Lindsey deButts, 34
Senior director at Berkadia
Lindsey deButts’s competitive fire as a former All-American women’s lacrosse defender at Princeton has carried over into her career as a commercial real estate debt broker.
DeButts, who arrived at Berkadia’s Chevy Chase, Md., office in 2015 after starting her commercial real estate career out of college as an analyst at Walker & Dunlop, has arranged more than $3 billion in debt financing transactions in her less than a decade in the field.
“I’m a little competitive and I don’t like to lose on deals, and I bring that competitiveness to each deal,” said deButts, who was also a three-time All-Ivy League selection at Princeton. “How to operate on a team and know when you need to take the lead or take a back seat I think is something I’ve definitely grown to appreciate the further I get into my career.”
Commercial real estate finance was not front and center as a career for deButts when she studied politics, but a summer internship at Walker & Dunlop in Manhattan set her on the path. Her deal sizes have ranged from as high as $450 million to as low as $5 million across a number of asset classes, though in recent years she has focused mostly on hospitality.
One of the newsworthy deals that deButts has been involved with involved a partnership with Jefferies to act as the buy-side advisers for the San Manuel Investment Authority acquisition of an ownership interest in the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort & Club in Dana Point, Calif., for an undisclosed price.
DeButts has recently transitioned into a mentorship role and is striving to bring more women into the real estate finance industry. She communicates with the Princeton women’s lacrosse team about opportunities in the industry and also has promoted potential opportunities through the school’s alumni network in the D.C region.
Outside of finance, deButts says she enjoys traveling and playing with the puppy she adopted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
