The Real Estate Lenders Association (“RELA”) is pleased to announce its National Board members for the July 2024 – June 2025 membership year. The new chair will be Douglas Marron, Senior Vice President/Head of the New York Office, Raymond James Bank.
RELA would like to extend a warm thanks to our previous chair Karen Ramos, Managing Director/Head of Distribution and Asset Rotation Americas, Credit Agricole CIB. Karen successfully led RELA through the turbulent pandemic era and helped restabilize the finances of the organization. Under Karen’s tutelage, RELA blossomed to become a truly national platform with eight chapters, and additional pop-up events targeting potential growth and expansion in cities across the U.S.
New incoming chair Douglas Marron states that, “The demand for RELA’s expansion continues to be strong with solid attendance at events and membership levels and sponsorship support at an all-time high. Now is the time to focus on strategic growth to further cultivate the RELA community across the nation.”
“RELA continues to attract a diverse and talented group of individuals from across the Balance Sheet lending community. I’m honored to be a part of this organization’s growth and to work alongside such dedicated National Board members who continue to bring in new energy and fresh ideas to RELA. We are a volunteer organization relying fully on the efforts of our National Board members and Chapter officers. Our success is totally dependent on our team members. This year, our pipeline of programming and events will be extensive, including but not limited to, property tours, panel presentations with industry leaders and renowned industry leaders and economists, networking events and more, both in-person and select virtual format.” said Douglas Marron.
Returning 2024-2025 National RELA Board Members include:
- Doug Marron, Raymond James, Chair
- Mauricio Duran, Webster Bank, Vice Chairman
- Richard Grani, Valley Bank, Treasurer
- Kip Sanford, Fifth Third Bank, Secretary
- Bill Booth, OceanFirst Bank
- Christopher Csontos, TD Bank
- Nicholas Eng, Capital One
- Ben Flanders, Santander
- Andrew Fleming, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG
- Colleen Foy, M&T Bank
- John Gunther-Mohr, Santander
- Andrew Huggett, CIT Capital Markets
- Carina Kalaw, Bank United
- Paul Kinyon, Bank of America
- Mark Lanspa, Wells Fargo
- Kathryn Marchi, CIBC
- Juliana Matson, JP Morgan
- Karen Ramos, Credit Agricole CIB
- Emily Rush, SVP Private
- Benjamin Stacks, Bank United
- James Whelan, Bank OZK
About The Real Estate Lenders Association
The Real Estate Lenders Association, Inc. (RELA) Is a not-for-profit corporation formed in 1991 to provide a forum for real estate lenders to advance their knowledge and expertise in their industry. RELA’s focus is on education, networking, and opportunity. Through a rich and varied program of panel presentations, property tours, seminars, and networking events, we bring together professionals from the commercial real estate finance and lending industry who share knowledge, connections, ideas and information. Our goal is to support, enhance and encourage the professional growth of our members through the opportunity to meet and learn from other talented and committed professionals.
For further information on the Real Estate Lenders Association, visit our website at http://www.rela.org