Distinguished Speaker Series: David Rodgers, Founding Partner of Park Bridge Financial LLC

This week The Baker Program has the pleasure of hosting David Rodgers as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series. David is an expert in Commercial Mortgaged-Backed Securities (“CMBS”) with a career spanning over 30 years working in different market scenarios. He is the founder and principal of Park Bridge Financial LLC (established in 2009), which is the largest CMBS Operating Advisor in the nation, currently performing surveillance on over 100 CMBS trusts totaling $109 billion.  David is also a frequent sought as a commentator and expert witness on various CMBS and commercial mortgage litigation matters and, is co-head of the firm’s CRE debt restructuring practice.

In his prolific career, David has handled the largest transactions for clients such as Blackstone. He led securitization groupst at Prudential Securities and later at Merrill Lynch & Co. as a Principal and Managing Director. From 1997 to 2008 he and his teams converted over $70 billion of commercial mortgages to CMBS. At Merrill Lynch, he was also responsible for loan approvals, subordinate bond placement in the U.S. and Canada, and for providing CRE debt advisory and M&A valuation services to commercial bank clients. While at Prudential Securities, David advised commercial mortgage loan conduits in various aspects of loan originations, securitizations and rating agency relations, and was responsible for credit review and approval of over 600 conduit loans funded under the firm’s warehouse lines.

Prior to joining Prudential Securities, David was a co-portfolio manager of two CMBS investment funds at Jones Lang Wootton Realty Advisors (now Torchlight). Mr. Rodgers authored JLWRA’s special servicing policies and procedures, and led their successful effort to become a rated CMBS special servicer. He holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.

David has been a speaker at countless Mortgage Banker’s Association and other similar industry events. He is widely quoted in the media for his thought provoking and insightful comments. Baker Program students hope to have a deep dive into the subject during his time on campus, given the current uncertainty surrounding the CMBS market on price and regulations.

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