{"id":1004792543,"date":"2026-03-23T02:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T10:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004792543"},"modified":"2026-03-23T04:45:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:45:40","slug":"lisa-pendergast-to-step-down-as-crefcs-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/lisa-pendergast-to-step-down-as-crefcs-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Pendergast to Step Down as CREFC Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lisa Pendergast, who has led the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council for a decade, will retire in August, CREFC has announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Pendergast\u2019s tenure, the organization has increased its membership more than 30 percent to 19,000 individuals and 400-plus companies, CREFC noted in a statement. Pendergast\u2019s priorities have ranged from enhancing the group\u2019s authoritative position with elected officials and regulators to boosting industry standards and encouraging collaboration among diverse industry stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Lisa<\/a>
Lisa Pendergast, CREFC’s president & CEO, has led the association since 2016. Image courtesy of CREFC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In a recent CPE <\/em>podcast<\/a>, CREFC’s CEO detailed the unexpected path that led to a career as one of the industry\u2019s top finance analysts and, ultimately, to the organization’s leadership. Pendergast initially planned to attend law school and needed a job in the interim while she applied. At a friend\u2019s suggestion, she landed a writing position in Prudential Securities\u2019 financial strategies group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the first year of my career, they’d throw me in a room with one of these rocket scientists and they would talk to me and they’d say, \u2018OK, now go write it,\u2019\u201d Pendergast recalled during the episode of CPE<\/em>\u2019s \u201cInvestment Matters\u201d podcast. As a research analyst, she specialized in the residential MBS market, writing reports on securitization structures and other technical topics. She characterized the experience at Prudential Securities as \u201cthe cheapest MBA anybody ever got.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The job that began as a bridge to law school led to a 30-year career as a financial analyst. After her time at Prudential, Pendergast moved on to senior roles at institutional financial services companies. She was a managing director at the Royal Bank of Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, she served as a managing director & head of CMBS strategy and risk at Jefferies Group. Before taking her current role at CREFC, Pendergast was a nine-year member of the organization\u2019s board of governors and served its 2010-2011 president. She was named CREFC\u2019s executive director in 2016. Along the way, Pendergast has contributed articles to academic journals and industry handbooks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Policy priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the policy front, affordability is one of her top concerns. During the CPE<\/em> podcast, Pendergast offered an out-of-the-box idea for addressing the crisis: get the GSEs directly involved in expanding inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would love to see the GSEs do some form of construction loan just like Ginnie Mae does,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re really looking to enhance housing, then why not do something like that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction financing is beyond the GSEs\u2019 current scope, and while Pendergast noted that implementation would require safeguards, she’s hopeful that discussions will continue. \u201cI very much like going to the Hill and speaking to congressmen and senators, as well as to regulators, as to what’s going on in the market,\u201d she related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocating for the CRE finance industry is one of Pendergast\u2019s main responsibilities, but she has always taken great satisfaction in finance research and analysis: \u201cI love the digging for data as well as the ability to hopefully convey that to people in a way that’s meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The executive spoke recently with CPE about policy priorities and her uncommon professional journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":1004575204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21808,21825,23891,21742,21744],"tags":[51896],"class_list":["post-1004792543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-finance","category-national","category-latest","category-people","tag-crefc"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLisa Pendergast to Step Down as CREFC Chief - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lisa Pendergast, who has led the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council for a decade, will retire in August, CREFC has announced.\" \/>\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\/lisa-pendergast-to-step-down-as-crefcs-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lisa Pendergast to Step Down as CREFC Chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lisa Pendergast, who has led the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council for a decade, will retire in August, CREFC has announced.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/lisa-pendergast-to-step-down-as-crefcs-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-23T10:02:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-23T12:45:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/04\/PendergastLisa-57733-2469.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Rosta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/lisa-pendergast-to-step-down-as-crefcs-chief\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/lisa-pendergast-to-step-down-as-crefcs-chief\/\",\"name\":\"Lisa Pendergast to Step Down as CREFC Chief - 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