Greystone, a real estate lending, investment and advisory company based out of New York City, has appointed a new CEO, Hafize Gaye Erkan. A former executive at publicly traded First Republic Bank, she takes over this position after 18 years of experience in the banking sector. She has a distinguished background, holding a Ph.D. in Financial Engineering from Princeton University, and has spent nearly a decade with Goldman Sachs.
Dr. Erkan plans to expand Greystone into new areas of financial services while continuing to provide real estate finance services. Her banking and wealth management experience will be utilized to expand Greystone’s lending products and private wealth management divisions.
She also plans on growing Greystone’s strategic joint venture with Cushman & Wakefield.
They have disseminated roughly $5 billion in loans to senior housing companies, and will continue to be one of the largest lenders in the industry. In 2021, Greystone produced $19 billion in CRE transaction volume. The company’s current portfolio consists of primary and special loan services. It will be interesting to see where Dr. Erkin takes Greystone over the next couple of years.
In other C-Suite activity, public operator AlerisLife announced that Jeff Leer will officially take over as CEO. This is an internal hire as Mr. Leer previously held the titles of executive vice president, CFO, and treasurer while with the company. Mr. Leer plans to narrow the focus of the company while improving occupancy and minimizing costs. We can’t disagree with those goals. Mr. Leer will simultaneously maintain CFO responsibilities until the position is filled.
