Roth Exits Chairman's Post At Secured Capital

Roth, who co-founded Secured Capital in 1990 with principals D. Michael Van Konynenburg and Charles Toppino, will remain as a consultant and strategic advisor to SCC, which is one of the country's largest privately owned real estate investment banking firms with more than $8.5 billion of completed transactions in 2003. As a consultant and strategic advisor to SCC, he will hold the title of chairman emeritus and member of the advisory board.

The 48-year-old Roth has stepped down from the chairman's role in part because of the larger role he has assumed lately with Harvard University's new Real Estate Academic Initiative, according to Van Konynenburg, who tells GlobeSt.com that Secured Capital has no plans to fill the chairman's post. In addition to his advisory role to Secured Capital Corp., Roth will focus his future activities as a director and shareholder of Secured Capital Japan and Secured Transinvest Asset Management, which operates in Europe.

"For the last six years, Steve has been spending more and more time in the international arena, and we decided it was time to make it official, particularly given the additional responsibilities he has taken on with the Harvard University project," Van Konynenburg says.

Operations at SCC will continue as they have for the past six years, Van Konynenburg tells GlobeSt.com, with Van Konynenburg continuing in his role as president and CEO and Toppino as EVP.

Roth began his career in 1980 at Salomon Brothers as one of the first participants in the commercial mortgage securities business and is credited with creating the first commercial mortgage backed securities, including the issuance of a $970-million first mortgage bond on behalf of Olympia and York in 1984. In 1985 he joined Drexel Burnham Lambert, where Van Konynenburg and Toppino joined him in 1986. Secured Capital Corp. began by advising the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC) on the disposition of commercial real estate and mortgages.

The firm now operates in four major business lines: property sales, loan sales, financings and private equity transactions. The company grew last year to $3 billion in property sales transactions, $2.5 billion in new financings, about $2 billion of loan sales and approximately $1 billion of private equity transactions, Van Konynenburg says, adding that SCC expects to grow again this year in all four business lines.