Widening Influence Marked Lisa Pendergast’s Decade Leading CRE Finance Council

A decade ago, Lisa Pendergast was enjoying her role heading up commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) strategy at financial giant Jefferies when words of encouragement set her off on a new career path.

Pendergast, who at the time had nearly 30 years of capital markets experience under her belt, was urged to apply to lead the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC), the trade group she had previously chaired. 

“A bunch of people said, ‘Lisa, this might be something you want to do,’ and I remember being really angry with them and pounding sand since I really loved my research job,” said Pendergast, who was head of CMBS strategy and risk in Jefferies’ fixed-income line from 2009 to 2016. “I talked to my husband and he was like, ‘You’ve been a member of CREFC, you were chair of CREFC, and you really love this organization,’ and it took me about three months to say I would talk to them and see how it goes.”

Prendergast quickly embraced the opportunity. She began her leadership post with the advocacy organization for the CRE finance industry in September 2016 as executive director. Her titles changed to president and CEO in early 2025. She had previously served as CREFC’s chair in 2010 and 2011, and was a member of its board of governors for more than nine years.

After nearly 10 years of captaining CREFC through myriad market cycles and challenges, Pendergast will be retiring from the leadership post effective Aug. 3. CREFC’s board of directors is still interviewing potential replacements.

Filling Pendergast’s shoes will be far from easy given the strides made during her run at the top, including guiding a 30 percent membership increase while firmly establishing the organization as an influential voice for a range of CRE issues in Washington, D.C., and beyond. In addition to her role at Jefferies, Pendergast, who throughout her CRE finance career was consistently ranked as a top research analyst, also held senior positions at Royal Bank of Scotland and Prudential Securities.

“Lisa Pendergast has been one of the defining voices in commercial real estate finance for decades,” said Sam Chandan, director of the Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance at New York University. “She was the ideal choice to lead the organization, and under her stewardship CREFC has evolved from an association still closely identified with CMBS into the premier forum for the full spectrum of commercial real estate finance and capital markets.”

The decade Pendergast led CREFC saw a number of challenges, none more challenging than the March 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that brought uncertainties to the CRE market along with logistical obstacles to the organization. The sudden global health crisis prompted a shift to Zoom for CREFC’s many meetings and industry events, including its two big annual conferences normally held in New York and Miami. 

Shortly after returning to in-person events with its January 2022 Miami conference, CREFC was faced with fresh market uncertainties starting with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February followed in the ensuing weeks by the Federal Reserve aggressively hiking interest rates to combat inflation. The sudden shift in borrowing costs from their previous near-zero levels accelerated distress for property owners grappling with maturing debt — with fewer capital options to boot, as many banks stepped to the lending sidelines.

Strengthening CREFC’s advocacy presence in Washington has been another hallmark of Pendergast’s tenure. She hired David McCarthy as head of legislative affairs and Sairah Burki as head of regulatory affairs. Both have successfully lobbied on Capitol Hill on behalf of the CRE finance industry on a range of issues.

CREFC, for instance, successfully lobbied earlier this year to remove a provision in the final bipartisan housing affordability bill that would have required institutional investors nationwide to sell build-to-rent single-family homes to individual buyers after seven years. 

Another big policy win Pendergast led the charge on was advocating for decreasing capital burdens on U.S. banks under a revamped Basel III proposal released in March 2026. The new proposal lowered capital requirements for the largest banks by 4.8 percent compared to the current requirements. The initial 2023 Basel III proposal would have resulted in a 16 to 19 percent average capital requirements increase for the biggest banks from the current status. 

“It ended up being much, much better than we thought it was going to be, as we thought it would be far more stringent,” Pendergast said. “I think it gives our banking community a better playbook than they’ve had in a very long time.” 

The uncertainty with Basel III coupled with elevated interest rates caused many banks to pull back from CRE lending and accelerated growth in debt funds, an area Pendergast had already focused CREFC on. She spearheaded the launch of a debt fund index rolled out in 2023 in partnership with the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries to track market performance across the industry, bringing transparency for debt funds more in line with that for CMBS. 

CREFC’s outreach to debt fund professionals also increased under Pendergast’s watch, with added programming that included an alternative lenders and high-yield investors forum held at the New York Athletic Club. 

Pendergast also collaborated with Chandan to create the CREFC Center for Real Estate Finance at the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate in June 2020 in an effort to boost program and research offerings for college students interested in entering the CRE finance profession. 

“Together, we envisioned a platform that would serve as an important source of education and professional development for the industry while investing in the next generation of commercial real estate finance leaders,” said Chandan, who spent six years as dean of NYU’s Schack Institute until 2022. “We intended it as a model for what industry and academia can accomplish when they work together with a shared purpose.”

The growth of CREFC under Pendergast was evident in many areas, including a rise in full-time staff from nine when she was chair in the early 2010s to close to 20 now. One of her many hires included Raj Aidasani as head of research. He launched CREFC’s first sentiment index now administered every quarter to its board of governors to gauge shifts in CRE market conditions. 

Jay Neveloff, chair of U.S. real estate at HSF Kramer, credits Pendergast with expanding CREFC into an organization previously known to have a largely CMBS focus into one that represents the entire CRE lending community. Neveloff has worked closely with Pendergast over the last couple of years on efforts to broaden its programming schedule at its conferences.

“There aren’t a lot of people who would have been able to go through all that she went through leading CREFC and come out having really helped it grow and expand and become more relevant,” Neveloff said. “She has high energy, great insight, and is a visionary not afraid to speak her mind, and she brought CREFC to a different level.” 

The expanded role CREFC now plays in the CRE debt markets is reflected in its annual Miami conference, which set an attendance record of 2,440 in 2026. CREFC is also debuting its first West Coast Finance Forum on Oct. 22 in Newport Beach, Calif.

Pendergast, too, has played an integral part in expanding the CREFC Women’s Network and Young Professionals Network, which both host numerous events throughout the year. 

While her post-CREFC plans are not yet clear, Pendergast said she would like to remain involved in advocacy efforts for either commercial real estate or governmental causes. A Massachusetts native who in recent years has become a full-time resident of Westerly, R.I. , Pendergast hopes to play plenty of golf this year while spending more time in New England. She will also be busy planning her daughter’s October wedding.

Pendergast said she still plans to attend the CREFC Miami conference in January, and will be far more relaxed not having to attend board meetings or write a speech. Whoever takes the baton from Pendergast and leads the conference at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel will surely have a tough act to follow.

“I’m very pleased with the way in which I am leaving CREFC as I feel like we have significantly grown our membership and we’ve added to our forums and created a very cohesive ecosystem for our members,” Pendergast said. “This has been a blast of a job.” 

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.