Department: Board of Directors

David Eisenberg has served as one of our directors since 2020. Mr. Eisenberg is the Founder & Managing Director of Zigg Capital, a new $108m venture capital fund focused on the real estate and construction industries. He has been investing in the category since 2010 and his portfolio includes early investments in companies such as Matterport, Procore, Building Connected (acquired by Autodesk), VTS and Juniper Square. Prior to founding Zigg, he was the Global SVP of Technology for CBRE. Mr. Eisenberg came to CBRE via the acquisition of Floored, a technology company he founded and was CEO of from 2012-2017. Earlier in his career, he was a founding team member of two other technology businesses, TellApart (acquired by Twitter for $500m+) and Bonobos (acquired by Walmart for $300m+). Mr. Eisenberg started his career at Bain & Company in NYC and graduated from Harvard with a degree in Psychology. He resides in Manhattan with his wife and two daughters.

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 Safehold 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.

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.