Mark Fogel founded ACRES Capital in 2012 and leads the executive management team as the President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Fogel has over 25 years of experience in commercial real estate finance, with a particular focus on providing developers and entrepreneurs with innovative debt and equity solutions. The majority of his career has revolved around transitional, middle market assets. Mr. Fogel employs an asset management approach to identifying and underwriting loan opportunities, which entails a comprehensive understanding of the risks associated with property business plans and exit strategies. Before launching ACRES, Mr. Fogel served as an executive at several prominent CRE finance companies, overseeing loan production, asset management, and special servicing for a diverse portfolio of investments nationwide. For over six years, he served as a senior officer at a $3.5 billion publicly traded mortgage REIT and later helped raise capital and launch a successful specialty finance company in the midst of the Great Recession. Mr. Fogel has a particular expertise in dealing with complex loan workouts, attaining a Special Servicer rating as a result of his effective policies and resolutions at a prior company. Mr. Fogel is a frequent panelist at commercial real estate conferences and has lectured at universities on a wide array of topics, including capital markets, asset management, loan structuring, workouts and entrepreneurship. He was selected as a winner for the 2016 Long Island SmartCEO Future Awards and has been nominated for the 2016 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Mr. Fogel holds a Bachelor and Science degree in Accounting from the University of Delaware and a Master of Science degree in Real Estate Investment and Development from New York University.