Mr. Sonntag joined Rialto in 2013 and currently serves as a Director at Rialto Capital Advisors, LLC. Mr. Sonntag has over 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry and is currently responsible for a portfolio of real estate assets across the eastern half of the country consisting of direct equity investments, joint ventures, non-performing loan REO and CMBS REO.
Prior to joining Rialto, Mr. Sonntag was a Director at Greenstreet Real Estate Partners, a boutique investment firm based in Coconut Grove, FL. Prior to that, Mr. Sonntag was an Assistant Vice President with United Properties, focused on asset management of office, retail and industrial assets located in the Midwest; and as an investment sales broker handling financial analysis and sales of office, retail, industrial and multi-family properties throughout the upper Midwest.
Mr. Sonntag has an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a B.B.A. in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mr. Singer joined Rialto in 2009 and currently serves as Managing Director, Head of Asset Management and Servicing for Rialto Capital Advisors, LLC. Mr. Singer oversees Rialto’s CMBS Special Servicing platform, real estate group, distressed bank loan investments, floating rate whole loans, mezzanine loans and the primary servicing operation.
Prior to Rialto, Mr. Singer was a co-founder and CFO of Alterra Capital Group, LLC, a real estate investment firm that specialized in the acquisition, redevelopment and repositioning of over 3,100 distressed work force/affordable housing projects. From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Singer also served as Managing Director for a private equity investment firm specializing in the acquisition, turnaround, and sale of distressed and/or undercapitalized manufacturing companies. Mr. Singer was with KPMG, LLP from 1993 to 1998, and served as supervising senior auditor at the time of his departure, specializing in real estate and financial service industries.
Mr. Singer received a B.A. from the University of Florida and became a Certified Public Accountant.
Niral Shah joined Rialto in 2009 and currently serves as a Managing Director and Head of CMBS Servicing. Ms. Shah oversees the CMBS Servicing operations and is also responsible for the oversight of performing loan consents; surveillance of Rialto’s servicing portfolio; CMBS compliance and investor reporting/loan administration.
Prior to joining Rialto, she worked for Lennar Corporation from 2006 to 2009 as a member of the Corporate Investment Committee (CIC). In this role, Ms. Shah was responsible for underwriting all land purchases and managing assets in Florida and Texas. Ms. Shah was also a key member of a special projects team directly accountable to Lennar’s CEO and Senior Executives.
Ms. Shah holds an MBA from the University of Miami, and a B.A. in Economics from Emory University.
Mr. Sebastian joined Rialto in 2016 and currently serves as Chief Information Officer. Mr. Sebastian oversees the IT department and is responsible for the architecture, development, security and management of technology and data platforms.
Prior to joining Rialto, from 2013 to 2016, Mr. Sebastian was SVP of Technology at Nielsen, where he was responsible for strategic technology client engagements and open data product development. From 2006 to 2013, Mr. Sebastian was with Citibank, where he led the global ATM software organization and digital programs for consumer and commercial credit card businesses. From 1995 to 2006, Mr. Sebastian was with GE Healthcare, where he held several global information technology and product development leadership roles, including leading global sales and service IT platforms, as well as enterprise architecture.
Mr. Sebastian holds an MBA from Marquette University and a B.S. in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering from the University of Kerala in India.
Mr. Scott re-joined Rialto in 2017 and currently serves as Deputy Chief Operating Officer, overseeing Rialto’s corporate and fund operations, fund financings, investor reporting, and investor services.
Prior to re-joining Rialto Mr. Scott was co-founder and managing partner of Venetian Capital Partners, a real estate investment firm specializing in facilitating foreign capital investment across real estate asset classes, primarily through mezzanine debt, preferred equity, and structured credit investments. Before Venetian Capital Partners, Mr. Scott served as Chief Financial Officer at Queensfort Capital Corporation, an investment firm focused on real estate acquisition, financing, and capital solutions. Prior to Queensfort, Mr. Scott worked in the accounting and finance department of Rialto, as well as the audit and assurance group of Deloitte, where he covered various industries including real estate clients.
Mr. Scott received a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from Muhlenberg College and he is also a certified public accountant in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Sakakibara joined Rialto in 2019 and currently serves as the Chief Information Security Officer overseeing the IT enterprise architecture, infrastructure, and Cybersecurity programs.
Before joining Rialto, from 2014 to 2019, Mr. Sakakibara was CIO of Rosaprima International LLC, where he was responsible for bringing modern technology, business intelligence to support business decision-making processes and cloud migration. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Sakakibara was Innovation and Business Development Director of an Airline IT infrastructure service provider, where he was responsible for designing and implementing a portfolio of outsourcing services chosen by two South American airline companies for their international operations. From 2009 – 2011, Mr. Sakakibara was Architect and Engineer Manager of a Wireless & Internet Service Provider’s Call Center company IT division Todo! in Brazil, where he was responsible for designing engineering solutions used by 25 datacenters serving 50k+ working positions and 100K+ call center agents. Under Mr. Sakakibara’s leadership, Todo! designed and implemented converged network solutions adopted in Brazil’ Malls. He also led the design & engineering of one of Brazil’s first Cloud Computing Solutions with a capacity for 10K+ virtual machines. He built the team responsible for implementing the IT infrastructure used by United Nations Rio+20 in 2012 and later, two stadiums for FIFA World Cup 2014. Mr. Sakakibara initiated his journey managing IT mission-critical solutions and enterprise infrastructure on TAM Brazilian Airlines as a trainee in 1999 until 2009 when he left the company as Architecture Manager, having designed the technical solution used by the company in an environment with 360 locations globally and important company milestones such as Airline Inventory Migrations (Sabre/Amadeus), Datacenter Migrations (TAM/EDS-HP) and technology innovation cycles, earlier as migration of Satellite communication to IP and later as the implementation of Cisco IP Telephony.
Mr. Sakakibara holds an MBA in Leadership Management from Keiser University and a B.S. in Telecommunications & Electrical Engineering from FEI university Center in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil.
Ms. Rukes joined Rialto in 2013 to lead our human capital strategies in attracting, rewarding, engaging and developing top industry talent that delivers our strategic, financial and operating objectives. Ms. Rukes is an international Human Resources executive with a 20-year record of success in private equity firms and publicly traded corporations, including Fortune 50, in the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. She is an Advisory Board Member to the Organizational Effectiveness Institute at Florida State University’s College of Business.
Prior to joining Rialto, Ms. Rukes was Chief Human Resources Officer of LNR Property Corporation. Prior to LNR, she was Managing Partner of R&R Property Investments. She began her Human Resources career at Verizon Communications, and later joined PepsiCo, where she served as VP HR for Frito Lay’s operations in Spain and as VP HR for Pepsi Cola’s South America & Caribbean market unit. Throughout her career, Ms. Rukes has consulted to a variety of publicly traded, privately held and non-profit organizations in a broad range of HR specialties.
Ms. Rukes holds an MBA and an M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of South Florida, and a B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University with related coursework at Cornell University. She is also a graduate of the National Academy of Human Resources’ Chief HR Officer Academy. Ms. Rukes is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional and holds both the Senior and Global Professional certifications with the Human Resources Certification Institute.
Ms. Rosen joined Rialto in 2020 and currently serves as Director and Chief of Staff of the Investment Management group. In her role, she works with the President and other IM executives on the planning and execution of a diverse range of initiatives, including recruitment and staffing, training and development, and the implementation of updated processes to enhance connectivity and efficiency. She also focuses on originating credit and equity investments.
Prior to joining Rialto, Ms. Rosen spent seven years at Acadia Realty Trust, where she focused on core and opportunistic equity investments, and was responsible for sourcing and managing all property-level financing initiatives. Prior to Acadia, she worked in the Asset Management division of Goldman Sachs.
Ms. Rosen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude where she majored in Economics.
Mrs. Ramos joined Rialto in 2011 and currently serves as Operations Controller focusing on accounting process improvements, systems, and automations. In her previous role at Rialto, she served as Controller for the credit vehicles.
Prior to joining Rialto, Mrs. Ramos held various accounting and financial reporting roles at LNR Partners, (“LNR”), where she managed the accounting for Joint Ventures, Partnerships and Funds within her 12-year tenure. Mrs. Ramos went to LNR from Neff Machinery, where she served as Controller for 3 years. She also worked as a Credit Analyst for Barnett Bank of South Florida for over 5 years and served as a Loaned Executive to the United Way of South Florida to enhance corporate involvement in community affairs. Mrs. Ramos started her career in accounting while working at her family’s Accounting/Tax practice for over 5 years.
She is a graduate of Saint Thomas University, where she received a Master of Accounting. Mrs. Ramos is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the state of Florida.
Mr. Peskin joined Rialto in 2011 and currently serves as a Managing Director in the Credit Investment Management group. He is primarily responsible for the origination, structuring and execution of commercial real estate debt investments with a focus on transitional lending, non-performing loans and special situations. Mr. Peskin formerly worked at Ernst and Young LLP, where he earned a CPA License.
Mr. Peskin graduated with an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in Accounting from Lehigh University.
