Subject: Executive Changes (EXEC)

Commercial Real Estate Direct Sandra Ruffin, senior credit officer of Moody's Investors Service's CMBS surveillance operation, is retiring next Friday after more than 17 years with the credit-rating agency. Ruffin, who is 68, had joined Moody's in 1997, when the ...

Cydney Gurgens has joined UMB Bank as senior vice president of commercial real estate from the Overland Park, Kan., offices of Wells Fargo Bank, where she was senior vice president and manager of commercial property. At UMB, she is leading ...

Crain's Chicago Business Georgetown Co., a New York commercial property investor, plans to open a Chicago office in the K2 apartment building at 365 North Halsted St. in that city. Jonathan Dennis has been tapped to head the office. Georgetown ...

  Brian Olasov, a long-time CMBS-industry specialist, has joined law firm Carlton Fields Jorden Burt as executive director of financial services consulting. Olasov, who isn't an attorney, joined the Atlanta firm from McKenna, Long & Aldridge, another Atlanta law firm ...

Mike Edelman, a long-time agency-lending executive, has joined Meridian Capital Group as senior managing director. He joins the New York brokerage firm from Capital One Multifamily Finance, where he was senior vice president and oversaw agency-lending production for the northeastern ...

Green Courte Partners, a Chicago investment manager led by Randall K. Rowe, has named Mark Engel managing director and chief financial officer. Engel joins the company from JLL, where he was controller and principal accounting officer. He replaces Jane Mody, ...

Nick Kassab has joined the Portland, Ore., office of HFF as a director. He previously was vice president at another brokerage in the city, Capacity Commercial Group. In his new position, Kassab is focused on retail and office property investments ...

Wood Partners, an Atlanta multifamily specialist, has hired Brian Earle, a former managing director at Ares Commercial Real Estate, to lead its national acquisitions team. Wood, which began operations as a developer and builder in 1998 and expanded into property ...

Chris Hew, a former director of debt originations at GE Capital Real Estate, has joined Walker & Dunlop Inc.'s mid-Atlantic capital markets team at the company's Bethesda, Md., headquarters. He has been hired as vice president and is charged with ...

John McCarthy has rejoined Starwood Capital Group and will be charged with raising capital globally. The 31-year industry veteran is joining from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, where he was senior portfolio manager and deputy head of Europe and oversaw the ...