A 20-year veteran of real estate finance, Taylor has led debt/distribution teams at Merrill Lynch and Cantor Commercial Real Estate as well as at Ten-X. Among his CCRE colleagues was Ashraf, who ran capital markets and large loan origination there.

While at CCRE, Taylor and Ashraf led one of Wall Street's most productive distribution teams, with more than $4 billion in private placements during a three-year run. “Joining Lotus presents a unique opportunity to reunite with a highly regarded colleague and deliver thoughtfully structured loan sale solutions,” Taylor says.

Ashraf adds that bringing in a professional of Taylor's stature to manage the firm's distribution desk is essential in establishing credibility and further ensuring the optimal nexus of best price and executional certainty. “Our success in the distribution of debt will be driven by our proven ability to sell paper anywhere in the capital structure between zero and 90% loan-to-value,” he says. “A world-class book of capital sources along with our track record for placing debt, especially within loan capital structures, are the key differentiators for us in the marketplace.”

This past October, Ashraf told GlobeSt.com, “We win business a little differently than many of our peers. Ours is a story of career bankers and career distribution people that have come together to build a real estate capital markets advisory shop, and that's sort of counter-cyclical to what you typically see. You typically see an advisor aspire to be a debt fund or a hedge fund or a lender.” He added, “We're a boutique firm, so we don't light up the room with five managing directors and stories of seven offices; we light up the room with solutions.”