Capitalizing On Uncertainty: Investing In Distressed Debt & Assets

Angela Johnson is a Senior Vice President at Torchlight Investors where she is a product specialist and part of the business development team. Prior to Torchlight, Ms. Johnson worked at KKR as a real estate product specialist and was responsible for global capital raising activities. Prior to that, Ms. Johnson was with Partners Group in its investment solutions group where she was a real estate and infrastructure specialist responsible for capital raising, client relationships and transaction sourcing. Ms. Johnson also worked at RLJ Development (now RLJ Lodging Trust) in the investment analysis and portfolio management division. She worked at Merrill Lynch in both the global principal investments group and the investment banking division’s financial institutions group. Ms. Johnson holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a Robert Toigo Foundation fellow and member of the Toigo Alumni Endowment Advisory Board, the McCombs BBA Advisory Board at the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Real Estate Center Advisory Council.

Jason leads the originations platform in the Americas for Nuveen Real Estate and is focused on further expanding the firm’s third-party real estate debt business. Prior to joining the business in 2018, Jason was a managing director at ACORE Capital where he led a team responsible for the sourcing and execution of structured finance investments, including mortgage, mezzanine and preferred equity. As one of the initial employees of ACORE, he helped grow the firm from a start-up, to one of the largest private lenders in the United States, with $9 billion AUM in just under three years. Jason has also held a number of roles at GE Capital Real Estate. Most recently he was a senior director in the strategic capital group focused on whole loan origination with institutional clients. Jason graduated with a B.S. from Illinois State University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School. He is a graduate of the GE Capital Financial Management Programme with roles including finance, underwriting and M&A and is a member of Commercial Real Estate Finance Council.

Evan Sherman is a Director at Invesco Real Estate where he is responsible for sourcing investment opportunities in the New York region across all property types and strategies. Additionally, he also leads the firm’s East Coast industrial acquisition team and is a member of Invesco’s national Investment Strategy Group. At Invesco, Evan has closed in excess of $6.0 billion of transactions across all property sectors. Previously, Mr. Sherman held positions at Shorenstein Properties, Citigroup, and CB Richard Ellis, where he started his career. A graduate of Brandeis University, Evan is actively involved in many real estate, art, and charitable organizations, including the Jewish National Fund, Whitney Museum, and the New York Private Equity Network.

Mr. Schechtman leads the Middle Market Team of Meridian Investment Sales as a Senior Executive Managing Director, overseeing a team of originators, analysts and other professionals. Mr. Schechtman is widely recognized as one of the industry’s most visible and well-respected investment sales professionals. Trained for years at one of the world’s largest law firms, Mr. Schechtman has personally sold more than 790 deals representing more than $8 billion in his fifteen-year career to date. Recognized as an industry “Titan,” “Power Broker”, “Jack of all Trades” and one of the “25 Most Visible New York City Real Estate Players” by the Commercial Observer, The Mann Report and The Real Deal, respectively, Mr. Schechtman is regularly engaged by private families, institutions, lenders, estate lawyers and their counsel and advisors to value, market and see through to closing the sale of multifamily properties, development sites, buildings ripe for repurposing, retail condominiums and co-ops, unsold shares, and loft office and industrial buildings throughout New York City. Mr. Schechtman has also represented more than 25 lenders in the disposition of performing and defaulted notes and assets in Chapter 11, Section 363 Sales. Prior to joining Meridian, he held the position of Principal and Executive Managing Director at Eastern Consolidated, where he was named “Broker of the Year” on multiple occasions. Prior to Eastern, Mr. Schechtman was a practicing attorney at DLA Piper in New York, where he specialized in commercial and property-related bankruptcy and litigation. Mr. Schechtman holds a J.D. from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and a B.A. from University of Delaware. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Committee of the Real Estate Board of New York and several other boards and charities. He is a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia University, the Real Estate Board of New York and law firms throughout the tri-state area on foreclosure and bankruptcy asset sales.

Annelise Osborne is Head of Strategy at Metechi, the Commercial Lender's Marketplace. Previously, Ms. Osborne spent 12 years at Moody's in CREF Ratings and was COO of Propellr, a broker dealer working in fixed income digital assets. Annelise also worked with WP Carey, JLL and freelanced with hedge funds, family office and PE funds. Ms. Osborne has a deep knowledge of real estate, credit, debt, structured finance, quantitative analysis, rating methodology, and fintech applications. She has guest lectured at Columbia, NYU, Fordham, Baruch, and Fudan University. Annelise is on the Board of Advisors of RS Metrics and the William and Mary Blockchain Lab and is active in numerous industry organizations. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from The College of William and Mary. In her spare time, Annelise enjoys playing with her three boys.