen & King, Mr. King litigated commercial matters, with a concentration on banking. Mr. King briefed and argued many state and federal appeals, giving rise to opinions regarding lender liability, commercial loan enforcement, bank operations, receivership, check kiting and complex international commercial issues. Mr. King earned Bachelor’s Degrees, summa cum laude, in 1991 from the University of Miami, and a Juris Doctorate Degree, cum laude, in 1996 from Cornell Law School.

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Adam Singer

Director – Servicing / Small Balance Loans

Mr. Singer began working with Rialto in 2009. Prior to this, he was a co-founder and CFO of Alterra Capital Group, LLC, a real estate investment firm that specialized in the acquisition, redevelopment and repositioning of distressed work force/affordable housing projects. Mr. Singer was responsible for underwriting, investor relations, asset management, property repositioning and financial reporting for a portfolio of approximately 3,100 multifamily apartment units in the Southeast United States valued at $140 million. From 2000-2004, Mr. Singer served as a Managing Director for a private equity investment firm specializing in the acquisition, turnaround and sale of distressed and/or undercapitalized manufacturing companies. Mr. Singer served in senior management capacities within acquired companies with the goal of restructuring company operations, workout existing debt and ultimately returning distressed companies to profitability. As part of his responsibilities at Cornerstone, Mr. Singer asset managed a portfolio of 1.2 million square feet of industrial real estate. From 1993 to 1998 Mr. Singer served as a supervising senior auditor at KPMG Peat Marwick, LLC, specializing in real estate and financial service industries. Mr. Singer graduated in 1993 from the University of Florida and became a certified public accountant in the State of Florida in 1998.

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Ray Melendi

Director – Real Estate Owned

Mr. Melendi joined Rialto in 2010 and is currently a Director in Rialto’s REO Group. Mr. Melendi manages commercial and residential REO properties in the Pacific Northwest, Central and Eastern Seaboard for Rialto. Prior to joining Rialto, Mr. Melendi held several senior roles within Lennar Corporation. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President at Lennar Ventures focusing on strategic partnerships in the Renewable Energy Industry, as well as, managing Lennar’s Government Affairs initiatives at the Federal and State level. Mr. Melendi was also President of the South East Florida Land Division for Lennar Homes for 4 years. Mr. Melendi’s areas of expertise include construction, development, underwriting and acquisition of land. Additionally, Mr. Melendi has successfully structured and managed complex real estate joint ventures with prominent land developers in Florida. Mr. Melendi has in depth knowledge of land entitlement, permitting processes and DRIs. Mr. Melendi had direct involvement in the creation and development of Lennar’s high-rise division, which was responsible of the development of multiple condo projects in Miami Dade in excess of 1.7 million of square feet of construction. Mr. Melendi was President of the Builder Association of South Florida “BASF” and is a member of its Board of Directors. He is also involved with the United Way Young Leaders. In 2005, he was awarded the prestigious Latin Builders Association (LBA) “Land Developer of the Year” Award. He holds an Associate Degree in Criminal Justice and has a General Contractors License.

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Todd Terwilliger

Director – Real Estate Owned

Todd Terwilliger joined Rialto Capital in 2010. During the two years prior, Todd partnered with Fairway Capital, LLC in a venture that acquired over $250MM in distressed loans from commercial banks secured by real estate in the Greater Atlanta market. His responsibilities included acquisitions, dispositions, operations, sales, marketing, and property management. Mr. Terwilliger has over 16 years of combined experience in revenue generation, project underwriting, strategic planning and operational management. Prior to joining Fairway, Mr. Terwilliger was a consultant to local Atlanta developers, for which he managed most facets of residential site development and construction, including pre-acquisition due diligence, project feasibility studies, community positioning, rezoning, land planning, product development, site engineering, construction management, financial management, sales and marketing. Before his work as a consultant, he was Vice President of Land Acquisition and Development for Pulte Homes Corporation (NYSE: PHM) for the Georgia Division where he managed site selection, contract negotiation, as well as planning and forecasting for the Pulte and Del Webb branded communities in the Atlanta market consisting of more than 5,000 home sites. Mr. Terwilliger received a Masters of Business Administration from Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Technology from the University of Dayton Ohio.

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Michael Suchy

Vice President – Acquisitions

Mr. Suchy joined Rialto in 2010. Prior to joining Rialto, he was a Vice President in Deutsche Bank’s commercial real estate group, where he focused on loan structuring and syndication as well as the restructuring and workout of loans both internally and as an advisor for clients of the bank. In this capacity, Mr. Suchy’s responsibilities included cash flow/valuation analysis, negotiating deal structure and documentation, and marketing and distributing. Mr. Suchy’s transaction experience includes corporate credit facilities and institutional term loans for, both, recapitalizations and acquisitions, construction and development loans, and senior and junior term lending across all property types. Financing and advisory clients include Brookfield Properties, General Growth, Macerich, Kerzner International, Strategic Hotels and Resorts and Lennar Corporation. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Mr. Suchy worked in a variety of real estate and corporate finance roles at JPMorgan. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois.

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