{"id":1004788798,"date":"2026-02-20T13:54:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004788798"},"modified":"2026-04-16T22:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:55:34","slug":"investment-matters-cre-finance-maven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/investment-matters-cre-finance-maven\/","title":{"rendered":"Investment Matters: CRE Finance Maven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; clipboard-write\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"175\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:660px;overflow:hidden;border-radius:10px;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/ro\/podcast\/investment-matters-cre-finance-maven\/id1552202952?i=1000750717170\" ><\/iframe>\n\n\n<p>Lisa Pendergast leads one of the industry\u2019s most influential organizations and is a top capital markets analyst to boot, but she discovered her passion almost by accident. An English major with her eye on law school, she was hired as a writer by a powerful institutional investor. The opportunity to learn the finance business from brilliant minds proved to be, as she puts it, \u201cthe cheapest MBA anybody ever got.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;6a0f4fab29aa9&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" class=\"alignright size-large is-resized wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" data-attachment-id=\"1004788803\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/investment-matters-cre-finance-maven\/investment-matters-0226\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/02\/Investment-Matters-0226.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,675\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Investment Matters 0226\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Top right, Lisa Pendergast, CREFC,; bottom right, Paul Rosta, CPE&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/02\/Investment-Matters-0226.jpg?w=900\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on-async--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-async-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/02\/Investment-Matters-0226.jpg?w=900\" alt=\"Cover image for Investment Matters podcast. Graphic of city skyline on left, with photos of guest Lisa Pendergast and host Paul Rosta on right\" class=\"wp-image-1004788803\" style=\"width:407px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/02\/Investment-Matters-0226.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/02\/Investment-Matters-0226.jpg?resize=300,225 300w, https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/02\/Investment-Matters-0226.jpg?resize=768,576 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Top right, Lisa Pendergast; bottom right, Paul Rosta<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Today, Pendergast serves as president &amp; CEO of Commercial Real Estate Finance Council. Before taking on her current role, she was a member of the organization\u2019s Board of Governors and served as its 2010-2011 president. She\u2019s held senior positions at Jeffries LLC, an affiliate of Leucadia National Corporation, as well as the Royal Bank of Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this conversation, she shares takeaways from the organization\u2019s recent national conference in Miami, describing the event\u2019s upbeat mood. She reveals insights from CREFC\u2019s latest national sentiment survey, and discusses why this bellwether indicator is approaching its record high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also during this podcast, Pendergast discusses today\u2019s key policy issues and how CREFC is informing regulators about the issues that hamper the industry. As one of the top securitization experts in the business, she gives us her take on the state of CMBS and CLOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Episode highlights:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(1:05) Top takeaways from Miami<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(3:27) Asset performance insights<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(5:51) Maturities and the Fed\u2019s next moves<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(8:09) Taking the pulse of CRE finance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(11:38) Economic indicators to watch<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(13:04) Office-to-resi conversions: NYC and beyond<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(17:17) \u201cThe cheapest MBA anybody ever got\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(22:09) CLOs on the rise<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(24:51) CMBS and federal policy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(29:45) Navigating regulator relations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(34:03) New path for the GSEs?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(36:55) How the GSEs can address affordability<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(38:10) Executive off the clock: the garden and the links<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow, rate and review CPE\u2019s podcasts on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/192KwbDpOsZbF3dBXfaDkS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/ro\/podcast\/commercial-property-executive\/id1552202952\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>,<\/em>&nbsp;<em>and don\u2019t forget to subscribe to CPE\u2019s recently relaunched&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@CommercialPropertyExecutive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a>&nbsp;channel!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CREFC President &#038; CEO Lisa Pendergast takes the pulse of the real estate capital markets in this conversation with CPE&#8217;s Paul Rosta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":1004788803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21825,21795],"tags":[51896,52839,52599],"class_list":["post-1004788798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-podcasts","tag-crefc","tag-investment-matters","tag-lisa-pendergast"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CRE Finance Maven - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CREFC President &amp; CEO Lisa Pendergast takes the pulse of the real estate capital markets in this conversation with CPE&#039;s Paul Rosta.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/investment-matters-cre-finance-maven\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investment Matters: CRE Finance Maven\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CREFC President &amp; 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