In addition to his responsibilities with The Praedium Group, Mr. Appel ran Credit Suisse/First Boston’s (“CS”) Commercial Mortgage Finance business from 1991 to 1994, where he became a Managing Director. At CS, Mr. Appel supervised the execution of commercial and multifamily asset securitization and sale advisory assignments totaling in excess of $13 billion. Prior to joining CS in 1991 and his association with The Praedium Group, Mr. Appel was a Vice President in the Real Estate Department of Goldman Sachs & Co. for five years. At Goldman Sachs, he was involved in real estate-related sales, financings, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions totaling in excess of $3 billion.

Mr. Appel holds a B.S. in Economics (magna cum laude) and an M.B.A. (with distinction) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Appel served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Pension Real Estate Association between 2008 and 2010, and he had previously held the positions of Vice Chairman, Treasurer and Board Member.

Prior to joining GTIS in 2007, Mr. Ciganik worked with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds (MSREF) in London, and with Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners (LBREP) in New York. In his prior engagements, Mr. Ciganik was responsible for the evaluation, financial modeling and due diligence of equity and mezzanine debt investments, participating in the acquisition of over $800 million of individual and portfolio assets. Before LBREP, Mr. Ciganik worked with Lehman’s Corporate Strategy and Acquisitions group, and as a business analyst with McKinsey & Co. in Frankfurt and New York. Mr. Ciganik graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and received an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.