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Board of Directors
Betsy Z. Cohen Chairman
Betsy Z. Cohen, age 68, has served as the chairman of the board of trustees and as a trustee of RAIT since our founding in August 1997 and as our chief executive officer from August 1997 to December 2006. Mrs. Cohen has been the chairman of the board of The Bancorp Bank, or Bancorp Bank, a commercial bank, since November 2003 and a director of The Bancorp, Inc., or Bancorp, a publicly held registered bank holding company for Bancorp Bank, since September 2000 and the chief executive officer of both Bancorp Bank and Bancorp since September 2000. Mrs. Cohen served as a director of Hudson United Bancorp (a bank holding company), the successor to JeffBanks, Inc., from December 1999 until July 2000 and as the chairman of the Jefferson Bank Division of Hudson United Bank (Hudson United Bancorp's banking subsidiary) from December 1999 through March 2000. Before the merger of JeffBanks, Inc. with Hudson United Bancorp in December 1999, Mrs. Cohen was chairman and chief executive officer of JeffBanks, Inc. from its inception in 1981 and also served as chairman and chief executive officer of each of its subsidiaries, Jefferson Bank, which she founded in 1974, and Jefferson Bank New Jersey, which she founded in 1987. From 1985 until 1993, Mrs. Cohen was a director of First Union Corp. of Virginia (a bank holding company) and its predecessor, Dominion Bancshares, Inc. In 1969, Mrs. Cohen co-founded a commercial law firm and served as a senior partner until 1984. Mrs. Cohen is also a director of Aetna, Inc. (an insurance company).
Edward S. Brown Trustee
Edward S. Brown, age 69, has served as a trustee of RAIT since June 1999. Mr. Brown has been president of The Edward S. Brown Group (a real estate development company) since 1985.
Frank A. Farnesi Trustee
Frank A. Farnesi, age 62, has served as a trustee of RAIT since December 2006 when he joined the board of trustees in connection with our acquisition of Taberna Realty Finance Trust in December 2006, or the Taberna acquisition. He was a member of Taberna’s board of trustees from April 2005 until the Taberna acquisition in December 2006. Mr. Farnesi serves as an advisor or board member to several privately held companies. He is a retired partner of the international accounting firm of KPMG LLP, where he worked from 1969 to 2001. Before retiring from KPMG, he was the Pennsylvania business unit partner in charge of tax. He also served as national partner in charge of tax compliance and worked with a wide variety of clients in the banking, real estate, technology and private equity fields. He currently serves on the board of trustees of Immaculata University and the board of directors of Beneficial Mutual Bancorp, Inc., a publicly held federally chartered stock holding company for Beneficial Mutual Savings Bank.
S. Kristin Kim Trustee
S. Kristin Kim, age 46, has served as a trustee of RAIT since October 2003. Ms. Kim is the founder of Sansori Foundation and its Global Leadership Institute. Ms. Kim was president of AllLearn, an online education venture among Oxford, Stanford, and Yale Universities from November 2002 until 2006, having joined AllLearn in January 2001 as its general counsel. From 1999 to 2001, Ms. Kim held several senior positions at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, including Director for New Initiatives. From 1989 to 1999, she was an attorney at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Arthur Makadon Trustee
Arthur Makadon, age 67, has served as a trustee of RAIT since July 2002. He is Chair of the law firm Ballard Spahr LLP, a position he has held since July 2002, and is a nationally known litigator. Before joining Ballard Spahr, Mr. Makadon was Chief Assistant District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia. He has served as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and as a member of the board of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority.
Daniel Promislo Trustee
Daniel Promislo, age 77, has served as a trustee of RAIT since its founding in August 1997. Mr. Promislo has been president since 1991 and a director since 1975 of Historical Documents Co. and was the founder and has been president of Historical Souvenir Co. (souvenir manufacturers) since its inception in 1957. He has also served as managing director (from 1998 to 2001) and was a past partner (from 1977 to 1994) of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, or Wolf Block (a law firm), and retired from Wolf Block in 2002. From 1994 to 2003, he served as a director, and from 1996 to October 1997 was the chairman of the board of directors, of WHYY, Inc. (the principal public television station in the Philadelphia metropolitan area).
John F. Quigley III Trustee
John F. Quigley, III, age 47, has served as a trustee of RAIT since December 2006 when he joined the board of trustees in connection with the Taberna acquisition. He was a member of Taberna’s board of trustees from April 2005 until the Taberna acquisition in December 2006. Since February 2006, he has been a vice president with Patriarch Management Company, a commercial real estate company in suburban Philadelphia. From 2004 to January 2006, he was the chief financial officer and chief administrative officer of Storecast Merchandising Corp., an in-store merchandising services company. From 2003 to 2004, Mr. Quigley was a financial consultant with LeBus Bakery, Inc. and Patriarch Management Company. From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Quigley was the co-founder and co-managing partner of Harron Capital, LP, a private equity fund. From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Quigley was co-founder, principal and chief financial officer of Metrocast Cablevision of New Hampshire, LLC, a cable television company. From 1991 to 1999, Mr. Quigley served in various capacities, including as chief financial officer, vice president of finance/administration and treasurer of Harron Communications Corp., a privately held cable television, broadcast television and direct broadcast satellite company.
Murray Stempel III Trustee
Murray Stempel, III, age 55, has served as a trustee of RAIT since December 2006 when he joined the board of trustees in connection with the Taberna acquisition. He was a member of Taberna’s board of trustees from April 2005 until the Taberna acquisition in December 2006. Mr. Stempel has served since 2008 as the Vice Chairman of Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania, Inc., or Royal Bancshares, a publicly traded bank holding company. Mr. Stempel is a director of Royal Bancshares. From 2004 until 2008 he served as executive vice president and chief lending officer at Royal Bank America, a wholly-owned bank subsidiary of Royal Bancshares, responsible for the day-to-day management of the bank. From 2000 to 2004, he was a senior vice president at Royal Bank America.
Senior Officers
Betsy Z. Cohen Chairman of the Board
Betsy Z. Cohen, age 68, has served as the chairman of the board of trustees and as a trustee of RAIT since our founding in August 1997 and as our chief executive officer from August 1997 to December 2006. Mrs. Cohen has been the chairman of the board of The Bancorp Bank, or Bancorp Bank, a commercial bank, since November 2003 and a director of The Bancorp, Inc., or Bancorp, a publicly held registered bank holding company for Bancorp Bank, since September 2000 and the chief executive officer of both Bancorp Bank and Bancorp since September 2000. Mrs. Cohen served as a director of Hudson United Bancorp (a bank holding company), the successor to JeffBanks, Inc., from December 1999 until July 2000 and as the chairman of the Jefferson Bank Division of Hudson United Bank (Hudson United Bancorp's banking subsidiary) from December 1999 through March 2000. Before the merger of JeffBanks, Inc. with Hudson United Bancorp in December 1999, Mrs. Cohen was chairman and chief executive officer of JeffBanks, Inc. from its inception in 1981 and also served as chairman and chief executive officer of each of its subsidiaries, Jefferson Bank, which she founded in 1974, and Jefferson Bank New Jersey, which she founded in 1987. From 1985 until 1993, Mrs. Cohen was a director of First Union Corp. of Virginia (a bank holding company) and its predecessor, Dominion Bancshares, Inc. In 1969, Mrs. Cohen co-founded a commercial law firm and served as a senior partner until 1984. Mrs. Cohen is also a director of Aetna, Inc. (an insurance company).
Scott F. Schaeffer Chief Executive Officer
Effective February 22, 2009, the board promoted Scott F. Schaeffer to serve as RAIT’s chief executive officer. Mr. Schaeffer will also continue to serve as RAIT’s president. Prior to this promotion, Mr. Schaeffer, age 46, had served as RAIT’s president and chief operating officer since February 2008, RAIT’s co-president and co-chief operating officer from December 2006 to February 2008 and served as RAIT’s president and chief operating officer from September 2000 to December 2006. Mr. Schaeffer served as the vice chairman of the board of directors of Resource America Inc., or Resource America, a specialized asset management company, from 1998 to 2000, the executive vice president of Resource America from 1997 to 1998, and a senior vice president of Resource America from 1995 to 1997. Mr. Schaeffer also served as President of Resource Properties, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Resource America) from 1992 to 2000. Mr. Schaeffer was, until October 2002, a director of Resource America.
Jack E. Salmon Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer
Mr. Salmon was elected in December 2006 to serve as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of RAIT. Mr. Salmon has served as Taberna’s Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer since March 2005. Mr. Salmon was employed by Cohen Bros. from January 2005 until Taberna commenced operations in April 2005. Mr. Salmon also serves as a member of Taberna Funding’s investment committee. From 2003 until joining Cohen Bros., he was a vice president and chief accounting officer of The Rubenstein Company, L.P., a diversified privately owned real estate company that owned a portfolio of office buildings with assets of approximately $1.0 billion during this period. From 1975 to 2003, Mr. Salmon worked in public accounting serving a variety of real estate and financial services companies, including public and privately held REITs, major real estate opportunity funds, developers and institutional investors in real estate. From 2002 to 2003, Mr. Salmon was a partner with KPMG LLP, an accounting firm. Mr. Salmon was a partner with Arthur Andersen LLP, an accounting firm, from 1989 to 2002. As a partner with Arthur Andersen LLP, Mr. Salmon had lead partner responsibility for REIT initial public offerings, due diligence engagements and SEC matters. He also advised multiple REITs on acquisitions, mergers and portfolio transactions involving over $2.0 billion of debt and equity offerings.
Raphael A. Licht Chief Operating Officer and Secretary
Effective February 22, 2009, the board promoted Raphael Licht to serve as RAIT’s chief operating officer. Mr. Licht will also continue to serve as RAIT’s secretary. Prior to this promotion, Mr. Licht, age 40, had served as RAIT’s chief legal officer, chief administrative officer and secretary since December 2006 in connection with RAIT’s merger with Taberna Realty Finance Trust, or Taberna. Mr. Licht has been Taberna’s chief legal officer and secretary since March 2005 and Taberna’s executive vice president and chief administrative officer since April 2006. Mr. Licht also served as the chief legal officer of Cohen & Company from 2001 until April 2006. From 2000 until 2001, Mr. Licht served as general counsel at iATM global.net Corporation, an ATM software joint venture between TRM Corporation (then affiliated with Mr. Cohen) and NCR Corporation. From 1997 until 2000, Mr. Licht was an associate with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, a law firm, specializing in structured finance and securitizations. From 1996 until 1997, Mr. Licht was an associate at Ledgewood, P.C., a law firm, specializing in real estate and securities law.
Plamen M. Mitrikov Executive Vice President - Asset Management
Plamen Mitrikov was elected in December 2006 to serve as Executive Vice President - Asset Management of RAIT. Mr. Mitrikov has served as Taberna’s Executive Vice President - Asset Management since April 4, 2006. Under Mr. Mitrikov’s lead, RAIT closed its first European real estate CDO in January 2007. From April 2003 to February 2006, Mr. Mitrikov held various positions, including that of vice president and director, in the Structured Credit Products Group at Merrill Lynch specializing in trust preferred and asset-backed securities CDOs. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Mr. Mitrikov worked at Credit Suisse First Boston and Prudential Securities Asset Finance. While at Credit Suisse First Boston, Mr. Mitrikov worked on structuring home-equity transactions in the Asset Finance Group until 2002, when he joined the CDO group and concentrated on trust preferred CDOs.
