Lawrence Mendelsohn
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Mendelsohn is a founder, and has been a partner since 1995, of Aspen Capital, a private equity firm with expertise in residential, commercial, and distressed securities. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Great Ajax Corp and the President of Thetis Asset Management since June 2014. Since 2002, he has been the managing member of Flanders Street Capital Management LLC, which manages distressed corporate debt and equity, financial services and REIT investments; from 1998 through 2002, he was President and a Director of Fog Cutter Capital Group Inc. (formerly Wilshire Real Estate Investment Trust Inc.); from 1994 to 1999, he was President and Director of Wilshire Financial Services Group; from 1991 to 1993, he was Head of Emerging Markets Debt and Equity Capital Markets at Bankers Trust New York Corporation; and from 1987 to 1991, he was Head of U.S. Equity and Distressed Securities Proprietary Trading at J.P. Morgan Securities. He has an A.B. in Economics from the University of Chicago, an M.A in International Politics from the University of Texas and completed all but his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Southern California.
Russell Schaub
President
Mr. Schaub has been with Aspen Capital since 2010, and currently serves as the President of Great Ajax Corp. He serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Gregory Funding LLC, the Property Manager of Gaea Real Estate Corp. and Servicer of Great Ajax Corp., since April 2013. He brings over 30+ years of experience in mortgage and other consumer lending. In 2008, he founded and was managing member of Shackleton Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in mortgage and real estate opportunities; from 2003 to 2008, he held executive positions at Chase Home Finance and Citibank Credit Cards; from 2001 to 2002 he was President and Chief Executive Officer of TrueCredit, a Lehman Brothers-funded venture that he sold to TransUnion. Previously, he held senior positions at Citigroup and Chemical Bank in their mortgage, home equity, credit card and banking businesses. Mr. Schaub has an A.B. in Economics from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Nada Eissa
Director
Ms. Eissa is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Georgetown University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Previously, she served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2005 to 2007; where she worked on disaster insurance (natural and terror), healthcare and social security reform. She is a recipient of the National Tax Association's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Government Finance and Taxation. She is a founding member and co-director of the Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation; and Lead Academic for the International Growth Center - Uganda program. Ms. Eissa currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Urban-Bookings Tax Policy Center. Ms. Eissa holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.
Craig Tuckman
Director
Mr. Tuckman is Chief Operating Officer of Calbag Metals Company based in Portland, Oregon. He has 35+ years of experience in physical commodities, commodity derivatives, cleared futures, electronic trading and structured finance products. Additionally, he has vast experience building numerous successful metal platforms for financial institutions. Previously, he held executive positions including Head of Marketing at Metals Americas for Mitsui Bussan Commodities, subsidiary of Mitsui & Company, Head of Global Metal Sales & Structuring at Citigroup, Global Head of Metals Originations and structuring at Merrill Lynch, and Managing Director of Commodity Derivatives at BNP Paribas. Mr. Tuckman holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and did his graduate work in Investments at Lubin School of Business at Pace University.
Ronald Weibye
Director
Mr. Weibye is co-founder of Aperio Capital Management, where he serves as Chief Investment Officer. He brings 30+ years of experience in mortgage and credit markets. From 2008 to 2012, he was Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of 9W Credit Opportunities Fund, a Structured Credit hedge fund affiliated with Treesdale Partners; from 1996 to 2008, he worked at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets, where he was responsible for adjustable-rate mortgage, asset-backed securities and mortgage credit trading; and from 1985 to 1996, he worked at Merrill Lynch in the mortgage backed securities research group, as head of the mortgage risk group and as trader of adjustable rate mortgages. Mr. Weibye holds an A.B. in Economics from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. in Finance and Econometrics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.