Walk us through your path to where you are today. How did you get here?

I grew up in the Houston area, and my career started in oil and gas with a focus on eCommerce. After a few years working through different operational challenges in that world, I decided to take my skillset somewhere new and ended up landing in the commercial real estate (CRE) finance industry. I’ve never looked back.

Over the course of my career in CRE finance, I've touched just about every stage or function of a loan post-closing, including boarding, cash management, investor reporting, portfolio management, asset management, primary servicing, and special servicing. Before joining Infinitum, I spent over six years as a senior leader at one of the largest CRE loan servicers in the world. The breadth of my experience has helped shape a deep understanding of all that goes into effectively managing the loan lifecycle to get to the best possible outcome for the lender and borrower.

What do you do at Infinitum? What value does that deliver to the client?

I serve as a project and engagement lead, working with clients to tackle their challenges while making sure they get the full benefit of my experience and the firm's expertise.

Recently, I had a client who'd been on their technology platform for a year and a half but felt like they weren't really using it to its full potential. Feedback was mixed, process documentation was inconsistent, and they knew something needed to change. We brought in the right subject matter experts — a project manager, a documentation specialist — to assess their current system and identify opportunities for improvement, while keeping all the workstreams moving forward and applying the pattern recognition I've built up over the years.

That pattern recognition is where a lot of my value shows up. Sometimes a client will tell me what they think the problem is, and I can hear that what they're describing is really just a symptom of something that happened three steps earlier. They know what they want, they just don't always know everything they need to get there. Helping them see that gap and then figuring out who needs to be in the room to close it, is a big part of what I do.

How does your background and experience influence how you work today?

A lot of it comes down to how I kick off a project. Throughout my career, what I saw over and over again was how critical it is for everyone involved, from leadership to the teams doing the actual work, to be on the same page. And they very often aren't.

So no matter what we're brought in to do, I work to really understand the client's business and objectives. What does leadership see as the priorities? What do the teams in the trenches see as the pain points? Those two things are frequently not the same, and if you don’t take the time to really dive deep to understand the client, you jeopardize the whole project.

I've watched a lot of good projects fail for exactly that reason. Someone assumed they understood the situation and charged ahead. It's always worth the investment to get everyone aligned early and surface any disconnects before you're halfway through a project.

What does it take to do this work well?

Flexibility is key. It’s common for a client’s needs to shift, and, as a good partner, you have to be ready to adapt. It’s also important to know your audience, how you communicate, what you emphasize, what you leave out, all depend on who's in the room.

Something else I've come to see as a core part of what we do is to bring an outside perspective. We are often engaged because things are difficult, part of our job is to walk into that environment, provide an objective take on things, and give people room to breathe.

When does a client typically bring Infinitum in?

There are really two scenarios.

The first is an emergency: they've lost key people, or there's a gap that needs to be filled quickly before it becomes a bigger problem.

The second, which we're seeing more and more, is an improvement play. Something has changed: new leadership, a strategic shift, and someone is looking around saying, "We can do this better." The challenge is that everyone who could work on that improvement still has a full-time job, and in this industry, you can't just put core functions on hold. Someone described it to me once as trying to change the landing gear while the plane is still in the air. That's exactly what it feels like, and that's where we come in, bringing both the expertise and the bandwidth to help clients move forward.

Where do you see the biggest pressures on the industry right now?

A few things are converging at once. A lot of shops are looking to expand their product offerings and take on more complex structures, but their servicing teams either aren't prepared for the volume or aren't familiar with the nuances of those structures. That forces them to up their game, onboarding new technology, refining processes, or bringing on new talent.

At the same time, I'm seeing more shops take a hard look at how they're servicing their loans, both in-house and through outsourced partners. They want to stay closer to their loans and capital and want to deliver a better experience for their borrowers. They're evaluating their partnerships with fresh eyes and asking whether those relationships are truly strategic or just transactional.

And then there's AI, which is on everyone's mind. The question has shifted from "will we use it?" to "how will we use it, and where does it actually add value?" The firms that are focused on building a thoughtful AI strategy and testing methodically are the ones who are going to come out ahead.

What still surprises you about this industry, even after years in it?

How much there still is to learn. The CRE finance space is always evolving. It's cyclical by nature, and right now, with everything happening in tech and AI, we're in a real innovation push.

I've experienced this firsthand on recent projects. I’ve been fortunate enough to see nearly every aspect of CRE finance servicing and asset management, yet I find myself coming across technologies or approaches that are reframing how we get work done. It keeps me on my toes.

What excites you about the future at Infinitum?

I see a tremendous amount of opportunity ahead. As AI continues to evolve, as shops look to deliver a better borrower experience, as technology matures, and product offerings expand, all of that is going to require support. And everyone is still going to have a day job while it's happening.

What sets Infinitum apart is that we're not a vendor. We're a strategic partner. We take the depth of experience we've built and apply it to the specific situation each client is facing, whether they're refining how they service today or figuring out how to go after what they want to service tomorrow. That's what gets me excited about the next few years.