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The CRE Finance Council Announces Its 2026 Class of ’20 Under 40′

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CREFC recognizes rising leaders helping shape the future of commercial real estate finance

NEW YORK, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The CRE Finance Council (CREFC), the trade association representing the over $6 trillion commercial and multifamily real estate finance industry, today announced its 2026 class of accomplished ’20 Under 40′ honorees. Each year, CREFC’s ’20 Under 40′ program recognizes outstanding young commercial real estate finance professionals who are reshaping the industry through their ideas, leadership, and execution. The recipients will be recognized at CREFC’s Annual Conference in New York City next week.

This year’s recipients have come of age during one of the most demanding and rapidly evolving market environments in recent memory. They have navigated market dislocation, embraced new technologies, and brought increasingly sophisticated analytical and operational expertise to every corner of the business. Their work is helping to shape the future direction of the commercial real estate finance industry.

The honorees contribute across every segment of CRE finance, including balance-sheet and securitized lending, bond investing, private debt and equity, loan servicing, credit ratings, and advisory services. In addition to their professional accomplishments, many are active participants in CREFC committees, events, mentorship efforts, and industry initiatives, helping ensure CREFC’s Young Professionals (YP) programming remains relevant, engaging, and impactful for the next generation of industry leaders.

“The members of CREFC’s 2026 ’20 Under 40′ class have already distinguished themselves as exceptional professionals and emerging leaders within commercial real estate finance,” said Lisa Pendergast, President and CEO of CREFC. “They have built their careers during a period defined by market volatility, shifting capital flows, and rapid industry transformation, yet they continue to bring fresh thinking, innovation, and leadership to the market.”

Pendergast added, “Their contributions extend well beyond their day-to-day roles. Through their active engagement with CREFC and the broader industry, these professionals are helping strengthen the future of CRE finance and shape the next generation of industry leadership.”

CREFC’s annual ’20 Under 40′ awards are part of the organization’s ongoing commitment to supporting and recognizing emerging leaders in commercial real estate finance through education, mentorship, networking, and professional development opportunities.

2026 ’20 Under 40′ Honorees

KAREN ANZALONE
Partner
Katten Muchin Rosenmann LLP

KATIE BASKIN
Associate
McGuireWoods LLP

SEAN BASTIAN
Senior Director, Capital Markets | Institutional Advisory
Walker & Dunlop

RAVI BELSARE
Principal
Apollo Global Management

STEVEN BERNSTEIN
Managing Director
Harbor Group International

DARREN BREDA
Managing Director
Affinius Capital

ZACHARY CION
Managing Director
Hudson Bay Capital

JONATHAN COHEN
Senior Director
MONTICELLOAM, LLC

MARCELLO CRICCO-LIZZA
Managing Director, Principal, and Head of CRE Lending
Balbec Capital LP

ALLISON DELONG
Managing Director
Greystone Servicing Company LLC

MICHAEL DILLON
Vice President, CMBS Trading & Analytics
Prime Finance Partners

SANG KIM
Director, Investments
Lionheart Strategic Management

DANIEL LIM
Investment Director
AustralianSuper

ALISON MACKENZIE
Senior Associate
King & Spalding LLP

NEEL MUNOT
Senior Director, CMBS
Kroll Bond Rating Agency

GABRIELLE NEISS
Commercial Bank Counsel
Capital One

CHRISTOPHER PRATT
Director
JLL Capital Markets

SAMANTHA ROTCHFORD
Managing Director
BDT & MSD Partners

WILL STILES
Director
Citi

SAMIR TEJPAUL
Head of Investments
Madison Realty Capital

To learn more about CREFC’s 2026 class of ’20 Under 40′ recipients, click here.

About CREFC
The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) is the trade association for the over $6 trillion commercial real estate finance industry with a membership that includes more than 400 companies and 19,000 individuals. Member firms include balance sheet and securitized lenders, loan and bond investors, private equity firms, servicers, rating agencies, and borrowers. For over 30 years, CREFC has promoted liquidity, transparency, and efficiency in the commercial real estate finance markets, and acted as a legislative and regulatory advocate for the industry, playing a vital role in setting market standards and best practices, and providing education for market participants. For more information, visit www.crefc.org.

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SOURCE CRE Finance Council

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Lyric Health Announces Strategic Partnership with Scala.AI to Advance AI-Powered Healthcare Engagement and Care Navigation

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MCKINNEY, Texas, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lyric Health, a virtual-first healthcare intelligence and care delivery platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Scala.AI to enhance its AI-driven healthcare engagement ecosystem and accelerate the development of next-generation member navigation experiences.

The partnership strengthens Lyric Health’s broader vision of delivering a more proactive, personalized, and connected healthcare experience through intelligent orchestration of healthcare data, clinical workflows, and member engagement.

As healthcare continues shifting toward virtual-first and prevention-focused care models, employers, TPAs, health plans, and healthcare organizations are increasingly challenged by fragmented systems, rising costs, and disconnected member experiences. Together, Lyric Health and Scala.AI aim to bridge those gaps by combining advanced AI capabilities with real-world care delivery infrastructure.

“Healthcare has no shortage of data today,” said Rey Colon, Founder and CEO of Lyric Health. “The challenge is transforming that data into meaningful action that improves outcomes, simplifies the member experience, and reduces unnecessary healthcare spend. Our partnership with Scala helps accelerate our ability to intelligently connect healthcare signals to the right care pathways at the right moment.”

Through the partnership, Lyric Health plans to enhance multiple areas of its platform ecosystem, including:

AI-assisted healthcare navigationIntelligent member engagement workflowsPersonalized care recommendationsStreamlined appointment and care coordination experiencesEnhanced operational efficiency for virtual care deliveryPredictive outreach and healthcare activation initiatives

Scala.AI’s unified intelligence platform bridges the gap between data and action, synthesizing signals across systems, conversations, and workflows to give Lyric Health the operational clarity needed to manage performance, reduce cost, deliver better member experience and outcomes.

“Lyric represents exactly why we built Scala: to help ambitious healthcare teams turn operational complexity into intelligent, connected member experiences,” said Ardie Sameti, Co-Founder and CEO of Scala.AI.

“We believe the future of healthcare will be driven by intelligent systems that simplify complexity for both patients and healthcare organizations,” said Rey Colon. “This partnership represents another step forward in our mission to create a more connected, accessible, and proactive healthcare experience.”

Lyric Health continues to expand its virtual-first healthcare ecosystem through integrated care delivery, nationwide provider access, care navigation, behavioral health, virtual primary care, lab integration, and AI-powered engagement technologies.

About Lyric Health
Lyric Health is a healthcare intelligence and virtual care platform focused on transforming how healthcare is accessed, navigated, and delivered. Through its vertically integrated technology infrastructure, nationwide provider network, and AI-powered engagement capabilities, Lyric Health helps employers, TPAs, health plans, and healthcare organizations improve outcomes, reduce costs, and create more connected member experiences.

About Scala.AI
Scala.AI is the first operational intelligence platform built for modern healthcare organizations. Scala helps leaders understand how their operations behave across systems, conversations, human agents, and AI agents and direct intelligence where it matters most.

Media Contact:
Isaiah Matthews
214.449.6040
416030@email4pr.com

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SOURCE Lyric Health

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Menestios Limited Announces Merger with Incitude Holdings to Expand Operational Support Services

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Menestios Limited and Incitude Holdings have agreed to merge, combining two complementary practices serving digital businesses as they grow and scale operations.

GIBRALTAR, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Menestios Limited, a company that supports the infrastructure of digital businesses through product analytics, customer support, moderation, and tech support, has announced a merger with Incitude Holdings. The combined organization will bring together two teams whose work has, in recent years, increasingly addressed the same operational questions from different angles.

The merger took place after an extended period of alignment between both management teams. The process began through joint projects with shared clients, during which the two companies realized they were addressing similar issues for the same businesses. That experience was followed by a structured review of how a merged team would be better positioned to support clients across the full operational picture. Based on both companies’ framing, the process is more an alignment of practice than an acquisition of one firm by the other.

The rationale for the merger came directly from client demand. Businesses at a certain level of development require a partner that can provide solutions for problems such as analytics, customer support, moderation, technical viability, and payment infrastructure inside a single engagement. This is precisely the set of services provided by Menestios Limited. The skills offered by Incitude Holdings complement those of Menestios Limited. Clients had been engaging both organizations separately and asking for the work to be coordinated, and the merger formalizes that coordination.

Current and potential clients will benefit from access to a wider range of operational services through a single point of contact. The services offered by Menestios Limited — including product analytics, customer support, moderation, technical support, and payment support — will remain the same, with the services from Incitude Holdings added to the combined skill set. There will be no impact on ongoing projects.

The combined organization will focus its first months of operation on integration rather than expansion, with further announcements expected as the integration period progresses.

Menestios Limited is a partner to digital businesses, providing infrastructure support across product analytics, customer support, moderation, tech support, and payment infrastructure support. The company’s commitment is to deliver operational performance, security, and reliability as the businesses it works with continue to scale.

Media Contact

David Geller, Menestios Limited, 1 9107611280, davidd.gellerrr@outlook.com, https://menestioslimited.com/

View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/menestios-limited-announces-merger-with-incitude-holdings-to-expand-operational-support-services-302789938.html

SOURCE Menestios Limited

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Ars X Machina Named Media Agency of Record for Harmless Harvest

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Coconut Water beverage brand taps tech-first media & analytics agency to connect media investment to business growth

SAN FRANCISCO, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ars X Machina (AXM), the technology-first media agency built on continuous performance measurement, was named Media Agency of Record for Harmless Harvest, the organic coconut products company. The appointment follows a competitive review. Harmless Harvest, which is Fair for Life certified and known for its commitment to regenerative agriculture and responsible sourcing, selected AXM to bring the same level of rigor to its media investment. Under the engagement, AXM will lead media strategy, planning, buying, and measurement across channels, with a focus on connecting spending decisions directly to business outcomes.

“As we enter our next phase of growth, we need a media partner that shares our commitment to transparency and accountability,” said Noelle Haley, VP Marketing & Innovation, Harmless Harvest. “We also needed the sophistication and agility to optimize our campaigns continuously, versus waiting weeks or months for a report to tell us what already happened. AXM brings both.”

Central to the partnership is AXM’s proprietary Agile Mix Modeling™ platform, developed as an alternative to traditional marketing mix modeling. Where conventional approaches were designed for quarterly campaign cycles and typically require 12+ weeks to deliver results, Agile Mix Modeling™ uses Bayesian inference and machine learning to generate insights continuously, enabling optimization while campaigns are live.

“Harmless Harvest is a brand that has earned consumer trust by holding itself to a higher standard, from sourcing to certification to how it shows up on shelf,” said Josy Amann, Co-Founder, AXM. “We believe media investment should be held to that same standard. With Agile Mix Modeling™, we can show exactly which channels and tactics are driving incremental growth and which are not, so every decision is grounded in evidence, not assumptions.”

Built on privacy-compliant, aggregated data, the platform measures performance across today’s fragmented channel mix, including walled-garden environments where user-level attribution has become increasingly limited. It also incorporates forecasting and scenario simulation, allowing teams to predict the likelihood of achieving specific business outcomes based on budget allocation decisions before committing spend.

About Ars X Machina

Ars X Machina (AXM) is a female-founded (WBENC-Certified WBE) media agency built for today’s media complexity. We help marketers navigate an increasingly fragmented landscape by blending AI and machine learning with human strategy to drive growth and deliver measurable outcomes. Our proprietary Agile Mix Modeling™ platform measures all channels and partners, identifying what truly drives performance and turning real-time data into faster, smarter media decisions. Trusted by marketers and agencies alike, AXM has been recognized twice as Ad Age’s Small Media Agency of the Year & Best Places to Work and as a Inc. Power Partner. Visit weareaxm.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ars-x-machina-named-media-agency-of-record-for-harmless-harvest-302790628.html

SOURCE Ars X Machina

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