NEW YORK CITY-Finance veteran Michael Mazzeihas left Bank of America Merrill Lynch to take thereins as president of Ladder Capital Finance HoldingsLLLP, the company unveiled Fridaymorning. In his new role, Mazzei has been tapped to expand thefirm’s asset management business and continue to develop itssecuritization platform.

With a track record of reducing virtually all of BofA'slegacy CMBS assets and re-starting the CMBS 2.0business, chief executive officer of Ladder BrianHarris describes Mazzei "a peer and a partner,"noting that the company “will benefit greatly from his experienceand deep product knowledge.”

Mazzei, who previously served as managing director and globalhead of the CMBS and bank loan syndications groups at BofA, hasmore than 25 years of experience in commercial real estate andcapital markets. Prior to that, he developed the commercial realestate finance group for Barclays Capital from the ground up. Earlier, he hadworked at Lehman Brothers, where he began with thecompany’s mortgage trading operation at its inception in 1986,rising to the head of CMBS and subsequently co-head of its realestate investment banking unit.