Commercial Lending

Dennis Schuh

Chief Originations Officer
Starwood Property Trust

Dennis Schuh is Chief Originations Officer of Starwood Property Trust. In this role, Mr. Schuh is responsible for national originations, including senior debt, mezzanine and preferred equity investments.

Prior to joining Starwood Property Trust in 2016, Mr. Schuh was a Managing Director and head of CMBS Banking/Origination for J.P. Morgan. He was previously head of CMBS Capital Markets where his responsibilities included managing the securitization business and high yield debt distribution. Before joining J.P. Morgan in 1997, Mr. Schuh’s career began at Fitch Ratings where he rated CMBS and REITs. He served on the Board of Governors for the CRE Finance Council from 2006 to 2008 and on its Executive Committee from 2007 to 2008. Mr. Schuh is also a member of the Urban Land Institute, the Mortgage Bankers Association, CRE Finance Counsel and the International Counsel of Shopping Centers.

Mr. Schuh graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a degree in Finance, and maintains series 7, 24, and 63 securities licenses.

Tom Cosenza

Managing Director
Starwood Property Trust

Tom Cosenza is a Managing Director at Starwood Property Trust.  In this role, Mr. Cosenza is responsible for the origination, structuring and execution of senior and mezzanine debt, and preferred equity investments.  Mr. Cosenza covers clients nationally across all asset types, leveraging relationships built over 20+ years in commercial real estate finance.

Prior to joining Starwood Property Trust, Mr. Cosenza spent over 15 years as an Executive Director in J.P. Morgan’s commercial real estate structured finance business unit.  A holder of both Series 7 and 63 licenses, Mr. Cosenza had responsibilities that included the origination, structuring and closing of fixed and floating rate loans for both securitization and balance sheet programs.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Cosenza spent over six years as an Associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he worked in the Real Estate group and represented U.S. investment banks in the origination, structuring and closing of non-recourse commercial real estate loans intended for securitization in the CMBS market.

Mr. Cosenza received a B.S. degree in Communications from Ithaca College, a J.D. degree from the University of Miami School of Law and an MBA from Columbia University.

Kent Daiber

Correspondent
Starwood Property Trust

Kent Daiber is a Correspondent at Starwood Property Trust, with responsibility for covering the East Coast. In this role, Mr. Daiber has originated first mortgages and mezzanine loans in excess of $2.2 billion.

Prior to joining Starwood Property Trust in 2012, Mr. Daiber served as Senior Managing Director and Head of Structured Finance for CWCapital LLC, the U.S. real estate finance and investment platform of Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec. At CWCapital, Kent created and managed a business platform encompassing bridge, construction, land and mezzanine loan originations on all commercial property types. Before that, Mr. Daiber was a Senior Vice President at Greenwich Capital Markets, a founding member of Greenwich Capital’s commercial real estate finance group and the head of its structured finance platform. Mr. Daiber previously worked in real estate advisory and merchant banking with Wasserstein Perella & Co. and in New York City residential real estate development at The Related Companies. He began his career as a practicing attorney with Brown & Wood (now Sidley Austin).

Mr. Daiber holds a B.A. degree from Denison University, an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from the Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Troy Miller

Managing Director
Starwood Property Trust

Troy Miller is a Managing Director at Starwood Property Trust. In this role, Mr. Miller runs West Region loan originations and is responsible for the origination, structuring and execution of senior debt, mezzanine and preferred equity investments.

Prior to joining Starwood Property Trust in 2017, Mr. Miller was a co-founding Principal of Ocean West Capital Partners where he handled acquisitions, capital raising and asset management for its $750 million portfolio; in addition he ran West Region loan originations in a venture with Credit Suisse.  Before starting Ocean West in 2010, Mr. Miller was a Managing Director and ran West Region loan originations and workouts for both C-III Commercial Mortgage and Nomura Credit & Capital.  He has also held real estate banking positions at JP Morgan Mortgage Capital and Merrill Lynch Investment Banking and was a Manager at KPMG Consulting.

Mr. Miller graduated from the University of California Irvine with a B.A. in Economics and received his M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Troy Miller

Managing Director
Starwood Property Trust

Troy Miller is a Managing Director at Starwood Property Trust. In this role, Mr. Miller runs West Region loan originations and is responsible for the origination, structuring and execution of senior debt, mezzanine and preferred equity investments.

Prior to joining Starwood Property Trust in 2017, Mr. Miller was a co-founding Principal of Ocean West Capital Partners where he handled acquisitions, capital raising and asset management for its $750 million portfolio; in addition he ran West Region loan originations in a venture with Credit Suisse.  Before starting Ocean West in 2010, Mr. Miller was a Managing Director and ran West Region loan originations and workouts for both C-III Commercial Mortgage and Nomura Credit & Capital.  He has also held real estate banking positions at JP Morgan Mortgage Capital and Merrill Lynch Investment Banking and was a Manager at KPMG Consulting.

Mr. Miller graduated from the University of California Irvine with a B.A. in Economics and received his M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Steve DeRose

Senior Vice-President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Mr. DeRose is a Senior Vice President at Starwood Mortgage Capital, where he is responsible for originating, structuring and closing loans on all property types for securitization. Prior to joining SMC, Mr. DeRose was a Director at Tannery Brook Partners, a boutique real estate investment bank providing advisory services to clients on commercial real estate matters, which included mergers and acquisitions, property-level recapitalizations and debt restructurings. Prior to his time at Tannery Brook Partners, Mr. DeRose served as a Director in Wells Fargo Securities’ Special Situations Group, where he was responsible for the workout and restructuring of principal investments in structured commercial real estate debt throughout the country. In this role, Mr. DeRose was responsible for overseeing an approximately $1.3 Billion loan portfolio. Prior to working in the Special Situations Group, Mr. DeRose held various positions within the bank’s predecessor, Wachovia Securities’ Real Estate Capital Markets platform, much of which was spent in the firm’s Structured Finance Group, originating bridge loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity and JV equity investments.

Mr. DeRose holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Business Management and a Master of Science in Finance from the University of Florida.

Lance Johnson

Senior Vice-President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Mr. Johnson is a Senior Vice President within the national loan origination Team of SMC. He is responsible for sourcing, structuring and closing both fixed and floating rate loans, on all property types, to be held on book or for securitization. Prior to joining SMC, Mr. Johnson spent 15 years with Wells Fargo Bank and its predecessors. Most recently, Mr. Johnson was a Director in the ORE Department of Wells Fargo’s Wholesale Bank where he was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of commercial and residential assets that totaled $500 million in the Central and Southeast regions. Prior to working in the ORE Department of Wells Fargo, Mr. Johnson was a Director in Wachovia Bank’s Real Estate Capital Markets division. He spent over 10 years in that group (1998-2007) and was involved with the origination, deal management and securitization of $5 billion in funded debt transactions during that time. Before joining the CMBS group at Wachovia, Mr. Johnson was an Assistant Vice President in First Union’s Mortgage Banking Group where he underwrote and packaged loans sold to life insurance companies. (1997-1998). Prior to working in the Mortgage Banking Group of First Union, Mr. Johnson was a Stockbroker for PaineWebber where he created, developed and executed short and long term financial strategies for clients. (1995-1996).

Mr. Johnson received a B.A. in Finance and earned his MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Keith Thompson

Senior Vice-President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Keith Thompson is a Senior Vice President within the National Loan Origination Team of SMC. Mr. Thompson is responsible for sourcing, structuring and closing both fixed and floating rate loans, on all property types, to be held on book or for securitization.

Mr. Thompson has more than 25 years’ experience in the CRE finance industry, including capital markets and life insurance balance sheet lending. For the past 15 years, Mr. Thompson has focused on CMBS execution, most recently with Deutsche Bank Mortgage Capital, LLC as Director/Commercial Real Estate Loan Officer with over $2 billion of fixed rate commercial loan originations. Prior to DBMC, Mr. Thompson was with WMF Capital Corporation and First Union Capital Markets (now known as Wells Fargo) where he was Director/Commercial Real Estate Loan Officer originating in excess of $900 million of fixed rate commercial loans throughout the U.S. Prior to Mr. Thompson’s 15 year stint of CMBS lending, he focused on long term commercial mortgage balance sheet lending for approximately 10 years with two life insurance companies. He was with Equitable of Iowa, which was subsequently bought by ING, where he was Director of the Northeast as Senior Management. He was solely responsible for all loan closings, managed existing loans, originated approximately $200 million per year and was responsible for all inherited loan workouts in the Northeastern U.S. Mr. Thompson was also with Confederation Life Insurance Company, a Canadian Insurance Company, as Vice President for the East Coast Team, where he was part of a four person team that originated and closed approximately $450 million per year of long term fixed rate balance sheet loans for the entire Eastern U.S.

Mr. Thompson holds a B.B.A from Mississippi State University.

Jim Freel

Senior Vice-President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Jim Freel is a Senior Vice President of SMC, responsible for originating fixed-rate loans for securitization on all commercial property types nationwide. Prior to joining SMC, Mr. Freel was a Relationship Manager with two NY-based local banking institutions, State Bank of Long Island and more recently, Amalgamated Bank, where he was responsible for both loan production and portfolio management of commercial real estate properties located throughout the northeast. Previously, Mr. Freel spent 9 years at Deutsche Bank Mortgage Capital, LLC, starting in 2000 as an Associate and rising to the Director level by 2007. While at DMBC, Mr. Freel successfully originated more than $1 billion of CMBS loans nationwide, with an emphasis on the northeast. Prior to working at DMBC, Mr. Freel was a CRE Analyst in the CMBS group at Salomon Smith Barney, and before that in the Commercial Real Estate department of Dime Savings Bank of New York. Mr. Freel received his Bachelor’ Degree in Finance from Georgetown University.

Craig Picket

Senior Vice-President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Craig Picket is a Senior Vice President within the national loan origination team of SMC. He is responsible for sourcing, structuring and closing both fixed and floating rate loans, on all property types, to be held on book or for securitization. Prior to joining SMC, Mr. Picket was an Executive Director at Ladder Capital Finance and prior to that he was a Managing Director in the Real Estate Capital Markets Group at Deutsche Bank. Mr. Picket holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an M.S. in Real Estate Investment and Development from New York University.

Michael Stone

Senior Vice-President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Michael Stone is a Senior Vice President within the loan origination team of SMC, focusing on sourcing, structuring and closing new originations nationwide, through both broker and direct borrower relationships. Prior to joining SMC, Mr. Stone was a Director at Ladder Capital Finance for the previous four and a half years where he was responsible for originating first mortgage CMBS and bridge loans, mezzanine loans, and also acquiring NNN properties. Prior to Ladder, Michael owned his own real estate business in Austin, TX where he focused on sourcing CMBS debt on behalf of various Wall Street firms, raising equity for several Austin based real estate companies, and consulting with private equity firms and developers looking to enhance property operations across their commercial and multifamily real estate portfolios. In addition, Michael has held jobs at Capital Trust (now Blackstone Mortgage Trust), Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and Nomura. Mr. Stone earned his B.S. in Nutritional Science from Cornell University.

Tim Szalay

Senior Vice-President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Tim Szalay is a Senior Vice President at SMC, focusing on sourcing new origination nationwide through both broker and direct borrower relationships. Prior to joining SMC, Mr. Szalay was co-founder and managing partner of Peconic Bay Capital which focuses on acquiring multifamily investment properties that have a value-add opportunity. Before co-founding PBC, Mr. Szalay was a Managing Director and Head of the Northeast Team for Deutsche Bank Mortgage Capital, LLC. While at DBMC for 10 years, his origination efforts resulted in over 190 closed transactions totaling over $4 billion dollars. Prior to working at DBMC, Mr. Szalay worked at several New York based local banking institutions. Mr. Szalay focused on the workout of defaulted loans, cleaning up the balance sheets and assisting senior management in returning the banks to a profitable position.

Mr. Szalay holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from the State University of New York at Buffalo and earned his MBA in Banking and Finance from Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business.

Gerry Santos

Senior Vice President, Loan Origination
Starwood Mortgage Capital

Gerry Santos is a Senior Vice President within the National Loan Origination team of SMC, responsible for sourcing, structuring, and closing loans on all property types for CMBS securitization. Prior to joining SMC, Mr. Santos was an Assistant Relationship Manager at US Bank responsible for portfolio management, CRE underwriting, and sourcing new business opportunities throughout the Southern California market. Prior to US Bank, Mr. Santos launched the Southern California office for Dexia Real Estate Capital Markets (aka Artesia Mortgage Capital) and helped establish and brand the company throughout the west coast. During his 5 years at Dexia, Mr. Santos originated and closed more than $1 billion of CMBS and floating rate loans nationwide. Prior to Dexia, Mr. Santos worked at JP Morgan Mortgage Capital in Los Angeles for 5 years as an associate producer and senior underwriter, closing over $1 billion of CMBS loans nationwide. Prior to JP Morgan, Mr. Santos was the senior underwriter at Merrill Lynch Mortgage Conduit Group in Newport Beach. Mr. Santos holds a B.S. in Management from Pepperdine University and Global Enterprise Management credentials from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Santiago, Chile and Oxford University, England.