WASHINGTON, DC–Lisa A. Pendergast has joined New York Mortgage Trust's Board of Directors. Pendergast is the executive director of Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, a position she has held since September 2016. She previously served as managing director of the Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Strategy and Risk division of Jefferies LLC from 2009 to June 2016 and prior to that she was managing director of RBS Greenwich Capital and Prudential Securities.

NYMT is an internally managed REIT that invests in mortgage-related and residential housing-related assets.

Pendergast's appointment follows new research [PDF] from Wells Fargo & Co. analysts Jeffrey Donnelly and Dori Kesten that examined the gender makeup of the boards of 165 REITs from 2006 to 2017. They noted that there is already a considerable volume of research that delves into the benefits of a more inclusive board — namely the different skill sets, more transparency, less aggressive accounting. The purpose of their report, they wrote, was to “highlight that the performance benefits of inclusion found in companies globally, applies to real estate companies domestically.”

Donnelly and Kesten compared REITs with over 15.5% women on their boards to REIT that had no female representation. They found an average price outperformance of 193-233 bps on a 3-5 years forward basis, and total return outperformance of 133-169 bps, with a greater return per unit of risk.

They also noted that the representation of women on the boards of equity REITs has increased over the past decade from ~8.5% to 15.5%, with the greatest increase experienced over the last five years, but it still lags behind the 22% representation on boards in the S&P 500.

Instant Insights /

Lisa Pendergast Joins New York Mortgage Trust's Board

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