Seasoned Team of Real Estate & Workout Professionals
Rialto has a dedicated senior management team made up of seasoned real estate professionals, a number of whom have worked together for many years:
Jeffrey P. Krasnoff
Chief Executive Officer
William W. Landis III
Chief Investment Officer
Thekla B. Salzman
Chief Financial Officer
Anthony Seijas
Chief Operating Officer
Eric Feder
Managing Director
Steven I. Engel
Managing Director
Jeffrey P. Krasnoff
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Krasnoff formed Rialto in 2007. With over 30 years of experience in residential and commercial real estate investment, finance, development, and management, Mr. Krasnoff has been involved in the evaluation or oversight of over $250 billion of real estate assets around the world. Mr. Krasnoff is the co-founder of LNR and was its Chief Executive Officer until 2007. Mr. Krasnoff led LNR through its public debut in 1997 and was instrumental in taking the company private in a merger with affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. in early 2005. He joined Lennar, one of the nation‘s leading homebuilders, in 1986. From 1990 until LNR spun off from Lennar, Mr. Krasnoff was responsible for the growth of Lennar‘s commercial real estate and land joint venture businesses, as well as the formation of LNR Partners and its loan workout and special servicing operations. Prior to LNR and Lennar, Mr. Krasnoff spent ten years with KPMG LLC (formerly Peat Marwick) in New York City and Florida specializing in real estate companies and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Krasnoff graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a Bachelor‘s Degree and became a Certified Public Accountant in North Carolina in 1977.
William W. Landis III
Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Landis joined Rialto in 2008. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Landis was a Managing Director and member of the Executive Committee for Deutsche Bank (as successor firm to Bankers Trust), overseeing the syndicated and principal finance business for the Commercial Real Estate Group. During this period, Mr. Landis' group underwrote, priced, structured, and distributed in excess of $50 billion of commercial real estate credit on multiple asset classes including land, office, industrial, retail, hospitality, and homebuilding. Mr. Landis and his team led a number of significant "take private transactions, including LNR, Toys R Us and Castle and Cooke, as well as the acquisition financings for Newhall Ranch, Westcor Properties, and KSL Hospitality. Mr. Landis led Bankers Trust‘s commercial securitization efforts and was instrumental in launching Bankers Trust‘s Mezzanine Fund I. Prior to 1998, Mr. Landis was in the fixed income sales forces of both Smith Barney and Prudential Securities primarily focused on the distribution of asset-backed securities (including CMBS, home equities, credit cards, student loans and manufactured housing) and structured residential mortgage-backed products. Mr. Landis holds a Bachelor‘s Degree in history and political science from Drew University and a Master‘s Degree (MBA) in Finance from Columbia University.
Thekla B. Salzman
Chief Financial Officer
Ms. Salzman joined Rialto in 2009. Prior to this, Ms. Salzman worked for LNR Property Corporation serving as the Chief Financial Officer of two divisions, one based in Miami beginning in 1992 and the other based in London in 2002. In these roles, Ms. Salzman was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of accounting, reporting, treasury, domestic and international tax structuring, systems design, and implementation, as well as establishing the financial operations of each of these divisions from inception. Ms. Salzman was instrumental in the development of LNR‘s European Investors Fund in early 2005, a fund launched to invest in CMBS and debt-related assets throughout Europe. During her tenure with the Miami division, Ms. Salzman worked on the due diligence, acquisition and establishment of special servicing operations for the first CMBS transactions for LNR in late 1993 and oversaw the purchase and eventual securitization of several large distressed asset pools. Prior to joining LNR, Ms. Salzman was the CFO for a South Florida commercial real estate developer from 1986 to 1992. From 1983 to 1986 Ms. Salzman was a senior auditor for KPMG LLC (formerly Peat Marwick). Ms. Salzman graduated Cum Laude from Florida State University in 1983 and became a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Florida in 1984.
Anthony Seijas
Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Seijas joined Rialto in 2008. Mr. Seijas was most recently Lennar‘s Regional Vice President for Southeast Florida, a position he held since 2005. His responsibilities include overseeing the homebuilding operations, land acquisition and entitlement processes and Lennar‘s Urban High Rise operations stretching from South Miami Dade County to Port St. Lucie County. Mr. Seijas has over 15 years experience with Lennar working in various capacities. From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Seijas was the President of Lennar‘s Dade County Homebuilding operations. During this time, Mr. Seijas launched the Urban Division within Florida for Lennar, which acquired, designed, and built three high-rise projects in Miami-Dade County totaling more than 1.7 million square feet of construction. The Dade County Division was one of the most successful divisions in Lennar, reaching more than 1,000 closings and generating over $250 million in revenue on an annual basis. Mr. Seijas joined Lennar in 1993 as a Senior Financial Analyst and became the Controller for the Broward Homebuilding Division in 1995, where he gained experience in financial planning, budgeting and land acquisition. During his tenure in Broward Homebuilding, he also worked as a New Home Consultant, eventually becoming the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. From 1990 to 1993, Mr. Seijas worked for Ernst & Young in New York as a Staff Auditor and joined the Miami Office as a Senior Auditor in 1992. Mr. Seijas received a Bachelor‘s Degree in accounting from New York University in 1990.
Eric Feder
Managing Director
Mr. Feder began working with Rialto in 2008. In 1995 he founded a real estate investment company that specialized in the acquisition, servicing, workout and disposition of residential and commercial distressed debt which has acquired over $500 million in debt from national, regional, and local financial institutions. In addition to debt acquisition, Mr. Feder owns a portfolio of over 400,000 square feet of retail, including Publix grocery anchored shopping centers and in excess of 2,000 multi-family apartment units. In 2001, through a partnership with Turnberry Associates, Mr. Feder was responsible for overseeing Turnberry on the Green and Turnberry Village, both luxury hi-rise condominium projects totaling over 800 units. Further, Mr. Feder has secured in excess of $1.5 billion of financing for the Turnberry companies. Mr. Feder began his career in 1993 as an acquisitions manager for Crescent Heights, an international real estate investment company that introduced the first residential developments in South Beach, Florida. Mr. Feder graduated in 1992 from Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in real estate finance.
Steven Engel
Managing Director
Mr. Engel joined Rialto in 2008. During 2007, Mr. Engel served as Executive Director of Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Head of Morgan Stanley‘s Brazil platform. In this role, Mr. Engel implemented strategies for ground-up development with local partners, developed mezzanine lending programs, structured land banking ventures, and established sale / leaseback programs. From 2005 to 2006, Mr. Engel was President of Morgan Stanley Properties of China, managing a team of over 50 professionals responsible for a portfolio of real estate assets in all major areas of China. Prior to his roles at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Engel served as Vice President and Managing Director of LNR. Mr. Engel was promoted to Vice President of LNR in 2002 and was responsible for fostering LNR‘s partnership with Salomon Smith Barney and implementing the expansion of LNR‘s CMBS activities. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Engel was a Managing Director of LNR‘s Asian Division, establishing LNR‘s presence in the region and implementing strategies to capitalize on loan workout services in a new market. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Engel served as Director of LNR‘s Special Servicing Division, responsible for the company‘s first investment in non-investment grade mortgage back securities. Mr. Engel began his career with LNR in 1991 as a Senior Manager in the Loan Acquisition and Workout Division, overseeing asset resolutions. Mr. Engel holds a Bachelor‘s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Miami in 1968 and a Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 1971.