Our seasoned management team averages over 25 years of experience and has led iStar through several business cycles. Every iStar deal has their personal involvement.
Executive Management
Jay Sugarman is our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Sugarman has served as a director of iStar Inc. (and our predecessor) since 1996 and Chief Executive Officer since 1997. Prior to forming iStar Inc. and its predecessors, Mr. Sugarman managed private investment funds on behalf of the Burden family (a branch of the Vanderbilt family) and the Ziff family. Mr. Sugarman received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, where he was nominated for valedictorian and received the Paul Volcker Award in Economics, and his M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School, graduating as a Baker Scholar and recipient of the school's academic prizes for both finance and marketing.
Nina Matis currently serves as Vice Chairman of iStar. Previously, Ms. Matis served as Chief Legal Officer in addition to her role as Vice Chairman, a role assumed in 2018 after formerly serving as Chief Investment Officer & Chief Legal Officer. Previously, she served as Executive Vice President since 1999 and as General Counsel of iStar (and its predecessor) since 1996. From 1984 through 1987, Ms. Matis was an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law where she taught real estate transactions. She is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, Ely Chapter of Lambda Alpha International, the Chicago Finance Exchange, the Urban Land Institute, REFF, the Chicago Real Estate Executive Women, The Chicago Network and The Economic Club of Chicago. She was recently named by the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers as the World's Leading Real Estate Attorney. Additionally, in 2005 she was selected as a LawDragon 500 Leading Lawyer in America as well as being listed for the third consecutive year in Chambers USA as one of America's Leading Lawyers for Business. Ms. Matis received a B.A. degree with honors from Smith College and a J.D. degree from New York University School of Law.
Marcos Alvarado currently serves as President and Chief Investment Officer, responsible for overseeing originations and driving growth across the company’s diversified $5 billion investment portfolio. Throughout his career, Mr. Alvarado has closed more than $25 billion of investments across all parts of the capital structure. He was previously Head of Acquisitions & Business Operations for Cadre, a technology-enabled real estate investment platform, and a Managing Director at Starwood Capital. Prior to Starwood Capital, Mr. Alvarado served as Vice President in Lehman Brothers’ Global Real Estate Group. He started his career in Morgan Stanley’s CMBS group. Mr. Alvarado holds a BA from Dartmouth College.
Douglas B. Heitner currently serves as iStar’s Chief Legal Officer. Prior to joining iStar in 2019, Mr. Heitner was a partner in Kasowitz Benson Torres' Real Estate Transactions group, where he represented the nation's leading real estate companies in a wide range of real estate matters. He was previously an associate in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP's real estate group. Mr. Heitner is ranked in Chambers USA and has also been named to Law360's “Rising Stars” list four times, making him one of only 156 lawyers nationwide selected for inclusion in the prestigious listing. Mr. Heitner is regularly recognized in The Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers. He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Elisha Blechner serves as Executive Vice President, Co-Head of Investments. Previously, he led the firm's asset management efforts across our real estate finance, net lease, operating properties and land & development portfolios, development risk management, reporting and servicing. Mr. Blechner has held several positions within the Investments team since joining iStar in 2004, responsible for originating, structuring, underwriting and closing investments throughout the capital structure. Prior to joining iStar, Mr. Blechner served as an Investment Banking analyst for Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. where he assisted hospitality, gaming and transportation companies with a range of capital markets activities. He holds a B.S. degree, magna cum laude, in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Chase Curtis has served as Executive Vice President, Credit for iStar since January 2005. He assumed his current position after serving as Senior Vice President, Credit since June 2001. He is responsible for coordinating the initial and on-going underwriting of corporate credit risk, with a particular emphasis on corporate tenant risk assessment. He joined iStar in 2001 from Bank of America following a 16-year career in credit risk management and structured corporate finance. Immediately before joining iStar, Mr. Curtis was the Chief Credit Officer of Bank of America Commercial Finance responsible for its credit approvals, risk policy and risk process controls. Prior to that, he was on a three-year assignment in Hong Kong as an executive credit risk review officer overseeing portfolio, transactional, business and overall strategic risk assessment across Asia. He began his financial services career in 1985 with Continental Illinois National Bank initially as a specialist lender in mining, construction, natural resource and project finance and subsequently highly leveraged corporate finance. Mr. Curtis holds an M.S. from the University of Arizona and a B.S. degree with high honors from Bates College. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Tim Doherty currently serves as Executive Vice President, Co-Head of Investments. Mr. Doherty leads the investment team of Safehold Inc (NYSE: SAFE), a public REIT focused on the acquisition and creation of ground lease investments across all property types nationwide. Safehold is the first publicly traded company focused solely on ground lease investments and is externally managed by iStar. Mr. Doherty worked at iStar between 2000 and 2008 and recently rejoined iStar in 2013. Prior to becoming the Head of Ground Lease Investments, he focused on structured finance having worked on over 60 transactions totaling more than $5 billion during his tenure at iStar. The transaction structure types included first mortgage, mezzanine, B-notes, preferred equity, DIP financing, participations and corporate finance investments and included all traditional property types (office, retail, hotel and industrial) and non-traditional product types (self-storage, entertainment and land). Prior to his latest tenure at iStar, Mr. Doherty co-founded and operated Shem Creek Capital (“SCC”), a boutique real estate finance fund located in Boston, MA. Prior to joining iStar Financial in 2000, Mr. Doherty was at Archon Group, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, investing on behalf of the Whitehall funds. He received his BS in Finance from Georgetown University.
Barclay G. Jones III currently serves as Executive Vice President, Net Lease Investments for iStar since March 2000, focusing on the Company's corporate finance and leasing business. Prior to joining iStar, Mr. Jones was a Principal of ACRE Partners LLC, a privately held firm focused on providing public and private corporations with highly structured, value-added financing solutions for their corporate real estate facilities. Prior to that, Mr. Jones served in a variety of capacities, including Vice Chairman and Chief Acquisitions Officer, for W.P. Carey & Co., Inc. from 1982 to 1998. During that period, he was responsible for originating in excess of $2 billion of sale-leaseback financings and over $1 billion of mortgage placements. During his tenure at W.P. Carey, the firm grew from fewer than 10 employees to over 70, and from approximately $100 million in assets to over $2.5 billion. Mr. Jones holds a B.S. degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Board of Directors
Jay Sugarman is our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Sugarman has served as a director of iStar Inc. (and our predecessor) since 1996 and Chief Executive Officer since 1997. Prior to forming iStar Inc. and its predecessors, Mr. Sugarman managed private investment funds on behalf of the Burden family (a branch of the Vanderbilt family) and the Ziff family. Mr. Sugarman received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, where he was nominated for valedictorian and received the Paul Volcker Award in Economics, and his M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School, graduating as a Baker Scholar and recipient of the school's academic prizes for both finance and marketing.
Robin Josephs has served as one of our Directors since 1998. Ms. Josephs serves as our Lead Director, with duties that include presiding at all executive sessions of the independent directors and serving as principal liaison between the Chairman and the independent Directors. Ms. Josephs is Chair of our Nominating and Governance Committee and a member of our Compensation Committee. From 2005 to 2007, Ms. Josephs was a Managing Director of Starwood Capital Group L.P., a private equity firm specializing in real estate investments. Prior to that, Ms. Josephs was a senior executive with Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1986 to 1996 in various capacities. She currently serves as a Director of Safety, Income & Growth Inc. (NYSE: SAFE), the first public company focused on ground lease investments, as a Director, Chair of the Compensation Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA), which is primarily engaged in investing in residential mortgage-backed securities. She is a Director and member of the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee of QuinStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: QNST), a vertical marketing and online media company, and as a Director and member of the Audit Committee of Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, Inc., a non-traded REIT. Ms. Josephs is a trustee of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation. Ms. Josephs received a B.S. degree in Economics magna cum laude from the Wharton School (Phi Beta Kappa) and an M.B.A. degree from Columbia University. Ms. Josephs' employment as an investment banking professional brings valuable knowledge of 5 finance and capital markets to our Board. Her background working as a Managing Director of Starwood Capital Group, where she evaluated and managed numerous real estate investments, adds knowledge and expertise in this area of vital importance to our company. Ms. Josephs' extensive experience as a director of public companies also brings to our Board valuable skills and insights into the governance of real estate, investment and operating companies.
Clifford De Souza has served as one of our Directors since 2015. He is a member of our Audit Committee and our Nominating and Governance Committee. Mr. De Souza was Head of International Business at Mitsubishi UFJ Holdings (Japan) from 2012 to 2014 where he was responsible for all securities and investment banking activity, primary and secondary, outside of Japan. In this capacity he also served as Chairman of the Board of the US, Hong Kong and Singapore subsidiaries and on the Board of its London entity. He also served as CEO of the London subsidiary from 2008 to 2012. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. De Souza served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of EMG Investment Management where he managed and developed an alternative asset management business. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. De Souza served as the Head of the Hedge Fund Group at Citigroup Alternative Investment with direct responsibility of approximately $4 billion in hedge fund assets, and management committee oversight of over $40 billion in private equity, real estate, structured product and hedge fund assets. From 1995 to 2000, he served as Global Co-Head of the UBS Emerging Markets Debt and Currency Trading Franchise where he directed its global secondary debt, derivative, local instrument and foreign exchange trading functions. He also served various other firms in a variety of capital market functions. He holds a B.A. in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Maryland. Mr. De Souza brings valuable insight and experience to the Board based on his experience as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Mitsubishi, his involvement and experience leading and developing the management of complex businesses and his in-depth expertise as an investor and allocator of capital.
Barry W. Ridings has served as one of our Directors since 2011. He is a member of our Audit Committee and our Compensation Committee. Mr. Ridings is a Senior Advisor at Lazard Frères & Co. LLC, having previously served as Vice Chairman of the firm. He serves as Chairman of LFCM Holdings LLC, which includes the operations of Lazard Capital Markets, and Chairman of Lazard Middle Market LLC. Mr. Ridings served as Managing Director of BT Alex Brown from 1990 to 1999. He has over 35 years of experience in debt and equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructurings. Mr. Ridings serves as Chairman of the Committee on Securities of NYSE/AMEX. He serves as a Director of Siem Industries Inc., a company with interests in oil, gas and shipping, and as a Director of Republic Airways Holdings, a regional airline in the United States operating as American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express. Mr. Ridings is Chairman of the Advisory Council for the Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Business. He serves as a trustee of the Mu of Delta Kappa Epsilon Foundation, a charitable fraternal organization associated with Colgate University, a trustee of The Montclair Kimberley Academy and a director of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Mr. Ridings has a B.A. in Religion from Colgate University and an M.B.A. in Finance from Cornell University. Mr. Ridings' distinguished career in the finance industry, his experience in helping companies access debt and equity capital and navigate challenging market conditions and his service as a director of other public and private companies demonstrate the valuable skills and attributes Mr. Ridings brings to our Board.
Richard Lieb has served as one of our directors since 2019. Mr. Lieb serves as a Senior Advisor of Greenhill & Co., LLC, a publicly-traded investment bank. Prior to that he served as a Managing Director and Chairman of Real Estate at Greenhill. Prior to joining Greenhill in 2005 Mr. Lieb spent more than 20 years with Goldman Sachs, where he headed its Real Estate Investment Banking Department from 2000-2005. Mr. Lieb has nearly 35 years of experience focusing on advisory opportunities in the real estate industry and currently serves on the Board of Directors for several other publicly-traded real estate companies. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA from Wesleyan University.